2006/07/03 | 英语100篇精读荟萃（高级篇）㊂
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Passage Seven (Forecasting of Statistics)
Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus become part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have presumably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and seers to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present day economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled computers and high-falutin mathematical system in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associated more readily with the description of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecasters with a batting average below that of the Mets, and the President-elect of the Association cautioned that "high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of what crude and inadequate statisticians assume." We left his birthday party somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired, that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is deluded into mistaking the delineation of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical exactitude.
1. Taxation in Roman days apparently was based on
[A]. wealth. [B]. mobility. [C]. population. [D]. census takers.
2. The American Statistical Association
[A]. is converting statistical study from an art to a science.
[B]. has an excellent record in business forecasting.
[C]. is neither hopeful nor pessimistic.
[D]. speaks with mathematical exactitude.
3. The message the author wishes the reader to get is
[A]. statisticians have not advanced since the days of the Roman.
[B]. statistics is not as yet a science.
[C]. statisticians love their machine.
[D].computer is hopeful.
4. The "greatest story ever told" referred to in the passage is the story of
[A]. Christmas. [B]. The Mets.
[C]. Moses. [D]. Roman Census Takers.
Vocabulary
1. census 人口调查
2. decreed 分布法令
3. influx 汇集，流入（人口或物）
4. census taker 人口调查员
5. in the intervening years 在这期间
6. sampling 取样（调查）
7. presumable 可能的，可推测的
8. batteries 一连串，一系列
9. sage 圣人；聪明的（人-）
10. seer 先知
11. newfangled 新型的（贬义）
12. high-falutin 夸大的，夸张的
13. deplorable 悲惨的，杂乱的
14. batting average 平均成功率（原指击球平均得分数）
15. ascertainable 可以确定的/确切的
16. delineation 描述
17. exactitude 精确
难句译注
1. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests.
[结构简析] 复合句。And后为虚拟条件句。
[参考译文] 旅馆业就忧虑旅馆建的太多，不愁人太多。但是如果他们不得不碰到意想不到大批旅客，没有什么旅馆会有一位经理去安排疲惫不堪的客人的食宿。
写作方法与文章大意
文章论及"统计数字预测经济"。采用对比论证手法，还带点讽刺口吻，但气势宏伟。从两千年前恺撒·奥古斯都下令进行的人口调查说起，讲到现在的统计数字预测经济情况。得出应当正确对待预测数字的结论。
答案祥解
1. C. 人口。答案在第六句，"那时罗马计算人头作为征税的适当基础，目的很简单。"
A. 财富。 B. 流动性。 C. 人口调查员。
2. A. 正把统计研究从文科转变成理科。这是从第六句开始讲的一种观点。"现在，政府机构和私人组织的一系列复杂的统计数字，由智者和先知人物殷切地浏览和解释以取得预先外未来事件的线索。圣经并没有告诉我们罗马的人口调查员是怎么调查统计的。至于我们当前更加关心的问题：目前经济预测的可靠性，意见分歧很大。美国统计协会125周年庆祝活动上，人们在大肆宣扬这些不同观点。有一种说法是经济预测可能正从文科转向科学（理科）发展。有些人兴高采烈大谈新型计算机和非常高级数学系统。"作者虽然没有明说，明眼人一看便知，艺术向科学转变正是美国统计协会在把统计学从文科转向理科。所以A. 对。
B. 在商业预测方面具有杰出的记录。不对。实际上"平均成功率还低于the Mets"
C. 既没有希望也不乐观。文内没有提及。只提作者他们半喜半忧离开协会。
D. 以数学的精确性来说话。见下道题解释。协会部分人却有此看法"数学精确性。"
3. B. 统计学（到现在为止）还不是一门科学（理科）。文章最后几句话。"连统计协会的主席也告戒说高能统计法在实际材料原始和不允许的地方一般发挥正常。这跟低级的，不合适的统计员所假定的正好相反。我们怀着忧"希"掺半的心情离开周年庆祝宴会，怀着确实不是新近才有的信念，相信应用于确切材料上恰当的统计法在经济预测中有它的贡献，只要预测人员和公众不受蒙蔽，误呆板所述概率和趋势当作数学精确无比的预测就行。"
A. 统计员从罗马时代起就没向前进步过。 C. 统计员爱计算机。这两项文内没有提到。 D. 计算机前程远大。文内只讲了有些人怀着兴高采烈的心情大讲新型计算机和非常高级数学"系统"，暗示了计算机大有希望。但不是所有人都这样认为的。最重要的计算机的应用并不能改变这个事实：统计学不是立刻，而是文科。所以B. 对。
4. A. 基督，圣诞节，指基督的诞生。圣经中的一个故事。
B. the Mets. 圣经中率领希伯莱人出埃及的领袖，也作放债的犹太人讲。 C. 摩西。 D. 罗马人口调查员。
Passage Eight (Wakefield Master's Realism)
