LEVEL A1

FANTASTIC
CREATURES
MONSTERS, MERMAIDS, AND WILD MEN

Simon Beaver
 Cambridge Discovery Education TM

INTERACTIVE READERS
Series editor: Bob Hastings

FANTASTIC
CREATURES
MONSTERS, MERMAIDS,
AND WILD MEN

A1

Simon Beaver
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City

Cambridge University Press

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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107696372

© Cambridge University Press 2014

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions

of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2014

Printed in Hong Kong, China, by Golden Cup Printing Company Limited

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beaver, Simon.
Fantastic creatures : monsters, mermaids, and wild men / Simon Beaver.
pages cm. -- (Cambridge discovery interactive readers)
ISBN 978-1-107-69637-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Monsters. 2. Animals, Mythical. 3. English language--Textbooks for foreign speakers.
4. Readers (Elementary) I. Title.

GR825.B417 2013
001.944--dc23

2013025128

ISBN 978-1-107-69637-2

Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in
this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Layout services, art direction, book design, and photo research: Q2ABillSMITH GROUP
Editorial services: Hyphen S.A.
Audio production: CityVox, New York
Video production: Q2ABillSMITH GROUP
Contents
Before You Read: Get Ready! ................... 4

CHAPTER 1
Animals and Creatures ................................ 6

CHAPTER 2
Wild Men ........................................................... 8

CHAPTER 3
Monsters and Mermaids .............................. 12

CHAPTER 4
Dragons! ........................................................... 16

CHAPTER 5
What Do You Think? ..................................... 20

After You Read ................................................ 22

Answer Key ...................................................... 24

Glossary
 Before You Read:
Get Ready!
A long time ago, people began to think of strange creatures. Why did
they do that?

Words to Know
Look at the pictures. Then complete the sentences below
with the correct words.

dinosaurs dragons monster

snake story wild animals

1 A has a long body and no legs.

2 I took a vacation in Africa and saw a lot of .
3 His mother reads him a at bedtime.
4 lived a long time before there were people.
5 In the Harry Potter books, there are some fl ying
.
6 In the book Frankenstein, a man makes a .

4
 Words to Know
Read the text. Then complete the sentences below with the
correct highlighted words.
People like to think about or imagine things. A long time ago, they
imagined creatures – people or animals – that weren’t real. Some of these
creatures were very strange or unusual. And some were very big – they
were giant creatures. But many people were sure – they really
believed – that these creatures were real.
1 We read a story about a place with talking trees and many funny
.
2 In the story, some children meet a man, three
meters tall!
3 I’m really interested in India. I like to think about it and
what it’s like. I want to go there one day.
4 When she was little, she that animals talk to
each other when people are not there.
5 Every morning, I make breakfast for my brother and me. Today, he
made breakfast. That’s . Why did he do that?
Maybe he wants something from me!

5
 The Hydra

CHAPTER 1

Animals and
Creatures
WHY DID PEOPLE IMAGINE SO MANY STRANGE
CREATURES?

A long, long time ago, people didn’t have books or

the Internet to help them understand their world. They
told stories, often about animals. These stories helped
people understand their world.
Sometimes the animals in stories were different than in
real life. People imagined strange creatures that weren’t
real. We call them mythical creatures. The Ancient1
Greeks, for example, imagined the Hydra. It killed people.
It was like a giant water snake with many heads. If you
cut2 one head off, two came back in its place.
ancient: from a very long time ago
1

cut: what you do with a knife

2

6
 The Aztecs in Mexico
believed in a mythical
creature – a snake with
feathers that lived in the
sky. It was a symbol of
new life.
Real animals can be
symbols, too. People are
afraid of snakes because Birds have feathers.
they’re dangerous. So adults often tell children stories
about snakes. In the stories snakes are a symbol of bad
things, things that adults want children to be afraid of.
In some places, people think some birds are symbols
of bad luck. Tortoises in China are good luck. Black cats
are bad luck in some places and good luck in others.
Why? Maybe because people tell different stories in
different places.

A tortoise

Video Quest
Snake Symbols
Watch the video. Why did the
Aborigines think a giant snake
gave them water?

7
 A forest

CHAPTER 2

Wild Men
STRANGE CREATURES LIKE US?

In 1924, a man called Albert Ostman is on vacation

in a forest in Canada. One night, he wakes up in his
sleeping bag. He can’t get out. Somebody’s carrying him!
After two hours, they stop. Albert looks out of the bag.
He sees a family: father, mother, boy, and girl. They
are very tall and hairy, different from normal people!
They do nothing bad to Albert, but he can’t leave for
days. At last, when they aren’t looking, he runs!
Is Albert’s story true? Maybe not. Or maybe he really
saw a family of bigfoot!

