Field Trips – B2 English Listening Exercise

9 main entrance 10 student card 11 burial customs 12 painted masks

13 golden jewellery 14 chemical preservatives 15 interactive map

16 flash photography 17 short essay 18 train station

Liam: Hi everyone, thanks for coming to this briefing. I’m Liam, and I’m coordinating our History and Archaeology field trip this Friday. We’re heading to the British Museum to conduct some in-depth research on their famous Egyptian mummies, and I want to make sure we’re all fully prepared.

First things first, let’s talk about getting there. We usually meet at the campus gates for these trips and travel together, but because the tube is going to be incredibly busy, please gather directly at the main entrance of the museum. Aim to be there by 9:30 AM sharp so we can beat the massive tourist crowds.

When you arrive, I’ll be waiting to hand out the entry lanyards. You won’t need to bring your printed tickets, because I have the entire group booking downloaded on my phone. However, you must remember your student card to get the group discount applied at the cloakroom and the gift shop, so double-check your wallets before you leave home.

As you know, this term’s modules have shifted focus slightly. Our overarching theme for this term hasn’t been architecture, as was initially planned in the syllabus. Instead, we are looking deeply into burial customs, and the Egyptian collection is absolutely perfect for providing primary evidence of this.

When we head up to the main mummy exhibition on the upper floor, it can be quite overwhelming. You’ll probably be drawn to the huge stone sarcophagi first, because they are so visually dominant. But I want us to start by examining the painted masks located in the glass cases on the left. They give us incredible insight into the facial reconstruction and artistic styles of the period.

During our walkthrough, we will specifically analyse the mummy of Katebet. She was an important priestess in ancient Thebes. Because of her high status, you might expect her to be buried with weapons or symbols of authority, but she was actually found adorned with exquisite golden jewellery, which is incredibly well preserved and tells us a lot about their metalworking skills.

At eleven o’clock, we’re very lucky to have a guest curator speaking to our group in the museum’s education centre. I originally thought she’d discuss the religious rituals surrounding the afterlife, but her talk will actually focus on the chemical preservatives used in the mummification process. It’s a fascinating crossover between ancient science and archaeology.

After a break for lunch in the great court, we have a practical task. Normally, you’d be using a traditional worksheet to record your findings as we walk around. Not this time! We’ve been granted special access to a new interactive map on the museum’s digital tablets to log our data, which is a fantastic piece of technology for field archaeologists.

A quick word on museum rules before I forget. Sketching is absolutely fine in all the rooms, and you can bring water bottles into the main foyer. But, please note that flash photography is strictly forbidden in the mummy galleries. The intense light can severely damage the ancient pigments, so please ensure your phones and cameras are adjusted properly.

Regarding your coursework, this trip forms a major part of your final assessment. You’ll be pleased to hear that you aren’t required to deliver a group presentation this time around. Instead, everyone must submit a short essay summarising their research findings by next Friday. I’ll email the exact word count and formatting guidelines this afternoon.

Finally, the trip officially wraps up at 4 PM. We won’t be taking a private coach back to the university, as the parking situation in central London is a nightmare. We’ll just walk over to the nearby train station and head back together from there. If you want to stay longer, you are free to do so, just let me know. Any questions?

9 coach 10 farmhouse 11 waterfall 12 waterproofs

13 wild ponies 14 computer room 15 soil

16 map reading 17 compass 18 tourism

Mark: Hi everyone. My name’s Mark, and I’m here to tell you about a brilliant geography field trip I recently went on. Our class spent a week accommodated at a field study centre, which is nestled right inside a designated nature reserve in Wales.

We set off early on Monday morning. We’d initially thought we’d go by train, as the station is quite close to our school, but we actually travelled down on a coach because it was easier to transport all our heavy equipment. It took about four hours, but the scenery was absolutely stunning once we crossed the Welsh border.

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting to sleep in tents, which would have been freezing, however, the field study centre was actually an old converted farmhouse. It was really cosy, with a huge kitchen and amazing views over the valley.

After dropping our bags, we headed straight out into the reserve. Our first hike took us past a fast-flowing river, which was great for sketching, but the main thing we stopped to study was a spectacular waterfall. We spent a good hour measuring the drop and taking notes on the erosion of the rock face behind the water.

Now, everyone tells you to bring sturdy walking boots to Wales, and I did, but what you really rely on is your waterproofs, because it poured down almost the entire time! Without them, I wouldn’t have survived the long days out in the field.

Despite the rain, the wildlife in the reserve was incredible. We were surrounded by sheep, of course, which you see everywhere, but on the second afternoon we were thrilled to catch sight of a herd of wild ponies. They were grazing quietly on a hillside, and it was a real privilege to see them so close up in their natural habitat.

Our days were long. After dinner, we didn’t just hang out in the library relaxing. Instead, we spent hours in the computer room inputting our data. It was quite exhausting, but it was crucial to get all our measurements typed up while they were still fresh in our minds.

We also had to complete a group project by the end of the week. My group’s project wasn’t about rocks, which is what I originally wanted to do, because another group had already taken that topic. In the end, we examined the local soil. We took samples from different elevations to see how the acidity changed, which turned out to be really fascinating.

Throughout the week, we learned loads of practical techniques. I’m already into photography, so I didn’t need much help taking pictures of the landscape, but the most valuable thing I picked up on the trip was definitely map reading. I went from getting completely lost to being able to navigate across open moorland using just grid references!

For one of our microclimate experiments, we had to use various instruments. To measure the temperature changes, some kids used a digital thermometer, but I was tasked with holding the compass to find out which direction the wind was blowing from. It was surprisingly tricky to keep it steady in the strong gusts!

On the final evening, every group had to give a talk summarizing their findings. For our final presentation, we could choose between agriculture and another local issue. We went with tourism since it affects the reserve so much, both positively and negatively. It was a great way to round off an exhausting but incredibly rewarding week. I highly recommend going on a field trip if you ever get the chance!