Moreover, insofar as any interpretation of its author can be made from the five or six plays attributed to him, the Wake field Master is uniformly considered to be a man of sharp contemporary observation. He was, formally, perhaps clerically educated, as his Latin and music, his Biblical and patristic lore indicate. He is, still, celebrated mainly for his quick sympathy for the oppressed and forgotten man, his sharp eye for character, a ready ear for colloquial vernacular turns of speech and a humor alternately rude and boisterous, coarse and happy. Hence despite his conscious artistry as manifest in his feeling for intricate metrical and stanza forms, he is looked upon as a kind of medieval Steinbeck, indignantly angry at, uncompromisingly and even brutally realistic in presenting the plight of the agricultural poor.
Thus taking the play and the author together, it is mow fairly conventional to regard the former as a kind of ultimate point in the secularization of the medieval drama. Hence much emphasis on it as depicting realistically humble manners and pastoral life in the bleak hills of the West Riding of Yorkshire on a typically cold bight of December 24th. After what are often regarded as almost "documentaries" given in the three successive monologues of the three shepherds, critics go on to affirm that the realism is then intensified into a burlesque mock-treatment of the Nativity. Finally as a sort of epilogue or after-thought in deference to the Biblical origins of the materials, the play slides back into an atavistic mood of early innocent reverence. Actually, as we shall see, the final scene is not only the culminating scene but perhaps the raison d'etre of introductory "realism."
There is much on the surface of the present play to support the conventional view of its mood of secular realism. All the same, the "realism" of the Wakefield Master is of a paradoxical turn. His wide knowledge of people, as well as books indicates no cloistered contemplative but one in close relation to his times. Still, that life was after all a predominantly religious one, a time which never neglected the belief that man was a rebellious and sinful creature in need of redemption, So deeply (one can hardly say "naively" of so sophisticated a writer) and implicitly religious is the Master that he is less able (or less willing) to present actual history realistically than is the author of the Brome "Abraham and Isaac". His historical sense is even less realistic than that of Chaucer who just a few years before had done for his own time costume romances, such as The Knight's Tale, Troilus and Cressida, etc. Moreover Chaucer had the excuse of highly romantic materials for taking liberties with history.
1. Which of the following statements about the Wakefield Master is NOT True?
[A]. He was Chaucer's contemporary.
[B]. He is remembered as the author of five or six realistic plays.
[C]. He write like John Steinbeck.
[D]. HE was an accomplished artist.
2. By "patristic", the author means
[A]. realistic. [B]. patriotic
[C]. superstitious. [C]. pertaining to the Christian Fathers.
3. The statement about the "secularization of the medieval drama" refers to the
[A]. introduction of mundane matters in religious plays.
[B]. presentation of erudite material.
[C]. use of contemporary introduction of religious themes in the early days.
4. In subsequent paragraphs, we may expect the writer of this passage to
[A]. justify his comparison with Steinbeck.
[B]. present a point of view which attack the thought of the second paragraph.
