The Jungle Book

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T e a c h e r’s n o t e s

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The Jungle Book

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by Rudyard Kipling 6 ELEMENTARY

S U M M A R Y n the first chapter, The Man-Cub, we meet most of the main characters of The Jungle Book. Mowgli, the man-cub, arrives at the mountain top home of the wolf pack lead by Akela. He is taken in by Mother and Father Wolf. But Shere Khan, the tiger, wants to catch and eat the man-cub and the wolf pack is not sure about allowing Mowgli to stay. He is finally accepted into the pack after Bagheera, the panther, gives the pack food in return. Mowgli grows up happily with the wolves but as Akela becomes weaker and weaker, Shere Khan gets closer and closer to the young wolves in his continuing quest to get Mowgli excluded from the pack. Finally, Mowgli realises that it is time to move on. But before he goes, he gets the Red Flower from outside the house of a man. The Red Flower is the animals’ way of talking about fire. Animals are too afraid of it to use it as a weapon, but Mowgli is not an animal. He is a man-cub. He hits Shere Khan with a fiery stick and leaves the mountain top, promising to return one day with the tiger’s skin.

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In Chapter 3 we meet the final main character of the stories. Baloo, the old brown bear, was Mowgli’s teacher during his happy years with the pack. He taught Mowgli the language of the jungle. This chapter tells of one of his adventures during his childhood when that knowledge came in extremely useful. Mowgli has been warned to stay away from the monkeys, the Bandarlog, but they capture him and take him to the ruined city which is their home. Bagheera and Baloo plan to attack the monkeys and rescue Mowgli. Chil, the big bird, tells them where the monkeys have taken Mowgli and Bagheera arrives with his ‘friend’ Kaa, the snake. Between them, in Chapter 4, Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa defeat the monkeys but Kaa then starts to use hypnotism on the monkeys and Mowgli has to pull Baloo and Bagheera away before they too fall under his spell. In Chapters 5 and 6 we are taken back to the time when Mowgli left the wolf cave. He starts a new life in a man village, learns the language and is given a job looking after the buffalo. But Shere Khan still wants to kill and eat him and Mowgli still wants to take the tiger’s skin back to the mountain top. He plans an ambush and traps the tiger in a

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dry river bed between two herds of stampeding buffalo. The tiger is kicked to death and Mowgli sets about skinning him. But one of the hunters from the village arrives and tries to steal Mowgli’s prize. When Mowgli sets the wolves on him, he runs back to the village and tells them that Mowgli is a wolf. Now he is not welcome anywhere. He is too much a man for the wolves and too much a wolf for the men. However, when he fulfils his promise and drags the tiger skin up to the mountain cave, he is welcomed back by his friends Bagheera and Akela and a small group of cubs, who will hunt with him in the future.

ABOUT RUDYARD KIPLING Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. He travelled widely during his life, living in England, India, the United States and South Africa. During his second visit to India, from 1882 to 1889, he worked as a journalist, keeping exhaustive notes about life in that country. These notes became the basis of many books, including the children’s story The Jungle Book. In 1892, Kipling and his new wife emigrated to the United States, where they remained for ten years. On their return to England, they bought a house in Sussex, where he lived until his death at the age of 81. Kipling was an immensely popular author during his lifetime, producing a vast amount of novels, poems, a semiautobiography and several collections of short stories. His poem If is now included in innumerably anthologies around the world, and the Disney version of The Jungle Book became one of the most popular children’s films of all time. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

BACKGROUND AND THEMES At first sight, The Jungle Book appears to be a ‘rites of passage’ story, about a rather unusual boy growing up with wolves in the jungle. The myth of the wolf boy is an abiding one, dating back at least to the legend of the founding of

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T e a c h e r’s n o t e s Rome, with the twins Romulus and Remus supposedly suckled by a wolf. Perhaps Kipling picked up such a story in India, or perhaps he had heard of the ‘wild boy of Aveyron’, an 11 year old child who had been found running naked and wild in a forest in France. As the story unfolds, we realise that Kipling is conveying a deeper message. Mowgli, the man-cub, is driven out of the pack of wolves that brought him up because he is too much like a man, and then driven out of the man village, because he is too much like a wolf. Ironically, Kipling has sometimes been accused of racism. Latterly, perhaps because his stories are viewed from a modern perspective. But in fact The Jungle Book can be seen as anti-racist and a powerful plea for social acceptance of differences.

