Handling Poisonous Snakes

Words in Use (Lesson 23)

• reptile
• rarely
• forbid
• logical
• exhibit
• proceed
• precaution
• extract
• prior
• embrace
• valiant
• partial

Read the following passage to see how the new words are used in it.

Handling Poisonous Snakes
How do the Indian snake charmers handle those live poisonous reptiles without being poisoned? Visitors to the Hopi Indians rarely leave the reservation without asking. Because Indians forbid any white person from taking part in such a ceremony, scientists could come to one logical answer: before the Indians exhibit the snakes, they proceed to remove the fangs. Yet some scientists verify* the fact that all the snakes have fangs. They have a different theory.* The Indians take an important precaution: they extract most of the poison prior to the snake dance. Now the Indian can embrace the snake without being poisoned. He will appear valiant because he knows that the snake has only a partial supply of its deadly poison.