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T e a c h e rs n o t e s
Web
by John Wyndham
S U M M A R Y
eb opens in England in the 1960s. The narrator of
W 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 after the terrible
loss of his family. 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 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.
ABOUT JOHN WYNDHAM
John Wyndham is one of Englands 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
Britain. He finished school in 1921 and went on to try
various careers, including farming, law, commercial art
and advertising. None was a success, so he tried writing,
starting with short stories. From 1930 until the outbreak of
the Second World War, he wrote stories mainly for
American magazines.
During the Second World War Wyndham worked first in
the civil service and then in the army. After the war he
started writing again, and found fame and fortune in 1951
with the publication of The Day of the Triffids. This was a
story about the reactions of ordinary people to terrible
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UPPER
INTERMEDIATE
circumstances in which they struggle to survive. Britain
was under attack from triffids deadly and mobile
monster plants that could kill a human with one whip of
their branches. The word triffid has now passed into the
language as a general term for a monster plant.
Wyndham went on to write many more best-selling
novels. He died in 1969.
BACKGROUND AND THEMES
Wyndhams 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 Mans
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 manmade beauty. In Web, the
characters go to set up home on an uninhabited island in
the Pacific about which they know nothing. When the
radio breaks, they have no way of leaving the island. It
provides a perfect setting for a terrifying battle against
monster spiders.
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 Foxfields 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
groups arrival on the island.
In Web, John Wyndham plays on a universal human fear
spiders. We seem to share an instinctive dread of
creatures that live in dark holes, run on eight legs, trap
their prey in webs and can be deadly poisonous. Some
facts about spiders are: they have six or eight eyes as well

Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e rs n o t e s
as eight legs; 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 dont 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.
The fictional island of Tanakuatua in the Pacific Ocean
where Web is set has suffered two major invasions from
the West. First it became part of the British Empire at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Between 1875 and
1914 the major European powers all built empires around
the globe. By 1914 the British Empire covered a fifth of the
worlds land surface and included a quarter of the worlds
population. After the First World War (191418), however,
Europe was exhausted and it was no longer considered
acceptable to take whatever land was available. After
that, Britain controlled the island of Tanakuatua in name
only.
Not many years later, Tanakuatua suffered its second
major invasion. 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 May 12 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 Muraroa Atoll in the
1990s.
Communicative activities
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 covering shorter sections of the book, see the
photocopiable Students Activities pages of this Factsheet.
These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the
exception of discussion and pair/groupwork questions,
can also be used by students working alone in a self-
access centre.
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
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.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Chapters 12
In these chapters the narrator lets the reader know that
Lord Foxfields project was not a success. Put students
into groups and ask them to find evidence of this. Eg: the
first line of the book is: But how did you become involved
in such a crazy business?
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Chapters 34
Horace Tupple leaves the ship at Panama (see page 10).
Ask students to work in pairs. They work out and practise
a conversation between Horace Tupple and Walter Tirrie
when Horace tells Walter of his decision to leave. Ask
pairs to act out their conversation.
Chapters 56
Divide students into groups. Each group looks through
these chapters and makes notes about the behaviour of
the spiders. Elicit the information they have found and
write it on the board. Groups then discuss ways of
defeating the spiders. Then compare the ideas of the
groups.
Chapter 7
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?
Chapters 89
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?
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
Put students into small groups. Ask them to discuss what
they liked about Web and what they disliked. Then have a
whole-class discussion.
Glossary
It will be useful for your students to know the following new words.
They are practised in the Before You Readsections of exercises at
the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman
Active Study Dictionary.)
Chapters 12
project (n) an important piece of work or an idea that is planned and
organized carefully over a period of time
Chapters 34
biologist (n) a scientist who studies living things
cliff (n) a high steep rock or piece of land
patch (n) a part of an area that is different or looks different from the
parts surrounding it
raft (n) this is flat and floats, and is made from long pieces of wood
that are tied together
tractor (n) a strong vehicle with large wheels, used for pulling things
volcano (n) a mountain that sometimes explodes and smoke and hot
melted rock come out of the top
web (n) a net made by a spider to catch insects
Chapters 56
crab (n) a sea animal with a round flat shell and ten legs. It walks
sideways.
insecticide (n) a chemical used for killing insects
Chapter 7
paradise (n) a place that is very, very beautiful and that you very
much like
altar (n) a kind of table used for religious ceremonies
Chapters 89
erupt (v) to send out smoke and fire into the sky
Pu blis hed and dis tribut ed b y Pearson Edu cation
Factsheet written by Jane Rollason
Fa ctshe et se ri es dev elop ed by Lo uis e Jame s
 Penguin Readers Factsheets level

Students activities 1

2
Web 3

Photocopiable 4
These activities can be done alone or with one or more
other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked. 5

