Uploaded June 2015 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
1) Questions open to interpretation:
a) Have you ever seen a mummy? Where? How old was it?
b) What do you know about Buddha?
c) Would you like to visit an exposition showing a mummy?
d) What sections of a museum you appreciate the most?
2) Common vocabularies of a museum
a curator a tour guide preservation an exhibition
admission fee a donation an artifact a collection
cultural a gift shop deterioration a protocol
3) Read the following passages:
Unlike fossils or skeletons, mummies still have some of their soft tissue, such as organs or muscles. Such tissue usually decays, or breaks down, as bacteria and maggots grow. When a body is mummified, it is preserved so that the bacteria cannot grow. Some mummies are intentionally preserved by humans; others are accidentally preserved by the natural qualities of the environment, such as ice or sand. Different forms of mummification include the following:
Embalming is the process of deliberately preserving a body. It involves drying a body with sunlight, fire, smoke, or chemicals, which removes the moisture that bacteria and maggots need to grow. Ice also preserves a body because bacteria cannot live in freezing temperatures. Some soil and mud environments preserve bodies because they contain chemicals that kill bacteria. Dry desert environments may preserve bodies because there is very little moisture in the air.
3) Answer the questions based on you understanding:
a) Where was the Chinese statue smuggled?
b) What did the experts find while scanning the statue?
c) Who is the owner of the statue?
d) What had done the monk in order to mummify him?
e) Who is only allowed to practice “self-mummification”?
4) Check with the teacher the following Pronunciation
Poisonous Revered Succeeded Statue
Antiquities Revealed Cavity Comprehensive
Private Museum Cloth Identity
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
Keeping secrets can be a difficult thing to do but this golden statue of the Buddha has been hiding something from collectors and antiquities experts since the 14th century.
The statue which originated in the Chinese temple was smuggled to the Netherlands where researchers revealed its extraordinary secret: a 1,000 year old mummy encased in the cavity.
When experts at the Drents Museum put the rare object through a CT scan, a comprehensive three-dimensional x-ray image showed the full details of the sitting mummy.
“The Buddha statue belongs to a Dutch private collector and when he bought it he had no idea what was hiding inside. He let it to the Dutch Assem museum for an exhibit and they put it on a CT machine, X-rayed and discovered the statue hides a mummy of a monk.”
The mummy was found sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liu Quan who may have practiced “self-mummification” to prepare for life after death; a known tradition in countries like Thailand, Japan and China.
The process of self-mummification included consuming various poisonous food and drink to make the body too toxic to be eaten by maggots. Few monks were successful in their attempts but those who succeeded were revered.
“This was not a suicide. It’s only us and those who lived later who consider this to be a suicide. It had several reasons. Basically not everyone must allow to try this – only Buddha’s masters who reached a very high level could do this with the permit. Their own reason was to reach a certain level, to reach Nirvana this way”.
It is believed that the monk Liu Quan was worshipped in his exposed form for around 200 years before being transformed into a statue in the 14th century.
You can now pay your respects to the statue at the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest, where it’s on an international tour.
6) Vocabulary: Match the following vocabularies to their meanings
a) Smuggled ( ) To show religious reverence
b) Bundle ( ) Overall, extensive, full
c) Maggot ( ) To be put in
d) Worship ( ) To illegally export or import
e) Encased ( ) Wrapped, rolled, tied
f) Comprehensive ( ) Larva or worm
1) Questions open to interpretation:
a) Have you ever seen a mummy? Where? How old was it?
b) What do you know about Buddha?
c) Would you like to visit an exposition showing a mummy?
d) What sections of a museum you appreciate the most?
2) Common vocabularies of a museum
a curator a tour guide preservation an exhibition
admission fee a donation an artifact a collection
cultural a gift shop deterioration a protocol
3) Read the following passages:
Unlike fossils or skeletons, mummies still have some of their soft tissue, such as organs or muscles. Such tissue usually decays, or breaks down, as bacteria and maggots grow. When a body is mummified, it is preserved so that the bacteria cannot grow. Some mummies are intentionally preserved by humans; others are accidentally preserved by the natural qualities of the environment, such as ice or sand. Different forms of mummification include the following:
Embalming is the process of deliberately preserving a body. It involves drying a body with sunlight, fire, smoke, or chemicals, which removes the moisture that bacteria and maggots need to grow. Ice also preserves a body because bacteria cannot live in freezing temperatures. Some soil and mud environments preserve bodies because they contain chemicals that kill bacteria. Dry desert environments may preserve bodies because there is very little moisture in the air.
3) Answer the questions based on you understanding:
a) Where was the Chinese statue smuggled?
b) What did the experts find while scanning the statue?
c) Who is the owner of the statue?
d) What had done the monk in order to mummify him?
e) Who is only allowed to practice “self-mummification”?
4) Check with the teacher the following Pronunciation
Poisonous Revered Succeeded Statue
Antiquities Revealed Cavity Comprehensive
Private Museum Cloth Identity
5) Fill in the blanks based on what you listen:
Keeping secrets can be a difficult thing to do but this golden statue of the Buddha has been hiding something from collectors and antiquities experts since the 14th century.
The statue which originated in the Chinese temple was smuggled to the Netherlands where researchers revealed its extraordinary secret: a 1,000 year old mummy encased in the cavity.
When experts at the Drents Museum put the rare object through a CT scan, a comprehensive three-dimensional x-ray image showed the full details of the sitting mummy.
“The Buddha statue belongs to a Dutch private collector and when he bought it he had no idea what was hiding inside. He let it to the Dutch Assem museum for an exhibit and they put it on a CT machine, X-rayed and discovered the statue hides a mummy of a monk.”
The mummy was found sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liu Quan who may have practiced “self-mummification” to prepare for life after death; a known tradition in countries like Thailand, Japan and China.
The process of self-mummification included consuming various poisonous food and drink to make the body too toxic to be eaten by maggots. Few monks were successful in their attempts but those who succeeded were revered.
“This was not a suicide. It’s only us and those who lived later who consider this to be a suicide. It had several reasons. Basically not everyone must allow to try this – only Buddha’s masters who reached a very high level could do this with the permit. Their own reason was to reach a certain level, to reach Nirvana this way”.
It is believed that the monk Liu Quan was worshipped in his exposed form for around 200 years before being transformed into a statue in the 14th century.
You can now pay your respects to the statue at the National Museum of Natural History in Budapest, where it’s on an international tour.
6) Vocabulary: Match the following vocabularies to their meanings
a) Smuggled ( ) To show religious reverence
b) Bundle ( ) Overall, extensive, full
c) Maggot ( ) To be put in
d) Worship ( ) To illegally export or import
e) Encased ( ) Wrapped, rolled, tied
f) Comprehensive ( ) Larva or worm
