© Pearson Education Limited 2002
Penguin Readers Factsheets
The Mummy Returns
by John Whitman
based on the motion picture screenplay
written by Stephen Sommers
Teacher’s Notes
In The Mummy Returns there are characters who once lived in the
past, in ancient Egypt. They are now living in the modern world.
The archeologist, Evelyn O’Connell, (who was Nefertiri in the past)
is married to the archeologist Rick O’Connell (an important man in
the past with great powers). They met in Egypt in 1923 when they
were working in temples in Egypt and found the mummy of
Imhotep, who had been sleeping for 3,000 years. When Imhotep
woke up, he tried to kill Evelyn, but Rick saved her. Then Rick and
Evelyn returned to England, they married and had a son, Alex.
Now it is 1933 and they are back in Egypt with Alex, who is eight
years old. They are looking for the Bracelet of Anubis. Anubis is a
god of the dead and his bracelet gives great power to anyone who
wears it. The Scorpion King has the bracelet. He did not die 6,000
years ago because he had the bracelet. Now he will be waking up
very soon in the Year of the Scorpion. He wants to control the world
and kill everyone unless someone can kill him first.
Meela, whose name in the past was Anck-su-namun and Lock-
Nah also want the bracelet. He wants to rule the world. Meela
wants to wake up Imhotep, who was her lover. They have help from
three men who are there when Evelyn finds The Scorpion King’s
box, with the bracelet in it. They take the box back to England, but
the three men follow them. They kidnap Evelyn. However it is Alex
who has the bracelet on his arm. There are great chases through
the streets of London, with Evelyn’s brother Jonathan driving and
Evelyn is nearly killed inside the British Museum.
Imhotep wakes up and there are other mummies too. There are
terrible battles. Alex, still wearing the bracelet, is taken by a
mummy back to Egypt and he is forced to lead Meela and Lock-
Nah to the resting place of the Scorpion King. Rick’s ancient friend,
Ardeth Bay and his soldiers help the O’Connells and Rick’s friend
Izzy takes them across Egypt in a balloon to help them find Alex.
Alex gets the bracelet off and they throw it away. It has caused a
lot of trouble! Meela meets Evelyn, but really they are Anck-su-
namun and Neferiti again. They fight together and Rick and
Imhotep are also fighting. There were battles between soldiers of
Anubis and the guards of the mummies. In the end, Imhotep and
the Scorpion King both die. Anck-su-namun also dies when
thousands of scorpions eat her. Rick, Evelyn and Alex left in Izzy’s
balloon and return home.
The Mummy Returns, made in 2001 by Universal Pictures, is a
sequel to the very successful 1999 movie The Mummy. Both
movies were directed by Stephen Sommers. This one was filmed
in Morocco, Jordan, and in London. Brendan Fraser plays Rick
O’Connell, Rachel Weisz plays his wife Evelyn. Patricia Velazquez
plays Anck-su-namun, and Arnold Vosloo plays her lover, Imhotep.
Freddie Boath plays Alex and adds both suspense and comedy to
the movie. The professional wrestler the Rock plays the Scorpion
King.
The movie uses lots of Indiana Jones-style adventures and Star
Wars-style special effects. It is fast-paced, with lots of surprises,
battles, love scenes, and horror. And like Indiana Jones, there are
lots of jokes and funny moments that break the suspense,
especially when Evelyn’s brother Jonathan is around. It was rated
PG 13 because of the adventure action and violence. In this
sequel, Anck-su-namun takes the central villain role. She was to be
the wife of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, but when the Pharaoh
found her in the bedroom with Imhotep, the Pharaoh was killed by
his future wife and her lover. The Pharaoh’s daughter, Nefertiri
(later Evelyn) knew about Anck-su-namun and Imhotep and hated
them. The old enemies battle it out, but Evelyn does not kill Meela.
In the end, Meela is eaten by scorpions.
There is also a very popular animated TV series of The Mummy.
There have been many Mummy movies over the years, but the
classic horror movie of The Mummy with Boris Karloff as Imhotep
was made in 1932. In the original movie, an English archeologist
mistakenly wakes the mummy of Imhotep, which he has
discovered in Egypt. (Imhotep was a scribe and architect in ancient
Egypt and is credited with designing the world’s first step pyramid.)
Imhotep begins searching for his one true love, Princess Anck-su-
namun. He finds her in Cairo in the 1930s and sets out to make
sure she is his forever. Does the mummy get his lover or is this
century to be as unkind to him as the last? The Return of the
Mummy combines the gruesome horror of the original with the
flamboyant style made popular by the more recent Indiana Jones
movies.
The main themes are, the history and archaeology of Ancient
Egypt: good over evil, man’s struggle for power, and love and hate.