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 Student’s Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with class readers but, with the exception of the discussion and pair/groupwork activities, can also be used by students working alone in a self-access centre.

ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK 1 Ask students if any of them have seen the film of The Jungle Book. If the answer is yes, can they remember any of the scenes? 2 If none of the students have seen the film, ask them to work in groups and look through the pictures, including the cover picture. They have to guess which animal or animals are good and which are bad, and explain their answers.

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION Chapters 1–2 1 Put students into small groups and ask each group to make up at least one new law of the jungle. Ask the groups for their laws and decide, as a whole class, which ones are good and useful for the animals. 2 Ask students to work in pairs to role play a conversation between Shere Khan, the tiger, and Akela, the leader of the Pack. Shere Khan tries to persuade Akela to give him the man-cub and Akela refuses.

Chapters 3–4 1 Ask students to work in groups and discuss these questions: (a) Which animals behaved well in this section? (b) Which animals behaved badly? 2 Ask students to work in pairs and discuss this question. What advantages does each animal have during a fight? What disadvantages do they have?

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Elicit all the different answers from the pairs and build up a table on the board as follows: animal man-cub panther monkey etc

advantages

disadvantages

Chapters 5–6 1 Ask students to work in pairs to role play a scene between Buldeo and the one of the villagers. Buldeo is describing what happened with the tiger, but he is exaggerating and making Mowgli’s part in the events sound bad. 2 Ask students to work in groups to draw a plan of the ambush of Shere Khan. Ask students to put their various drawings on the board and check which one(s) is/are correct

ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK 1 If any of the students have seen the film of The Jungle Book, ask them which scenes in the film are similar to ones in this book. What, if any, are the differences in those scenes? 2 If none of the students have seen the film, ask them to work in pairs and choose a story which they think would make a good section of a cartoon film. 3 Ask students for their ideas on the moral of the story.

Glossary It will be useful for your students to know the following new words. They are practised in the ‘Before You Read’sections of exercises at the back of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman Active Study Dictionary.) Chapters 1–2 become (v) if something becomes warmer, colder, etc, it was not so warm, cold in the past as now brave (adj) dealing with danger, or difficult situations with courage cave (n) a large natural hole in the side of a hill or under the ground grow (v) to develop and become bigger or longer over a period of time hunt (n) to chase animals in order to catch and kill them jungle (n) a large tropical forest with trees and large plants growing very close together law (n) the system of rules that people in a country or place must obey leader (n) a person who is in charge of or controls a country, organization, etc. moon (n) the round object that moves around the Earth and shines in the sky at night pack (n) a group of animals especially wolves roar (v) to make a very deep loud noise scream (v) to make a loud high noise with your voice skin (n) the outside part of a human’s or animal’s body touch (v) to put your hand or finger on something Chapters 5–6 alone (adj) not with other people bank (n) the side of a river ghost (n) the spirit of a dead person that some people believe they can see or feel herd (n) a group of animals of the same kind that lives and feeds together land (n) a country

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Penguin Readers Factsheets

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Student’s activities

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The Jungle Book

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Photocopiable

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Students can do these exercises alone or with one or more other students. Pair/group-only activities are marked.

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Activities before reading the book

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Work in pairs. 1 Test each other on the animals on the page facing the start of Chapter 1.

(v) two other wolves have to speak for it. 3 Who says these things in Chapter 2? Who do they say them to? (a) Be careful of Shere Khan.

2 Look at the pictures in the book, including the cover picture. Name the animals in each picture.

(b) I am not afraid.

3 Choose one of the pictures and describe it to your partner. Can he/she find the correct picture?

(d) You are strong! Kill him!

(c) They want to kill you. (e) Who will finish Akela? (f)

Activities while reading the book Chapters 1–2 1 Match each of these characters (a–g) from Chapter 1 with one of the descriptions (i–vii). (a) Shere Khan

Give him to me.

(g) Look at it and be afraid. (h) Are you brave now? (i)

Am I dying?

4 Work in pairs. Try to remember when the person or animal says each sentence in Exercise 3. Then find the sentence in Chapter 2 and check.

(b) Tabaqui (c) Mowgli

Chapters 3–4

(d) Raksha

1 Put these events from Chapter 3 in order.

(e) Akela (f)

(g) Bagheera (i)

(a

Baloo

the black panther

(ii) the brown bear

Bagheera and Baloo went to see Kaa because he could climb to the top of the trees.

(b) Bagheera climbed but could not follow the monkeys to the top of the trees. (c) Baloo taught Mowgli the language of the jungle.

