The Museum of Ordinary Objects (relative clauses)

The Museum of Ordinary Objects

This teapot, which belonged to a ship's cook…

B2 · 60 minutes

Warmer

TASK In pairs. Ask and answer.

What's the oldest object in your home?

1

What's the most useless thing you own, and why do you keep it?

2

Which object in your home gets used the most?

3

Guess the object

TASK In pairs. Which object goes with each fact? Guess.

1

It once travelled to another city on its own.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

2

It holds more than four thousand things.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

3

It was never washed, not once.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

4

It crossed an ocean eleven times.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

5

It was lost at least nine times.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

6

Its story started the whole museum.

teapot

umbrella

button tin

Press play

Audio guide. Press the number on each case to hear its story.

TASK Read the audio guide. Check your guesses.

Welcome

Hello. I'm Ines Varga, the curator. Our founder, whose grandmother kept every button she ever found, opened the museum in 1998 in her old flat. If you need a rest, the chairs which are by the window are for visitors. The chairs by the stairs, which are over a hundred years old, are part of the collection. Please don't sit on them.

Stop 3: The button tin

This is the tin that started everything. It holds 4,206 buttons, which our founder's grandmother picked up from pavements, parks and cinema floors over sixty years. She sorted them by colour, not size, which nobody in the family ever understood. The smallest one, which is in the case next to the tin, is the size of a lentil.

Stop 1: The teapot

This teapot, which belonged to a ship's cook, crossed the Atlantic eleven times. The cook, to whom it was given by his first captain, made tea in it every morning for thirty years. He never washed it once, which explains the brown colour inside. Soap, he said, ruined the taste.

Stop 4: The writing desk

Our last stop is a desk from the flat upstairs. Its owner, who lived there for fifty years, wrote at it every evening. The drawer in which his letters were found had been locked for forty years. There were thirty-one, all to the local newspaper and all about the town hall clock, which was always four minutes fast. He never posted a single one.

Stop 2: The umbrella

Next is an umbrella whose owner lost it at least nine times on buses and trains. It always came back, because her address was sewn inside. Once it went to Lisbon on its own. The lost-property office in which it spent the most time returned it with a short note: "Again?"

Thank you for visiting. The shop, where you can buy a postcard of the teapot, is on your left. The town hall clock, by the way, is still four minutes fast.

After the tour

TASK In pairs. Answer the questions,

then tell the class.

Which object in the guide would you most like to see, and why?

1

Which everyday object from today would you put in a museum for people in a hundred years?

2

Spot the difference

TASK Listen to the two sentences. What's the difference?

1

2

The chairs, which were made in Vienna, are by the window.

The chairs which were made in Vienna are by the window.

Back to the script

TASK Find these in the audio guide. Answer yes or no. Then complete the rule.

1

This teapot, which belonged to a ship's cook, … Can you say that instead of which?

yes

no

2

…every button she ever found… Can you add that after button?

yes

no

3

This is the tin that started everything. Can you say which instead of that?

yes

no

4

…4,206 buttons, which our founder's grandmother picked up… Can you leave out which?

yes

no

5

Its owner, who lived there for fifty years, … Can you say that instead of who?

yes

no

With commas: never use __________________________

never leave out __________________________

Guide voice, everyday voice

TASK Rewrite each phrase in the other style. Complete the empty half of each row.

Audio guide (formal)

Everyday (informal)

The drawer in which his letters were found

The drawer ________________

The town hall clock, about which he wrote thirty-one letters

The town hall clock, ________________

________________

The man the desk belonged to

________________

The shelf I put the key on

Grammar reference

Extra information: commas

Name or noun, who / which / whose + clause, … This teapot, which belonged to a ship's cook, crossed the Atlantic. The sentence still works without it. Never that, and never leave out which / who.

Which one? No commas

The chairs which are by the window are for visitors (only those chairs). That is fine here. You can leave it out when it's the object: every button (that) she ever found. Not when it's the subject: the chairs which are by the window.

whose + noun

= his / her / its + noun, for people and things, with no the: an umbrella whose owner lost it nine times.

Whose and who's sound the same: /hu:z/.

which after a comma

it can mean the whole idea before it: He never washed it, which explains the colour.

preposition + which / whom

formal, for guides and writing: the drawer in which the letters were found, the cook, to whom it was given.

preposition at the end

everyday: the drawer (that) the letters were found in. With commas, keep the pronoun: the cook, who it was given to, …

CAREFUL

never that after a comma or after a preposition · the preposition goes in once (not in which … in) · which, not what, for the whole idea · don't repeat the object: the teapot, which the cook used every day (not used it).

Commas or no commas?

TASK Does the clause tell us which one, or add extra information? Add commas where they're needed.

1

Ines Varga who has worked here since 2009 chose every object in this room.

2

The museum's roof which was repaired in 2020 no longer leaks.

