英语听力精选进阶版 14466

Egyptian statue sells for nearly ￡16m

Summary

11 July 2014

An Egyptian statue held in a museum in Britain has been sold for ￡15.76m at Christie's of London, despite protests by the Egyptian government and the Arts Council in England. Northampton Borough¹ Council sold it to help pay for a ￡14m development of its museum and art gallery.

Reporter:

Nick Higham

Report

The 4,000-year-old limestone² statue of an official called Sekhemka is about 75 cm tall. It shows him sitting, reading a scroll³ with his much smaller wife kneeling beside him.

It's been sold to help fund an extension to the town's museum.

Those protesting at the sale included the Egyptian government. Egypt's ambassador to Britain told the BBC a museum should not act like a shop that sells items for profit. Others argue that the sale might jeopardise Northampton's status as an accredited⁴ museum and the grants which it gets as a result. But the council's leader, David Mackintosh, said the statue hadn't been on display for four years and no one had asked to see it in that time.

Museums generally fight shy of selling artifacts from their collections partly because sales might discourage people from donating items in future. But in recent years a number of cash-strapped council museums have sold things or tried to.

In this case, the Marquis of Northampton, whose family gave the statue to the town in 1890, argued that the sale would breach⁵ the terms of the gift. He's now reached a deal and will get just under half of the proceeds.

1 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

2 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

3 scroll   

n.卷轴，纸卷；(石刻上的)漩涡

参考例句：

• As I opened the scroll,a panorama of the Yellow River unfolded.我打开卷轴时，黄河的景象展现在眼前。
• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements.他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。

4 accredited   

adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century. 通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• Only accredited journalists were allowed entry. 只有正式认可的记者才获准入内。

5 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。