Oxford Reading

Circle
Book-4

Teacher’s Guide

Sue Gilbert
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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ISBN-13: 978-0-19-547490-9

Printed in Pakistan at
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. , Karachi.
Published by
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P.O. Box 8214, Karachi-74900, Pakistan.
INTRODUCTION

This new Teacher’s Guide has been written to help teachers to exploit
fully all the learning opportunities presented in the Oxford Reading Circle
series of reading books.
It provides, on a chapter-by-chapter basis, suggestions for how the
various points of reading covered can be taught. It also contains
suggestions on how the illustrations and texts can be used to develop
language by relating the content to the students’ own wider experiences and
by encouraging them to predict outcomes in the light of what they can see or
what they have already read. There are also some supplementary activities
and games to reinforce the teaching in a less formal way.
The Guide supplies answers for the Exercises sections of the student book
where appropriate, recognising that there are not always ‘right’ or ‘wrong’
answers and any valid contribution from a student must be welcomed,
and a variety of responses should be encouraged.
Each class is different and only the teacher will know which activities will
work with his/her students. For this reason, although the Guide can be used
as a step-by-step lesson plan, it is in no way prescriptive, and not all teaching
steps have to be followed, but I hope that every teacher will find
something that can be used to promote their students’ learning of English
and in some way help with their lesson preparation.
Contents

1. The One that Got Away 1

2. When We are Men 2
3. One More Try 3
4. Sinbad the Sailor 4
5. High June 5
6. When Daddy was a Little Boy 6
7. Baby Yaga 7
8. Laughing Song 8
9. The Thrush Girl 9
10. How the Jaguar Lost Its Fire 10
11. Birds’ Nests 12
12. A Dream Comes True 13
13. Tomkin to the Rescue 14
14. In Days Gone By 14
15. The Birthday Present 15
16. Trapped in the Castle 16
17. The Purple Flower 17
18. The Watchmaker’s Shop 18
19. The Story-Spirits 19
20. Everyday Things 20
21. Heracles 21
22. Lazy-Bones Jones 25
23. Mr Nobody 26
24. Crafty Tom 27
Oxford Reading Circle Book 4

Teacher’s Guide

Notes
1. It is sometimes useful to use pictures to stimulate discussion on both familiar and unfamiliar topics.
Often suitable images can be found by using the search engine Google images.
2. To ensure that new words are being learned, give regular tests e.g. after each 4 or 5 chapters, where
students have to match the words with simplified meanings or give meanings and ask students to supply
the word; words could be revised as a homework task prior to the test. It is most important that students
use the words correctly as well as recognise them—active learning, not only passive—so ask for words
to be used in sentences.

Chapter 1
The One that Got Away
1. Introductory activity using a matchbox and another larger box, e.g. a shoebox, each firmly closed or
wrapped and containing one object. Show the students the larger box and ask each of them to
suggest what it might contain. You could pass the box round while they are thinking or while they are
presenting their ideas. Encourage them to give answers that are longer than one word, for e.g. It’s a shiny,
green, radio- controlled car; It’s an old rusty clock. At the end, show them what is inside to see whether
anybody guessed correctly. Repeat the exercise with the matchbox.

(Page 6)
1. Ask the students to look at the words in the box and make sure they understand them; you could use
pictures to help them — e.g. the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a gerbil. They should ask if they need further
help. With books closed, ask individual students to tell you what the words mean.

(Pages 1—2)
1. Read to shown it to the class. Explain that the students put the chairs on the table to make it easier for the
room to be swept in the evening. Ask students what impression they have formed of Malcolm. (He
appears rather negative; sits near the back; no friends.)

(Pages 2—3)
1. Read to began to think. Ask students to explain why he is not very keen on the task that has been set.
(He has nothing to talk about; last time nobody was interested in his stone.)
2. Ask students to predict what he might do.

(Pages 3—6)
1. Read to the end of the story.
2. Ask students what is meant in the last line.
1
3. Discuss whether Malcolm’s idea had been a good one.

(Page 7)
1. Ex A. Go over the questions again if necessary.
2. Ex B. Ask the students to write T or F by the side of each statement and if F, to provide the correct
answer. (1. T, 2. F/stone, 3. T, 4. F/Italy, 5. F/8)
3. Ex C. This can be a homework research task; students could work in groups of 4 with each finding out
about one of the creatures and then reporting back to their group and making comparisons with the other
insects. Again, pictures of all four insects can be found using Google images if books are not available.
Students may wish to find out about other insects too.
4. Ex D. Write on the board ‘long lost friend’. Ask the children to explain the difference between a long,
lost friend and a long-lost friend. Explain that the hyphen joins the words that go together. Ask them to
look at the phrases in the exercise and write in the hyphens. (1. rolled-up comic 2. five-legged spider 3.
pet creepy-crawlies 4. first-class match 5. junior-school teams 6. black trunk-key)

Chapter 2
When We are Men
1. Introductory discussion. Tell the students what you wanted to be when you were young, and why. It does
not have to be true–it could be an astronaut or a fireman etc.
2. Ask the students to talk about what they would like to be and why.

(Page 8)
1. Read the poem. Ask students which of the four is the odd man out. (The author, because he does not
want to be tied down to a job.)
2. Identify the words from the box on page 8 and ask students to give you the meanings—they should
cover page 9 when they do this.
3. Ask students to identify the rhyming pattern of the poem. (ABCB)

(Page 9)
1. Ex A. 1. Ask students for the names of the occupations in the poem. (a. farmer b. shopkeeper/baker/
businessman c. traveller d. sailor/sea captain)
2. Ex B. Ask students to answer the questions. (1. the poet 2. Dick 3. Jim 4. Tom)
3. Can students suggest other things they might say?
4. Ex C. Give students 5 minutes to work in pairs to come up with possible answers
e.g. artist, accountant, architect
baker, bus driver, butcher, beautician
chef, cashier, chauffeur, curator, cleaner
doctor, dentist, detective
engineer, explorer
fireman. farmer
gardener, glazier

2
hairdresser
lorry driver, labourer,
mason, manicurist, musician
nurse, nuclear scientist, nanny
pilot, pharmacist, postman, policeman, porter, potter
spy, surgeon, soldier, secretary, surveyor
teacher, tailor
Stress that nobody should be dismissed as ‘only a …..’; there should be respect for all sorts of
occupations since all are important. How, for example, would they manage at home without their cleaner
or washerman or the driver who brings them to school?
5. Students could draw a picture of themselves in the job they would like to do in the future and write about
what the work would involve and why they would want to do it (students could give oral presentations in
class.) The pictures and writing could be displayed under the heading of a date 20 years in the future.
Chapter 3
One More
Try
1. Ask students to look up in their dictionaries the meanings of the words persevere and persist. Talk about
what they mean. Ask students to talk about any time when they have had to persevere, or when they
gave up because something seemed too difficult.
2. Show students a map of the United Kingdom. Explain that England and Scotland are now both parts of
the same country, the United Kingdom. This is because they are united under one ruler (king/queen), but
up until about 300 years ago they were two separate countries and often fought against each other.
Explain that this story is set during that period.

(Pages 10—12)
1. Read to single spider’s thread. Ask students why they thought Robert the Bruce was so depressed.
2. Ask them how they think a spider might be able to change Robert the Bruce’s decision.

