Penguin Readers Factsheets
The Amazon Rain Forest
By Bernard Smith
AmE: The Amazon rain forest
Summary
This book offers a lively introduction to the ecology, history and
economy of the Amazon rainforest. It explains why the rainforest is
important for the future of mankind, and it also highlights the
pressures and problems that rainforests around the world face in
today’s global economy.
Students will all possess some general knowledge about the
Amazon rainforest before they read the book. The book begins with
a multiple choice quiz to test the readers’ knowledge and to arouse
their curiosity about the questions they do not know the answers to.
All the answers can be found later in the book.
The first section describes the course of the great Amazon River
from its source, high in the Andes, to its exit into the Atlantic Ocean
6,400 kilometres downstream. Each part of the river is quite distinct
– and the text describes the differences in landscape, vegetation
and weather as well as some of the people that live along the river
at different points.
The next section describes some of the plants and animals of the
forest and also explains how the warm, wet weather of the Amazon
helps to maintain such an abundance of life. The world’s rainforests
are a rich resource of food and medicine that is currently not used
or understood to its full potential. The text suggests that we could
lose thousands of life-saving medicines and foods if the destruction
of rainforests continues at its present rate.
Most of the destruction of the world’s rainforests has taken place
over the last 100 years. The next section of the book examines why
this happened and why it may continue to happen unless the
world’s consumers, companies and governments change their
current habits. This section (‘Why Are Rain Forests Disappearing?’)
ends the first half of the book. The second half looks at the
different people of the rainforest and considers their opinions
through a series of first person narratives.
There are many different indigenous Amazon Indians who
continue to live traditionally in Brazil. Here, the readers learn about
the lives of the Kayapo Indians through an old Kayapo man’s story.
There are photographs and a short panel story which help to build
a fuller picture of the Kayapo’s lives and concerns, too.
Next, we hear the story of a Brazilian taxi driver and his family.
When the taxi driver was a boy, the Brazilian government
encouraged his family (and thousands like them) to move from the
city and clear the rainforest for farming. However, history tells us
that the farms failed and the forest died. The taxi driver’s family and
others like his were left with no incomes and no homes.
© Pearson Education Limited 2005
The following section describes the economic rise and fall of
Manaus – the most important city in the Amazon rainforest. The city
grew and became rich due to the rubber industry. But when other
countries started producing rubber more cheaply, in the 1920s,
Manaus suffered a severe economic decline. Today, however, it still
functions as a busy port and tourist centre.
Finally, we hear the views of a Brazilian cattle farmer. Brazil is
not a rich country and depends upon its farms for much of its
income. The cattle farmer argues that the whole nation of Brazil
faces a poor future if it does not use even more of the rainforest
land for farming.
The book ends by looking to the future and asking what can be
done to save the rainforest whilst still safeguarding the livelihoods
of the people who live in and around it.
Background and themes
The principal theme of the book is environmental. With the
destruction of the rainforests, thousands of the world’s animals and
plants are becoming extinct even before we have the chance to
discover and study them. Also, the rapid disappearance of much of
the world’s forests is contributing towards global warming. The
world’s weather systems are changing and the results could be
catastrophic.
The book also looks at the role that history has had in the
destruction of the Amazon rainforest. When the Europeans arrived
in South America in the sixteenth century they changed the
continent for ever. Many indigenous people were killed in wars and
by imported diseases. By 1700 the colonists were plundering the
rainforest’s resources to meet the demands of Europeans and
North Americans for hardwood. And with the growth of the global
economy through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Brazil
became more and more reliant on its exports: rubber, wood and
agricultural produce. All of these industries put more pressure on
the forest’s resources.
By presenting a number of different points of view, the book
highlights the difficult job that Brazil’s government faces. The
forest’s resources are wanted by a number of different groups of
people, each with their own strong arguments. In addition to
needing to take responsibility for the welfare of its own people, the
Brazilian government is also under a lot of external pressure from
environmental groups and other governments around the world.
The future of the Amazon is an international affair and relies upon
cooperation and understanding between nations.
The Amazon Rain Forest
SPELLING NOTE:
BrE: The Amazon rainforest
Level 2 – Elementary
Teacher’s Notes
Penguin Readers Factsheets
Communicative activities
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
1 Students work in pairs. Ask them to look at the cover of the
book but not to open it. Based on their own general
knowledge, each pair should write an outline for a short book
about rainforests. Students should name the main sections of
their books and include a short description of the content
(including any pictures) of each section. When the pairs have
finished their outlines, ask them to look at the real book’s
Contents page and to flick through its pages to compare it
with their own books.
