Study Buddy (Challenger): Discover Japan’s unique tradition of eating dragonflies
This page is for students who want to take their reading comprehension to the next level with difficult vocabulary and questions to test their inference skills.
Research has uncovered a history of eating dragonflies in Japan. Photo: ShutterstockContent provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] Research has shed light on a previously little-known insect-eating tradition in parts of the Tohoku region in Japan’s northeast, where dragonflies have been consumed as both delicacies and for medicinal purposes.
[2] Shuji Watanabe, a senior curator at the Iwate Prefectural Museum, compiled a field report that describes how dragonflies have long been eaten by people living in parts of Iwate and Akita prefectures. Hirosaki University associate professor Ryohei Sugahara, an expert in human entomophagy, or the eating of insects, called Watanabe’s report “intriguing, as eating adult dragonflies is rare”.
[3] One woman in her seventies, born and raised in the village of Kunohe in Iwate prefecture, recalled her days in school when she ate dragonflies a few times with friends. “I was told that dragonflies were good for my health because they are gods,” she said. “When we would play near the mountains or rivers after school, we caught dragonflies and ate them after pulling off their wings.”
[4] Watanabe discovered that dragonflies were often plucked out of the air by hand midflight, after which they would be consumed by sucking on the de-winged bodies. A woman in her twenties from Odate in Akita prefecture talked about eating a dragonfly when she was in middle school. “I opened the chest of the insect by pulling on both sides while holding it near its wings and then sucking out the insides,” she said. Although she could not recall the taste, she said “it was like a [sashimi] chicken tender”.
[5] Watanabe heard about the practice of eating dragonflies from a colleague seven or eight years ago and began to interview local people in 2020. In the three-and-a-half years that followed, he found five cases in Iwate and one in Akita, ranging from the 1950s to the 2000s. Additional literature-based studies by Watanabe revealed that dragonflies had been used as medicine in various parts of Japan since ancient times.
[6] In Iwate, there is a record of burning red dragonflies and turning them into a powder to act as a cough suppressant in children. Though dragonfly larvae were known to be eaten, he said there had been no evidence of the adults having been consumed raw. According to Watanabe, dragonfly larvae are an abundant source of protein, while adult dragonflies have a variety of minerals, such as calcium.
[7] Entomophagy is often touted as a potential solution to global food shortages caused by various factors, including overpopulation. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report that beetles and other such insects account for 31 per cent of the world’s insect species eaten. Dragonflies make up only 3 per cent, and the report mentions that their larvae appear to be eaten in places such as Laos and Papua New Guinea.
[8] “Since the release of my report, I have received information on the consumption of dragonflies in Aomori prefecture and for medicinal use in the southern part of Miyagi prefecture,” Watanabe said. “I intend to continue my field research, as it was possibly practised more widely than previously thought.”
Source: Kyodo, September 2
Questions
1. What does the word “delicacies” in paragraph 1 suggest about the people who eat
dragonflies in the Tohoku region?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Based on your understanding of paragraph 2, why might Sugahara be especially interested in the field report?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. The woman mentioned in paragraph 3 ate dragonflies for … reasons.
A. religious
B. environmental
C. cultural
D. none of the above
4. According to paragraph 4, what did the woman compare the taste of dragonfly to?
_____________________________________
5. Find a word in paragraph 4 that refers to “an insect’s internal organs” _____________________________________
6. What steps were involved in using red dragonflies for medicine according to paragraph 6?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Paragraph 7 describes …
A. religious or spiritual beliefs related to consuming insects.
B. entomophagy as a potential solution to global food shortages.
C. the history of entomophagy throughout human civilisation.
D. various ethical implications of consuming insects.
8. According to paragraph 8, what is Watanabe’s conclusion about the prevalence of dragonfly consumption in Japan?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
9. What is Watanabe’s personal opinion of eating dragonflies according to the text?
A. He is concerned about the environmental impact of dragonfly harvesting.
B. He agrees with eating them because of their nutritional value and health benefits.
C. He is intrigued by the cultural importance of dragonflies in Japanese culture.
D. information not given
Answers
1. They see dragonflies as a tasty and desirable type of food. (accept all reasonable
answers)
2. because it describes a rare instance of people eating dragonflies in Iwate and Akita
prefectures, which could help him to better why people eat these insects since he is
an expert in human entomophagy (accept all similar answers)
3. D
4. sashimi chicken tender
5. insides
6. They were burned and turned into a powder to act as a cough suppressant in
children.
7. B
8. that it practised more widely than was previously thought
9. D