The National Museum of Natural History

Reading audio



2005-1-18

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
Today we visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington,
D.C.

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VOICE ONE:

"I'll meet you by the elephant." That comment is heard a lot in
Washington, D.C. The elephant is in an unusual place. It is in the
center of a large building on the grassy Mall area of the capital
city. It is the first thing visitors see when they enter the
National Museum of Natural History.

The National Museum of Natural History
The elephant in the rotunda of the National Museum of Natural History.
(All pictures - MNH)

The African elephant was fifty
years old when it died in Angola in nineteen fifty-five. It weighed
eight tons. It was so large the hunter decided to give its remains
to the Smithsonian Institution. Scientists at the National Museum of
Natural History used the bones and skin to rebuild the elephant.

As you enter the museum, you see a huge elephant that appears to
be walking across the grassy area where it once lived. Visitors of
all ages stop to look up in wonder at its size. Then they walk
around the elephant. They read facts about the animal, hear sounds
of its natural environment and watch short films. This is what makes
the Natural History museum so popular. Visitors learn about the
natural world in many different ways.

VOICE TWO:

The National Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited
museums the world. From six million to nine million people visit the
building every year. More than one million of them are international
visitors. The visitors come to the museum to see many interesting
things: Examples of huge ancient dinosaurs. Beautiful rare diamonds
and other jewels. Live insects. Remains of creatures that lived in
ancient seas. Ancient and present day mammals. Objects from African,
Asian and Pacific cultures.

The museum has the largest
collection of any natural history museum in the world. There are
more than one hundred twenty-five million objects in its collection.

Scientists have been collecting these specimens for almost two
hundred years. The collection keeps growing as scientists working
for the museum continue to explore and collect around the world.

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VOICE ONE:

The National Museum of Natural History opened in nineteen ten. It
was the third museum to be created as part of the Smithsonian
Institution. It is a center for the study of humans and their
natural surroundings through history. So the museum's collection
includes specimens of animals, plants, rocks, ancient and present
day organisms, and objects related to human development.

Through the years, how the collection is shown to the public has
changed. The newest exhibit is about the history of mammals in the
world. The purpose of the new Hall of Mammals is to show how all
mammals, including humans, are related. Almost three hundred mammals
that look very life-like are shown in their different natural
environments.

While seeing realistic- looking
animals found in Africa, visitors hear sounds of a violent rainstorm
around them. Adults look up on the wall to see a video of a giraffe,
zebras and a hippo around a water hole. At the same time, children
look down at the floor to see a video of what small animals are
doing under ground.

VOICE TWO:

Hans Sues is the associate director for Research and Collections.
He is the chief scientist at the museum. Mister Sues says the
specimens collected through the years help scientists find out how
animals and plant life developed. The scientists learn by using new
technologies such as DNA research on the specimens. Or they learn by
just being able to study older specimens.

For example, some fishermen and scientists were concerned about
spots they found on sea animals called crabs. They wondered if
human-made pollution caused the spots. So they looked at the
museum's specimens of crabs collected almost one hundred years ago.
Some of them had the same spots. This was evidence that the spots
happened naturally.

No one can observe the changes in our natural world during
hundreds of years. So the collections of the National Museum of
Natural History, and other natural history museums, are the only way
for scientists to observe these changes over time.

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VOICE ONE:

Scientists working for the Natural History museum are doing
research in fifty to one hundred countries at any time. Mister Sues
says museum scientists have been almost every place on Earth.
Through their research they continue to find new information about
the natural world and its people, animals and plants.

For example, in two thousand three, a team of scientists explored
the little known islands of Kula Ring, near New Guinea. They found
three new kinds of fish, five new kinds of insects called
damselflies, and sixty new kinds of water bugs.

Other museum scientists have made recent discoveries about the
earliest history of the solar system, early man, and the continuing
damage to coral reefs. Mister Sues says there are many more
discoveries to be made. This is because there is so much to learn
about the four thousand million years of this planet's history.

Each year museum scientists report their research findings in
more than seven hundred scientific publications. They report
important discoveries to the public in newspapers, popular magazines
and on television. Now, the huge worldwide expansion of the Internet
is making it possible for people around the world to get this
information.

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VOICE TWO:

Millions of people who are unable to visit the National Museum of
Natural History in Washington can see part of the museum's
collection on computers. In the future, museum officials hope to
make it possible for people to use computers to explore all of the
museum.

Robert Sullivan is associate director for Public Programs for the
National Museum of Natural History. He says museum officials are
excited about how the Internet is expanding the reach of the museum
and what it can offer.

Mister Sullivan says that for years museum officials have known
that learning by doing is the best way to teach people. He says the
new broadband computer technology will make that kind of learning
possible. People will be able to take "virtual tours" of the museum.
They will be able to use computers to walk through exhibits, move
and measure objects, visit scientific laboratories and ask questions
of scientists. Mister Sullivan says the new Internet technology will
let museum officials create a space to explore, not just offer
pictures and words.

VOICE ONE:

The Website of the National Museum of Natural History --
www.mnh.si.edu --offers a lot of information. For example, you can
go to the museum Web site to find out about the Earth and how it
changes. By typing in "The Dynamic Earth", you can read about how
rocks tell the history of the Earth. You can see the famous jewel
called the Hope Diamond. Soon you will be able to learn about
volcanoes.

If you are interested in animals, you can go to the North
American Mammals site. It is a guide to the living mammals of North
America with detailed descriptions and images of more than four
hundred animals.

Or you can find out about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
They explored the western part of the United States in the early
nineteenth century. Computer users can follow the path the two
explorers took and learn about the plants and animals they found.

VOICE TWO:

The museum Web site is very popular with computer users and will
become more so as it expands. Yet the real museum building will not
be forgotten. Museum officials say a visit to the National Museum of
Natural History will continue to be a family education experience.

They are developing new ways to make the exhibits provide a
learning experience that works in many different ways. The next
major change in the exhibit space is in progress now. Near the
elephant, a large new exhibit is being built that will show why the
ocean is important to understanding the natural world. Ocean Hall
will open in two thousand eight. It will use the newest technology
to help people of all ages learn about life in the ocean. It will be
one more way millions of visitors can have fun learning from the
National Museum of Natural History.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by
Mario Ritter. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in
VOA Special English.


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