L
e
v
e
l 2
– E
le
m
e
n
ta
ry
T
h
e
M
u
m
m
y
R
e
tu
rn
s
Summary
About the movie
Background and themes
© Pearson Education Limited 2002
Penguin Readers Factsheets
Teacher’s Notes
L
e
v
e
l 2
– E
le
m
e
n
ta
ry
T
h
e
M
u
m
m
y
R
e
tu
rn
s
Published and distributed by Pearson Education
Factsheet written by Coleen Degnan-Veness
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections of text
as the exercises at the back of the reader, and supplement those
exercises. Further supplementary exercises, covering shorter
sections of the book, can be found on the photocopiable Student’s
Activities pages of this Factsheet. These are primarily for use with
class readers, but with the exception of pair/groupwork questions,
can also be used by students working alone in a self-access centre.
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
1 Find out how many of your students have seen the movie
The Mummy Returns. Divide the students into small groups,
putting students who have seen the movie with ones who
have not. The students who have seen the movie should tell
the others about the characters and their relationships.
2 Write these words on the board: battle, bracelet, desert, gold,
king, mummy, pyramid, scorpion, soldier. Ask the students to
find these words in their dictionaries and to write the words
on one side of a sheet of paper, then turn the paper over and
write the definitions and/or translation of the words. After they
have done this, give them ten minutes to work in pairs
learning these words. Then tell them to put their papers away
and answer these questions. Ask them: Which word or words
on the board are words for people? Which word or words do
we read when we read about Egypt? Why?
3 Write these names on the board: Scorpion King Lock-Nah
Alex Ardeth Bay the mummy Imhotep Anck-su-namun
Izzy. Help the students to learn the pronunciation of these
names, then ask them to work in pairs and find pictures of
the these characters in their reader. In pairs they should
discuss what they know about each character from the
pictures and the captions. Then have a whole class
discussion about mummies: where they can be found, why
people are interested in them, and why they have been so
popular in the movie industry.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Chapters 1–2
1 Ask the students to work in pairs. They should imagine it is
now 1933. Ask them to write a conversation between an
Egyptian father and his son. The son wants to know who the
Scorpion King is and what is going to happen. The father tells
him. After the students write their conversations, check them,
then ask them to role play their conversations for the rest of
the class.
2 Put the students into groups of three. What do they think
Red, Lock-Nah, and Meela said to each other after the last
line in Chapter 2? The students should write a continuation of
the conversation, then role play it for the rest of the class.
Chapters 3–4
1 Put the students in pairs and ask them to prepare a role-play
of the conversation between Rick and Evelyn on page 8. But
before they start, read it out to them (or play the cassette if
you have it) so they can hear the stress on important words
and can hear the intonation being used. Then read/play it
again, line by line, pausing so the students can repeat after
you/the cassette. The student who takes Rick’s role must try
to sound worried. ‘Evelyn’ must sound excited and hopeful.
2 Ask the students to discuss in small groups what they
thought about Chapter 3. What did they find scary, funny,
stupid, impossible, cool? Which character did they like the
most in this chapter? Why? Who was the bravest? Which
character would they like to play if they were in the movie?
3 After students have read Chapter 4, ask them to work in pairs
or small groups and to draw a time-line with the events from
the chapter in the correct chronological order. When they
have finished, they should compare their time-lines with those
of the other students. If there are any differences, they should
decide who has the events in the correct order and who does
not. In the end, all of the time-lines should look the same.
Chapter 5
1 Write these names in big black letters on pieces of paper or
cards: Imhotep, Anck-su-namun, Nefertiri, Jonathan, Ardeth
Bay, Izzy, Rick, Lock-Nah. Explain to the class that you are
going to put a chair in front of the class and ask one student
to sit on the chair with his back to the others. Then you will
stick a name on the back of the chair so the rest of the class
can see it. The student in the chair has to ask Yes/No
questions to try and find out his identity. The students in the
class can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and the student in the
chair must find out his identity within twenty questions. The
student who finds out his identity by asking the fewest
number of questions is the winner.
2 Put the students in groups of four. They each take the role of
one of these four characters: Rick, Evelyn, Alex, or Izzy. They
must imagine that they are in Izzy’s balloon at the end of the
story. What do they say to each other as they return home?
Students should write the conversation and then role play it
for the rest of the class. The students can then vote for the
best role-play.
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.)
