The Museum Robot Guide
A free A2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 5 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
The new robot guide at a science museum stops in the middle of a tour, and a young girl takes over.
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Ezio takes a tour at the science museum. The museum has a new robot guide. It is tall and white. It has a round face and a blue light on its head.
"Please follow my light," the robot says in a flat voice.
Ten people follow the robot through the planet room. They pass the magnet table. In the space room, the robot stops under a huge rocket.
"Welcome to the space room. Here you can see the biggest rocket in the…"
The robot stops. Its blue light goes out. Its arms stay in the air.
Everyone waits. A man taps the robot's arm. Nothing happens.
"I think its battery is dead," says Ezio. He looks around for a staff member, but nobody is there.
A girl of nine raises her hand. Her name is Ruth. "I know every room in this museum," she says. "I come here every Saturday with my grandmother. I can finish the tour."
Ezio looks at the others. "Why not?" he says.
Ruth walks to the front. She tells them how the rocket flew. At the magnet table, she shows them a trick. Two magnets push each other away if you hold them right. In the last room, she knows the best place for a photo.
Ezio learns more from Ruth in ten minutes than from the robot.
At the end, a woman in a museum shirt hears the story. She gives Ruth a badge that says "Guide of the Day." Ruth pins it on her coat.
Behind them, the robot's light comes on again. "Welcome to the museum," it says. "Please follow my light."
Nobody follows it.
