Part 2: Museum Galleries

SECTION 2 – Questions 11–20

Questions 11–16
Choose the correct letter, A, B or C.

Museum tour

11. What does the tour guide advise the visitors to do in the museum today?
A. see the most popular exhibits first
B. pay a brief visit to each gallery
C. go to the photography gallery last

12. The museum was designed by William Craven, who also designed
A. a textile factory
B. the town hall
C. the railway station

13. The museum won an award for the preservation of the
A. staircase
B. floor
C. windows

14. Most of the money for the project came from
A. the public
B. the government
C. local businesses

15. Over the next five years, the museum will invest mainly in
A. restoring existing collections.
B. developing educational programmes.
C. purchasing new objects for display.

16. Visitors who are interested in learning more about the exhibits should
A. visit the museum’s website
B. read the leaflets on display
C. attend the monthly lectures

Questions 17–20
What information does the guide give about each of the following collections?
Choose FOUR answers from the box and write the correct letter, A–F, next to Questions 17–20.

Information
A. has been shown in different museums
B. consists of work by a local resident
C. has exhibits from various countries
D. in only on temporary display
E. shows things that are no longer common
F. is on loan from foreign museum

Collections
17. 18th-century paintings → ________
18. Farnley collection → ________
19. kitchen appliances → ________
20. fashion gallery → ________

Keys

1. A
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. A
6. C
7. C
8. B
9. E
10. D

Transcript

Section 2

Okay, well first of all I’ll give you a bit of background to the museum and then tell you about some of the galleries. You probably won’t have time to see everything today, so what I recommend you do is go to the Egyptian Room first, because it’s everyone’s favourite place and

it gets very crowded with the school parties later in the day.

Oh, and I should mention that the photography gallery is undergoing refurbishment at the moment, so while that’s definitely worth seeing, it’ll have to wait for another time.

Now, the actual museum building itself is quite interesting. It was designed by a local architect called William Craven in the 19th century, at a time when the city was developing rapidly with new factories to cope with the expansion of the textile industry. The museum’s built in a very similar style to the railway station which was constructed at around the same time. That was designed by another architect, but William Craven did also provide the plans for the town hall which was built just a few years later.

Construction of the museum began in 1888 with a large team of carpenters, stonemasons and builders. Then, in recent years, it’s been extensively refurbished. The lovely big windows have been retained to let the daylight flood in, but the award-winning part of the project was the restoration of the area around the central hall—in particular the beautiful wrought-iron staircase which was brought back to its former glory. Unfortunately, the museum’s original tiled floor had to be replaced with new tiles of a similar design.

It was a very expensive project and, since we don’t charge admission fees, we had to find other ways of funding it. We did get some money from the Department of Culture at national level, but we had even more generous support from companies and industries here in the city who were our main benefactors. However, we do also depend on donations from people living in the area for the ongoing maintenance of the building.

So how will the museum mainly be spending its money in the next five years? We already work with schools and colleges, helping people get a better understanding of all the creative disciplines. We consider the most important part of our work the restoration of the valuable historical objects we are lucky enough to have in our possession, and this will continue to be where the most funding is allocated. Of course, it would be wonderful to purchase new objects for the museum, but we simply don’t have the space at the moment.

Well, we do hope you enjoy your day today, but if you would like to learn more about our exhibits on display here, I suggest you come to one of the Saturday morning lectures which are given every month by one of our team of experts. Of course, you can pick up leaflets about the exhibits in most of the galleries too, but you’ll only get a basic introduction from those. We’re also working to update our website so that it provides more background on the exhibits, but that’s still at the planning stage.

Okay, now let me just tell you a bit about what’s on at the moment. Well, we’re very well known for our collection of 18th-century paintings, both oils and watercolours. Some of these are English landscapes and portraits, but we also have paintings by other European artists who were working during this period.

If you’re interested in art that’s a bit nearer home, the Farnley Collection is a set of drawings by Paul Farnley. He was born on an island but he came to work here in the city in the early 20th century and then made it his home. He worked in a factory but spent his spare time drawing the buildings and urban landscape of the city, and his work has now been collected and displayed here.

On a more practical note, we have a display of kitchen appliances which might interest you. These are the sorts of things you wouldn’t normally expect to see in a museum. There’s an electric potato peeler from the 1970s which sold really well at the time, but no one’s got one now. There are lots of other similar appliances which must have seemed like great ideas at the time but which never took off.

You might also like to visit the fashion gallery. This is an exhibition which is running for the next few weeks only and shows men’s and women’s fashion from 1900 to 2000, including some of the famous designers of the time.

Okay, so if anyone’s got any questions, follow me.