Luyện theo cấu trúc Cambridge IELTS 2 · Listening Part 2: Volunteering at a Small Local Museum

Ruth: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Calderwick Museum. My name's Ruth Ellery, that's E-double L-E-R-Y, and I coordinate the volunteers here, so I'll be your main contact while you're with us. Before we walk round the building, I'd like to give you a bit of background and go through a few practical arrangements.

Ruth: First, a little history. A lot of visitors assume the building was once a school, mainly because of the bell above the front entrance, and it's true that it was used as a classroom for a short time during the war. But it was actually built as the town's fire station, in 1891, and the bell was rung to call the firefighters in. The museum didn't move in until much later, in 1978.

Ruth: People also tend to think that the collection came from one wealthy family, because the Main Hall is named after the Pryor family. The Pryors did pay for the hall to be restored, but they gave us very few objects. The vast majority of what you'll see was donated by ordinary people from the town and the surrounding villages, things that had been sitting in attics and garden sheds for decades. And that's still how most new items reach us today.

Ruth: Now, some of you will be working on the front desk. Admission is free, so you won't need to sell tickets, and we don't have a shop, just a box for donations. What we do need you to do is ask every visitor which town or village they've travelled from, and write it in the book. It sounds like a small thing, but our grant from the council depends on showing that we attract people from outside Calderwick, so please don't forget.

Ruth: A quick word about Saturdays. There's a market in the square, so the car park behind the museum gets very busy. You're still welcome to park there, but the traders' vans block the entrance from about half past nine, so on Saturdays please arrive by nine fifteen, rather than the usual ten to ten. The museum itself opens at the normal time, ten o'clock.

Ruth: Right, let me tell you about the different areas, because several things have changed since our leaflet was printed. We'll start in the Main Hall, which is where you'll find the old horse-drawn fire engine. It's the room everyone photographs, but it isn't really designed for groups. On the first Tuesday of every month, though, we put out chairs and hold an evening talk there, usually given by a local historian, and those talks are always well attended.

Ruth: Next door is the Kitchen Room, which shows a typical kitchen from the 1920s. It was repainted a few years ago, so it looks quite fresh, but what makes it different is that everything in it is a replica. That means visitors are allowed to pick up the pans, try the old washboard and so on. Please do encourage them to.

Ruth: Upstairs is the Toy Gallery. Teachers sometimes ask about the Kitchen Room, but the Toy Gallery is the room that school parties book most often, by a long way. We usually have at least two classes a week in there during term time, so it can get noisy.

Ruth: Also upstairs is the Map Room. Old maps are very easily damaged by light, and last month we took out the old bulbs and put in special low-heat lamps that won't fade the paper. We'd hoped to repaint the walls at the same time, but I'm afraid that will have to wait until next year.

Ruth: Outside, there's the Garden, where we grow the kinds of vegetables people in the town would have grown a century ago. Unfortunately, the Garden is shut at the moment while the paths are being relaid, so please tell visitors it should reopen in the spring.

Ruth: And finally, there's the Workshop at the back, where we keep the tools from the old blacksmith's forge. There are a lot of sharp edges in there, so visitors can only go in if a volunteer goes with them. We've actually got plenty of people who've signed up to help in the Workshop now, so if you'd prefer the front desk, that's absolutely fine.

Ruth: OK, that's enough talking from me. Let's go and look at the Main Hall first.