(Pages 12—14)
1. Read to the end of the story.
2. Ask students if there are any other lessons that people could learn from animals e.g. animals never kill
each other except for food; animals take just enough food, they do not take more than they need and
waste what they do not use etc.
3. The story ends with a well-known saying. Ask students if they know any other sayings — either in Urdu
or English e.g. ‘Leave well alone’; ‘Never trouble trouble, Till trouble troubles you, Or else you’ll
double trouble, and trouble others too!’ ; ‘More haste, less speed’; ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, etc.
Ask them to tell you the sayings and talk about what they mean.
4. Talk about proverbs, another form of advice; if necessary, give students examples of some proverbs and
talk about what they mean. Students could illustrate proverbs and the drawings could be used as a wall
display.
5. Look at the words in the box. Ask students to read the words and their meanings and prepare their own
sentences containing the words.
6. Ex A. Ask the questions as a comprehension check.
3
(Page
15)
1. Ex B. Ask what we call people who come from Pakistan/China etc. Remind students that nationalities
are written with capital letters. Tell students that all the nationalities in the exercise are from European
countries. Complete the exercise in pairs, using atlases or a large outline map of Europe if necessary.
2. Ex C. Ask students to use dictionaries to answer the questions.
3. Ex D. Unjumble the names. (1. Japan 2. Nigeria 3. Pakistan 4. Saudi Arabia) If possible, ask students
to locate these countries on a world map or globe.
4. Find the names of these twelve countries that are hidden in the word search.

DUBAI, BHUTAN, AFGHANISTAN, ITALY, INDONESIA, THAILAND, SRI LANKA, ZAMBIA,

GHANA, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, VENEZUELA.
Answers

DI WJ F V L LSOYAI U
R FY
QNTU
ZBT
AR UDN Z AR L
P H A YR S Z
NI TH A I U N J A XQ IV E X H
AK NA N B Z D T
LR YD L
IJ BD F
AF GH
HA LE F
TD RV Y
EA US O
VN QB
SA TJ U
YC FS V
V
G
R

Chapter 4
Sinbad the
Sailor
1. Tell the students that the story they are going to read comes from The Book of 1001 Nights and give them
some background to the stories (below). Students may be familiar with other stories from the collection.
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights is a medieval Middle Eastern literary epic which tells the
story of Scheherazade a Sassanid Queen, who must relate a series of stories to her wicked husband, King
Shahryar to delay her execution. The stories are told over a period of one thousand and one nights, and
every night she ends the story with a suspenseful situation, forcing the King to keep her alive for another
day. The individual stories were created over many centuries, by many people and in many styles, and
many have become famous in their own right. Notable examples include Aladdin, Ali Baba and the
Forty Thieves, and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.

4
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1. Look at the words in the box. Ask students to read the words and meanings and try to find another, more
up-to-date word that means the same thing as the words: mariner (sailor), meadow (field), merchant
(trader, businessman) monstrous (huge, gigantic).

(Pages 16—18)
1. Read the opening paragraph and ask what is meant by mended his ways.
2. Read to at least fifty paces round! Ask students to imagine how Sinbad would be feeling; make a list of some
of the words on the board, e.g. helpless, hopeless, afraid, worried, despairing etc. What would they do if
they were in his situation? What do they think the white object might be?

Pages 18—21
1. Read to thought of a plan. Ask the students to explain what is meant by I looked upon this valley as my
grave. (He thought he would die there and his body would remain there, as in a grave.)
2. Ask the students what they think of Sinbad’s escape and survival skills. Ask them to look at the picture
on page 21 and suggest what he is going to do next.

(Pages 21—23)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask the students to discuss how much of Sinbad’s escape was due to luck
and how much was due to his cleverness.
2. How does the end of the story show that he had mended his ways? (He gave alms to the poor and lived
honourably.)

(Page 24)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask students to find the missing words. (1. roc/eagle 2. diamond 3. mariner 4. merchant)
3. Ex C. Students should organize the words, using dictionaries if necessary. (1. mound, hillock, hill, mountain
2. snake, bear, rhinoceros, elephant 3. robin, crow, eagle, roc 4. canoe, dinghy, whaler, aircraft carrier)
4. Ask students to think of four other words in a category for their partner to put in order of size.
5. Activity: Ask students to name ten objects they would like to have with them if they were shipwrecked
on an island and to explain why they have chosen these things. Students could draw the objects on a
large sheet of paper and write next to each why they selected it.
Chapter 5
High June (Pages 25—26)
1. Explain that High June means the middle of June when the weather is usually very warm and sunny in
Europe.
2. Ask students to look at the first stanza of the poem and identify the rhyming pattern (AABCCB).
Establish that all students have found this pattern or understand how it was found. Ask them to check
whether the other two stanzas follow the same rhyming pattern.
3. Read the poem. Ask students to identify the mood of the poem (happiness, having fun). Ask students to
identify some of the words or phrases that help to convey that mood.
5
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1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask students to work on their own or in pairs to find as many possible rhyming words for each of
the given words. Ask a student to read out their rhymes for daisy. Other students should listen and cross
off from their list any words that are read out. If any pair of students has a word that nobody else has
thought of, they score a point. Repeat for the other words. Students must know the meanings of the
words they supply — they can use dictionaries to check any they are unsure of.
a. daisy – lazy, hazy, crazy
b. raced – paced, waste, waist, laced, graced, placed, braced, faced, haste, taste
c. please – tease, bees, breeze, ease, trees, knees, peas, seas, seize, wheeze
d. sailing – ailing, bailing, failing, flailing, haling, hailing, jailing,
mailing, nailing, quailing, railing, tailing, trailing, veiling, wailing,
whaling
e. bend – amend, end, fend, friend, lend, mend, send, tend, trend, vend, wend
3. Ex C and D. Ask students to find an example of each mark in the poem. Discuss what each punctuation
mark is and when it is used — reference to the text should give them some clues about this.
4. Write the following sentences on the board without any punctuation (retain capital letters) and ask
students to add correct punctuation :
Sentences
1. Do you know where I left my bag
2. Come here at once
3. There s nobody at home
4. Yesterday the children went to the zoo
5. The zookeeper said, Please don t feed the animals
Answers
1. Do you know where I left my bag?
2. Come here at once!
3. There’s nobody at home.
4. Yesterday the children went to the zoo.
5. The zookeeper said, ‘Please don’t feed the animals.’
Chapter 6
When Daddy was a Little Boy
1. Ask students if they know anything about what their parents used to do when they were little e.g. where
they lived and went to school, the games they played, their friends, how they travelled. Talk about how
their lives are different from their parents’.
2. Explain that the story takes place in Russia. Show students where Russia is on a world map or globe and
point out its situation with relation to Pakistan. Ask students to tell you what they know about Russia.

(Page 35)
1. Read the words in the box. Ask students to close their books and read out one of the definitions so that
students can supply the word. Repeat for all the words.

6
(Page
1. Read the introduction to the story. Ask students to suggest how the father may have got into mischief.

(Pages 29—31)
1. Read to We won’t play with him. Ask the students if they can remember reading another story about a
boy who didn’t like to share his toys. (Roy’s Toys) If they remember, ask whether Roy changed his
mind. Do they think this boy will also change his mind?
2. Explain that he lives in a very small town, so that something from Moscow would be very unusual and
be seen as very special.
3. Read to the end of the page. Was the boy clever to throw his ball under the car? Why did the other boys
dare him to do it?

(Pages 32—33)
1. Read to where’s your new ball? Discuss the different reasons why Grandma was angry and why Grandpa
was angry. Do the students think he deserved his punishment? What lessons did he learn from them?

