3. II.I Madame Tussaud’s Museum

1. Have you ever heard about Madame Tussaud? What is she famous for?

2. Read the beginning of the text about Madame Tussaud’s Museum and say why this museum is so popular.

Madame Tussaud's is the most popular wax museum. There are wax models

of the famous and infamous, both living and dead people here. There is no other

place where you can see the celebrities at once: Elvis Presley, the Beatles,

the Rolling Stones, Marilyn Monro, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, the British

Royal family, Margaret Thatcher, Jack the Ripper.

3. Working in groups or pairs. Read the part of the jumbled text, put the sentences into the right order and find the heading. Be ready to present the main ideas of your text (make up a poster).

The Grand Hall

The Camber of Horror

The Spirit of London

a) First you visit an Elizabethan theatre, then an old tavern where the great Shakespeare is working at Hamlet. You'll go through the Plague and the Great Fire; you'll see St Paul's Cathedral being built.

b) The museum is situated not far from the house of the great detective in fiction, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. There is usually a long queue in front of the museum. There are several halls at Madame Tussaud's: the Grand Hall, the Chamber of Horrors and "The Spirit of London". The wax figures are sitting, standing and sometimes even moving and talking. They look realistic and when they look at you, you feel uncomfortable in their company. Computer-controlled figures are very popular with the visitors.

c) The Chamber of Horror is the most terrible place of the whole museum. Visitors are always quiet here. Count Dracula greets you at the entrance to the dark cellar – full of villains and their victims.

d) 'The spirit of London' exhibition covers a period of more than 400 years and presents London's history from Elizabethan times to the present day. Sights, sounds and even smells combine to tell you the colourful story of Britain's capital. Visitors sit into a 'Time Taxi' and begin their historical journey.

1. The earliest figure from the history is William the Conqueror. Here you can see many politicians: Winston Churchill, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Margaret Thatcher, and Michael Gorbachev. There is also a special place for the Royal family here too).

2. There are more than 70 figures in this hall and many of them are animated: they can talk and move.

3. In the Grand Hall you will find all kinds of celebrities, from Bill Clinton to Michael Jackson. You will meet people who made the influence on our lives and whose memories still live on.

4. Here you can see the reconstruction of one of the streets of London, where Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Here you can also observe Madame Tussaud's original exhibition of the death masks of French nobility of the French Revolution, and the guillotine.

4. Agree or disagree with the statements:

a) This museum is famous for its wax models.

b) Celebrities is the synonym for outstanding.

c) The museum is made up of several halls.

d) Wax models can talk in this museum.

e) You can meet models of people with bad reputation.

f) The model of any person can be presented in the exhibition.

g) The most terrible hall of the museum is “the Spirit of London”.

h) Jack the Ripper greets you in the Chamber of Horror.

i) You can see Buckingham Palace being built.

5. You can see the exhibition travelling by a “Time Train”.

5. Read the whole text and find out if your answers were right.

6. Video. Watch the video and answer the questions about the history of museum. Make notes while watching the film.

a) Who was Madame Tussaud?

b) Why did she begin to make wax models?

c) Where was the museum situated in the beginning?

d) Were the wax models popular at that time?

e) Where is the museum now?

f) Is it difficult to make a wax model?

7. Prepare a five-minutes speech “the Place I Would Like to Visit in the Museum”.