Museum interpretation

Museum interpretation

In today’s globalised world, the role of museum guides is, without a doubt, crucial. Each and (9) ________ time museum guides address visitors they have a heavy responsibility to communicate as accurately as possible. A poor explanation might merely cause amusement, but at (10) ________ the consequences could sometimes be extremely serious. There are a great many problems encountered in museum interpretation work, some deriving (11) ________ the cultural differences between audiences and others caused by idioms, not to mention highly specific historical references that some argue, with good (12) ________ perhaps, cannot be easily explained. It (13) ________ without saying that guides should have a well-developed sensitivity to their local history and the broader culture that they present. But whereas once they needed little (14) ________ than exceptional linguistic skills, guides nowadays may require specialist knowledge of areas such as medicine, law or technology. One factor they consider is how the explanation sounds. Here, they may make (15) ________ of strategies such as reading their explanation aloud, thereby ensuring that words are not put in a sentence if, (16) ________ individually accurate and appropriate, together they sound harsh or unpleasant.