(Pages 33—34)
1. Read to the end of the story. What lesson did he learn from the neighbour? Which lesson do students
think would be most important for him throughout his life?

(Pages 35—36)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask students to find new words; letters can be added at the start, end or in the middle of the given
words e.g. sun–sung, stun, sunk, spun, shun, —but not a final ‘s’ to make plurals. Award points as for
page 27 # 2 above. Suggestions are: 1. spend 2. scar 3. rain 4. flour 5. sunk 6. tread 7. wasp 8. shave
9. howl 10. stays.
3. Ex C. Ask students to first guess who said the words, and then check back through the text to find the
answers. (1. Grandpa 2. Daddy 3. people 4. the other boys 5. the neighbour 6. the boys)
4. Ex D. Ask students to find the toys (bat, ball, marble, doll, roller skates, kite, top)

Chapter 7
Baba Yaga
1. Explain that this story is also set in Russia. It is a folktale—a traditional story that has been handed down
over a long period of time. Folk tales are often about poor people.
2. Explain that one of the characters in the story is a stepmother. Explain that a stepmother is somebody
who marries a father when his first wife has died. Ask students if they know other stories with
stepmothers (Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel etc.). Discuss how stepmothers are usually
portrayed in these stories. (They are depicted as being cruel to the children.) Explain that this is not
usually the case in real life. Be very sensitive in case any student in the class has a step-parent.

(Page 47)
1. Teach the words in the box and test that students understand the meanings.

7
(Page
1. Read to wanted. Do students think that the stepmother is going to fit the stereotype? Do they really think
that she wants a needle and thread? If not, why is she sending Karen off into the forest?

(Pages 38—39)
1. Read to set off for the forest. Ask students to suggest what the items might be used for if they are not for
food.
2. Read to never have come to the house! Do students think that the stepmother knew about Baba Yaga’s
house? If so, why did she send Karen there?

(Pages 39—41)
1. Read to shiver again. List all the reasons that Karen has to be afraid. What would the students do if they
were in her place?

(Pages 41—44)
1. Read to How relieved she was! Discuss what Karen has done with the things her aunt gave her; do they
seem sensible? How do the students think this might help her escape from Baba Yaga?

(Pages 45—47)
1. Read to the end of the story. Do students think Karen’s life will be better from now on?
2. Ask the students what this teaches us about the way we behave towards others. (If we mistreat them,
they will not support us when we need help; if we are kind, our kindness will be repaid.) Do they think
this is true? Can they think of a time when their own kindness has been repaid or when they have repaid
someone else’s kindness?

(Page 48)
1. Ex A. Ask the students to explain the situations, referring to the text if necessary.
2. Ex B. Explain that these words are not in the text, but students have to decide who might have said them.
(1. the servant girl 2. Karen’s father (of Karen and her stepmother) 3. Aunt 4. cat)
3. Ex C. Write on the board ‘bread and.…’ Ask students to supply the missing word (butter or jam.) Ask
students to take a word from each side to form pairs. (needle and thread; cup and saucer; horse and cart;
knife and fork; pen and paper; black and white; bow and arrow; profit and loss; heaven and earth) Can
they provide any other pairs?
4. This story could be acted out by students using their own words. The class could work in two or three
groups.

Chapter 8
Laughing
Song
1. Ask the students to find the name of the poet. Tell them that Blake lived nearly 200 years ago in England
and was a poet, painter, and printmaker.
2. Ask the students to talk about the differences between the country and the city. Make a list of the things
that are found in the countryside that are not found in cities e.g. woods, forests, animals, streams etc.

8
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1. Teach the new words.

(Pages 49—50)
1. Read the poem and ask students whether it is describing the city or the country. Ask for the key words
that portray this. (greenwoods, stream, green hills, meadows, grasshoppers, birds).
2. Ask the students what time of year the poet is writing about, and give a reason for their answer (summer
— everything is green, eating out of doors, birds are in the shade).
3. Ask the students to find a word that is repeated seven times that sets the mood for the poem
(laugh/laughs/ laughing).
4. Ask students to identify the rhyme pattern (AABB). Point out that there are two false rhymes – joy/by and
shade/spread, but this is known as poetic licence which means the poet can use near-rhymes.

(Page 51)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Use dictionaries to look up any unfamiliar terms and talk about the different shades of meaning.
Point out that some of these are more negative types of laughter (snigger, jeer, smirk). Students might
like to demonstrate the difference between some of the terms e.g. guffaw and giggle etc.
3. Ex C. Ask students to circle the odd word and explain why it has been chosen. (1. dam 2. tearful 3.
silence
4. banana)

Chapter 9
The Thrush Girl ( Page 58)
1. Teach the new words.
2. Ask students to give you the words that traditionally begin a story. (‘Once upon a time’) Talk about what
usually happens at the end of a fairy story. (The prince usually marries the beautiful girl or princess and
they all live happily ever after.)

(Pages 52—53)
1. Read to she will go to the bad. Ask students what longed to in line 2 means. (wanted very much)
2. Ask the students to say what they have learned about the girl so far. (She is simple, easily satisfied, loves
birds, and listens to what people tell her.)
3. Ask the students how she knew that the hay should be harvested. (from the birds)
4. Ask why the other people were angry and said she was bad. (jealous, angry that they had lost their crops)

(Pages 53—54)
1. Read to little girl said nothing. Ask what they do that is different this time. (They warn the other farmers
but they do not listen.)
2. Ask what the farmers now say about the little girl. (They think she is bewitched.)
3. Read to the end of the page. Ask students to predict what is going to happen and how the neighbours
might react.

9
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1. Read to the end of the page. Explain that many hundreds of years ago, it was not uncommon for women
who were thought to be witches to be burned.
2. Talk about how the birds had helped the girl. Ask how the bees and moles might be able to help her if
she needs more help.

(Pages 56—57)
1. Read to the end of the page. Ask students to predict what is going to happen next. Will the girl escape
again?
(Page 58)
1. Read to the end of the story. Are the students surprised by the ending? How do they think the prince
would have reacted?

