解放军文职招聘考试museum is to educate

 Topic 19: Do you think a museum is to educate or entertain people?

支持博物馆只有教育目的的观点：

• 博物馆收藏的大量物品（house a large collection of selected objects)只用于展览，人们不能够触 碰（forbid physical contact)；博物馆只提供收藏品的历史讲解（provide interpretations),不提供 娱乐(provide entertainment)；

• 博物馆关注当地文化（concentrate on the host region's culture)，教育后人，对保护文化和历史有着重要的意义；

• 博物馆一般注重特定的主题（concentrate on a particular subject),比如历史学、人种学 (ethnology )、人类学（anthropology)等，这些对于很多人都是陌生和枯燥的（unfamiliar ， abstract and uninteresting)，不可能有娱乐的作用。

支持博物馆还有娱乐目的的观点：

• 现在很多博物馆都已经开设不同的服务，如歌舞表演（operas and concerts).电影和录像 (movies, videos and videotapes)等来增加收人(increase income by increasing attendance)，在这 一方面，博物馆和娱乐行业差不多(similar to entertainment businesses)；

• 博物馆有些展品（items on exhibition)对某些人来说具有一定的娱乐性（entertainment value), 因此会吸引一些抱着纯娱乐目的来参观的人。

范文

Museums have long been known as centres of research and education. By acquiring, conserving, researching and exhibiting a great variety of tangible items (such as artifacts and specimens ), museums are of great educational value. However, this notion has been refuted by some people in recent years, who tend to think that museums are intended for entertainment as well In my opinion, a museum can serve dual purposes, although education tends to play a larger part.

Museums impart knowledge to visitors through different means. One is collecting and displaying objects of scientific, artistic or historical importance at a specific site. Staff members working for museums are trained to provide interpretations of the collected objects to the general public. Viewing these items enables visitors to acquire knowledge of a given subject, such as history, art, environment and technology. History museums are for example concerned with specialized aspects of history at the local or national level. Another approach taken by a museum Is to invite specialists to lecture regularly in different Fields, which is instructive as well. An entertainment business, by comparison, hardly serves an educational purpose.

In addition to the way it operates, a museum is distinct from any operator in the entertainment industry in some other aspects. First of all, museums are entirely not-for-profit. Although sometimes charging an admission fee, a museum very often has free entrance, and does not engage in any profit-making activity. It does not target any specific audience like an entertainment business does. Instead, it is open to the general public. Museums, meanwhile, choose items on display not according to their commercial values but according to the line of items they mainly focus on. For instance, a history museum would focus only on those items that are of historical value, although those items might not have sufficient market value.

However, a noteworthy development of museums in recent years is related to entertainment to some extent. Similar to other educational institutions, museums have to balance their budget. Many museums have therefore sought to operate more activities to attract more visitors, in order for an additional entry fee to cover costs. In addition to the traditional services, such as making collected objects available for public viewing, and organising lectures, a museum is interested in such entertainments as films, musical or dance performances, most of which are linked to the culture of its host region. Art museums, for example, bear a close resemblance to art galleries, in exhibiting a wide range of artworks. Museums falling in this category give visitors pleasure, and can be taken as a provider of both knowledge and entertainment.

As suggested above, there are many benchmarks against which a museum can be made distinct from an entertainment provider. Some museums are now providing services in overtly entertainment nature, although educational for the most part,

近义词表

1. artifact=ornament=manufactured  article=work of art=object:人工制品,艺术品，装饰品(一般都 是具备文化或者历史价值的物品，比如图腾）

2. specimen=example=sample；范例，样品，样本                  3. refute=contest=rebut=disprove：驳倒，反驳

4. lecture=make a speech=give an address:发表演讲

5. instructive=informative=educational:教育性质的，教育意义的

6. resemblance=similarly=likeness=semblance ：相似性          7. benchmark=standard ：标准

8. overtly=openly=clearly=obviously=explicitly ：明显地