The famous Reading Room at the British Museum

Jean: Oh, where have you brought me this time?

Neil: Here’s a clue. Where do you think you can see Egyptian mummies, ancient Greek statues and even Chinese Buddhist paintings under one roof?

Jean: Hmmm... 可以看到埃及木乃伊，古希腊雕像，还有中国佛教画卷. Let me see!

Neil: Ok, ok. Open your eyes.

Jean: Ah, it’s the British Museum. 原来我们是在大英博物馆啊。

Neil: Welcome to On the Town from BBC Learning English, I’m Neil. This is the programme where we visit some of the most interesting places in London. Today we’re at the British Museum.

Jean: It’s probably the most famous museum in London. But the building looks like something from ancient Greece or Rome. 大英博物馆看上去很像是一座古希腊或者古罗马的建筑。

Neil: Well, that’s the interesting thing. Most of the British Museum isn’t about Britain at all.

Jean: What do you mean?

Neil: Let’s go inside and meet Hannah Bolton, who works at the museum.

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The British Museum is really the collection of the cultural achievement of humanity. So to be a bit more specific, it contains collections of material, objects made by people throughout time, across the centuries, across the globe.

Jean: So, it’s called the British Museum but actually it contains objects from all over the world.

Neil: Hannah says it’s a collection of the cultural achievement of humanity. Cultural achievement.

Jean: 文化方面的成就。

Neil: Humanity.

Jean: 人文.

Neil: Because it contains objects made by people throughout time, across the centuries and across the globe.

Jean: So, what are the highlights? 都有什么精彩的展品呢？

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The Egyptian mummies are always incredibly popular with children and adults alike because there’s obviously a fascination with ancient Egyptian culture, but we also have wonderful classical collections: material from ancient Greece. We have really iconic objects like the Rosetta Stone; and then we have really wonderful beautifully made objects that are perhaps less well-known, but things like extravagant turquoise mosaics from Mexico and we have wonderful sort of masks from Africa.

Neil: She says the Egyptian mummies are incredibly popular.

Jean: Incredibly 惊人的、不可思议的。 Incredibly popular.

Neil: Because of the fascination with ancient Egyptian culture.

Jean: Fascination 迷恋、兴趣。

Neil: They also have iconic objects.

Jean: Iconic 偶像的。

Neil: Iconic objects like the Rosetta Stone.

Jean: The Rosetta Stone 这个大名鼎鼎的罗塞塔石碑，上面雕刻了象形文字，埃及表意文字和希腊文，是用来翻译古埃及文字系统的珍贵史料工具。

Neil: And there are less well-known objects such as extravagant turquoise mosaics from Mexico. Extravagant.

Jean: 奢侈的。

Neil: Turquoise.

Jean: 绿松石。

Neil: Mosaic.

Jean: 马赛克。

Neil: And there are wonderful masks from Africa.

Jean: Masks 面具。 Listen to Hannah talking about the museum’s highlights again.

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The Egyptian mummies are always incredibly popular with children and adults alike because there’s obviously a fascination with ancient Egyptian culture, but we also have wonderful classical collections: material from ancient Greece. We have really iconic objects like the Rosetta Stone; and then we have really wonderful beautifully made objects that are perhaps less well-known, but things like extravagant turquoise mosaics from Mexico and we have wonderful sort of masks from Africa.

Neil: Did you know, some very important Chinese artefacts are coming to the British Museum soon?

Jean: Oh really? 一些重要的来自中国的艺术品也要在大英博物馆展出了。 Artefacts 艺术品。

Neil: Can you tell us more, Hannah?

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The museum – British Museum – is very fortunate in that the Xian Museum have agreed to lend us an awful lot of material from the Terracotta Warriors Museum.

Jean: Terracotta Warriors 就是兵马俑。

Neil: Yes, the museum in Xian has agreed to lend some of the Terracotta Warriors to the British Museum. To lend.

Jean: 去借出。请大家一定注意不要把它和另一个动词 to borrow 弄混了。Lend 是借出， borrow 是借来。

Neil: Yes, Xian Museum is going to lend some statues to the British Museum. Or in other words, the British Museum is going to borrow some statues from Xian. Well, that’s about all we have time for today on BBC Learning English.

Jean: If you want to learn more, go to our website www.bbc.co.uk/china.

Neil: But just before we go, let’s ask some tourists what they thought of the museum.

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It was great, I just went to the Japanese art and it was quite interesting.

The African room – that was very impressing.

Oh, just everything – especially the Egyptian artefacts. It was very nice.