The Spiders Summary

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The Spiders

Identity Card

The title : The Spiders
The Setting : A remote part of the western desert. Ayman's house. Hamadayya. The hospital. Sinai.
Themes in the story: Technology. (The World Wide Web. The e-mail. The data base). Science (biology- Botany) The role of the police. International co-operation.
The plot :The plot underlined the struggle between evil and good.
Charaters : Ayman-Shereen Fakhery- Professor Jones- Captain Ahmed- Colonel Mikhail- Wafaa Sultan- Susan Bennett- Farouk- Captain Usama- Walid- Mona.
Number of the chapters: 8 Chapters with different titles .
Story in points: They will be mentioned later.
Lessons learned: Honesty- Sense of duty- Keen observation- Patriotism- Bravery-Intelligence-self- sacrifice –obedience-loyalty.

The novel shows how far Egypt was rich in archaeological sites. Egypt's ancient tombs were full of rare and valuable statues of gold. This made robbers from all parts of the world try to look for unique treasures in tombs.

A band of robbers came after midnight to rob some tombs of the ancient Egyptians in the Western Desert. They used a machine called (GPR) Ground Penetrating Rader to find rooms behind the walls. When the robbers reached one of the underground rooms, they were attacked by unknown spiders. They got some gold masks and treasures and escaped but because the spiders had bitten them, they suffered great pain and eventually died. The accident was discovered by a pilot, a telecom engineer and a technician and was reported to the police. The boxes with treasures inside them were taken to the police station. The spiders in the boxes died of the heat but the biggest spider was still alive.

The female spider escaped .The female spider disappeared in Ayman's house and was about to attack Najat's foot, but the girl was lucky as her mother called her at that moment, so she moved her foot away.

Ayman Hassan, a young man who was a university student had a favourite hobby. It was the internet. He used the internet for his university studies and for making friends in other countries. Ayman was surprised when he saw the spider because of its speed and size. The spider was black with two thick yellow lines on its back and had eight eyes, eight legs and two long fangs.. After the spider had escaped from Ayman's in the empty house, Ayman began his attempts to identify the spider. Ayman contacted friend who was a student of zoology at his university to look up the spider in a book about spiders of North Africa, but he didn't find any information about this type of spiders.. Using the worldwide Web, Ayman sent a lot of messages through the internet to Dr Shereen Fakhry, Department of Egyptology, Oxford University who translated a text about a town in ancient Egypt whose inhabitants burnt it to get rid of the spiders that killed hundreds of people. Unfortunately the spiders found their way into underground tombs. Shereen received an ancient picture of a spider from an archaeologist in Egypt. The picture was found in a tomb near Bawiti.. Dr Shereen advised Ayman to tell the police as it might be dangerous .Ayman thought if he told the police, everyone would laugh at him as there were no deadly spiders in Egypt. A German Egyptologist told Dr. Fakhry about an ancient Egyptian medicine which was made from the root of Echinacea Negra plant. It was used for curing the bites of the deadly spiders.

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- Driven by her scientific desire to identify Ayman's spider, Shereen visited her friend Susan Bennett, a zoologist at Oxford university, but, Susan couldn't find any information about Ayman's spider on the database.

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Dr Shereen and Susan visited professor Jones to consult him. Professor Jones was a famous archeologist .He said that he had never seen this species of spiders before. Professor Jones thought the danger of the spider might spread through the world. Professor Jones decided to visit Egypt to identify this strange species.
7-
. Ayman's uncle thought Ayman shouldn't tell the police about the spider because stories about dangerous spiders aren't good for business. If people believed Ayman's story, they wouldn't stay in the hotels or eat in the restaurants. They wouldn't buy the food products. As result, a lot of business would lose money.Ayman's brother brought thenews that some police officers came to guard an archaeological site in the desert. He said that four men were killed there that morning from spiders' bites Ayman's uncle made a telephone call to the police chief, colonel Mikhail, who was a friend of his. Colonel Mikhail assured that the story was true, then Walid handed him to Ayman. Ayman told the police chief that he had seen the spider after the police had brought the boxes from the site.

The colonel asked Ayman and professor Jones to go to the archaeological site with the police. Colonel asked professor Jones to find one of the spiders and identify it. The police took special precautions to fight the spiders. They were going to wear protective clothing and would take special equipment, tanks of insecticide, fencing wire, big lights, weapons, tools and building materials.