2 Students work in groups. First, ask them to look at the Word
List on the inside back cover of the book. Next, students
close their books and each group has a couple of minutes to
write five words associated with rainforests on a large, plain
piece of paper. These words may be from the Word List but
encourage students to think of their own words, too. The
groups should then swap their papers with another group and
write five sentences (one for each word) using the words on
the piece of paper they receive. Walk around the classroom
and help students if they need it. At the end of the lesson,
choose a few of the best sentences to read to the whole
class, particularly any sentences that teach new vocabulary.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Pages 1–12
1 Students look at the map on page 5. Choose students to
describe something on the map to the rest of the class. For
example, ‘There are some mountains in the west,’ ‘There is a
city – Rio de Janeiro – on the east coast.’ Revise or teach
appropriate map vocabulary, writing any new words on the
board, and then ask students to close their books. Next, draw
the shape of an imaginary island on the board and ask
students to copy it on to a plain piece of paper. You should
then describe the features of your imaginary island and ask
students to draw them on to their own maps as you speak.
Conclude the exercise by repeating your description and
drawing the features in the correct positions on the map on
the board.
2 Ask students to look at the section of text on page 8 called
‘Food from the Forest’. Write the everyday foods listed (fruits,
vegetables, coffee, tea, chocolate and sugar) on the board.
Students should then write three sentences about each of
these foods. For example: ‘I eat fruit every day. I had a
banana for my breakfast this morning. My favourite fruits are
strawberries and grapes.’
© Pearson Education Limited 2005
Divide the class into six groups as follows:
Group 1: The Brazilian government
Group 2: Cattle farmers
Group 3: Amazon Indians
Group 4: A big American paper company
Group 5: An international environmental group
Group 6: Poor people of Manaus, looking for work
Tell the class that the Brazilian government is deciding what
to do with a large area of rainforest near Manaus. Groups
2–5 all want to get the land. They should prepare a short
speech to the government, explaining why they want the land
and why it’s a good idea for the country. They may also have
some questions for the government. Group 6 should decide
which groups they will support, and they should also prepare
a short speech and some questions for the government.
Group 1 should prepare some questions for each group. They
should also think about what is important for the country:
more money, more work or saving the rainforest. Walk around
the class and help the groups with their preparation. When
each group is ready you can have the classroom debate:
Group 1 should listen to each group’s presentation and then
ask and answer questions. After all the groups have spoken,
Group 1 should give the land to the group(s) with the best
argument. Group 1 may want to share the land between two
or three groups, but they should not share between more
than three groups.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
1 Students work in groups. They should write their own
rainforest quiz like the one on page 1 of the book. Then,
someone from each group should read their questions to the
rest of the class and the first group to put up their hands and
answer a question correctly gets one point. Alternatively,
collect the quizzes from the groups and act as quizmaster
yourself, keeping a record of each group’s score on the
board.
2 Ask students how often they think about rainforests and other
environmental issues. Do they do anything to help the
rainforests? What could they do? Students work individually
or in pairs to write a list of all the things that people can do to
help rainforests and the world’s environment. Finally, you can
write items from the students’ lists on the board and ask
students which things they do and which things they think are
most important.
Word list
It will be useful for your students to know the new words found on the
inside back cover of the Reader. They are practised in the ‘Before you read’
sections at the back of the book. (The definitions are based on those in the
Longman Active Study Dictionary.)
Published and distributed by Pearson Education
Factsheet produced by Clare Gray Publishing Services Ltd
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
The Amazon Rain Forest
The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections of text
as the exercises at the back of the Reader, and supplement those
exercises. For supplementary exercises, see the photocopiable
Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for
use with class readers but, with the exception of discussion and
pair/group work questions, can also be used by students working
alone in a self-access centre.
Organize a classroom debate as below. This activity works
best if the work is spread over several lessons, with the final
lesson being set aside for the debate itself:
Level 2 – Elementary
Pages 12–25
Teacher’s Notes
Penguin Readers Factsheets
The Amazon Rain Forest
By Bernard Smith
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
1
Read the Introduction on page iv and then read these
sentences. One word in each sentence is wrong. Make it
right.
2 What is a rain forest? Where are they? Are there any rain
forests in your country?
ACTIVITIES WHILE READING THE BOOK
The Amazon (pages 1–5)
1 Who or what:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
are the longest rivers in the world?
have snow on their tops?
are half Indian and half Portuguese?
meets the Amazon River in the middle of Brazil?
bring things to Manaus from other countries?
is 240 kilometres wide?
can eat a man in minutes?
2 Look at the map on page 5. What do you know about the
places? Write one sentence about each city and country.
What Is a Rain Forest? (pages 6–9)
1 Use these numbers in the sentences below.
10 10% 25°C 40–50 58% 200 750 2,000 3,000
(a) _________ of the world’s rain forest is around the
Amazon.
(b) You can walk for an hour through the rain forest and see
about _________ different kinds of trees.
(c) The treetops are about _________ metres above the
ground.
(d) The weather stays over _________ all through the year in
the Amazon rain forest.
© Pearson Education Limited 2005
2 The Indians of the forest use the trees for many things. How
many can you think of? Write a list.
