PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme
Web
John Wyndham developed a group intelligence and work together to catch and eat anything that moves, including humans. Thick spiders’ webs cover more than half the island. All the newcomers’ ideas of a perfect society are forgotten as they focus all their strength of body and mind just on staying alive. Everyone gets killed except Arnold and Camilla who are finally rescued. Chapter 1: Arnold Delgrange has a car accident in which his wife and daughter die. Through his sister’s acquaintance, Walter Tirrie, he meets Lord Foxfield. This rich man wants to be remembered for creating a free, politically independent society with a new way of life based on the principles of Knowledge and Reason. About the author Delgrange joins them enthusiastically and drafts the laws John Wyndham is one of England’s best-known writers of of the new society. Once they have selected the place, imaginative science stories. He was born in 1903 in the an island called Tanakuatua, they set to gather suitable English Midlands. After his parents separated in 1911, he people. and his mother and brother lived in many different parts Chapter 2: The night before setting off to the island, the of England. When he finished school he went on to try group gathers in a hotel. They listen to Lord Foxfield’s various careers, but none was a success, so he tried writing. convincing speech and a photograph is taken. They are a From 1930 until the outbreak of the Second World War, mixed group with different backgrounds, professions and he wrote stories mainly for American magazines. After the motives. The people look hopeful, yet it is a sad picture. war he started writing again, and found fame and fortune Chapter 3: On the way to the island, after a man drops in 1951 with the publication of The Day of the Triffids. out, the people on the ship get to know each other. Wyndham went on to write many more best-selling Delgrange is worried that they have different views on novels. He died in 1969. the project. He talks to Camilla Cogent, a biologist, who Summary is surprised to see so few birds. Web opens in England in the 1960s. The narrator of the Chapter 4: After five days, they have unloaded their story, Arnold Delgrange, loses his wife and daughter in a equipment and the ship leaves. They decide on a place for car accident, and with them his reason for living. the settlement but when they are about to send a message to Lord Foxfield, they find the radio crushed under heavy Lord Foxfield is a rich and important member of society. boxes. After six days of hard work, a group explores the He has plenty of money but not many years left to live. island on foot. While Camilla and Arnold sail round it, He wants to be remembered for something grand. He she sees something white, which she takes for fog. After comes up with the idea of a perfect society where there a brown patch of poisonous spiders on the beach attacks is no war, no prejudice, no class structure. He calls it his David and kills him, she realizes the white thing is a web. Project. He buys a Pacific Island and advertises for people to make his dream a reality. For Arnold Delgrange, this is Chapter 5: The group coming in the boat go up to the perfect opportunity to start his life again. Gradually Walter to tell them about David’s death and its cause. a strange collection of people is brought together, all They are also very concerned about the people who have with different skills and different reasons for joining the gone up the mountain and haven’t returned. One of the Project. However, when they get to the island there seems children then tells Charles that he has seen a black man to be something strange about it. People from nearby thereabouts. They don’t understand why the men who islands say there is a curse on it. They begin to explore and came with them have stayed. The following morning the soon discover what is wrong with the island – millions group has not returned yet, so Joe and Camilla put on of spiders live on it. Not only that, but the spiders have the necessary clothes to cover their bodies, pour some insecticide on them and leave the camp. Four hours later
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Web - Teacher’s notes of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme
Web