8
 Is this a
bigfoot?

EVALUATE
Do you think Albert’s story is true?
Why?

Albert only told his story 30 years later when he

heard other stories like it. Many people today say they
saw a bigfoot. But nobody caught one to show to other
people. They say a bigfoot is very tall – two or three
meters. It has a lot of hair on its body.
In the west of the USA, there were other stories
of “wild men” with long hair on their bodies. Stiyaha
were wild men that came at night and took children.
Skoocooms were cannibals – they ate other people! And
there were other wild men that only took people’s fi sh.
Today, all these American wild men are called
bigfoot.
9
 There are stories of wild men
in many countries.
In the Himalayas, they say
there’s a creature called the yeti
or “the wild man of the snows.”
Some people say they saw one,
but other people think it was
only a bear. Fifty years ago, many
people in the Himalayas believed A bear
in yetis, but not now. But today, some people
visit the Himalayas to try to fi nd one.
In Japan, there are stories of a creature like a
short man, called the Hibagon. It has black hair
on its body, but white hands and feet.

The Himalayas

10
 An orangutan A gorilla

Why do people in very different places

believe in the same kind of wild men? Maybe it’s
because there are animals that are like people.
For example, there are bears in the mountains of
North America and the Himalayas.
And in Borneo, there is the orangutan. This
animal is sometimes called “the old man of the
forest.” And gorillas in Africa are like big people
with a lot of hair. So maybe orangutans and
other animals are behind the stories of wild men.

ANALYZE
Why can people think a bear is a
“wild man”?

11
 CHAPTER 3

Monsters
and Mermaids
THERE ARE LOTS OF STORIES
ABOUT STRANGE SEA CREATURES.

Hundreds of years
ago, people didn’t know
much about the world.
They made maps of the
parts they knew. But on Old maps show
their maps, there were monsters in the sea.
white, empty places. On
those places, they wrote, “Here, there are monsters.”
People looked at the maps and said, “Monsters?
It must be true. It’s on the map.”
But not everything on a map or in a book is true.
Sailors always liked to tell people interesting stories
when they got home from the sea. Often, the stories
weren’t true.
12
 A manatee
But sometimes, sailors really saw
strange things and didn’t understand
them. Then their stories were half true.
Sailors told stories about mermaids
and people believed them. We all know
mermaids from books and movies.
Mermaids are half woman, half fi sh. Today, we know
mermaids aren’t real. The sailors saw sea animals called
manatees and thought they were mermaids.
There are stories about mermaids in many different
countries. One of the most famous is Hans Christian
Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. She wants to be a
woman with legs because she loves a man.
Video Quest
The Real Mermaids
Watch the video. What’s the
other name for manatees?

A mermaid
13
 A long time ago, sailors
from Norway told stories
of krakens. Krakens were
giant sea monsters with
many arms. The sailors said
krakens could eat men and
even fight big boats!
Today, we think krakens
were really giant squids.
These animals usually live
at the bottom of the sea, but
they sometimes come up.
Whales eat them – there
are pictures of this on the
Internet. So giant squids
A giant squid fights fight whales. When they see
a gray whale. a big boat, they can think it’s
a whale – and fight it!

A real giant squid

14
In Scotland, lakes
are called lochs.

A picture of Nessie
from 1934

Some people today believe there’s a real water

monster – the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie.
The story began in 1933. Two people from London,
Mr. and Mrs. Spicer, visited Loch Ness, a lake in
Scotland. They said they saw the monster.
After that, a lot of people came. Some wanted to kill
the monster. Some took pictures. You can see one here.
Is it really a monster?
Today, some people believe Nessie is real, maybe a
kind of dinosaur. Others don’t. What do you think?

15
 Many kings,
like England’s
Henry VIII,
used dragons
as their symbol.

CHAPTER 4

Dragons!
MYTHICAL CREATURES OR REAL DINOSAURS?

Dragon stories began in different places. The

fi rst came from China and Europe. But Chinese and
European dragons were very different.
In Europe, ancient dragons were like snakes with
wings.3 But a few hundred years ago, people started
to imagine them with legs. European dragons usually
did bad things, like kill people.
Because kings wanted their people to be afraid of
them, they used dragons as their symbol. The national
symbol of Wales is a red dragon.
wings: birds and planes use wings to fl y
3

16
 People love stories
about dragons. In
many of these stories,
people kill bad
dragons.
Beowulf is an
English story from a
thousand years ago.
In the story, Beowulf
wants a dragon’s
gold. He and his men
fi ght the dragon.
Beowulf kills it, but
then he dies.
The Hobbit is a
story from 1937. It
also has a dragon, and the dragon also has gold. Bilbo,
the hobbit, takes a gold cup from the dragon. It gets
angry and tries to kill people in the town. Like Beowulf,
someone kills the dragon to take its gold.