Jones explained how ant venom was made. Scientists put some quantities of venom into animals. The animals make antibodies to fight the venom. The scientists extract the antibodies fromanimals. Professor Jones pointed out that the most difficult part in developing a new ant venom was extracting ant venom from the blood and making it safe for use. It could be many years before a safe ant venom is produced in large quantities. In the site Jones identified the species of spiders. They were the same as the spider Ayman had seen. If the spiders were an unknown species, the botanist Wafaa Sultan would be sent to Sinai to fetch the plant of Echinacea Negra used for the bites of the deadly spiders. This extinct plant grows only in Sinai. The colonel wanted them to bring the dead spider to send their venom sacs to an ant venom lab where scientists would begin work on an ant venom. Afterwards Jones, Ayman, Captain Ahmed and the other police officers attacked the cool dark place in the empty house to kill the deadly spiders. Finally, they killed the small spiders but the female spider escaped.

- Ayman was bitten by the small spiders at that battle. So, he was taken to hospital. Ayman wouldn't live unless the plants were brought from Sinai so that doctors could make some medicine from them and give it to Ayman. Wafaa, Farouk, captain Osama and some policemen reached Sinai to get the plant for Ayman. Wafaa and the policemen faced a lot of difficulties on their journey back. It was raining heavily. The wadis flooded with water. The road down the mountain was a narrow track.

Wafaa managed to come back with the plants after great suffering .

- Ayman was in the intensive care. His condition was serious. His breathing stopped, but he was kept alive on a ventilator, Wafaa reached the hospital with the plant, A medicine from Echinacea was made and given to Ayman whose health began to improve.

Ayman was surrounded by his family. Suddenly, the deadly big spider appeared on the wall behind his sister's shoulder. Ayman took an immediate decision. He ordered his sister Lamia to keep still because he wanted to take a photo. He pressed a button on the camera. The camera's flashlight blinded the spider for a second. Ayman knocked the spider into the aluminum box, which he quickly shut.

The female spider managed to bite Ayman who fell to the ground senseless. Ayman didn't die when he was bitten by the spider for the second time. That was because when the venom enters the body of a person or an animal, the body begins to make ant venom to fight the venom. This was what happened to Ayman when he was bitten the first time. His body produced a lot of ant venom. When he was bitten a second time, he already had so much ant venom in his body, that the bite had little effect on him.

Ayman became the most famous and popular young man in Egypt as he had saved the lives of thousands of people from certain death. The minister described Ayman as a brave young man who was ready to give his life to save others. Without Ayman's intelligence and bravery, many thousands of people might have died. That is why he deserved praise and fame. Professor Jones gave Ayman a good camera, which was a "thank you" present. Jones said that Ayman could go and study at Oxford university if he wanted to. Ayman's father said Ayman wouldn't have to worry about getting a job.
His uncle Walid said that all best employers would want a man like Ayman. Ayman said that he felt like a new person with a new future.

1-Ayman

Hassan was a university student. He was twenty years old. He lived in a house next to the police station in a town called Hamdayya. His favourite hobby was the Internet. He used the Internet for his University studies and for making friends in other countries.

He was a keen observer. He noticed the big black spider with two yellow lines on its back. On seeing the spider, he began to collect information through the World Wide Web. His sense of duty made him take part in the fight against the deadly spider. He was a sociable young man who loved his family and his country and was fond of making friends. He was brave as, he was ready to give his life to save others

2- Shereen Fakhery

She worked at the department of Egyptology at Oxford University. She helped Ayman a lot in the search for information about the spiders, She gave a translation of an old Egyptian text about a town in ancient Egypt, which was burnt out because of deadly spiders. She exchanged e-mails with Egyptian and German archaeologists. She informed Ayman about the Negra plant, she went with her friend Susan Bennett to meet Professor Jones to consult him about the deadly spider

3-Professor Malcom Jones

Prof. Jones was the head of Zoology department at Oxford University. He was a famous archaeologist. He has discovered a lot of unknown species on his trips to south Africa and south America. He decided to travel to Egypt to study the unknown spider that Ayman saw. He exerted great efforts to help the police in search of the spider. He was so generous that he gave Ayman a good -camera as a present.

4- Susan Bennett

A Zoologist at Oxford University. She accompanied Dr. Shreen and visited Prof. Jones to consult him about the spiderthat Ayman

5- Wafaa Sultan

She was a researcher of Botanical at Cairo University. She had information about the Echinacea Negra plant used to make medicine for the bites of the black and yellow spiders. She was brave and a sacrificial. She had a sense of duty. When the six men were kept back in Sinai, she drove back alone carrying the Negra plant.

6-Colonel Mikhail

.He was the chief officer at the police station in Hamdayya His main interest was the safety of the people in the town.

7- Captain Ahamed
He was a police officer. He was the chief of the police convoy to the site. He led the search for the deadly spiders.

[Mr. Medhat Salah]

[صبعوض]

thanks very much