LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 5, 1996 - 5
Ida
A HEALTHY App
ETS to bring back written
test for October GRE
Student's
food fetish
*gets nation's
attention
By Jeff Eldridge
Daily Staff Reporter
For RC junior Adrienne van den
Beemt, crickets are not just a sign of
spring or background noise on a warm
summer night - they are appetizers.
"Bugs tend to either taste nutty or
seafoody," van den Beemt said. "I do
crickets and mealworms, which are like
beetle grubs. Also, waxworms."
Van den Beemt -whose food fetish
has been featured on MTV, in national
newspapers and during shock jock ra-
dio segments - said she started eating
insects while she worked at a nature
center near her home in Baltimore. She
said a nearby center started a program
*n edible insects that sparked her cur-
rent interest.
"A lot of things we eat are as gross as
bugs are," van den Beemt said. "People
in the United States and Europe are the
only people in the world who don't eat
insects. We eat shrimp and lobster, but
we don't eat insects."
With insect cookbooks and recipes
gaining notice, van den Beemt said the
practice of eating insects should grow
in acceptance. Van den Beemt said she
ften cooks insects in the context of
introducing the practice to new people,
noting that bugs are not a staple in her
daily diet.
"I want to go into education and I
want to keep this in the programs I do,"
she said. "It's a shockvalue thing. It's
a fun thing."
Van den Beemt said insects' highly
efficient physiology and their well-bal-
nced nutritional attributes are both
etter than popularly accepted food
sources.
"A cow is a really large, warm-
blooded animal," van den Beemt said.
"Bugs are six times more efficient than
cows."
She said the demand for beef has
depleted an excessive amount of land
and resources, noting insects are more
plentiful and protein-rich than beef.
"I don't eat beef anymore.... Bugs
*ave it together," van den Beemt said.
She said not all bugs are safe to eat,
saying "bright colors are warning col-
ors," and that people who have "aller-
gies to seafood generally should not eat
bugs."
But van den Beemt said the vast ma-
jority of insects are safe for public con-
sumption.
By Jeff Cox
For the Daily
The Educational Testing Service has
changed its test dates for the Graduate
Record Examinations once again.
In March, ETS announced that it
would reinstate the Oct. 14 pencil-and-
paper test date. This announcement
came only a few months after ETS
movedto eliminate the test date in favor
of phasing in its new Computer Adap-
tive Test.
The prior elimination of the October
test date meant that students choosing
not to take the CAT in favor of the
pencil-and-paper test would only have
two opportunities to take the GRE in
one year.
"A big concern with (the cancella-
tion) of the October test is that scores
came back at an appropriate time for
students applying to graduate school,"
said Jeanne Miller, a librarian at the
University Career Planning and Place-
ment Center.
This was the reason ETS went back
on its decision to cancel the October
date.
"We reinstated (the October date)
because of a demand for a paper test at
the colleges," said Tom Ewing, a
spokesperson for ETS. He went on to
say that by reinstating the October date,
ETS was "responding to a need of the
students," but that this did not mean
ETS was going to stop its continuing
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plans to gradually phase out the pencil-
and-paper test in favor of the CAT.
"The GRE is a measure of how suc-
cessful you wijl be in graduate school,"
Miller said. It is a standardized test
designed to test a student's verbal, quan-
titative and analytical abilities.
"(The GRE is) a test is used by 78
percent of grad "
schools around the
country," Ewing The
said.
"The GRE is an SAT Wit,
SAT with an atti-
tude," said Norm t
Miller of Excel Test
Preparation. It has a Excel
similar form to the
SAT, astandardized
test administered to high school stu-
dents, but is more "tricky," as it ac-
counts for a four-year college experi-
ence, he said.,
Though there is no evidence that a
particular concentration will make the
GRE easier than another, "every intel-
lectual experience you have changes
how you perform on an intellectual
test," Norm Miller said.
For students who anticipate taking
the GRE, there are some significant
differences between the pencil-and-pa-
per GRE and the computer GRE. First
off, the CAT costs $96 while the pencil-
and-paper GRE costs only $64.
The CAT is also offered two weeks
of every month, instead of three times a
year.
Test-takers can sign up for the CAT
only a few days before taking the exam,
and receive their scores right after tak
ingit. Pencil-and-papertest-takers have
to wait several weeks to receive thei
scores-
ORE is an
San
s"
M.
