British Museum / 大英博物馆
The British Museum is one of the largest and most important museums in the world.
大英博物馆是世界上最大、最重要的博物馆之一。
It specialises in understanding human history and its culture, from the beginning of human existence up to the present day.
它专注于理解从人类存在之处到现今的人类历史及其文化。
The museum currently has more than 7 million objects in its collection, collected from all over the world.
该博物馆目前收藏了来自世界各地的700多万件展品。
It is currently the third most popular museum in the world, after the Louvre and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
它目前是世界上第三大最受欢迎的博物馆，仅次于卢浮宫和纽约大都会艺术博物馆。
The museum is also famous for being the first museum in the world to be open to the general public.
这座博物馆还因成为世界上第一个向公众开放的博物馆而闻名。
Like other national museums and art galleries in Great Britain, the museum does not charge an admission fee.
像英国其他国家博物馆和美术馆一样，该博物馆不收取入场费。
The British Museum started with the British physicist, Hans Sloane.
大英博物馆由英国物理学家汉斯·斯隆创立。
He had collected over 80,000 important cultural artifacts from Egypt, Greece, and Italy, and from both North and South America.
他收集了来自埃及、希腊和意大利以及南、北美洲地区的超过八万件重要文物。
Most of his artifacts were books and manuscripts but also included some archaeological objects as well.
他的大部分文物是书籍和手稿，但也包括一些考古物件。
He did not want his collection to be split up when he died so he bequeathed it to the British parliament.
他不希望自己去世后收藏被分散，因此将其遗赠给英国议会。
The British parliament considered many buildings in London to house this collection including Buckingham House, a building that would later become Buckingham Palace.
英国议会考虑了伦敦的许多建筑来安放这些收藏，包括白金汉大厦，也就是后来的白金汉宫。
Eventually, they decided on a building called Montagu House.
最终，他们决定选择一栋名为蒙塔古大厦的建筑。
The museum opened on 15th January 1759 and visitors were shown around the museum by museum curators.
博物馆于1759年1月15日开放，游客由博物馆馆长带领参观博物馆。
Over time, the museum concentrated more and more on archaeological objects and statues.
随着时间的推移，博物馆越来越专注于考古物品和雕像。
Objects acquired by the museum include the famous Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.
博物馆收藏的物品包括著名的罗塞塔石碑和埃尔金大理石雕刻。
In 1822, King George III donated the entire Royal Library to the museum.
1822年，乔治三世国王将整个皇家图书馆捐赠给了博物馆。
Although some space was created by donating some paintings to the National Gallery, the British Museum was quickly running out of space.
尽管通过向国家美术馆捐赠一些画作腾出了一些空间，大英博物馆仍很快就空间不足了。
In 1823, the original building was demolished and it was replaced by a new larger building.
1823年，原建筑被拆除，取而代之的是一座更大的新建筑。
Further buildings were added to the museum to house the museums’ rapidly expanding collection.
为了容纳博物馆迅速扩展的藏品，博物馆又增加了几座建筑。
Eventually, the Natural History Museum was created in 1887 to house the museums’ biological specimens.
最终，自然历史博物馆于1887年建立，用于收藏博物馆的生物标本。
About this time, the British Museum became one of the first public buildings in the U.K. to have electric lights installed.
大约在这个时候，大英博物馆成为英国首批安装电灯的公共建筑之一。
During the Second World War, the museum was attacked by the German Air Force.
在第二次世界大战期间，该博物馆遭到德国空军的袭击。
Although parts of the museum were destroyed, all of the museums’ precious objects were hidden and protected in London Underground stations.
尽管博物馆的部分区域被毁坏，但博物馆的所有珍贵物品都被隐藏并保存在伦敦地铁站。
After the war, the National Museum continued to grow.
战争结束后，国家博物馆继续发展。
The museum ran out of space for all the books in its collection and so in 1973, the British Library was created.
博物馆的藏书空间已满，因此在1973年，大英图书馆成立了。
Finally, in 1998, the unused central courtyard was provided with a glass roof to provide a stunningly beautiful area from which visitors can explore the whole museum.
最终，在1998年，未使用的中央庭院安装了玻璃屋顶，打造出一个令人惊叹的美丽区域，游客可以从这里探索整个博物馆。
This world famous museum still continues to grow and attracts more than 6 million visitors a year.
这座世界著名的博物馆仍在不断发展，每年吸引超过六百万游客。