Camilla returns and tells them that the whole party has Background and themes been killed by the spiders. After the deaths a group of Spiders: Some facts about spiders are: they have six or people want to leave the island but as the radio has been eight eyes as well; they kill by biting and paralysing their broken Walter cannot send a message. Camilla wants to prey and sucking out the juices; some types of spider, go on an expedition to find out how far the spiders are. e.g. tarantulas, can live for up to 25 years; they don’t get Arnold goes with her. caught in their own webs because they have oily, non-stick Chapter 6: Charles and Walter decide to burn trees down feet; in an average square metre of grassland there will be to keep the spiders away as long as possible. Camilla 500 spiders. and Arnold begin cutting a path to start fires along it. Man versus nature: Wyndham’s characters are ordinary Camilla is very concerned about what may happen in the people who are put in a terrifying situation in which they future with the spiders on this island because they have are fighting for their lives. As well as battling for survival, developed group intelligence. When Camilla and Arnold these people try to preserve the moral and social values come to a path they are made prisoners by two men whose of everyday life under difficult conditions. They try to dark skin was shining as if covered in oil. Camilla and re-establish Man’s dominance over Nature and rebuild Arnold follow the men and when they are told to stop society on the basis of western European civilization they see four large bags made of leaves which are moving. – honour between friends, loyalty to friends and country, Then they are told to continue walking and they come to honesty, hard work and an appreciation of natural and the lip of a volcano. They finally meet another man, older man-made beauty. than the rest, who has the picture of a spider drawn on his Utopia: The story of Web begins with a search for Utopia chest. – an ideal society where people live in peace and harmony, Chapter 7: Naeta, the man with the picture of a spider, without greed and jealousy. The term Utopia means ‘no orders his men to get Arnold and Camilla to take off their place’ and was coined by Sir Thomas More, a sixteenth clothes and they pour their insecticide. Then he tells them century English writer and politician. He wrote an how the island was cursed by Nokiki, Naeta’s father, and essay about the search for a perfect form of government. that they are there only to help their ‘Little Sisters’, the His solution was very advanced for his day – a form of spiders. The spiders have been sent to punish the world communism, national education for men and women, and in this way they will take revenge on what the white and tolerance of all religions. John Wyndham brings the people have done to them. Camilla and Arnold look for idea up to the mid-twentieth century. In Lord Foxfield’s a plant with which to cover their bodies with oil to keep perfect world, the priority is for people to be able to think spiders away. When they come back to the settlement they creatively. His theory is never tested, however, because discover empty bags lying around and all the people dead, the first spider attack takes place within a fortnight of the eaten by the spiders that the black men left before leaving group’s arrival on the island. the island by boat. Islands in the Pacific Ocean: Between 1875 and 1914 Chapter 8: A week later a small airplane comes to rescue the major European powers all built empires around them but when the two men on the plane come down the globe. By 1914 the British Empire covered a fifth of to the shore they are killed by the spiders. Arnold and the world’s land surface and included a quarter of the Camilla use the plane radio but with no results. Five days world’s population. After the First World War (1914–18), later a ship rescues them. One of the men from the ship however, Europe was exhausted and it was no longer wants to have a closer look at the spiders and gets beaten. considered acceptable to take whatever land was available. He gets rid of them, but is badly hurt. After that, the Western powers started to test their atomic weapons in the Pacific Ocean. They chose the Pacific Chapter 9: Arnold and Camilla go back to the island because it is far from major centres of population. On with other scientists only to discover that the spiders 12 May 1951, the first hydrogen bomb was tested in the have spread even more. There are no plans to destroy the middle of the Pacific Ocean by the United States. The spiders. Luckily, Tanakuatua’s eruption seems to have question of first world powers testing atomic weapons ended life on the island. Camilla, however, continues with in the Pacific Ocean continues to be an issue today, with the ideas that the spiders are still alive and causing deaths. France carrying out nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in the 1990s.
