People and places - Chinese warriors in London | Текст песни

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Amber: Hello, I’m Amber and you’re listening to bbclearningenglish.com
In People and Places today, the Director of the British Museum, Neil
Macgregor, introduces us to some extraordinary (and incredibly old and
valuable) people who have just arrived in London from China, for the first time!
That’s right; there’s just been an invasion of London by the famous Terracotta
Warriors. These life-size model soldiers - made of terracotta (a reddish-brown
pottery clay) - are over 2,000 years old! They were made for China’s First
Emperor who wanted to rule forever, and so ordered the recreation of his entire
court – soldiers, generals, entertainers and animals – in life-size terracotta
statues. They were to accompany the Emperor into the afterlife and guard his
tomb – his grave, his burial chamber – at the ancient city of Xian.
Let’s go now to the British Museum where Neil is preparing for an exciting
exhibition of a number of these statues, or three-dimensional ‘figures’. He says
the exhibition won’t give a sense of the ‘massive scale’ – the huge size – of the
figures standing in the tomb in Xian, although there will be images of the tomb
projected onto the walls of the museum.
As you listen, try to catch what Neil says it will be possible to do at the
exhibition, that it’s ‘hard to do in Xian’.
Neil Macgregor
We’re not going to be able to give you the sense of the massive scale, although we’ll be able
to show that by projections on the screens around the Reading Room. What you will be able
to do in the British Museum is look these figures in the eye. You’re going to be able to see how they were made, what extraordinary works of art, what works of sculpture they are, and
examine them one by one, and engage with them as separate objects, and that’s something
that’s very hard to do in Xian, but with a smaller number in the British Museum, you’ll be
able to do it here.
Amber: Did you catch it? Neil says in the British Museum you can ‘look these figures
in the eye’. The expression ‘to look someone in the eye’ means to connect with
them, to make a real attempt to get to know them or understand them.
Listen again and notice the different ways the statues are described – ‘figures’,
‘works of art’, ‘works of sculpture’, ‘objects’.
Neil Macgregor
We’re not going to be able to give you the sense of the massive scale, although we’ll be able
to show that by projections on the screens around the Reading Room. What you will be able
to do in the British Museum is look these figures in the eye. You’re going to be able to see
how they were made, what extraordinary works of art, what works of sculpture they are, and
examine them one by one, and engage with them as separate objects, and that’s something
that’s very hard to do in Xian, but with a smaller number in the British Museum, you’ll be
able to do it here.
Amber: The story of the Chinese terracotta army amazed the world when the figures were
first discovered in 1974, and there are more figures still being unearthed. So the
warriors are ‘archaeological treasure’! Archaeology is the study of ancient
cultures through the examination of their material remains.
Here’s Neil describing the significance of the figures’ arrival in London.
Neil Macgregor
That is what is so exciting is that there’s a real chance to see new archaeology, the new
discoveries, that are being allowed out of China for the first time. And we’re just about to open them!
Amber: Now let’s join Neil and BBC presenter John Wilson in the Reading Room of
the British Museum as the treasure is being unwrapped! ‘This is Christmas!’
– Neil exclaims!
...

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