(iii) the jungle dog

(d) Chil told Bagheera, Baloo and Kaa where Mowgli was.

(iv) the leader of the pack

(e) Mowgli called to Chil.

(v) the man cub (vi) the mother wolf (vii) the tiger 2 Match the beginnings and endings of these parts of the Law of the Jungle. (a) An animal can’t change (b) No animal can kill

(f)

The monkeys took Mowgli up into the trees.

2 Complete these sentences from the beginning of Chapter 4. Use one word from the box in each sentence. boy building city food friends houses moonlight roads sky trees walls

(c) When cubs can stand on their feet,

(a) In the old city, the monkeys forgot about Mowgli’s ....

(d) When a wolf doesn’t want a new cub in the pack,

(b) They had the ... and they were happy.

(e) When the pack does not want a cub,

(c) It was Mowgli’s first visit to the ...

(i)

(d) The tops of the houses were open to the ....

and eat Man.

(ii) another animal can buy that cub.

(e) Trees pushed through the old ...

(iii) its hunting grounds.

(f)

(iv) the father wolf has to bring them in front of the pack.

(h) ‘I want ... .’ Mowgli shouted.

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The monkeys began to play in the old ....

(g) They ran up and down the old ...

ELEMENTARY

Penguin Readers Factsheets Student’s activities (i)

Twenty or thirty monkeys ran for food from the jungle ... but then forgot about it.

(j)

The monkeys took Mowgli to a ... with no doors or windows.

(k) It looked beautiful in the ...

(I)

The cows went to one end of the river and the bulls went to another.

2 Match the questions (a–i) and answers (i–ix) about the information in Chapter 6. (a)

Why didn’t Shere Khan climb out of the river?

(b)

How did Shere Khan die?

(a) went to the city together?

(c)

Who tried to stop Mowgli taking the tiger’s skin?

(b) went round to the back of the city?

(d)

Why did Buldeo want the tiger’s skin?

(c) ran up the mountain fast and started hitting the monkeys?

(e)

What happened when Mowgli got back to the village?

(d) threw Mowgli into a room?

(f)

Why didn’t the wolves want Mowgli?

3 In Chapter 4, who...

(e) made a snake call?

(g)

Why didn’t the men want Mowgli?

(f)

(h)

Why did Messua cry?

(i)

What will Mowgli do now?

(i)

Because he was a man.

(ii)

Because he was a wolf.

fought his way slowly to the water?

(g) began to hit the monkeys with his great arms? (h) stood and shouted angrily at Bagheera? (i)

came down the mountain fast?

(j)

ran to the top of the walls?

(k) told the monkeys to stop? (I)

said ‘Take him away. He will hurt our babies.’?

(m) broke down the wall of the room with Mowgli in? (n) thanked Kaa for his life? (o) began to do a strange dance? (p) went nearer to Kaa?

(iii) Because Mowgli went away. (iv) Buldeo. (v)

He could get a hundred pounds for it.

(vi) He will hunt in the jungle with the cubs. (vii) The villagers started to throw stones at him. (viii) The walls were too high. (ix) Under the feet of the buffaloes

(q) stopped Bagheera and Baloo going nearer to Kaa? (r)

will not ask for Kaa’s help again?

Activities after reading the book

(s) hit Mowgli because he talked to the monkeys? (t)

took Mowgli home on his back?

Chapters 5–6 1 Are these sentences about the information in Chapter 5 true or false? (a) Mowgli ran to the first village.

1 Work in pairs. Look back at the pictures of the animals in this book on the page facing the start of Chapter 1. How many animals can you name? Example: the bear = Baloo 2 Work in groups. Which story did you like best? Give reasons.

(b) When some small boys saw Mowgli, they said ‘Hello’. (c) Messua had a little boy called Nathoo. (d) Mowgli is really Nathoo. (e) Mowgli talked to Messua. (f)

Grey Brother came to Mowgli one day.

(g) Mowgli didn’t remember Grey Brother. (h) Grey Brother told Mowgli about Shere Khan. (i)

Mowgli had a job looking after the village buffaloes.

(j)

Mowgli killed Tabaqui

(k) The wolves helped Mowgli make two herds.

© Pearson Education 2001

Pub lished a nd dist ributed by P ear son E duc atio n Fa ctsh eet wri tt en by Te rr y Ph il ips F act sheet s eri es deve l oped b y L ouise J am es

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