(Page 59)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions as a comprehension check.
2. Ex B. Dictionaries will be required for this work. Students should write sentences that show they understand
the meanings of the words. For example ‘I saw a thrush’ is not sufficient since it gives no idea of what a
thrush is; ‘I saw a thrush in its nest,’ indicates that a thrush is a bird.
3. Ex C. Ask for opposites; there may be more than one possibility. Ask students to use both words in
sentences. (1. open 2. unlock 3. sadly/unfortunately/miserably 4. protected/saved 5. lose 6. worst)
4. Ex D. Students can discuss their ideas or write a new chapter for the story.
5. This would be a good story to act out since all the class could be involved.
Chapter 10
How the Jaguar Lost Its Fire
1. Explain to the students that many years ago, people used to invent stories to explain things that they
observed around them because they did not have the scientific explanations that we have today. The
story they are going to read relates to how man first discovered fire. Ask the students to think about why
fire is important to man. (warmth, heat, light, making things like pottery and metal work, etc.)
2. Explain that the story comes from Brazil; show the students on a map or globe where Brazil is situated.
Talk about the rainforests and the types of animals that live in them. You may want to talk about how
the rainforests are disappearing as agriculture takes over the land and that many species of plants and
animals are being lost forever.
3. If possible, show students a picture of a jaguar and talk about the animal. Use the notes below to help
you.
The Jaguar is a muscular, stocky member of the cat family found primarily in Central and South
America. It is the third largest of the world’s cats and the largest and most powerful cat in the Americas.
Jaguars are known as el tigre throughout most of South America and onca in Brazil. The name jaguar is
derived from yaguara, a word that means “wild beast that overcomes its prey with a single bound.”
Among the 36 cat species, jaguars are most closely related to lions, leopards, and tigers. Physically,
jaguars and leopards look quite similar, but compared side-by-side the jaguar is heavier and more
powerful–looking, with a much larger head than the leopard.
10
Jaguars usually live in dense tropical forests, preferring wetter areas near streams and rivers, or in
swampy grasslands. Jaguars enjoy water—they are great swimmers, capable of crossing even the widest
rivers. They often spend the heat of the day half-submerged in a stream or pool. However, these cats can
also survive in such drier habitats as dry forests and scrub, and they sometimes travel along wooded
riverbeds into semi- desert areas. Jaguars are good climbers and often rest in trees.
Jaguars vary tremendously in size and males are usually 20 to 30 per cent larger and heavier than
females. The largest jaguars are found in the seasonally flooded grasslands of Brazil and Venezuela,
where males average 102 kg (224 lb) and females average 72 kg (158 lb). The jaguar’s tawny yellow fur
is marked with large clusters of dark spots and irregularly shaped blotches. The largest blotches
resemble paw prints and often have one or two black dots in the centre. Smaller solid spots dot the head,
neck, and legs, and the tail is marked with black spots that merge to form bands near the tip. The
background coat colour and markings vary greatly from cat to cat. Just as with human fingerprints,
individual jaguars can be identified by their markings. All-black, or melanistic, jaguars are fairly
common, especially in South America where roughly 1 in 16 jaguars is black. In these individuals, the
spot pattern is usually visible beneath the dark coat colour.
Jaguars use their strong curved claws for grasping and holding prey. The front feet have five toes, but
only four of the toes leave footprints because the fifth toe pad is higher up on the foreleg and clear of the
ground. There are four toes on the hind foot. Males have larger feet than females.
Captive jaguars have survived 25 years. It is not known how long wild jaguars live, but it is unlikely that
many survive longer than 12 to 15 years.
Jaguars are capable of killing just about any type of prey they encounter. They can kill animals ranging
in size from an armadillo that weighs 1 kg (2 lb) to a cow that weighs more than 450 kg (1,000 lb).
Jaguars hunt by walking slowly along trails, watching and listening for prey. They also wait in ambush
beside trails and will leap into the water in pursuit of prey. They hunt when their prey is most active. In
areas where they feed on nocturnal prey, they hunt at night. Jaguars preying on cattle often hunt during
the daytime, and they usually kill caimans and turtles while these reptiles bask beside the water during
the day.
Jaguars have an unusual method of killing large prey. Whereas lions, tigers, and leopards kill with a
throat or neck bite, jaguars often kill large prey by biting through the skull between the ears. Jaguars also
use their powerful jaws and strong canine teeth to break open the heavy shells of large river turtles.
Empty broken turtle shells with traces of jaguar hair around the openings are often found on favourite
turtle-nesting beaches. No other big cat regularly hunts turtles and caimans, and some scientists have
speculated that the jaguar’s robust canine teeth and enormously powerful bite developed specifically to
pierce the armour of these reptiles.
After killing a large animal, a jaguar will usually drag the carcass into dense cover before beginning to
eat. If the kill is made in an open area, jaguars often drag their prey for considerable distances. On one
occasion, a jaguar killed a cow on the edge of a river and swam 790 m (2,600 ft) across the river
carrying the cow.

(Page 67)
1. With student books closed, ask if anybody can supply the meanings for the words in the box. For any
that are unknown, ask students to look at the meanings and try to use the words in sentences.

(Pages 60—63)
1. Read the text. Ask why the boy had climbed so high up the cliff. (to get the macaw’s eggs) How did he
feel when he looked down? Has he reached safety now? Ask them to predict what the jaguar will do.

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(Pages 64—65)
1. Read to objects were for. Discuss how kindly the jaguar treats the boy and how he looks after him; does
this surprise the students?
2. Why did the boy think there was an opening in the top of the cave? (The fire was lighting up the cave
like sunlight.)
3. Discuss what the bow and arrow might be used for. (They could be used for killing animals, including
jaguars.)

(Pages 65—67)
1. Read to the end of the story. Discuss how the boy did or did not repay the jaguar’s kindness.

(Page 68)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Students will need to do research to answer the first question properly and need dictionaries to do
the second question. Ask them to give examples of what would be made using each technique.
3. Ex C. Remind students of homophones and ask for some examples. Ask them to find the mistakes in
the sentences. The first word is incorrectly used; the second is correct (1. wondered/wandered 2. peace/
piece 3. pray/prey 4. meet/meat 5. through/threw 6. root/route.) Ask them to make sentences using the
incorrect words correctly.

Chapter 11
Birds’ Nests
1. Talk about where birds nest, what they build their nests from and the different sizes and types of nests
that they make.

(Page 71)
1. Teach the new words; explain that most of them are not used in everyday language; they are found more
commonly in poetry.

(Pages 69—71)
1. Read the poem. Ask the children to list all the different birds that are mentioned. (skylark, robin, wren,
martins, chaffinch, cuckoo, sparrow, ringdove, rooks, owl, blackbird, lapwing, magpie, wild duck,
waterhen)
2. Ask the students to identify the rhyming pattern and check that it is consistent throughout the poem
(ABCB). Are there any false rhymes? (No)
3. Talk about some of the different places where the nests are built.
4. Talk about how the cuckoo lays its eggs in other birds’ nests and how the young cuckoo pushes the other
eggs out of the nest and is brought up by its adoptive parents.
(Pages 71—72)
1. Ex A. Ask the students to look through the poem and identify the bird that might have made each of the
statements. (1. martin 2. sparrow 3. ringdove 4. owl 5. wild duck and waterhen 6. cuckoo)

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2. Ex B. This is quite a difficult exercise; it may be necessary to give students clues to one of the words in
the line if they are having problems, for e.g. ‘In 3, one of the words means “mother or father”’ (parent).
(1. de
2. pi 3. pa 4. re 5. sh 6. ch). Make sure students can use all of the new words correctly in sentences.
3. Ex C. Answer the questions, referring to the poem.
4. Ex D. This could be project work; students can choose their own creature and find out where the
creature lives.

Chapter 12
A Dream Comes True
1. Ask students to think of different words that they can use to describe the way people walk e.g. stride,
creep, march, tiptoe.

(Page 80)
1. Ask students to look at the words in the box which are other ways of walking.

(Pages 73—74)
1. Read to through the door together. Ask students what they think of somebody having a stool as a friend!
2. Ask students if they think it is wise for Tomkin to walk away from his life because of his dream. Do they
think he will become king?
3. Do people usually remember their old friends when they become rich? Do the students think that
Tomkin will keep his promise to the stool?

(Pages 74—75)
1. Read to the end of the page. Discuss how the stool helped Tomkin.

(Pages 76—77)
1. Read to the end of page 77. Ask students why the people were so sad and why they needed help. Do
students think Tomkin will make it rain?

(Pages 78—79)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask students to say what they think will happen to the stool now. Will
Tomkin keep his promise?

