1) Read this story.
Reading
European countries have the longest tradition in the world for preserving their cultural history in museums. The world’s two most famous museums are London’s British Museum and the Louvre in Paris (seen in this picture). When we think of museums, we usually think of large formal buildings containing paintings and sculptures. In reality, there are a wide variety of museums. In Tokyo, there’s a “bonsai” (dwarf tree) museum. In New York, there’s a TV commercials museum. In California, there’s a toy museum. There’s even a museum in Paris full of human skeletons. Recently many cities around the world have built science museums where visitors, especially children, can interact with machines and hi-tech exhibits. Museums should be places where we can see beautiful things as well as learn useful things for our lives.
2) Vocabulary
Write the English meanings.
１ 博物館 ２ ヨーロッパの 3 伝統
４ 保存する ５ 有名な６ 大英博物館
７ ルーブル ８ ～のことを考える
９ 形式張った 10 ～を含む 11 絵画
12 彫刻 13 実際には 14 多様な
15 低く小さい木 16 コマーシャル
17 玩具 18 ～でいっぱいの
19 人の 20 骸骨 21 最近
22 科学 23 訪問者 24 特に
25 ～と交わる 26 展示物
27 ～ばかりでなく、、、も 28 役に立つ
29 何回（= how many times ）
30 訪問する 31 build …………(過去分詞)
3) Reading comprehension questions
1. Which part of the world has the longest
tradition of museums?
2. Where do countries preserve
their cultural history?
3. What are the world's two most
famous museums?
4. Where is the Louvre Museum?
5. When we think of museums,
what do we usually think of?
6. What is "dwarf tree" in Japanese?
7. What is one museum in Paris full of?
8. Recently, what kind of museums
have many cities built?
9. What kind of places should museums be?
10. How often do you visit a museum?