Communicative activities
Glossary
Chapters 1–2
battle (n) a fight between enemy forces
bracelet (n) a band or ring worn
around the wrist or arm as a decoration
desert (n) a large sandy piece of land
where there is very little rain and not
many plants
god (n) a being who is worshiped,
especially for ruling over the world
gold (n) valuable soft yellow metal that
is used for making coins and jewelry
hole (n) an empty space inside
something solid
king (n) (the title of) the male ruler of a
country
mummy (n) a dead body, especially in
ancient Egypt
power (n) control over other people
pyramid (n) a large stone structure
with a square base and three sides that
meet at a point
return (v) to come or go back to a
place, condition, or activity
scorpion (n) a tropical insect-like
creature with a long body and a
poisonous tail
soldier (n) a member of an army
tattoo (n) a picture on the skin made
with colors and a needle
temple (n) a building or a place for the
worship of a god or gods
Chapters 3–4
balloon (n) a large bag filled with gas
or heated air that people use to travel
across the sky
guard (v) a soldier who watches over a
place
heart (n) the organ inside the chest that
controls the flow of blood in the body
museum (n) a building where objects
are kept and are shown to the public
stranger (n) a person who is unfamiliar
© Pearson Education Limited 2002
Student’s activities
ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK
1 Read the Introduction and answer these questions.
(a) What is Ahm Shere?
(b) What year is the Year of the Scorpion?
(c) Who has a plan?
(d) What is the mummy’s name?
(e) What does Evelyn O’Connell find in the temple?
( f ) Why do Lock-Nah, Meela, and Imhotep want this
bracelet?
2 Write these words in the sentences below.
powers mummy king soldiers
Scorpion King wake up…
In 1933, the Scorpion King is going to (a) __________. He
and his (b) __________ are asleep under the desert. Meela
and Lock-Nah want to bring the (c) __________ back to life.
He will show them the way to Ahm Shere and they will find
the (d) __________. They want to take his (e) __________.
Imhotep wants to be ( f ) __________ of the world.
ACTIVITIES WHILE READING THE BOOK
Chapters 1–2
1 Are these sentences right or wrong? Correct the wrong
sentences.
(a) The Scorpion King is the king from Akkad.
(b) Anubis is the god of the dead and his soldiers have
faces of dogs.
(c) For one year, the Scorpion King and the dog-faced
soldiers kill Egyptians.
(d) Rick and Evelyn met in 1933.
(e) When Imhotep woke up after 300 years, he tried to kill
Evelyn.
( f ) Rick has a tattoo of a pyramid on his arm with the
Egyptian god of the sun in the center.
2 Put the sentences into the correct order.
(a) ___ The temple fell down.
(b) ___ Rick tried to open the box with his knife, but the top
didn’t move.
(c) ___ Evelyn saw one of the women from the picture on
the door put a box on the table.
(d) ___ Rick put the box in his bag and ran up the stairs with
his wife.
(e) ___ Rick and Evelyn followed their son to the nearest
door and outside into the sunlight.
( f ) ___ Evelyn moved into the next dark room, and suddenly
it was 1290 BC.
(g) ___ Evelyn put her hand on the box and turned the
Scorpion King’s head to the east.
(h) ___ Evelyn took the bracelet out of the box and showed
it to Rick.
( i ) ___ Alex watched the three men as they went down the
stairs.
( j ) ___ The box opened easily.
3 What do you know about
(a) Hamunaptra?
(b) Rick’s tattoo?
(c) Spivey, Red, and Jacques?
(d) Lock-Nah?
(e) the Bracelet of Anubis?
Chapters 3–4
1 Match A with B to make complete sentences.
A
(a) ‘I have to get this bracelet off
(b) ‘Get out of my house
(c) Rick threw one knife to Jonathan
(d) ‘They have Mom, but
(e) ‘Give me the box with the Bracelet of Anubis
( f ) Ardeth Bay was the greatest of the Med-Jai soldiers and
B
___1 before my mother opens the box again,’ Alex thought.
___2 and killed the Egyptian next to him with the other.
___3 he first met Rick and Evelyn in 1923.
___4 or these men will kill you and this stupid little man,’ said
Meela.
___5 I have the bracelet,’ Alex said to his dad.
___6 or I’ll call the police,’ Evelyn said to Lock-Nah and his
men.
2 Answer these questions.
(a) Why did Lock-Nah, Meela and the soldiers take Evelyn?
(b) Why was Ardeth Bay afraid when he saw the bracelet on
Alex’s arm?
(c) Why did Rick want to go to the British Museum?
(d) Why is Ardeth Bay interested in Rick’s tattoo?
(e) Who is Anck-su-namun and who does she love?
3 Movies about mummies show many ugly things because they
want us to be afraid. What happens when
(a) Rick shot a mummy in the face?
(b) Ardeth Bay shot off the legs of two mummies?
(c) When two mummies fell on Ardeth Bay?
(d) Evelyn took Ardeth Bay’s gun and shot at the mummies?
(e) Alex smiled at his dad and sat down next to a window in
the bus?