(Page 80)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Find the words in the story. Possible answers are:
1. movements: stagger, trundle, wade, walked, danced, tumbling, marched
2. sounds: whistled, wailed, shouted, laughed, gasped, sang
3. Ex C. Answer the questions. Make lists of students’ suggestions and see how many possible
answers there are. Possibilities include: 1. blanket 2. crown 3. river

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Chapter 13
Tomkin to the Rescue
1. Ask the students to talk about the qualities of a good king, ruler, or president.

(Page 89 )
1. With books closed, read the words in the box and ask students to give you the meanings and use them in
sentences. Other students should judge whether words have been used correctly or not.

(Page 81)
1. Read to sew the holes together. Ask students whether Tomkin has kept his promise to the stool or
not. (No, he has left the stool at the bottom of the hill in the rain.) Ask them to explain what the new
problem is.

(Pages 81—83)
1. Read to the end of page 83. Ask students to predict what is going to happen.

(Pages 84—86)
1. Read to take up your crown!
2. Talk about how Tomkin and the stool had worked together to solve the problem. Why didn’t he sew up
the cloud completely?
3. Ask them to predict what is going to happen.

(Pages 86—89)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask students to comment on what the characters say about being a good
king. Compare it with the students’ views at the start of the reading.
2. Ex A. Answer the questions.
3. Ex B. Find the words in the story. Suggestions are: 1. stool, table, chair, cupboards, chests of drawers, bed
2. patiently, gradually, suddenly, exactly, deeply, truly
4. Ex C. Ask the students to use dictionaries to find out the different meanings and then to use each of the
twelve words in sentences so that the meanings are clear.

Chapter 14
In Days Gone By
1. On a globe or large map show students North Africa and Arabia.
2. Talk about the fact that they are desert lands where nothing grows because there is very little rain and
very poor soil.

(Page 92)
1. Discuss the meanings of the words in the box.

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(Pages 90—
1. Read the poem.

(Page 92)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ask the students to read the poem again and find the rhyming pattern. This is quite complicated and
students might need help (ABAAB; CDED; FGFFG; HIJKJI). In this case the two ‘horsemen’ are
rhymes.
3. Ex B. Ask the students to find the adjectives. This should be supplemented with a discussion on what
meaning is being portrayed e.g. ‘Why are the hoofs described as thudding?’, ‘Why are the skies open?’
etc. (1. sun–fierce glow 2. racing–madly 3. the sky–open 4. deserts–dry 5. hoofs–thudding 6.
Bedouins
–wild)
4. Ex C. Ask students to sort out the anagrams. (1. camel 2. sand 3. dune 4. oasis 5. dates 6. Bedouin)
Talk about what the words mean. Students could draw desert pictures containing these things.

Chapter 15
The Birthday Present (Page 99)
1. Ask students to look at the words in the box. Ask them to close their books; give a definition and ask the
students to give you the correct word.

(Pages 93—94)
1. Read the first paragraph. Ask what a word wizard might be. (Somebody who is clever at using words.)
2. Read to own way by cunning. Ask the students what they have learned so far about Mr and Mrs
Delmonico. (They have twins; they don’t agree on what their son should do; they don’t agree on the
children having a pet.)
3. Ask what they think Mr Delmonico is going to do.

(Pages 94—95)
1. Read to listening carefully. How does Mr Delmonico trick his wife using words?
2. Read to the end of the page. Identify the two sayings — A dog’s bark can be worse than his bite and barking
up the wrong tree. Discuss when the terms are used and their figurative meanings.
3. Discuss how Mr Dolmenico has used the terms to trick his wife.

(Page 96)
1. Read to something more unusual? Ask the students where the line hey diddle diddle comes from, and
read out the nursery rhyme:
Hey diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
2. How does Mr Delmonico use this to trick his wife?

15
(Pages 96—
1. Read to what can I contrive? Talk about how Mr Delmonico tricks his wife using bold/bald.
2. Ask students what they think he will suggest as gifts. What do they think the word wizard might do?

(Pages 97—98)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask students what idea the wizard had thrown in the air. (He tossed into the
air the idea of buying gifts at the Wizards’ Bargain Store Monster Sale.) Ask them to think about the two
meanings of monster sale. (huge/selling monsters)
2. How does the monster correspond to all the things that Mr Delmonico had said to his wife?
3. Look at the word confustication. Ask students if they know any other made-up words e.g. ginormous,
humungous, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. You could bring in a recording of this song from the film
of Mary Poppins and ask students to sing along with the chorus. Students may like to make up their own
words by combining parts of others, and give meanings for them.

(Pages 99—100)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Match the names with the work. (astronomer–stars and planets; geologist–earth, rocks; botanist
–plants; biologist–forms of life; archaeologist–old materials and cultures)
3. Ex C. Ask students to write down the answers to the questions. (1. nine 2. twenty-six 3. five 4. forty eight
5. twenty 6. ninety four)
4. Ex D. Explain that proverbs teach us general truths. Ask the students to talk about the meanings of the 4
proverbs.
5. Ex E. Talk about birthday gifts.
6. Activity: Yes/No quiz. A student volunteers to answer questions but may not say the words yes or no or
nod or shake his/her head. The student should try to survive for one minute. As soon as the student
makes a mistake, a new student takes over. Ask closed questions such as ‘Is your name x? Do you live in
England?’ etc. rather than open questions such as ‘What is your name?’

Chapter 16
Trapped in the Castle (Page 105)
1. With students’ books closed, write the new words on the board; read out one of the meanings and ask
students to say which word is being defined. Make sure all the students understand the meanings.
2. Explain that the story is written by the Brothers Grimm who wrote a large collection of fairy stories.
Revise the characteristics of fairy stories, especially the role of the fairy—talk about good fairies
(Cinderella) and evil fairies (Sleeping Beauty).

(Pages 101—102)
1. Read to long, long way from home. Ask the students to predict what is going to happen to Jorinda and
Jorindal.

16
(Pages 102—
1. Read the text. Ask students to decide who the owl is. Was their prediction right?

(Pages 104—105)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask the students to discuss why the witch frees Jorindal.
2. Ask what they would have done in Jorindal’s place.

(Page 106)
1. Ex A. Ask the students to refer to the text to complete the sentences. (1. prowl, corridors, bound,
numerous
2. mysteriously 3. hopelessly, shortcut 4. melodious 5. amazement, shocked)
2. Ex B. Ask students to find the opposites. There are various possible answers; the ones given are only
suggestions. (1. afar/far away/ distant 2. disappeared/vanished 3. sour/bitter, rough 4. sadly/miserably
5. closing/shutting 6. quickly/speedily/fast/hurriedly)
3. Ex C. Ask the students to look at the list of words and decide what they have in common (places to live,
accommodation). Ask them to think about how they differ and the types of people who would live in
each. Ask them which they would like to live in, and why.
4. Students could draw the one they choose and write a description of it, inside as well as out. These could
be used as a classroom display.

Chapter 17
The Purple Flower (Page 111)
1. Teach the new words in the box.
2. Talk about dreams. Ask the students if they remember their dreams and whether they think we can learn
anything from our dreams. Students may have examples of when they dreamed something that came
true.
3. Revise with students the previous part of the story of Jorinda and Jorindal and ask what they think might
happen next. Let students give their ideas.

(Page 107)
1. Look at the title of the story; can students suggest the relevance of the purple flower?
2. Read to the end of the page. Ask students what they think Jorindal is going to do.
(Pages 108—109)
1. Read to anger and hatred. Ask students why Jorindal is unharmed by the witch’s power. (The purple
flower is protecting him in some way.)
(Pages 109—111)
1. Read to the end of the story.
2. Do students think that the story has a good ending?