[C]. point out the anachronisms in the play.
[D]. discuss the works of Chaucer.
Vocabulary
1. clerically educated 受过教会教育的
2. lore 口头传说，口头文字
3. patristic 有关早期基督教领袖的
4. vernacular 方言
5. boisterous 喧闹的
6. metrical 韵律的
7. stanza 诗节
8. medieval 中世纪的
9. plight 悲惨的命运
10. secularization 世俗化，脱离教会
11. pastoral 乡村的
12. bleak 荒凉的
13. documentary 记录文献的
14. monologue 独白
15. burlesque 诙谐或游戏诗文的，讽刺或滑稽的
16. Nativity 基督的诞生
17. epilogue 收场白
18. deference 敬意，尊重
19. atavistic 返祖的，隔代遗传的
20. slide back to 滑回，这里指返回
21. raison d'etre 存在的理由
22. all the same 即便如此
23. paradoxical turn 自相矛盾的说法
24. cloistered 隐居的
25. contemplative 好冥想的人（如僧侣）
26. the contemplative life 宗教上冥想的生涯
27. redemption 赎罪
28. mundane 世俗的，现世的
29. erudite 博学的，饱学之士
30. anachronism 时代错误，与时代不合的事物
难句译注
1. Moreover, insofar as any interpretation of its author can be made from the five or six plays attributed to him, the Wake field Master is uniformly considered to be a man of sharp contemporary observation.
[结构简析] insofar 义：只能，在……范围，常和as 连用。Attributed 过去分词，这里指属于韦克菲尔德大师写的剧本。
[参考译文] 再则，就以五六本，被认为是韦克菲尔德·马斯脱所写的剧本为依据来分析说明这位作者，他是一位公认为对时代具有敏锐洞察力的戏剧作家。
写作方法和文章大意
这是一篇文学评论，评韦克菲尔德·马斯脱的戏剧。他是乔叟的同时代人，采用对比手法，作者对比了他和别的批评家对韦评价之差异来论证韦克菲尔德本人的观点，立场和作品的文体，语言，内容等各个方面。然后把他跟同时代人乔叟作比较，指出他的不足。
答案祥解
1. C. 他象斯坦贝克一样写。第一段作者说他是一位公认的对当时代具有敏锐洞察力的作家。现在仍然享有盛名。主要在于"他对被压迫和被遗忘的人民的同情，有着对人物性格了解的犀利眼光，对日常方言的曲折转意的"耳朵"。他的幽默粗放而又喧闹，粗鲁而又愉快。因此，尽管他有意识的艺术效果（性），明显表现在他对复杂韵律和诗节的感受力上，人们仍然尊他为中世纪的斯坦贝克，对贫苦农民悲惨命运的疾首愤怒，给以毫不妥协地甚至野性地真实描述"。这段话说明，文内两位作家之共同点是在内容观点上。而不是指一样的艺术形式上。韦克菲尔德写的是诗歌形式--韵文，而斯坦贝克是小说和散文剧。所以说他像斯坦贝克那样写就错了。故选C.
