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 Got an opinion? .W ISW Write th Dayand tell us hat you think Send letters to daijyJetters@umiChedu 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. 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