3

The visitors who arrive before ten get a free postcard.

4

Farida whose father mended clocks for a living restored the writing desk.

5

A teapot which has never been washed is not something I'd drink from.

6

In the shop, the umbrellas which have a white handle cost more than the ones with a black handle.

Join them up

TASK Join the two sentences into one. Use the word or words in capitals.

1

Ines Varga found this clock at a market. It has shown 4:15 for fifty years.

WHICH

This clock, __________, has shown 4:15 for fifty years.

2

This pen belonged to a poet. Very little is known about her.

ABOUT WHOM

This pen belonged to a poet __________.

3

Jonah gave us this radio. His uncle was a radio engineer.

WHOSE

Jonah, __________, gave us this radio.

4

The keys in this box don't open any door in the building. This is still a mystery.

WHICH

The keys in this box don't open any door in the building, __________.

5

Our cleaner dusts every object by hand. He has worked here for twenty years.

WHO

Our cleaner, __________, dusts every object by hand.

6

This is the suitcase. Farida travelled round Asia with it.

WITH WHICH

This is the suitcase __________ round Asia.

Say it like a guide

TASK Listen and repeat. Then read them to a partner like an audio guide.

This teapot, which belonged to a ship's cook, crossed the Atlantic eleven times.

1

Our founder, whose grandmother kept every button she ever found, opened the museum in 1998.

2

3

The chairs which are by the window are for visitors.

The Museum of Me

TASK In groups. Present one object as a stop in the Museum of Me.

1

Choose an object from your home, real or invented.

Make notes: where it came from, who it belonged to, what happened to it.

2

Present it like the audio guide. Use at least three relative clauses, one with whose or a preposition + which.

3

4

Listeners: ask one question about the object.

Homework

TASK Turn Ines's notes into a gallery label of 60–80 words. Use at least four relative clauses: one with whose, one with a preposition + which / whom, and one where which means the whole idea. Then correct the mistake in each of sentences 1–5 (keep the punctuation).

Ines's notes: case 12

Bicycle bell, blue, very loud. Belonged to a postman. Same route for 35 years. Took the bell off his bike every night: nobody knows why. Bike stolen in 1987, bell safe at home! Found in a biscuit tin. Jonah's family gave us the tin. Rings a slightly wrong note. Nobody can explain this.

1

Our only bicycle bell, that was made in the 1960s, still works.

2

The postman, whose his route was twenty kilometres long, rode his bike every day.

3

The tin in which the bell was found in belonged to Jonah's family.

4

It rings a slightly wrong note, what nobody can explain.

5

The bell, which the postman rang it at every gate, is the loudest in the museum.

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (1)

GUESS THE OBJECT

Teapot 3, 4

Umbrella 1, 5

Button tin 2, 6

BACK TO THE SCRIPT

No 1, 4, 5. Yes · 2, 3.

The rule that; which / who (the pronoun)

GUIDE VOICE, EVERYDAY VOICE

1 The drawer (which / that) his letters were found in

2 The town hall clock, which he wrote thirty-one letters about

3 The man to whom the desk belonged

GUIDE VOICE, EVERYDAY VOICE (CONT.)

4 The shelf on which I put the key

COMMAS OR NO COMMAS?

Commas 1 (Ines Varga, who has worked here since 2009, chose…), 2 (The museum's roof, which was repaired in 2020, no longer…), 4 (Farida, whose father mended clocks for a living, restored…)

No commas 3, 5, 6 (they tell us which visitors, which teapot, which umbrellas)

JOIN THEM UP

1 This clock, which Ines Varga found at a market, has shown 4:15 for fifty years.

2 This pen belonged to a poet about whom very little is known. (or: about whom we know very little; a comma before about whom is also correct)

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key (2)

3 Jonah, whose uncle was a radio engineer, gave us this radio.

4 The keys in this box don't open any door in the building, which is still a mystery.

5 Our cleaner, who has worked here for twenty years, dusts every object by hand.

6 This is the suitcase with which Farida travelled round Asia.

HOMEWORK (POSSIBLE ANSWER)

• This blue bicycle bell, which is very loud, belonged to a postman whose route stayed the same for 35 years. Every night he took the bell off his bike, which nobody can explain. When the bike was stolen in 1987, the bell was safe at home. The biscuit tin in which it was found came from Jonah's family. The bell rings a slightly wrong note, which is still a mystery.

HOMEWORK (CORRECTIONS)

1 Our only bicycle bell, which was made in the 1960s, still works.

2 The postman, whose route was twenty kilometres long, rode his bike every day.

3 The tin in which the bell was found belonged to Jonah's family. (or: The tin (which / that) the bell was found in…)

4 It rings a slightly wrong note, which nobody can explain.

5 The bell, which the postman rang at every gate, is the loudest in the museum.