A. 他是乔叟同时代人，见最后一句"他的历史观点的现实主义稍逊于乔叟。乔叟在几年前就为其时代写了一本传奇。" B. 他是作为五或六本现实之剧本的作者而为人纪念。本文第一句话"只能从他写的五个或六个剧本来说明这位作者。" D. 他是一位有成就的艺术家。
2. D. Patristic 义：为关于早期基督教领袖的。第一段中his Biblical and Patristic lore indicate的意思是"他那有关圣经和早期基督教领袖们的歌谣。"
A. 现实主义的。 B. 爱国的。 C. 迷信的。
3. A. 在宗教剧中介绍世俗之事。见第二段中的secularization义：世俗化，脱离教会。这一整段都讲了韦剧中对世俗之事的描述："拿剧本和作者两者一起讲的话，现在习惯于把他的剧本看作中世纪戏剧世俗化的一个顶点。因此，对他世俗化强调常以一个例子来说明，即他现实主义的描述12月24日一个寒冷的夜晚，在约克郡西区荒凉的山里的那种粗陋的习俗和乡村的生活；在常被人认为几乎是'记录文献'的三个牧人三段连续的独白之后，批评家们继续认为他的现实主义在此时被强化到以讽刺嘲弄的口吻处理了基督的诞生。最后，作者收场白或事后的补充，对材料的来源圣经表示敬意。剧本又滑回到早期纯洁无邪（天真）的崇敬，一种返祖基调中去。事实上最后一幕不仅是全剧的高潮，也许还是"现实主义"引言存在的理由。"这一段清楚表明。批评者认为宗教只是作者的收场白，计划外的添加剂而已。
B. 表现渊博知识材料。 C. 应用当代材料。太笼统。当代也有宗教之事。
D. 介绍早期宗教题材。
4. B. 表达抨击第二段思想的观点。这个问题最难回答，其所以选择B，是因为本人作者并不同意流行的观点。他在讲完"常规看法"有，用引导来谈"纪实文献"和"现实主义"。这说明作者之含义并不是这两个词的本义。这段最后一句话"事实上，最后一幕……"表明：最后一幕有宗教内容，而"现实主义"不过处于introductory阶段。第三段点明作者的观点"现在的戏剧表面上有许多支持世俗现实主义模式的观点。韦之'现实主义'有一个自相矛盾的特点。他对人和书本的广泛的了解表明："他不是与世隔绝，而是和时代紧密相连的。再说，那时的生活毕竟是全方位的宗教。那时代绝不会忽视这种信仰--人是叛逆和有罪的生灵，需要赎罪。大师是那么深沉含蓄的信奉宗教，因而他比布罗姆作者更不可能（更不愿）现实主义地表现真正的历史。他的历史感现实性甚至比乔叟更不现实主义。乔叟早在前几年为他的时代写了'类似'骑士的故事"。"特罗依拉斯和克莱西德"等传奇。再说，乔叟以高度浪漫的材料为借口对历史事实任意处理。"所以说，我们可以期望作者在下面一步发挥自己的观点，抨击第二段的看法。
A. 他和斯坦贝克的比较是公平的。 C. 指出剧中时代错误。 D. 讨论乔叟作品。
Passage Nine (The Continuity of the Religious Struggle in Britain)
Though England was on the whole prosperous and hopeful, though by comparison with her neighbors she enjoyed internal peace, she could not evade the fact that the world of which she formed a part was torn by hatred and strife as fierce as any in human history. Men were still for from recognizing that two religions could exist side by side in the same society; they believed that the toleration of another religion different from their own. And hence necessarily false, must inevitably destroy such a society and bring the souls of all its members into danger of hell. So the struggle went on with increasing fury within each nation to impose a single creed upon every subject, and within the general society of Christendom to impose it upon every nation. In England the Reformers, or Protestants, aided by the power of the Crown, had at this stage triumphed, but over Europe as a whole Rome was beginning to recover some of the ground it had lost after Martin Luther's revolt in the earlier part of the century. It did this in two ways, by the activities of its missionaries, as in parts of Germany, or by the military might of the Catholic Powers, as in the Low Countries, where the Dutch provinces were sometimes near their last extremity under the pressure of Spanish arms. Against England, the most important of all the Protestant nations to reconquer, military might was not yet possible because the Catholic Powers were too occupied and divided: and so, in the 1570's Rome bent her efforts, as she had done a thousand years before in the days of Saint Augustine, to win England back by means of her missionaries.