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(Pages 111—
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask students to find the words. Make sure students understand the meanings of the words.
Answers
P C A S TALA P F R
LBM A LA
SEUR A C
HONT T A
E PGM S C
DAO E AM
KLA N SHI U
OT I O
UTWE M P E
E L K O E M A N O R

3. Ex C. Ask students to find antonyms. (1. love 2. pretty/beautiful 3. stopped 4. unable 5. roughly 6. lost)
4. Ex D. Ask students for ideas of what happened to the witch.

Chapter 18
The Watchmaker’s Shop (Page 114)
1. Look at the new words. Explain that most of these are words that are not common in ordinary use and
are usually found in poems or stories. Ask students to use the words in sentences.
2. Ask students to talk about different ways of telling the time and different types of clock. Ask them what
sound a clock makes. (tick–tock)

(Pages 113—114)
1. Read the poem. Ask the students to explain the meaning of
And bids you the time
Of the day when you
meet;
in verse 3 (greets you with good morning/afternoon/evening as appropriate), and
But there he goes
winding Lest any should
stop,
in verse 4; students may not be aware that old clocks did not have batteries and had to be wound every
day or every seven days.
2. Read the first verse of the poem to the students and ask them to listen to the rhythm. As you read,
emphasize the two strong beats in each line:
A street in our town
Has a queer little shop
With tumbledown walls
And a thatch on the top (etc)
See if students can identify that this is trying to create the tick-tock rhythm of the clocks. Read the second
verse in the same way; as you read, ask the students to underline in pencil the stressed words or syllables.

18
3. Ask students to read the remaining 2 verses to themselves and mark where the stresses go; read the poem
to them so that they can check that they were correct; help anybody who is having difficulty with this.
4. Read the whole poem again and ask the students to whisper tick–tock in the background, in time with
the stress, as you read it.
5. Talk about how poets often use rhythm patterns in their poems to indicate a mood or movement.

(Page 115)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask the students to discuss the answers in pairs. (1. athletic events or in the laboratory 2. for
timetables for trains, buses, flights etc. 3. in gardens—an old way of telling the time using shadows 4.
in the kitchen to cook boiled eggs)
3. Ex C. Fill in the missing words. (1. mother 2. father 3. uncle 4. grandfather 5. cousin 6. grandmother)
Explain that in English we do not have so many words for our relations as in Urdu — the same word,
aunt, for example, is used for both maternal and paternal aunts.
4. Ex D. Set a time limit for this exercise and see which students can find words that nobody else has
found; stress the need to listen carefully when the answers are given and if somebody offers a word
already given, take marks off his/her score.

Chapter 19
The Story-Spirits
1. Talk about Korea. Show the students where it is on a globe or map. Show them the flag, talk about
things that are made in Korea and sold in Pakistan, (cars etc.) the writing system. Information can be
found using a Google search, or children can be asked to do some research prior to the lesson.
2. Ask the children if their parents read them bedtime stories or if they read stories before they go to sleep.
Do they like listening to stories or do they prefer to read them. What sorts of stories do they like best
— fairy stories, adventure etc.
3. Talk about local wedding customs; how does the groom come to the wedding?

(Page 125)
1. Teach the new words.

(Pages 116—117)
1. Read to became discontented. Ask if students think it is really possible to put stories in a bag. If not,
what is this clue telling us about the type of story we are reading; is it a realistic one or a fairy story?
2. Why was the bag so full of stories? (The boy would not tell the stories to other people.)

(Pages 117—118)
1. Read to were ever set free. Ask the students what is happening in the bag. What do they think might
happen next?

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(Pages 118—120)
1. Read to the end of page 120. Ask the students to explain what the story-spirits are trying to organize and
why.
2. Ask what they think the old servant might be able to do to help his master.

(Pages 121—124)
1. Read to chopped into pieces. Discuss how the servant was able to help his master in each of the
dangerous situations.

(Pages 124—125)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask the students if they think it is a good ending for the story.
2. Can the students think of another story where a selfish boy learned a lesson, though in a less exciting
way? (When Daddy was a Little Boy; Roy’s Toys)

(Page 126)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Ask students to explain the words/phrases and use them in sentences. (1. liked 2. give up work
3. young ladies who need help 4. loyal 5. a long life 6. unhappy, dissatisfied)
3. Ex C. Refer to the text to complete the sentences. (1. bridegroom, a procession 2. choke 3. dismount
4. glee 5. pomp 6. confusion)

Chapter 20
Everyday
Things
1. Ask students to think about how the lives of very rich people would be different from their own. Talk
about how they might be the same and some of the things that everybody has to use whether rich or
poor. Make a list of them on the board.

(Pages 127—128)
1. Read the poem. See how many of the students’ suggestions are mentioned in the poem. Explain the
meaning of down on page 128. (swallow without chewing)
2. Look at the rhyming pattern; explain that when pairs of lines rhyme, they are called rhyming couplets.
(couple means two)
3. Read the first couplet to the students, emphasizing the 4 stresses in each
line– Millionaires, presidents, even kings
Can’t get along without everyday things.
Ask the students to count how many ‘beats’ in each line. (Not all verses follow this pattern exactly —
poetic licence again.)
4. Students may want to try to write their own couplets. They could choose another item that everybody
uses–tooth brush, watch, TV, etc.— and write about it; ask for ideas. The couplets could all be put
together to make one poem.

20
(Page 129)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Any acceptable words are fine; encourage students to try to use more imaginative or unusual
words that create an image i.e. not just big, small. They can use more than one adjective. They could
work in pairs to make contrasting descriptions e.g. hot, bitter coffee / creamy, smooth coffee.
3. Ex C. Find the opposite gender word (men, princess, lord, empress, mistress, queen, lady, count,
duchess, lad.) Talk about the meanings and which ones are titles.

Chapter 21
Heracles
1. On an atlas or a globe, show the students where Greece is situated. Explain a little about the ancient
Greek civilisation; explain that the Greeks believed in many different gods, not just one and that they
lived on top of Mount Olympus. Explain that there were gods with responsibilities for different aspects
of life, for example, war, harvest, fire, the sea, hunting etc. and that the gods used to interact with the
humans sometimes.
2. Tell the students that the story is about Hercules who was the son of a god and a human. Students may
have seen the 1997 Disney film ‘Hercules’ and be able to tell you something about him, or may have
read stories about him.

(Page 138)
1. Teach the new words.

(Pages 130—131)
1. Read the introduction and make sure that students understand the background.

(Pages 131—133)
1. Read the story of the Lion. Ask the students whether Hercules’ strength or his cunning were more
important in this task. (strength) Do they think he was too confident?

(Pages 133—135)
1. Read to superhuman strength. Can students suggest any way that Heracles can defeat the Hydra?

(Pages 135—138)
1. Read to the end of the story. Ask students whether Heracles used his strength or his cunning this time.
Could he have succeeded without help from Iolaus?