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Web Discussion activities b What values must be present in a society which is better than the present one? Before reading c Would Delgrange have shared the enthusiasm of the 1 Discuss: Tell students to imagine a new and ideal creators of the Project if he had not lost his family? society on a tropical island. It will be a society Why (not)? without war and jealousy. Divide the class into d How was Delgrange useful to the Project? groups. Give each group one aspect of the new e What problems might the Project have? society to think and talk about: social organization, government, the law, money, population size, work, Chapter 2 growing food. Get the class back together. Groups Before reading share their ideas. What problems will the perfect 9 Discuss: Ask students to read the title of the chapter society have? Write students’ ideas on the board. and discuss why the group is ‘strange’. 2 Discuss: Divide the class into groups. Ask groups what the front cover of the reader is trying to say While reading about the book and how well it does this. Make sure 10 Pair work: Tell students to imagine they are joining they think about the style of the letters as well as the the group going to Tanakuatua. What are the five most picture. What does the cover tell them about the plot important things you will take with you – things that or the themes? Write the main points on the board. you cannot live without? Make a list. Students show their list to a friend to see if they have chosen the Introduction same things. After reading 11 Group work: (pages 8 and 9) Ask students in small 3 Discuss: Get your students to read the Introduction groups to make a list of the professions of the people on page iv. David touches some ‘white stuff ’ that in the Project. Then they order them from the most covers a tree. Ask students: What do you think the to the least necessary. They must account for their white stuff is? answer. 4 Discuss: Ask your students the following question: After reading Which jobs did John Wyndham try before becoming a 12 Guess: The narrator, Arnold Delgrange, tells us that writer? Get them to work in groups and then elicit the Project was not lucky. Ask students to talk to their opinions. Write the main points on the board. another student and discuss this question: What do Chapter 1 you think is going to go wrong? While reading Chapter 3 5 Role play: (page 1) Delgrange says that ‘giving up Before reading work was the worst possible thing to do.’ He left his 13 Group work: An island was chosen as the place for job and went to live with his sister. What did she say? the project. Ask students to work in small groups to What advice did she give him? Ask students to role brainstorm advantages and disadvantages of settling play the conversation between the two people. down on an island. 6 Group work: (page 2) Ask students in small groups to discuss what social ills (in the world or in their While reading country) Tirrie might want to give a speech about. 14 Pair work: In pairs, students read the first two They make notes. Then they exchange notes with paragraphs of Chapter 3 again and answer this another group and prepare Tirrie’s speech to deliver question: Can you think of a reason why nobody lives to the class. They can vote for the most convincing on Tanakuatua? Write down your ideas. speech. 15 Role play: (page 10) We learn that Horace Tupple 7 Discuss: (page 4) Ask students to discuss why Walter dropped out of the project at Panama. Ask students was disappointed with the people who wanted to go to pretend they are Horace. They explain to the class on the Project. What could be wrong with these why they have given up the project. Then have a class people? vote for the most convincing. 16 Discuss: (page 15) Delgrange believes ‘this project After reading could succeed and become a powerful centre of 8 Discuss: Ask students to discuss the following knowledge in a way that democracy will never allow.’ questions: Ask students to discuss these questions: What does a What aspects of the present society (e.g. in your city or he mean by this? How can democracy prevent the area) would you like to change? Why? development of knowledge?
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Web - Teacher’s notes of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme
Web
After reading 26 Write: Get students to look at the picture on page 24. 17 Discuss: Ask students what they think of the Ask them to imagine they are Mrs Shuttleshaw and to view of the island in Arnold’s mind. Is it a dream? write a paragraph describing what happened to her A possibility? An illusion? son. 27 Group work: Write on the board what Camilla says: Chapter 4 What we are seeing here is an amazing development. Before reading (page 28) 18 Guess: Camilla is surprised that there are so few Discuss the meaning of this statement. Divide the birds. Ask the students: Can you guess why? students into small groups. Each group writes down why Camilla considers the way spiders have changed While reading ‘amazing’. 19 Write: (page 17) Ask students to write out the message they would have sent Lord Foxfield if the After reading radio had worked. 