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The White Oryx pearsonenglishreaders.com © Pearson Education Limited 2016 The White Oryx - Teacher’s notes 1 of 1 Teacher’s notes EASYSTARTS Teacher Support Programme Summary The White Oryx is a fictional story about Mary Brown, an Australian woman who goes to the Arabian Desert to take photos of the oryx (an endangered animal with long horns). She is writing a book about the animals of Arabia. She visits the desert with Abdullah, an oryx ranger who helps protect the animals. While they are in the desert, they discover that a mother oryx is dead and a young oryx is missing. Abdullah believes that poachers are responsible. Mandy and Abdullah chase the poachers across the desert. With the help of the police, the poachers are caught and the young oryx is rescued. Pages 1–7: Mandy goes with Abdullah into the desert to take pictures of the white oryx. Abdullah gets a message that there may be poachers in the area. (Poachers usually shoot the animals and sell their heads. Sometimes they also catch and sell the young oryx.) Abdullah and Mandy see tracks in the sand. They follow the tracks in their car. They find that a mother oryx is dead and a young oryx is missing. They continue to follow the tracks of the truck across the desert. A police helicopter is also coming to help look for the poachers. Pages 8–15: Mandy and Abdullah get close to the truck. The poachers in the truck start shooting at them. Abdullah’s car gets stuck in the sand. Fortunately, the police helicopter arrives and the poachers are caught. Abdullah and Mandy are not hurt and the young oryx in the truck is fine. Mandy takes photos and thinks about writing a new book about poachers and Abdullah, the oryx ranger. Background and themes The story is set in the Arabian Desert, which is more than two million square kilometres in size. The white oryx is one of the animals that can survive there. Largely due to hunting, the white oryx became extinct in the 1970s. Fortunately, there were white oryx in zoos around the world. In recent years, white oryx have been reintroduced into the desert. Local rangers help protect the animals. Greed: The poachers do not think about the beauty of the white oryx or the need to protect them. They are willing to capture and kill the animals to make money. Protection of endangered animals: Abdullah and the policemen work hard to protect the white oryx and stop the poachers. Perhaps Mandy can also help protect the animals by writing a story about them. Justice: The poachers in the story do terrible things. They kill a mother oryx, steal a young oryx and shoot at Abdullah and Mandy. By the end of the story, the poachers are captured and the young oryx is saved. Discussion activities Before reading 1 Discuss and guess: Talk about the book cover. Have students describe the animal (white oryx). Where do they think the animal lives – in the mountains or in the desert? What is special about this animal? Have students write a few lines predicting what will happen in the story (involving this animal). Have them share their ideas in small groups. Pages 1–7 While reading 2 Discuss: Before reading the text on page 5, have students look at the picture at the top of the page. Imagine they are Abdullah. What do they see? What do they think is happening? What should they do? Write students’ ideas in a chart on the board. I see … I think … I should … Pages 8–15 After reading 3 Role play: Ask students to work in pairs. One of them is a TV reporter who arrives at the scene after the poachers’ arrest. The other is Mandy, Abdullah or one of the policemen or poachers. Have students write down their questions and answers. Check their work. Ask volunteers to role play the interview for the class. 4 Artwork: In pairs, have students make a poster that shows how people need to help protect the white oryx and/or call the police or rangers if they see poachers. Bernard Smith