UNDERSTAND
Why did kings use dragons as their
symbol?

Gold
17
 A dragon dance

The Chinese told stories about dragons a long time

ago – 7,000 years! But in China, dragons were good
luck. The Chinese believed dragons helped people and
could change the weather. Some stories say dragons
taught people to talk.
Like kings in Europe, the most important men in
China used dragons as their symbol. A story says that
the fi rst kings of China were from a dragon family. In
the 1970s, many Chinese people began to say they were
“Children of the Dragon.”
For the Chinese New Year, people make paper dragons
and do a dragon dance in the streets. They love dragons.
18
 Dinosaur bones The Komodo dragon
looks like a dinosaur.

Why did people tell dragon stories? Maybe ancient

people just enjoyed telling stories to make their children
afraid. Or maybe they found giant dinosaur bones
and thought they were from dragons. They didn’t
know dinosaurs died long ago. So maybe they thought
dragons were real animals.
There are animals that are a little like dragons.
They’re called monitor lizards. Monitor lizards are
usually big. The Komodo dragon from Indonesia, for
example, can be three meters long! They bite, fi ght,
and eat other animals, sometimes farm animals. Maybe
farmers told stories about them, and, over time, these
became dragon stories.

Video Quest
Komodo Dragons
Watch the video. What do
Komodo dragons eat?

19
 CHAPTER 5

What Do You Think?

ARE THERE REALLY STRANGE CREATURES LIKE THE
ONES IN THIS BOOK?

Bigfoot, yetis, mermaids, krakens, the Loch Ness

Monster, dragons.… Do you believe they lived – or
live – in our world? Do you believe in other strange
creatures, like the chupacabra, for example?
In 1995, the story of the chupacabra
began in Puerto Rico. Eight sheep died.
People said that something drank
their blood and killed them. Then
more animals died in other places.
One woman said she had the answer.
She saw a “strange creature,” and told
people what it looked like. Did it drink
the animals’ blood?
20
 A vampire bat A scientist

What do you think? Are there really chupacabras?

Some animals drink blood – for example, the vampire
bat – but not all the blood in a sheep!
Many people studied the chupacabra story. One man
said the woman’s “strange creature” was from a movie
she saw, called Species. Her story was the same as the
movie. Scientists said the creatures were sick wild dogs
with little or no hair.
But now there are chupacabra stories in the USA,
Russia, and other places. Are they all wrong?
Do you have stories of strange creatures in your
country? What are they? Do you believe them? Why or
why not?
Maybe all the stories in this book are true. The world
can be a strange place!

21
 After You Read
True or False?
Read the sentences and choose A (True) or B (False). If
the book doesn’t tell you, choose C (Doesn’t say).
1 Tortoises are bad luck in China.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
2 There are many stories of different “wild men” in the American west.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
3 Yeti stories come from Borneo.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
4 Giant squids live in the sea near Scotland.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
5 Nessie is another name for the Loch Ness Monster.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
6 In Beowulf, the dragon takes Beowulf’s gold.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say

22
7 The Chinese believed dragons could change the weather.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say
8 People say chupacabras drink the blood of sheep.
A True
B False
C Doesn’t say

Complete the Text

Use the words in the box to complete the paragraph.

believe dangerous fight giant monsters stories

Krakens were big sea 1 . Sailors from Norway

told 2 about them. Today, we don’t
3 in krakens. We think they were really
4 squids. Whales like to eat those squids, so the
squids sometimes 5 whales. Giant squids can be
6 . Sometimes they think boats are whales and
fi ght them.

My Favorite Creatures
Which three stories from the book are the most interesting
to you? Where do the stories come from? What is the
creature in the story like?

Story Where the story is from What the creature is like

1.

2.

3.

23
 Answer Key
Words to Know, page 4
1 snake 2 wild animals 3 story 4 Dinosaurs
5 dragons 6 monster

Words to Know, page 5

1 creatures 2 giant 3 imagine 4 believed 5 strange

Video Quest, page 7

When you look at a river from above, it is like a snake.

Evaluate, page 9  Answers will vary.

Analyze, page 11
When a bear gets up on two legs, people can think it’s a
wild man with hair on his body.

Video Quest, page 13

The other name for manatees is sea cows.

Understand, page 17
Kings wanted people to be afraid of them.

Video Quest, page 19

They eat other animals and sometimes other Komodo
dragons.

True or False?, page 22

1 B 2 A 3 B 4 C 5 A 6 B 7 A 8 A

Complete the Text, page 23

1 monsters 2 stories 3 believe 4 giant 5 fight
6 dangerous

My Favorite Creatures, page 23  Answers will vary.

24