A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.
In history books, objective (客观的) information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its abuse of power over people.
In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art had been almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that described people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand the Bible stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast (对比), one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are not holy.
63. Which of the following statements has the closest meaning to the underlined sentence?
A. General history only focuses on politics.
B. Art history shows us nothing but the political values.
C. General history concerns only religious beliefs, emotions and psychology.
D. Art history gives us an insight (洞察力) into the essential qualities of a time and a place.
64. Art is subjective in that __________.
A. it can easily arouse people’s anger about their government
B. it only reflects people’s anger or sadness about social problems.
C. a personal and emotional view of history is presented through it.
D. artists were or are religious, who reflect only the religious aspect of the society.
65. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Francisco Goya expressed his religious belief in his painting.
B. In history books political views of people are entirely presented.
C. For centuries in Europe, painters had only painted on walls of churches.
D. In the Middle East, you can hardly find animal or human figures on church walls.
66. What’s the main topic of the passage?
A. The development of art history.
B. What we can learn from art.
C. The influence of artists on art history.
D. The difference between general history and art history.
Watching bison up close is fascinating, like watching a grass fire about to leap out of control. With their huge, wedge-shaped heads and silver-dollar-size brown eyes, the 2,000-pound animals are symbols of another place and time. More than 100 bison now roam the 30,000-acre American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana — the first time they’ve inhabited that region in a century. Direct descendants of the tens of millions of bison that once populated the Western plains, they represent an epic effort: to restore a piece of America’s prairie to the national grandeur that Lewis and Clark extolled two centuries ago. During that famous expedition across the Western states to the Pacific, the two explorers encountered so many bison that they had to wait hours for one herd to pass.
In order to protect what’s here and reintroduce long-gone wildlife (something the World Wildlife Fund is helping with), the American Prairie Foundation began purchasing land from local ranchers in 2004. It now owns 30,000 acres and has grazing privileges on another 57,000. Its goal over the next 25 years is to assemble three million acres, the largest area of land devoted to wildlife management in the continental United States.
Already, herds of elk, deer, and pronghorn antelope roam the grasslands, where visitors can camp, hike, and bike. Cottonwoods and willows are thriving along streams, creating habitats for bobcats, beavers, and other animals.
Not everyone shares APF’s vision. Some residents of Phillips County (pop. 3,904) worry that the area could become a prairie Disneyland, overcrowded with tourists. But the biggest obstacle is the ranchers themselves, whose cattle compete with prairie dogs and bison for grass and space.
“People like me have no intention of selling their ranches,” says Dale Veseth, who heads the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance of 35 families in Phillips County and whose family has been ranching here since 1886. “They’ve been a labor of love through the generations.” Instead, he wants APF to pay or subsidize ranchers to raise bison. This would be far less costly for the foundation, he argues, than buying the land directly.If you go to the American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana, you will see ________.
| A．the burning fire moving across the grassland |
| B．hundreds of bison travelling through the prairie |
| C．tens of millions of bison occupying the farmland |
| D．groups of experts examining the dead bison |
What measures have been taken to protect the wildlife by APF?
| A．They have borrowed much money and developed new habitat. |
| B．They have hired many farmers to raise bison on their farms. |
| C．They have turned grassland into Disneyland to attract tourists. |
| D．They have bought large land from farmers for bison to live on. |
The underlined word “subsidize” in this passage means ________.
| A．give money to | B．borrow money from |
| C．provide land to | D．exchange land with |
Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A．The exciting scenery in eastern Montana |
| B．Great changes in raising bison in America |
| C．The return of the American prairie |
| D．The challenge in protecting the grassland |
The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken mainly by banning tiger-shooting to protect those animals which still survive.
Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely our earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.
I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauty of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.
The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives. One of them wrote:
“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it clearly and on the animal’s own territory (领地).You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day. This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals. Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing — not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people.”
I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger-shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used. The so-called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits.There is no more hunting in India now partly because ________.
| A．it is dangerous to hunt there | B．hunting is already out of date |
| C．hunters want to protect animals | D．there are few animals left to hunt |
The author thinks modern hunters kill mainly ________.
| A．to make the countryside safe | B．to earn people’s admiration |
| C．to gain power and influence | D．to improve their health |
What do we learn about the big-game hunters?
| A．They hunt old animals. | B．They mistreat animals. |
| C．They hunt for food. | D．They hunt for money. |
What is the author’s view on the tiger-shoots he has seen?
| A．Modern hunters lack the courage to hunt face-to-face. |
| B．Modern hunters should use more advanced weapons. |
| C．Modern hunters like to hunt rabbits instead of tigers. |
| D．Modern hunters should put their safety first. |
Warning: reading too much Cinderella to your daughter may damage her emotional health in later life. A paper to be developed at the international congress of cognitive psychotherapy in Gothenburg suggests a link between the attitudes of women abused by their parents and early exposure to the wrong sort of fairy tales. It says girls who identified with Cinderella, Rapunzel and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast were more likely to say in destructive relationships as adults.
The theory was developed by Susan Darker Smith, a psychotherapist at the University of Derby. She interviewed 67 female abuse survivors and found that 61 put up with severe abuse because they believed they could change their partners with patience, composition and love. The same view was taken by male survivors who had been abused as children. Hardly any of the women in a control group, who had not experienced abuse, thought they could change their partners in this way.
These women and men said they would leave a relationship rather than put up with abuse from a partner. Ms Darker Smith found the abused women were much more likely to identify with Cinderella and other submissive female characters in fairytales, who were later rescued by a stranger prince or hero.