These were young Englishmen who had either never given up the old faith, or having done so, had returned to it and felt called to become priests. There being, of course, no Catholic seminaries left in England, they went abroad, at first quite easily, later with difficulty and danger, to study in the English colleges at Douai or Rome: the former established for the training of ordinary or secular clergy, the other for the member of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as Jesuits, a new Order established by St, Ignatius Loyola same thirty years before. The seculars came first; they achieved a success which even the most eager could hardly have expected. Cool-minded and well-informed men, like Cecil, had long surmised that the conversion of the English people to Protestantism was for from complete; many-Cecil thought even the majority-had conformed out of fear, self-interest or-possibly the commonest reason of all-sheer bewilderment at the rapid changes in doctrine and forms of worship imposed on them in so short a time. Thus it happened that the missionaries found a welcome, not only with the families who had secretly offered them hospitality if they came, but with many others whom their first hosts invited to meet them or passed them on to. They would land at the ports in disguise, as merchants, courtiers or what not, professing some plausible business in the country, and make by devious may for their first house of refuge. There they would administer the Sacraments and preach to the house holds and to such of the neighbors as their hosts trusted and presently go on to some other locality to which they were directed or from which they received a call.
1. The main idea of this passage is
[A]. The continuity of the religious struggle in Britain in new ways.
[B]. The conversion of religion in Britain.
[C]. The victory of the New religion in Britain.
[D]. England became prosperous.
2. What was Martin Luther's religions?
[A]. Buddhism. [B]. Protestantism. [C]. Catholicism. [D]. Orthodox.
3. Through what way did the Rome recover some of the lost land?
[A]. Civil and military ways. [B]. Propaganda and attack.
[C]. Persuasion and criticism. [D]. Religious and military ways.
4. What did the second paragraph mainly describe?
[A]. The activities of missionaries in Britain.
[B]. The conversion of English people to Protestantism was far from complete.
[C]. The young in Britain began to convert to Catholicism
[D]. Most families offered hospitality to missionaries.
Vocabulary
1. evade 避开，回避
2. creed 教义，信条，主义
3. the Crown 原义皇冠，在英国代表王权，王室/君主
4. low Countries 低地国，指荷兰，卢森堡，比利时
5. last extremity 最后阶段，绝境，临终。这里指那里人民临近 无可选择只能信奉天主教。
6. bend one's effort 竭尽全力
7. seminary 高等中学，神学院/校
8. surmise 猜度，臆测
9. doctrine 教义
10. plausible 貌似合理/公平的
11. courtier 朝臣
12. devious 绕来绕去的，迂回曲折的
13. Sacrament 圣礼，圣事/餐
14. secular 修道院外的，世俗的
15. the society of Jesus 天主教的耶酥会
16. Douai 杜埃（法国地名）
17. Jesuit 天主耶酥会会士
难句译注
1. The Douay Bible 杜埃圣经（罗马天主教会核定的英译本圣经，于1582年及1609--1610你年又罗马天主教学者将新旧约分别从拉丁文译成英语在杜埃出版，可见当时杜埃是天主教势力的集中地之一。
2. St. Ignatius Loyola 圣·罗耀拉 1491--1556 西班牙军人及天主教教士，耶酥会的创始人。
3. Cecil (William Cecil) 西塞尔 1520--1598，英国政治家，女王伊丽莎白的得力大臣。
4. Men were still for from recognizing that two religions could exist side by side in the same society; they believed that the toleration of another religion different from their own. And hence necessarily false, must inevitably destroy such a society and bring the souls of all its members into danger of hell.