Why Are Rain Forests Disappearing? (pages 10–12)
1 Put these sentences in the right order, from 1–6.
(a) The big companies built big new roads into the forest.
(b) Chippendale’s furniture became popular around the
world.
(c) Big companies cut down hardwood trees in large
numbers and sold the wood to other countries.
(d) Europeans came to South America for the first time.
(e) European and North American furniture-makers used
rain forest hardwood for the first time.
( f ) After two hundred years, the best trees were a long way
from roads and ships.
2 Why are rain forests important for the world’s weather?
The People of the Rain Forest (pages 13–17)
1 Finish these sentences in your own words. Don’t look at the
book!
(a) The first people in the rain forests were the _________ .
(b) Amazon Indians live in different ways and speak different
_________ .
(c) Indians make poisons from plants and frogs and put
them on the ends of their _________ .
(d) A lot of South American Indians died because
Europeans brought new _________ .
(e) Doctors ask Amazon Indians about forest plants because
they want to learn more about Indian _________ .
( f ) For four hundred years, the number of Indians in Brazil
_________ .
(g) Portuguese, Italian, French and African Brazilians made
money from coffee and _________ .
(h) Most people in Brazil speak Portuguese and live in the
big cities near the _________ .
2 Read about ‘A dangerous little frog’ on page 14. Now close
your book and write about the frog. What can you remember?
Photocopiable
(a) Year after year, the world’s rain forests is disappearing.
(b) There are thousands of difficult plants and animals in a
rain forest.
(c) When the forests disappear, we leave the animals and
plants too.
(d) People built farms for tea, fruit, rubber and cattle.
(e) rain forests are important for the world’s worldlife and
weather.
( f ) Farms and forest wood take a lot of money into South
America.
(e) In some parts of the Amazon rain forest, more than
_________ metres of rain fall every year.
( f ) There are _________ or more fruits in the world’s rain
forests.
(g) Amazon Indians use more than _________ of the rain
forest’s plants, but people in the US and Europe only use
about _________ .
(h) Doctors say there is a possible use for _________ of all
rain forest plants.
The Amazon Rain Forest
These activities can be done alone or with one or more other
students.
Level 2 – Elementary
Student’s Activities
Penguin Readers Factsheets
Jose and Maria Go Fishing (pages 18–19)
1 Are these sentences right (✔) or wrong (✘ )?
2 Write about the Kayapo village. Where is it? What are the
houses like? How many people live there? What is the
weather like?
The People of the Rain Forest (pages 20–24)
1 Answer these questions.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(a) In 1992, people from 150 countries met to talk about
(i) the Amazon. (ii) all rain forests. (iii) Rio de Janeiro.
(b) We are losing animals and plants from the rain forest
(i) every day. (ii) only in Brazil. (iii) in the future.
(c) A new forest is better than
(i) an old forest. (ii) any forest. (iii) no forest.
(d) Indians can live in the rain forests and look
(i) after them. (ii) for them. (iii) around them.
(e) rain forest vacation centres will bring more
(i) jobs. (ii) farms. (iii) big companies.
( f ) Today, the Amazon rain forest is getting
(i) bigger. (ii) smaller. (iii) better.
2 How can you help the Amazon rain forest? Write five ideas.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
1 Would you like to live like an Amazon Indian? Give reasons
for your answers.
2 Look at the pictures in the book. Write one or two sentences
about each one. Use your own words.
3 Did you learn anything new about rain forests in this book?
What did you learn?
2 Do you agree with the cattle farmer? Why/why not?
© Pearson Education Limited 2005
Published and distributed by Pearson Education
Factsheet produced by Clare Gray Publishing Services Ltd
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
Photocopiable
(e)
(f)
(g)
(h)
(i)
Where did the taxi driver live when he was a small child?
Why did the taxi driver’s family move to the forest?
What did the taxi driver’s family plant on their farm?
How long did the taxi driver’s family live on their first
farm?
Where did the taxi driver’s family go to get work?
What kind of trees made Manaus a rich city?
Why did the good times end in the 1920s for Manaus?
How much of Brazil is farms for cattle?
Does the cattle farmer want to cut down all of the
Amazon rain forest for cattle?
1 Choose the right answer. Don’t look at the book!
The Amazon Rain Forest
(a) Jose and Maria live in the rain forest.
(b) The Kayapo Indians live in their boats.
(c) The Kayapo Indians take Jose and Maria to a different
part of the river.
(d) The fish are swimming very fast in the pool.
(e) The Kayapo Indians use wood from the forest to catch
the fish.
( f ) There is a strong poison in the wood.
(g) Jose and Maria help the Kayapo Indians to catch fish.
(h) Jose and Maria eat some of the Kayapo Indians’ fish.
Plans for the Rain Forest (page 25)
Level 2 – Elementary
Student’s Activities