Activities before reading the book 6

1 Read the introduction on page iv. David touches some
white stuff that covers a tree. What do you think the
white stuff is?
2 Which jobs did John Wyndham try before becoming a
writer?
Activities while reading the book
CHAPTERS 12
Chapter 1
The newspapers are full of stories about Lord Foxfields
Project.
Can you fit these phrases into the article below?
free, politically independent; architect and journalist;
and not to the past; political or social; a rich and
powerful man; the two principles of
FOOLS PARADISE
Lord Foxfield, (a) ........................................ , has come up
with a new way to spend his money. He imagines he can
create the perfect society. He is working with
(b) ........................................ Walter Tirrie to draw up
plans for a (c) ........................................ society. They
have found and bought the Pacific island of Tanakuatua.
Here they will build a society on
(d) ........................................ Knowledge and Reason.
It will be a mixed-race society that looks to the future
(e) ........................................ , says Lord Foxfield. Talented
people will be able to think and work free from financial
worries or (f) ........................................ problems.
Chapter 2
1 Imagine you 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. Show your list to a friend have
you chosen the same things?
2 Talk to another student.
The narrator, Arnold Delgrange, tells us that the
Project was not lucky. What do you think is going to
go wrong? Guess.
Can you think of a reason why nobody lives on
Tanakuatua? Write down your ideas. UPPER
INTERMEDIATE
2 Match the names and feelings.
(a) Horace (b) Arnold (c) All the people in the group
(d) Walter (e) Camilla
(i) have different ideas about how to organize the
group.
(ii) thinks the people in the group have no sense of
humour.
(iii) seems to be suffering emotional pain.
(iv) turns away from the others into a private world.
(v) feels he is returning to the world.
Chapter 4
1 Below are some of the things the people do as soon
as they land on the island. Put them in order of
importance in your opinion.
choosing a place to live
getting power going to operate lights
making a kitchen
arranging a water supply
building shelters
exploring the island
Show your order to another student. Is it the same? If
there are differences, say why you think one thing is
more important than another.
2 How did you feel when you read the last page of this
chapter? Talk to another student. Are you afraid of
spiders? What would be more frightening than spiders
in this situation?
CHAPTERS 56
Chapter 5
1 Work with another student. 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. Persuade Joe not to go.
2 Look at the picture on page 24. You are Mrs
Shuttleshaw. Write a paragraph describing what
happened to your son.
3 What are the group going to do to protect themselves
against the spiders? Have you got any better ideas?

CHAPTERS 34 Chapter 6
Chapter 3 1 What is it that has made the spiders so powerful,
according to Camilla? Does Camilla think the spiders
1 Read the first two paragraphs of Chapter 3 again and have intelligence?
answer this question.

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Students activities
2 Put these sentences in the right order.
(a) They walk for a long time through spider country.
(b) The men tie their hands together.
(c) Suddenly they come to another path not a path
made by their group.
(d) They meet the leader of the islanders, who has a
spider painted on his chest.
(e) Camilla and Arnold walk to the edge of the
spiders hunting ground.
(f) They climb to the top of the old volcano.
(g) Two men with long knives rush towards them and
take them prisoner.
(h) They start to clear a path, cutting through the
plants.
CHAPTER 7
1 Answer these questions
(a) Why do the islanders pour away the prisoners
insecticide and take their clothes away?
(b) Who are the Little Sisters?
(c) How did the British soldiers treat the
Tanakuatuans during the Second World War?
(d) Why did the islanders have to leave the island
three years later?
(e) What does the chief, Tatake, tell his people to
do?
(f) What does the medicine man, Nokiki, tell the
people to do?
(g) How many people stay on the island with Nokiki?
(h) What does Nokiki blame for making his people
weaker and less proud?
(i) What does Nokiki do before he kills himself?
(j) When the Tanakuatuans refused to return to the
island ten years later, what did the government
do?
(k) Why has Naeta come back to the forbidden
island?
(l) Who does their god, Nakaa, blame for the
weakness of the Tanakuatuans?
2 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 89
Chapter 8
1 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. Work with
a friend. Imagine a short conversation between them.
Act it out.
2 Use these phrases to complete this summary.
Arnolds hat and gloves; into the sea; who came in
the plane; attack; carrying four people;
knock them off; have murdered; patches of
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spiders; the leader of the original group; more and
more; that the spiders kill; arrives five days
A ship (a) ........................................ after the plane. A
small boat comes to the shore (b) ................................... .
They ask if Arnold is Mr Tirrie, (c) .................................... .
They see the bodies of the two men
(d) ...................................... . The officer in charge of the
boat doesnt believe (e) ........................................ He
thinks that perhaps Camilla and Arnold
(f) ........................................ the men from the plane. He
puts on (g) ........................................ although he doesnt
think its necessary. He goes to look at one of the
(h) ...................................... . The spiders immediately
(i) ........................................ him. He tries to
(j) ........................................ But (k) .................................
come. He runs (l) ........................................, screaming.
He lives, but only just.
Chapter 9
1 Who ...
(a) is interviewed by the army?
(b) is in hospital?
(c) does Camilla explore the island with?
(d) thinks it would be no good covering the island
with insecticide?
(e) thinks Camilla and Arnold could have done more
to prevent the tragedy?
(f) gets paid by the government for the tragedy?
What ...
(g) erupted?
Where ...
(h) did Camilla find a single Araneus nokikii?
2 Talk with other students or write a paragraph.
What do you think the narrator of the story learnt from
his experiences on Tanakuatua?
Activities after reading the book
1 You are Camilla. You are writing a piece about the
spiders for a magazine called New Naturalist. Make
notes of all the information you want to include.
2 Look through the story for descriptions of the island
of Tanakuatua. Use the information you find to draw a
picture or map of the island.
Publishe d and d istribu ted by P ear son E ducat ion
Factsheet written by Jane Rollason
F act sheet s eri es deve l oped b y L ouise J ames