2019年大學(xué)英語六級閱讀理解試題（11）

The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expression ist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed indifferent ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.

Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.

1. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with

[A]. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.

[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.

[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.

[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.

2. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12—13?

[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.

3. Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?

[A]. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.

[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.

[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.

[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.

4. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.

[B]. It was art for recording the world.

[C]. It was a device for observing the world impartially.

[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.

VOCABULARY

1. Palaeolithic 舊石器時代的

2. Neolithic 新石器時代的

3. escalator 自動電梯，自動扶梯

4. ski-lift 載送滑雪者上坡的裝置

5. mar 損壞，毀壞

6. blur 模糊不清，朦朧

7. smear 涂，弄臟，弄模糊(尤指畫面、輪廓等)

8. evocative 引起回憶的，喚起感情的

9. El Dorado (由當(dāng)時西班牙征服者想象中的南美洲)黃金國，寶山，富庶之鄉(xiāng)

10. Kabul 喀布爾(阿富汗首都)

11. Irkutsk 伊爾庫茨克(原蘇聯(lián)亞洲城市)

1. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of theworld – or even if the wing of the aircraft happensto get in your way.

【參考譯文】飛機旅行，你只可俯視世界――如果機翼碰巧擋住了你的視線，就看得更少了。

2. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the country-side constantly smearsthe windows.

【參考譯文】如果乘車或火車旅行，郊外模糊朦朧的景象不斷地掠過窗口。

寫作方法與文章大意

文章以因果寫作方法，寫出了由于種種現(xiàn)代化交通設(shè)施、人們不需用腳走路，甚至也不需要用眼看景，出門就坐汽車、公交車、地鐵、飛機……，車、機速度飛快，外邊的景物難以看清，最終導(dǎo)致人們忘記用腳、用眼成為“無腳之人”。一切都經(jīng)歷不到。作者建議最佳的旅游方法是徒步――經(jīng)歷現(xiàn)實。

友情提示：答案及解析請見下一頁

1. A 人們忘了用腳。答案在第一段：人類學(xué)家把以往年代的人們分別標(biāo)上舊石器時代、新石器時代人，等等。干脆利落地總結(jié)了一個時期。當(dāng)他們轉(zhuǎn)向20世紀(jì)，他們肯定會標(biāo)上“無腳的人”。因為在20世紀(jì)，人們忘了如何用腳走路。男人女人早年外出就坐車、公共汽車、火車。大樓里由電梯、自動扶梯，不需要人們走路。即使度假期間，他們也不用腳。他們筑有纜車道、滑雪載車和路直通山頂。所有的風(fēng)景旅游區(qū)都有大型的汽車停車場。

B 人們喜歡汽車、公交車、火車等。 C 電梯、自動扶梯制止人們走路。 D 有許多交通運輸工具。

2. A 人們的注意力在未來。見最后一段第一句話：當(dāng)你高速旅行，現(xiàn)在等于零，你主要生活在未來，因為你大部分時間盯在前面到達的某個地方。真到了，又沒有意義了，你還要再向前進。

B 是一種歡樂。 C 滿足司機強烈的渴望。第二段中提及死機醉心于開車、不停車但不是快速前進著眼于未來。 D 生活的需要。這一條在第一段中提及這種情況是因為他們那異常的生活方法強加給時代的居民。這是指不用腳走路，而用一切代步器――交通運輸工具，不是開快車。

3. C 人們在旅行途中什么都見不到。答案在第二段，由一地轉(zhuǎn)向另一地，路上你什么都沒有見到。乘飛機你只能俯視世界，火車，汽車，只見外界朦朧景象掠過窗子。海上旅游，只見到海。“我到過那里”此話含義就是“我以一小時一百英里在去某某地方時經(jīng)過那里”。正因為如此，作者指出將來的歷史書上會記錄下：我們被剝奪了眼睛的應(yīng)用。

A 人們不愿用眼睛。 B 在高速旅行中，眼睛沒有用了。 D 旅行中，人們想睡覺。

4. D 旅行的最佳方式是走路。文章第一段、第二段分別講述了旅行可不用腳、不用眼等情況。第三段，在講述了人們只知向前向前，一切經(jīng)歷都停滯，現(xiàn)實不再是現(xiàn)實，還不如死的好。而用腳走路的旅行者總是生活再現(xiàn)實，對他來說旅行和到達是一回事，他一步一步走到某地，他用眼睛、耳朵，以至整個身體去體驗現(xiàn)在時刻、旅行終點，他感到全身舒坦愉悅的疲勞，美美享受滿足的酣睡;一切真正旅行者的真實報償。這一段就是作者寫文章的目的――走路是旅行的最佳方式。

A 腳變得軟弱無力。 B 現(xiàn)代交通工具把世界變小。 C 沒有必要用眼睛。

5. C 從高出向下看的景致：俯視。

A 用鳥的眼睛看景點。 B 鳥在看美景。 D 風(fēng)景點。

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