28 Discuss: Get the students to discuss the following: 20 Discuss: (page 17) Ask students to decide whether What are the group going to do to protect themselves they would have explored the island on foot or by against the spiders? Have you got any better ideas? boat. Then they discuss effective ways to explore 29 Pair work: Put students into pairs. Get them to unknown territory. discuss the following questions: 21 Pair work: Below are some of the things the people a What worries Camilla about the spiders? do as soon as they land on the island. Tell students to b How is Joe Shuttleshaw persuaded not to go and put them in order of importance in their opinion. look for the exploring group? choosing a place to live; c What solution does Camilla suggest for the getting power; search-party ? going to operate lights; d Why is Camilla in shock when she comes back making a kitchen; from the search? arranging a water supply; e How does the group discover the radio doesn’t building shelters; work? exploring the island f Why do they need to know how fast the spiders Students show their order to another student to see make progress? if it is the same. If there are differences, students say g What does Camilla discover about the spiders why they think one thing is more important than when they attack the crab? another. Then get them to share their views with the rest of the class. After reading 22 Pair work: Get the students to talk to another Chapter 6 student. Ask them to discuss the following: How did Before reading you feel when you read the last page of this chapter? Are 30 Pair work: Ask students to work in pairs and to you afraid of spiders? What would be more frightening speculate what other plans they can think of to than spiders in this situation? protect themselves of a spiders’ attack. 23 Write: The story reads We looked at each other in silence. Ask students to write what the characters While reading would have said if they had talked. 31 Role play: (after page 29) Get the students to imagine the conversation when Camilla and Arnold Chapter 5 tell Walter and Charles what they had seen beside the Before reading stream. 24 Guess: Get students to speculate what will happen to 32 Discuss: (after page 31) Get students to discuss the the group when they learn about David’s death. following questions: What is it that has made the spiders so powerful, according to Camilla? Does Camilla While reading think the spiders have intelligence? 25 Role play: Ask students to work in pairs. Get them 33 Write: Get the students to imagine that Camilla to read the first page of Chapter 5. Joe Shuttleshaw keeps a record of what she sees in a notebook. wants to go and look for his son. One student is Joe; What questions is she likely to write during the the other is another person in the group who will try walk in which Arnold and she herself are taken as to persuade Joe not to go. prisoners: e.g. Why were the bags made of leaves moving?
c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Web - Teacher’s notes of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme
Web
After reading 40 Role play: (page 49) When the small plane arrives, 34 Write: Ask students to make notes of the different two men get into a boat and bring the boat to the views Arnold (a more optimistic view) and shore. When they reach the shore, they see a brown Camilla (a more pessimistic view) have of the same patch in the water. Get students to work in pairs and phenomenon. Then they compare notes with a act out a short conversation between them. partner. For example, Future of spiders 41 Discuss: (page 53) Write on the board what Camilla Optimistic view: when the spiders have eaten everything says: on the island they will all die. The longer we leave them, the more chance they have to Pessimistic view: before that happens they will learn how spread. to catch fish and will not die. Discuss the meaning of this statement. Divide the students into small groups and get them to speculate Chapter 7 what might happen if the spiders spread all around Before reading the world. 35 Guess: Get the students to speculate why Arnold and Camilla are taken prisoners by the black men. After reading 42 Write: Get the students to talk with other students or While reading write a paragraph: What do you think the narrator of 36 Pair work: Put students into pairs. They are Arnold the story learnt from his experiences on Tanakuatua? and Camilla. They have to think of arguments to 43 Group work: Ask students in groups to write down persuade the islanders not to kill them. Each pair as many facts as they remember about the events that writes down three reasons why they should stay alive. happened to Arnold and Camilla as from the moment At the end, compare reasons across the class. Which is they come back to the settlement and find everyone the best? Which is the worst? is dead until they meet Lord Foxfield. Then they compare their list against the details in the chapter. After reading 44 Pair work: Put students into pairs. Get them to 37 Discuss: Get students to discuss the following: When discuss the following questions: Camilla and Arnold get back to the settlement, they find Which of the characters was the most helpful? the rest of the group dead. What did Naeta mean by Why is a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean ‘helping the Little Sisters’? so relevant to this story? Could it have taken place Chapters 8–9 anywhere else? Before reading Justify your answers. 38 Predict: Ask students to work in pairs. They read the Extra activities titles of the last chapters and try to anticipate the end 45 Discuss: Put students into small groups. Ask them to of the novel. discuss what they liked about Web and what they disliked. Then have a whole class discussion. While reading 39 Group work: (page 49) Put students into small Vocabulary activities groups. Arnold and Camilla fail to save the men in For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to the plane from the spiders. Ask students to imagine www.penguinreaders.com. that they are Arnold and Camilla. What would they do to warn the men?
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