[结构简析] 用分号连接的两个分句，分句中都有that 是引导的宾从。
[参考译文] 人们远远没有意识到两个宗教可以并存于同一个社会中；他们认为容忍不同于他们自己的宗教，因为也必然是错误的教派，不可避免的会破坏这样一个社会，从而把所有的成员的灵魂带进地狱的危险。
5. Against England, the most important of all the Protestant nations to reconquer, military might was not yet possible because the Catholic Powers were too occupied and divided: and so, in the 1570's Rome bent her efforts, as she had done a thousand years before in the days of Saint Augustine, to win England back by means of her missionaries
[结构简析] the most important of all the Protestant nations to reconquer, 这句话是同位语，说明England. As she had done a thousand… ，这里的as =just to 义：就像，正如。
[参考译文] 对付英国，需要重新征服的所有基督教国家中最重要的一国，动用军事力量不可能。因为天主教大国们太忙，太分裂；因此罗马于1570年代就像一千年前，在圣·奥古斯都统治时期它曾做过的那样，竭尽权力想通过传教方式把英国赢回来。
写作方法与文章大意
这篇文章论及"罗马教皇采用文武两手政策在欧洲，特别在英国，恢复旧教--天主教。"采用一般到具体的写作手法。可以说由大到小。大的欧洲背景，最后落实在英国的具体做法。重点在英国。
答案祥解
1. A. 这篇文章的中心思想是"英国宗教斗争以新的方式继续进行。"
B. 英国宗教的转变。 C. 新教在英国的胜利。 D. 英国变得繁荣。这三项都是文内谈到具体事情，不能作主题思想。
2. B. 新教，基督教。因为罗马教皇推行的是天主教。这在第一段第四句明确点明："在英国，宗教改革者，或者说基督教，在英国皇权的协助下，此时已取得胜利；而作为整个欧洲来说，罗马教皇已经开始恢复世纪初马丁·路德反叛后所失去的一些地盘。"马丁·路德是改革者，也就是基督教。
A. 佛教。 C. 天主教。 D. 东正教
3. D. 宗教和武力。第一段第五句说明："教皇用两种办法进行恢复，一种就像在部分德国地区进行的那样通过传教士的活动，另一种象在低地国里进行的，通过天主教国家的军事力量。那里荷兰的几个省份在西班牙的军事压力下，常常是被逼迫得几乎走投无路了。
A. civil and military ways文武两手，civil范围太广，特别指民事的，非宗教的，文职的。这里不合适。 B. 宣传和抨击。 C. 劝说和批评。都不对。
4. A. 传教士活动在英国。第二段的开始就讲到，"这些英国青年或者根本没有放弃老的信仰，或者放弃以后又重新归反旧教，应召成为牧师。英国当然没有剩下天主教神学院，他们就出国，开始很容易，后来，有困难甚至有危险，到杜埃或罗马英文学院就读。前者专为培养一般或修道院外的牧师而建。后者是培养耶酥会教士，通称天主耶酥会会士，是约三十年前圣·罗耀拉创建的一种神职。"在杜埃学习的牧师先回来，他们取得了令人意想不到的成功。下面就是他们（这样指第一类修道士在英国活动情况）。"头脑冷静，信息灵通人士，像西塞尔这种政治家，长期以来，一直猜度，英国人归反基督教新教的过程远远没有完成。许多人--因他们被在那么短的时期内强加到他们身上的信仰形式，飞快变更的教义搞糊涂了。"
B. 英国人归反基督教的事情远远没有完成。 C. 在英国青年开始归反天主教。两项选择见上文解释。都是传教活动开始的原因。　　　　　　D. 大多数家庭礼待传教士。这是第二段最后几行谈到这些传教士秘密来到英国后的情况。他们不仅受到老关系家庭欢迎。也受到第一次邀请他们的家庭欢迎。主人还把他们介绍给其它家庭。
Passage Ten (Photography and Art)
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 Expressionist 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 the 1960'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 in different 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. fine arts 美术（指绘画，雕刻，建筑，诗歌，音乐等）
2. assert 主张，声明，维护（权利）
3. privileged 特殊的，享受特权的，特许的
4. pretentious 狂妄的，做作的
5. irrelevant 不相干的，无关的
6. subversive 破坏性的，颠覆性的
7. disclaimer 弃权者
8. harry 掠夺，折磨
9. austerity 严格，简朴
10. convergence 聚合，集合点
11. implicit 含蓄的
12. distinctive 区别的，独特的
13. exalted 高贵的，高尚的
难句译注
1. 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.