(Page 139)
1. Ex A. Ask students to refer to the text to find the answers. (1. Hercules 2. Zeus 3. Nemean lion
4. throttled/strangled 5. Lerna swamps 6. Eurystheus 7. Iolaus)
2. Ex B. Write the words fair and even on the board. Ask the students to think of two letters that you could
add to the start of each word to make it mean the opposite. (un) Do the same with play,turn and wind
but this time the two letters have the meaning again (re– replay, return, rewind) Revise that the groups
of

21
letters we add to the beginning of words to change their meanings are called prefixes; as shown, they do
not always change the meaning to the opposite. Look at words 1, 2 and 3 and identify the prefix ’super’.
Ask students to decide what it means (very large/ big/more than). Do the same with words 4, 5 and 6 and
establish that sub means below or under.
3. Ex C. Answer the questions by referring to the text.
4. You could tell the students about some of the other tasks of Hercules—see information below but use
your own words,—or show them the Disney film. Students could then write their favourite story in their
own words and illustrate it and work could be displayed in the classroom.
The Life of Hercules is one in the true tradition of Greek myths—consisting of battles, love and a
suitably tragic death. However, Heracles (or Hercules to give him his Latin name) is also famous for the
twelve labours he was urged to perform by the oracle at Delphi.

The First Labour – the Nemean Lion

The Nemean (or Cleonaean) lion was an enormous beast which was depopulating the area of Nemea. His
pelt was proof against iron, bronze and stone.
Heracles first tried shooting the lion with arrows, which bounced off harmlessly. Next he tried his
sword, which bent and also had no effect. Heracles attempted hitting the lion over the head with his club,
which shattered, and left the lion with ringing in its ears. Finally, he started to wrestle with it, choking it
to death but losing a finger in the course of the fight. Heracles flayed the lion using its own razor-sharp
claws, and was subsequently able to use the skin as invulnerable armour, and its head as a helmet.

The Second Labour – the Lernean Hydra

The Lernean Hydra was a monster born of Typhon (another monster) and Echidne. The Hydra terrorised
the area around Lerna, near Argos. It had a dog-like body and most likely eight or nine heads, one of
them immortal, although some versions of the story claim that the Hydra had anything from 50 to 1000
heads. It was so venomous that its breath, or even the smell of its tracks, could kill a man.
Heracles had help from both the god Athene and Iolaus, a charioteer, in defeating the Hydra. He drove it
out from its lair by attacking it with flaming arrows, and held his breath while battering its heads with
his club. However, as fast as he was able to crush them, more heads sprouted in place of the old ones.
Heracles’ foot was nipped by a great crab, which was sent by Hera to hinder Heracles and go to the
Hydra’s aid. Heracles shouted to Iolaus for help, and he used blazing torches to cauterise the Hydra’s
headstumps and prevent them from growing back. Then he chopped off the immortal head and buried it,
still hissing, under a heavy rock. Having disembowelled the carcass, he dipped his arrows in its gall,
making his arrows lethal, even from the slightest scratch.
Hera set the crab, which had been crushed by Heracles, in the stars as part of the zodiac.

The Third Labour – the Ceryneian Hind

Heracles’ third task was to capture the Ceryneian Hind, and to bring her alive to Mycenae. She had
brazen hooves and golden horns like a stag and was sacred to Artemis. Other accounts tell of her being a
ravaging monster which Heracles killed.
As he did not want to hurt the hind, Heracles chased her for a year, capturing her (when she was
exhausted) by shooting an arrow which pinned her forelegs together without drawing blood as it passed
between bone and sinew. He then carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae. Artemis was apparently cross
with him for misusing her sacred animal, but he pleaded that he had no choice and she then forgave him.

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The Fourth Labour – the Erymanthean Boar
The Erymanthean Boar, again of enormous proportions, lived on the slopes of Mount Erymanthis,
ravaging the surrounding countryside, and Heracles’ task was to capture it alive.
Heracles was involved in some fighting at the beginning of this Labour, killing a bandit (Saurus). While
celebrating with one of the centaurs, he opened a jar of wine, the smell of which brought angry centaurs
in a fighting mood. Heracles killed several of them and by mistake hit his friend Cheiron in the knee.
Cheiron, being immortal, could not die and was left in agony, so with Zeus’ agreement, he gave his
immortality to Prometheus so that he himself could die.
Heracles meanwhile chased the boar and drove it into a snow drift. There he jumped on its back, bound
it with chains and carried it on his shoulders to Mycenae.

The Fifth Labour – the Stables of Augeias

This task was to clean out the filthy stables of King Augeias in a single day. They had not been cleaned
in many years and the stench from them was spreading disease for many miles around, although the
cattle themselves were not affected by it. The valley pastures were so deep in dung that they could not be
ploughed.
Heracles swore an oath to King Augeias that he would complete the task in a day. Heracles was then
attacked by one of the stables’ guard bulls, Phaethon, in mistake for a lion because of his headdress, and
Heracles wrestled it to the ground.
Heracles accomplished the cleansing of the stable by putting two holes in the walls and diverting two
nearby rivers so that they not only cleared the stables, but washed the dung from the pastures as well.
King Augeias, on hearing that Heracles was already tasked by Eurystheus to clear the stables, refused to
pay the agreed reward and Eurystheus in his turn, on hearing of the bargain with King Augeias, refused
to count this labour as one of the ten.

The Sixth Labour – the Stymphalian Birds

The birds of this task were crane-size, brazen-beaked, brazen-clawed, brazen-winged man-eating birds,
which lived on the Stymphalian Marsh. They killed people by shooting/showering them with brazen
feathers. Their excrement also contained a powerful poison, which blighted the crops. Heracles’ Labour
was to remove these birds, which were sacred to Ares.
As there were too many birds on the marsh to shoot with his arrows and the marsh was too treacherous
to stand on, Heracles made a very loud noise with either a pair of castanets or a rattle, given to him by
Athene, which frightened them into the air. He then shot dozens of them.

The Seventh Labour – the Cretan Bull

This task was to capture the Cretan Bull, which may have been the one which sired the Minotaur. In
Crete, it was ravaging the land, belching flames, rooting up crops and levelling orchard walls.
Although assistance was offered, Heracles wanted to catch the bull on his own, which after a long
struggle, he did. He then brought it back to Mycenae, where it was dedicated to Hera and set free.
Hera, though, was not pleased and drove the bull through many lands, where it was eventually dragged by
Theseus to Athens as a sacrifice to Athene.

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The Eighth Labour – the Mares of Diomedes
King Diomedes kept four savage man-eating mares, that were the scourge of Thrace. Hercules’ task was
to capture them.
Hercules rounded up some volunteers and set off for Thrace, where he drove the mares down to the sea
and left them in the charge of an underling, Abderus. He then knocked Diomedes out with a blow from
his club, took him to the mares, where he fed him, still living, to them. As the mares had already eaten
the poor Abderus, their hunger was satisfied and Heracles was able to master them without any
problems.

The Ninth Labour – Hippolyte’s Girdle

Hippolyte was Queen of one of three tribes of Amazons and she wore the golden girdle of Ares.
Eurystheus set Heracles the task of bringing back the girdle for his daughter, Admete. The Amazons
were children of Ares by the naiad Harmonia. In Amazon society, men carried out the household tasks
and women fought and governed. They were said to have broken the arms and legs of boy children to
prevent them travelling and fighting.
Heracles got together a band of volunteers including the faithful Iolaus and, some say, Theseus of
Athens, and set off in a ship for the River Thermodon.
When the ship dropped anchor in the river, Hippolyte came to visit them and offered Heracles her girdle
as a love gift, as she admired his muscular body. Meanwhile, Hera disguised herself as an Amazon and
began to spread rumours that the men were going to capture Hippolyte, whereupon the Amazons
attacked them on horseback. Heracles, thinking treachery was afoot, killed Hippolyte straight away and
seized her girdle, axe and other weapons. There was then a pitched battle in which the Amazon leaders
were killed, along with many more of the women. Heracles then took the girdle back to Mycenae, where
it was given to Admete.
It is said that the Amazons fled to Albania, settling by the foot of the Caucasus Mountains.