L
e
v
e
l 2
– E
le
m
e
n
ta
ry
T
h
e
M
u
m
m
y
R
e
tu
rn
s
P
h
o
to
c
o
p
ia
b
le
Penguin Readers Factsheets
The Mummy Returns
by John Whitman
based on the motion picture screenplay
written by Stephen Sommers
1
© Pearson Education Limited 2002
Penguin Readers Factsheets
Student’s activities
4 Who is the speaker and who are they speaking to?
(a) ‘Do you have the Book of the Dead?’
(b) ‘We got your box for you. Here it is. But we want ten
thousand pounds for it, not five.’
(c) ‘You have the bracelet. You can take me to Ahm Shere.’
(d) ‘I only have five more days!’
(e) ‘When I do a job with you, I almost die. Every time!’
( f ) ‘It’s a balloon!’
5 Circle the correct name in each sentence.
(a) Imhotep’s mummy pulled the heart out of Red/Spivey.
(b) Rick/Alex is a Masonic Templar with great powers.
(c) Meela/ Evelyn was Nefertiri back in 1290 BC.
(d) Anck-sunamun/Nefertiri was the Pharaoh’s daughter.
(e) Anck-su-namun loved the Pharaoh/Imhotep.
(f) Anck-su-namun and Imhotep killed Nefertiri/the Pharaoh.
(g) Alex built a little temple when he was inside the Temple
of Karnak/Philae.
Chapters 5
1 Read each question, and circle Yes or No.
(a) Did Imhotep send a wall of water to stop Alex’s parents?
YES NO
(b) Did the wall of water return and throw the balloon into
the Nile? YES NO
(c) Did anyone ever return home after they visited Ahm
Shere? YES NO
(d) Did Imhotep want Lock-Nah to kill Alex?
YES NO
(e) Did the little mummies want to take the bracelet from
Anck-su-namun? YES NO
(f ) Did Ardeth Bay cut Lock-Nah in two parts?
YES NO
(g) Did the little mummies see the bracelet on Alex’s arm?
YES NO
(h) Did Alex arrive at the pyramid after the sun came up?
YES NO
(i ) Did Anck-su-namun kill Evelyn with a knife?
YES NO
(j ) Did Imhotep lose his power when he stood on the
square? YES NO
2 Write Why questions for each of these answers.
(a) Because he wanted to find his future.
(b) Because his mother was dead.
(c) Because Anck-su-namun killed his younger sister.
(d) Because Alex read from the Book of the Dead.
(e) Because she could not kill another person in that way.
3 What happens in the end to
(a) Imhotep?
(b) Anck-su-namun?
(c) Ahm Shere?
(d) Ardeth Bay and his soldiers?
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING THE BOOK
1 You are Alex and you are now back home and writing about
what happened in Egypt. Choose one chapter from the book
and write about it.
2 Write about this movie for your newspaper at school. Who is
your favorite character in the story? Why? What did you like
most in the story? Why? What didn’t you like? Why? Do you
think other students should read this book?
L
e
v
e
l 2
– E
le
m
e
n
ta
ry
T
h
e
M
u
m
m
y
R
e
tu
rn
s
P
h
o
to
c
o
p
ia
b
le
Published and distributed by Pearson Education
Factsheet written by Coleen Degnan-Veness
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
© Pearson Education Limited 2002 Published and distributed by Pearson Education
Factsheet written by Coleen Degnan-Veness
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
The Mummy Returns
Penguin Readers Answer key
L
e
v
e
l 2
– E
le
m
e
n
ta
ry
T
h
e
M
u
m
m
y
R
e
tu
rn
s
Answers to Book Activities
1 Open answers.
2 a arm
b dry
c expensive
d a man
e old
f an animal
g guns
3 a right
b wrong
c right
d wrong
e right
f right
g wrong
4 a the Scorpion King
b Anubis
c Imhotep
d Alex
e Spivey, Red, Jacques
f Lock-Nah
5 a First, the Scorpion King didn’t die with
his men because he wore the Bracelet
of Anubis. Second, the bracelet can take
people to Ahm Shere.
b The desert of Ahm Shere is the home of
the Scorpion King, the soldiers of
Anubis, and the pyramid of Anubis. But,
nobody can find it.
c In the Year of the Scorpion (1933; the
year of the story), the Scorpion King and
his soldiers will wake up. They will begin
their battles again, and this time they
will kill everybody and everything. The
world will end.
d The person with the Book of the Dead
can bring people back to life.
e Imhotep is a mummy with great powers.
With the Book of the Dead, Meela wants
to bring him back to life. Then he can kill
the Scorpion King and be king of the
world.
6–7 Open answers.
8 London: c, d, e, h
Egypt: a, b, f, g
a Imhotep pulls the life out of him.
b It is a “map” for his parents. They follow
Alex to the Temple of Philae.
c With the bracelet on Alex’s arm, there
are only seven days before the Scorpion
King wakes up.
d Because Alex is wearing the Bracele