The CAT,
however, does
have some as
pects that could
make the exam
more difficult
than the pencil
-- NormMiller and-paper
Test Preparation "The com-
puter test puts
more cards in the hand of the test
maker," said Norm Miller. The com-
puter eliminates the test-taker's ability
to look beyond or behind the current
question. Students are presented with
a question, and after answering it, the
computer moves on to the next ques-
tion.
"You cannot move backward in the
test," Ewing said. Once questions have
been answered, they cannot be brought
back up on the screen - and other
questions cannot be looked at in ad-
vance.
The CAT "encourages making an
instant decision on any question," Norm
Miller said.
Adrienne van den Beemt holds up one of her crickets.
"There are tons of them. Any kind of
big bugs that come in waves -locusts,
grasshoppers, crickety things."
Van den Beemt lamented a bad expe-
rience she had with a raw ant.
"It was really citrusy and the front of
my tongue started going numb," van
den Beemt said. "I thought, 'Maybe I
shouldn't be doing this."'
She said that many of her friends and
family members were initially turned
off by insect-eating but came to accept
the practice after some friendly persua-
sion.
"(My parents) are very supportive,"
van den Beemt said. "I think it grossed
both of them out, but I think they've
eaten everything I cooked."
Van den Beemt said she brought a
bug buffet to a family reunion once. Pat
van den Beemt, Adrienne van den
Beemt's mother, said the insects got a
noticeable reaction.
"It was great, because it was a family
reunion with three generations," the
elder van den Beemt said.
Pat van den Beemt said her daughter
never ate bugs as a youngster, but was
strongly drawn to nature.
"She'd always come back with a col-
lection of bugs and rocks," she said.
"She was a kid who was into the natural
world."
Van den Beemt's friends also said
they were persuaded toward accepting
her eating habits.
"I thought it was fascinating," said
LSA junior Denise Betts, who has lived
with van den Beemt for two years. "I'm
so proud of what she does. I think it's
great."
Betts conceded the activity has not
been without its dangers.
"We did find bugs in the freezer
before," Betts said. "That was kind of
scary."
Van den Beemt said studies by the
Food and Drug Administration show
that many packaged foods contain parts
of insects, adding that peanut butter and
canned tomatoes both are frequently
infested with traces of insect parts. Van
den Beemt said that while eating in-
sects a la carte does not faze her, know-
ing they may be in everyday food is
unsettling.
"That bothers me, knowing there are
bugs in my spaghetti sauce."
'Snow hits most of Michigan
The Associated Press
Snow fell over much of Michigan
yesterday, as the Winter That Wouldn't
End dragged on - a boon for ski resorts
but a bother for people who'd rather
wear Easter bonnets than wool caps.
The Thumb area, Saginaw and the
Vorthern Lower Peninsula got hit with
3-6 inches of new snow by early yes-
terday, said National Weather Ser-
vice forecaster Rich Pollman.
"Eventually the entire state will see
some flurries" by today, he said. High
temperatures in the 30s were predicted
through Easter.
"So, we're 15 to 20 degrees below
normal, but nothing record breaking,"
Pollman said. Besides the snow, the
Ohumb area got clobbered with ice and
wind gusts That knocked out power to
about 3,000 Consumers Power Co. cus-
tomers.
"The ice is built up on the lines and
the wind is creating havoc with them,"
said utility spokesperson Jon Hall.
"There will be new occurrences (out-
ages) until the weather changes."
At Big Powderhorn Mountain, mar-
keting director Katie Saber said skiers
A&
were thrilled with "the April that looks
like January."
"The skiing is absolutely marvelous.
We've had close to 269 inches here and
we haven't had a significant thaw, so
it's all on the ground," Saber said.
But the unseasonable temperatures
were not terrific for other businesses.
"I think the biggest impact is spring
merchandise. It's very hard when you
don't get a nice shot of spring weather
to get people in a retail buying mood.
So it's having a severe impact," said
Denny Callahan, president and chief
executive officer of Crowley's depart-
ment stores in Detroit.
pal~~-~r- A V~
's.,2se.
The University of Michigan Business School
Invites you to attend a Lecture
"Emerging Discontinuities in Industry:
Implications for Middle Management"
presented by
C.K. PRAHALAD
Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor
of Business Administration
4:15 PM
Monday, April 8, 1996
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