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