Although most girls heard the stories, damage appeared to be done to those who adopted the characters as role models. “They believe if their love is strong enough they can change their parents’ behaviors,” she said. “Overexposure in children to stories that emphasize the transformational qualities of love may make women believe they can change their partners.” For example, they might never have understood the obvious flaw in the story of Rapunzel, who remained locked in a high tower until rescued by a knight on a white horse, who broke the door down. “The question,” said Ms Darker Smith, “is why she did not break the door down herself.”The passage is especially intended for _________.
| A．parents with young daughters |
| B．girls who like reading fairy stories |
| C．girls who think they can change their partners |
| D．parents with grown-up daughters |
Cinderella, Rapunzel and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast are similar in that _________.
| A．they all married some princes | B．they all changed their partners with love |
| C．they were all abused by their partners | D．they all put up with abuse |
Which of the following statements is true of the women in a control group?
| A．They don’t believe in fairy tales. |
| B．They don’t believe in the transformational qualities of love. |
| C．They have also experienced abuse. |
| D．They survived abuse. |
What does the underlined word “submissive” in the 3rd paragraph probably mean?
| A．kind-hearted | B．passive | C．gentle | D．easy-going |
MEXICO CITY: A jetliner from the beach resort of Cancun was briefly hijacked as it landed in Mexico City on Wednesday. The hijackers released all passengers shortly before federal police stormed the plane, and the crew emerged unharmed moments later.
Police, who did not fire a single shot, led as many as eight handcuffed men away from the airplane, which was isolated at the end of a runway in an area designed for emergencies. The hijackers’ motive was unclear, though Mexican news media initially identified them as Bolivians demanding to speak with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
US, French and Mexican citizens were among the 112 passengers and crew on Aeromexico Flight 576, according to a US official who had been briefed on the situation. The official was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mexico’s transportation and communications secretary, Juan Molinar, said there was no bomb on the airplane, although some passengers said one of the hijackers held a package that resembled an explosive device, and a bomb squad (拆弹小组) was later seen near the airplane.
He did not immediately identify the hijackers or speculate on their motive.
“Various people who participated in the act have been detained and we are investigating,” Molinar said.
The attorney general’s office said it was opening an investigation into terrorism and kidnapping but did not specify how many people could be charged.
Mexican news media initially reported the hijackers were Bolivian, but Bolivia’s ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Mancilla, said Mexican authorities had no evidence that was the case. Mancilla said sources told him they could be Colombian or Venezuelan. Several passengers told reporters they did not notice a non-Mexican accent.
Passenger Rocio Garcia told the Televisa network that the pilot made an announcement after landing in Mexico City that the airplane was being hijacked. Passengers said the hijackers never communicated with them directly.
“These were scary moments,” she said.
She said she saw one of the hijackers whom she described as a well-dressed, older man.
“He looked fine, like a normal passenger,” she said.
Passenger Daniel Hernandez said he saw a hijacker carrying a Bible.From the first paragraph we can conclude that _________.
| A．the hijackers just wanted to play a trick on the police |
| B．the hijackers didn’t prepare for their action |
| C．the hijackers surrendered before the police fired |
| D．the hijackers lost their way at the last moment |
From what Juan Molinar said we can learn that _________.
| A．police were still trying to identify a possible bomb |
| B．passengers succeeded in stopping the explosion |
| C．a frightening bomb was found later on the airplane |
| D．several Mexicans were involved in the hijacking |
What may be the first step taken when the hijacked plane landed?
| A．They gave a sudden attack at the hijackers. |
| B．They kept the plane away from other planes. |
| C．They asked the crew to control the hijackers. |
| D．They abandoned the plane at the end of the runway. |
The hijackers, as some passengers described, _________.
| A．were good at bargaining with the police |
| B．were all well-dressed American old men |
| C．all came from Colombia or Venezuela |
| D．stayed calm and appeared noble, educated |
Many people write to newspapers and magazines to express their opinions. Letters to the editor must carry the writer’s full name, address and telephone number, although the information is not necessary for publication. This requirement to provide personal particulars is a clear indication that the writers are held responsible for what they say. When a writer wants his voice heard, he needs to claim ownership of his voice. Responsibility is the name of the game.
“People today prefer living together to putting their signatures on a marriage certificate (证书) because they refuse to accept responsibility for the relationship,” said social worker Ken Yip, “and this is what is causing a lot of family problems.” When we sign a paper, for example, a business contract or a bank document, the signature means an agreement to take the matter seriously. Most governments and many organizations will not process written complaints if they do not bear the writer’s signature. The absence of a signature, they explain, tells us that the writer cannot be too serious and therefore does not deserve a reply.
There are people who wish to remain anonymous (匿名的) for various reasons. Multibillionaire Mr. King donates generously to charity several times a year. He gives simply because he wants to help but not for the publicity his donations may bring, and he does not want his good deeds to make news. In other cases, people insist on anonymity because they are afraid of the consequences of revealing their identity. Crime witnesses may be willing to assist the police, but most are unwilling to give their names when reporting a crime.
Name or no name? The answer is very personal and lies in how much we want to get involved. We all have a name. It is a matter of responsibility to use it when we make a statement, a claim or an accusation. We all want to honor our own name, and it is only by stamping our expression of an opinion with our own name that we honor what we say.
53. What does the writer mean by saying “Responsibility is the name of the game”?
Writers need to provide their personal information in the game.
Publication must bear the writer’s full name, address and phone number.
Writers should be responsible for their names.
Names are required to indicate writer’s responsibility for what they say.
54. The second paragraph suggests that a paper without a signature may _______.
A. help to end a relationship B. not get a reply
C. be accepted all the same D. become a family problem
55. Some people don’t want their names known because they are _______.
A. hesitant to make a donation B. unwilling to draw public attention
C. afraid of an accusation D. ready for involvement
56. The passage is mainly about _______.
A. honor and writers B. identity and signature
C. signature and responsibility D. anonymity and signature
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