BBC英语精选--英语6分钟: A history of the world in 100 objects（在线收听）

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6 Minute English 

A history of the world in 100 objects 

NB: This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript 

Dan:   Hello and welcome to this week's 6 Minute English. I'm Dan and today I'm 

joined by Kate.  

Kate:   Hi Dan.  

Dan:   Hi Kate. Now in today's programme we’re talking about a new exhibition at 

the British Museum in London, which is attempting to define the whole of 

human history through 100 objects.  

Kate:  Yes, well from stone-age tools to the modern credit card, the museum says 

certain key objects can demonstrate man's development up until the present 

day – in particular our important advances in art, technology, religion, warfare 

and trade. 

Dan:   So Kate, this week's question for you is: How many objects are there in the 

whole of the British Museum collection? Is it: 

a)  8 million 

b)  11 million 

c)  13 million 

Kate:  That's a hard one. I've got absolutely no idea. But I'm going to go for c, the 

largest number: 13 million.  

Dan:  Well, we'll see if you're right at the end of the programme.  

Kate:  Now the museum has spent four years organising the exhibition. So Dan how 

did they choose the final 100 objects that are being put on display? 

Dan:   Well, the museum's director, Neil MacGregor, says that they've chosen the 

objects that give us an idea of how different cultures have interacted; that is, 

how they worked together or formed relationships. 

Kate:   So  let's  have  a  listen  to  the  first  extract  as  he  explains  how  scientific 

developments have changed the significance of certain objects. How does he 

describe the effect that scientific discoveries have had on our understanding? 

Extract 1 

Most of us, I think, if we come back to a museum that we visited as a child, have the 

sense that we've changed enormously, while the things have remained serenely the same. 

But of course they haven't. Thanks to constant research into new scientific techniques, 

what we can know about them is constantly growing.  

Kate:   OK, well he says that what we know about the objects is constantly growing. 

The word constant here means continuous or frequent. So to say that what we 

know is constantly growing means that it is always expanding or getting 

bigger in size.  

Dan:  He also said that we might think things remain serenely the same. Serene 

means calm, tranquil or steady. So here he means we think things have steadily 

remained the same.  

  The  impact  of  science  on  our  understanding  of  historical  objects  is 

demonstrated in one of the first pieces in the collection, an ancient Egyptian 

mummy – the preserved body of ancient Egyptian priest, which has been 

wrapped in linen in preparation for the afterlife.  

Kate:  In the next clip we're going to hear from a specialist from the museum's ancient 

Egypt and Sudan department as he explains how new analysis of mummies can 

provide  information on trade in the ancient world, and show that cultures 

interacted far more than we originally thought.  

Dan:  He uses the word mummification, which means the process of preserving the 

bodies as mummies, by wrapping them in strips of material. And also the term 

chemical composition. What does he mean by that Kate?  

Kate:  Well,  the chemical  composition  is  the  basic  make-up  of  chemicals  in  a 

particular  object.  Let's  have  a  listen;  how  do  the  mummies  help  us  to 

understand trading in the ancient world?  

Extract 2: 

We can also look at substances used in mummification; we can test them; we can look at 

the chemical composition of them; find out what materials were being used; maybe now 

we can look at where they were coming from. We can compare these chemical make-ups 

with substances found in different parts of the Mediterranean, and begin to reconstruct 

the trading networks that supplied these things to Egypt. 

Dan:  So an object that we thought was uniquely Egyptian – a mummy – can give us 

information  about  interaction  across  the  ancient  world  by  analysing  what 

materials are being used and where they've come from. What these objects 

show is that we share more history than we originally thought.  

Kate:  We also heard the words reconstruct and network. To reconstruct something 

means to rebuild it or recreate it. 

Dan:  And a network means a system of connections and contacts, in this context, 

trading contacts in the ancient world. 

Kate:  So  as  our  knowledge  of  the  world  gets  better,  we  are  gaining  a  deeper 

understanding of how cultures have worked together to get to where we are 

today.  

Dan:  The Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif describes the history of the world as a 'joint 

project'. Which area of history does she say she'd focus on to help people 

understand their relationship with each other?  

Extract three:  

If I could decree a universal education programme I would make every child in the 

world learn a brief history of the entire world that focussed on the common ground. It 

would examine how people perceive their relationship to each other, to the planet, and to 

the universe.  

Dan:  She said she'd focus on the common ground of history. Common ground 

usually means an area of shared understanding. So by examining the common 

ground of cultures and history, people could gain a wider understanding of the 

history of the world.  

Kate:  Oh it's all fascinating stuff, but we’re almost out of time unfortunately, so let’s 

go over some of the vocabulary we’ve come across today: 

interact  

constant 

serenely  

mummy  

mummification  

reconstruct 

network 

common ground  

Dan:  And let's go back to today's question. I asked you Kate how many objects there 

are in the whole of the British Museum collection? Is it: 

d)  8 million 

e)  11 million 

f)  13 million 

Kate:   And I took a wild guess at c, 13 million.  

Dan:   And again you'd be exactly right. Thirteen million objects in the whole of the 

British Museum.  

Kate:   Oh, you'll have to start making your questions a bit harder Dan. 

Dan:  Well, we'll see about that. 

So  from  all  of  us  here  at  BBC  Learning  English,  thanks  very  much  for 

listening, and goodbye! 

Kate:    Goodbye!