[结构简析] 此句为主谓语+宾语从句。As distinct from … 句修饰fine art.
[参考译文] 最早有关摄影和艺术关系的争论点集中在摄影对表象的忠实和对机器的依赖能否使它成为艺术，有别于仅仅是实用的美术。
2. 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.
[结构简析] 结构是主谓宾从。句子长是因为介词短语against the charge 后接同位说明语the photography was …宾语从句中有三组表语：a way of seeing, a revolt, an art.
[参考译文] 正队这种指责：摄影是一种没有灵魂的，对现实机械性复制，摄影工作者声名摄影不是复制品，而是一种特殊的观察方式，是对平庸视觉的叛逆，和绘画一样有艺术价值。
3. 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.
[结构简析] 句子结构为主从句，which引导宾从作介词to 的宾语，宾从中imposed by …分词短语修饰concept of art, the better …the more 是说明concept of art.
[参考译文] 这说明他们就是把现代主义胜利所强加的艺术概念视为合理的，其合理程度是：艺术越强，对艺术的传统目的破坏得越大。
4. 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.
[结构简析] 名词disclaimer放弃，否认。上下文翻译中可译成动词含义，否认抛弃创作艺术的兴趣。
[参考译文] 摄影师否认对创作艺术感性趣，他们告诉我们更多的是有关现代艺术概念的令人苦恼的情况，而不是摄影是不是艺术问题。
5. 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.
[结构简析] 复合句。句内三个that clause. 第一个是worry的宾从；第二个是so far that 的句型。第三个是forget 之宾从。
[参考译文] 许多专业摄影人员私下开始担忧，强调摄影是对传统艺术意图的颠覆活动的做法有些过分了，（活动的宣传走得太远）以致使公众忘记摄影是一种独特的高尚活动--总之，是一种艺术。
写作方法与文章大意
文章论及"摄影是否是艺术"问题，这样采用对比手法。一开始就讲述了19世纪摄影家为确立摄影是艺术而提出的种种依据，并把美术和摄影作比较，来反驳否定摄影的论点：忠于表象，以来机器，没有灵魂……
确立的艺术后，他们为摆脱油画那种矫饰的艺术意图而努力推崇"艺术越佳，对艺术传统意图破坏越大"的论点。作者把这些摄影家和抽象表现主义画家相提并论，把摄影和流行画等同；和古典现代主义画家和画相对抗。
最后结论是这种破坏传统艺术意图的活动不能走得太远，因为摄影毕竟是艺术，否则……。
答案祥解
1. C. 说明当代严肃的摄影家对摄影作为艺术的态度，并把他们这些态度放在历史的进程来观察。见文章大意。他们先为摄影是否是艺术而争辩，后为否定其艺术而努力。重点放在主题上。
A. 界定显得主义者对艺术的态度。 B. 解释摄影是如何作为美术出现的。第一段涉及，见难句译注2。 D. 界定当代严肃摄影家对待他们艺术所具有的各种观点，并评定每种观点的价值。这三项只是文内提到的某些方面，不是主要的。
2. D. 矛盾的。见难句译注3。
A. 客观的。 B. 机械的。 C. 表面的。
3. A. 他要列举这样艺术家的例子，他们象当代严肃的摄影家一样抛弃了传统上被接受的现代艺术目的。见第三段第二句："举例说，这些认为通过拍照可以摆脱绘画所表现的艺术的矫饰的摄影家，使我们想起了那些抽象表现主义绘画的严肃的思想。"
B. 他想在抽象表现主义画家和古典现代主义画家之间找出相似点。 C. 他要在流行艺术家和其它艺术家之间作一个对比。 D. 他想解释为什么严肃摄影，象其它当代视觉形式一样不是艺术，而且也不应当充作艺术。
4. D. 摄影是一种艺术，可以和油画相比美。见难句译注2。
A. 他们强调摄影是使人们快乐的手段。 B. 是记录世界的艺术。 C. 摄影是公正观察世界的工具。
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