The Tenth Labour – The Cattle of Geryon

Geryon was said to be the strongest man alive and had three bodies, joined at the waist, and therefore
three heads and six arms. This task was to fetch Geryon’s famous cattle, without demand or payment,
from the island of Erytheia. The cattle were guarded by a herdsman and a two-headed watchdog, Orthus,
another offspring of Typhon and Echidne.
On the way, Heracles is said either to have cut a channel through to separate Europe and Asia, or to have
pushed the two continents closer together to prevent whales or other sea monsters from entering the
straits.
When he arrived, the two-headed dog ran at him, barking, but Heracles killed him with a blow to the
head from his club. The herdsman died in the same manner. As Heracles was driving the cattle away,
Geryon got to hear of it and came prepared for battle. Heracles killed him with a single arrow which
pierced all three bodies. Hera came to Geryon’s aid and Heracles shot her in the right breast with an
arrow and she ran off. So Heracles gained the cattle without demand or payment.
The Eleventh Labour – the Apples of the Hersperides
Heracles had originally been set ten Labours, which took him eight years and a month to complete, but
Eurysteus, rather meanly, discounted two of them (the second and the fifth) and set him two more.
The eleventh task was to fetch golden apples from the tree which Mother Earth had given as a wedding
gift to Hera. The tree was on the slopes of Mount Atlas and was looked after originally by the Hesperides,
Atlas’ daughters, and later by the dragon Ladon.
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Not knowing where the garden of the Hesperides was, Heracles found the sea-god Nereus asleep and
clinging to him through many bodily changes, forced him to tell him its location. He also advised
Heracles to get Atlas to pick the apples.
When Heracles arrived at the garden, he offered to take Atlas’ burden for an hour if he would pick the
apples, and Atlas duly did, but only after Heracles had killed the dragon Ladon with an arrow, returning
with three apples.
Atlas asked Heracles to carry on holding up the heavens while he delivered the apples. However,
Heracles had been warned that if this happened, he would end up holding them forever. He therefore
pretended to agree, but asked if Atlas would take them back for a moment, while he got a pad for his
head. Atlas agreed, and as soon as he had taken back his burden, Heracles picked up the apples and bid
him goodbye.
Heracles then gave the apples to Eurystheus, who gave them back to him; he gave them to Athene and
she gave them back to the nymphs.
On his way back, feeling thirsty, he stamped his feet and a stream of water gushed out, which later saved
the lives of the Argonauts when they were stranded in the Libyan desert.

The Twelfth Labour – the Capture of Cerberus

The final and most difficult task was for Heracles to bring the dog Cerberus up from Tartarus (the
Underworld). For this he had to undergo purification rites, these being the Mysteries of Eleusis.
Following this purification, Heracles descended into Tartarus, guided by Athene and Hermes. Charon,
terrified by Heracles’ scowl, ferried him across the River Styx. He found two of his friends chained up
by the Gates of Tartarus, but was only able to free one of them, Theseus.
When Heracles demanded Cerberus from Hades, he was told that he could have him if he could master
him without using either his club or his arrows. Heracles grabbed the dog round the throat, and held fast
when it lashed him with its barbed tail, protected by his lion skin, and eventually the dog yielded.
On the way back, Heracles made himself a wreath from the white poplar, or aspen tree. The outer leaves
are black, signifying the Underworld and the ones next to his brow went silver white from his sweat. The
tree became sacred to him, showing that he had laboured in both the worlds of the living and the dead.
Cerberus was far from happy being dragged along in the sunlight, which hurt his eyes, and some say that
from his saliva, grew the poisonous plant Aconite.

Chapter 22
Lazy-Bones Jones
1. Ask the children if they would like to go camping. Talk about what equipment they might need to take.
Talk about where they would sleep, how they would cook and what other tasks they might have to do
(collecting firewood and water for example). If they went as a class group, how would they divide up the
work that would have to be done? How might they amuse themselves without TV etc.?

(Page 150)
1. Teach the new words.

( Pages 140—142)
1. Read to Don’t let the side down. Ask the students what they have learned about Jason Jones and about
Mr Dougan.

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2. Explain that there are a number of cricketing expressions used in everyday English; check that they
understand why the given expressions are appropriate in the situations described.
(Pages 142—143)
1. Read to the bottom of the page. Discuss why a nature reserve would be a good place to camp.
2. Ask why JJ might be disappointed. (There is nobody to make tea—everything has to be done by the students
themselves.)
(Pages 144—145)
1. Read to the end of page 145. Talk about how the work was done by teams.
2. Ask who the missing student might be and why he/she is missing.

(Page 146)
1. Read to off they went. Ask students to explain Charlie’s joke.
2. Why were they sent off in pairs to search?

(Pages 146—149)
1. Read to the end of page 149. Ask the students to explain why the fire will not burn well.
2. If necessary, explain that if wood is green, it means it is not dead and will not burn well because it is too
wet; green wood is hard to break from trees whereas dead wood will break off very easily.

(Page 150)
1. Read the end of the story; do the students think that JJ will learn any lessons from this camping trip?

(Pages 150—151)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Use dictionaries to look up the differences in meanings and make sentences using the words.
3. Ex C. Ask students to read the sentences and write T if they are true and F if they are false; if they are
false, they should change them to make them true. (1. T, 2. F—some of them cried, 3. T, 4. F—he sat
under a tree, 5. F—in pairs, 6. T)

Chapter 23
Mr Nobody (Page 154)
1. Teach the new words.
2. Ask the students if they or their siblings have ever had an imaginary friend; if not, explain that
sometimes children do this and ‘their friend’ is sometimes said to be responsible when things go wrong.

(Pages 152—153)
1. Read the poem. Ensure that in the last verse the punctuation is correctly observed in the final 4 lines —
students should start to learn that it is only correct to stop at the end of a line if the punctuation indicates
this.
2. Ask the students to comment on the rhyming pattern.

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(Pages 154—155)
1. Ex A. Answer the questions.
2. Ex B. Complete the crossword. Students may require help—it could be done on the board or using a
copy of the grid on an OHP. Note: 1 is used both across and down; 10 is down.

1/9
M U 10
M M Y
2
F I E R Y
3
S O N G
4
C L O C K
5
H O B B Y
6
D I N O S A U R
7
E N D
8
F L Y

3. Ask students to work in pairs to create their own crosswords using words from any of the stories or
poems. Work one out together first on the board, showing students how to put in the long vertical words
first and then do the horizontal words, and how to think up the clues. When complete, students could
exchange their puzzles with other pairs.
Chapter 24
Crafty Tom
1. Tell the student a little bit about the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, an American
writer who lived over 100 years ago.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer deals with the scrapes and adventures of boyhood in St. Petersburg,
Missouri. It tells of the childhood adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn: racing
bugs, impressing girls—particularly Becky Thatcher—with fights and stunts in the schoolyard, getting
lost in a cave, and playing pirates on the Mississippi River.
2. Explain that the play is based on two incidents from the story and that the second is probably the most
well-known part of the book.
(Page 172)
1. Teach the new words.
(Pages 156—166)
1. Read the text and discuss the plot and the characters.
(Pages 167—172)
1. Read the second scene and discuss the plot and Tom’s cleverness.
2. Prepare to act out the play—it could be done using two different Toms and Aunts or by two groups
within the class.
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NOTES

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