C. employed H) productive M) shrunk D. eventually I) prosperity N) swept E) impact J) responsive O) withdrawn Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.
Why the Mona Lisa Stands Out
A. Have you ever fallen for a novel and been amazed not to find it on lists of great books? Or walked around a sculpture renowned as a classic, struggling to see what the fuss is about? If so, you've probably pondered the question a psychologist, James Cutting, asked himself: How does a work of art come to be considered great?
B. The intuitive answer is that some works of art are just great: of intrinsically superior quality. The paintings that win prime spots in galleries, get taught in classes and reproduced in books are the ones that have proved their artistic value over time. If you can't see they're superior, that's your problem.
It's an intimidatingly neat explanation. But some social scientists have been asking awkward questions of it, raising the possibility that artistic canons (名作目录) are little more than fossilised historical accidents.
C. Cutting, a professor at Cornell University, wondered if a psychological mechanism known as the \effect\played a role in deciding which paintings rise to the top of the cultural league. Cutting designed an experiment to test his hunch (直觉). Over a lecture course he regularly showed undergraduates works of impressionism for two seconds at a time. Some of the paintings were canonical, included in art-history books. Others were lesser known but of comparable quality. These were exposed four times as often. Afterwards, the students preferred them to the canonical works, while a control group of students liked the canonical ones best. Cutting's students had grown to like those paintings more simply because they had seen them more.
D. Cutting believes his experiment offers a clue as to how canons are formed. He
reproduced works of impressionism today tend to have been bought by five or six wealthy and influential collectors in the late 19th century. The preferences of these men bestowed (给予) prestige on certain works, which made the works more likely to be hung in galleries and printed in collections. The fame passed down the years, gaining momentum from mere exposure as it did so. The more people were exposed
to, the more they liked it, and the more they liked it, the more it appeared in books, on posters and in big exhibitions. Meanwhile, academics and critics created sophisticated justifications for its preeminence (卓越). After all, it's not just the masses who tend to rate what they see more often more highly. As contemporary artists like Warhol and Damien Hirst have grasped, critics' praise is deeply entwined (交织) with publicity. \mere exposure.\
E. The process described by Cutting evokes a principle that the sociologist Duncan Watts calls \becomes popular, it will tend to become more popular still. A few years ago,Watts, who is employed by Microsoft to study the dynamics of social networks, had a similar experience to Cutting's in another Paris museum. After queuing to see the \Lisa\in its climate- controlled bulletproof box at the Louvre, he came away puzzled: why was it considered so superior to the three other Leonardos in the previous chamber, to which nobody seemed to be paying the slightest attention?
F. When Watts looked into the history of \greatest painting of all time\discovered that, for most of its life, the\Lisa\in relative obscurity. In the 1850s, Leonardo da Vinci was considered no match for giants of Renaissance art like Titian and Raphael, whose works were worth almost ten times as much as the \Lisa\It was only in the 20th century that Leonardo's portrait of his patron's wife rocketed to the number-one spot. What propelled it there wasn't a scholarly re-evaluation, but a theft.
G. In 1911 a maintenance worker at the Louvre walked out of the museum with the \工作服). Parisians were shocked at the theft of a painting to which, until then, they had paid little attention. When the museum reopened, people queued to see the gap where the \Lisa\had once hung in a way they had never done for the painting itself. From then on, the \Lisa\
H. Although many have tried, it does seem improbable that the painting's unique status can be attributed entirely to the quality of its brushstrokes. It has been said that the subject's eyes follow the viewer around the room. But as the painting's biographer, Donald Sassoon, dryly notes, \reality the effect can be obtained from any portrait.\Duncan Watts proposes that the \Lisa\is merely an extreme example of a general rule. Paintings, poems and pop songs are buoyed (使浮起) or
events or preferences that turn into waves of influence, passing down the generations.
I. \that cultural objects have value,\Brian Eno once wrote, \like saying that telephones have conversations.\Nearly all the cultural objects we
consume arrive wrapped in inherited opinion; our preferences are always, to some extent, someone else's. Visitors to the \Lisa\know they are about to visit the greatest work of art ever and come away appropriately impressed--or let down. An audience at a performance of \that is what they mostly see. Watts even calls the preeminence of Shakespeare a \
J. Although the rigid high-low distinction fell apart in the 1960s, we still use culture as a badge of identity. Today's fashion for eclecticism (折中主义) \Abba and Jay Z\way for the middle class to distinguish themselves from what they perceive to be the narrow tastes of those beneath them in the social hierarchy.
K. The intrinsic quality of a work of art is starting to seem like its least important attribute. But perhaps it's more significant than our social scientists allow. First of all, a work needs a certain quality to be eligible to be swept to the top of the pile. The \the first place, and not by accident. Secondly, some stuff is simply better than other stuff. Read \greatest of Shakespeare's contemporaries, and the difference may strike you as unarguable.
L. A study in the British Journal of Aesthetics suggests that the exposure effect doesn't work the same way on everything, and points to a different conclusion about how canons are formed. The social scientists are right to say that we should be a little sceptical of greatness, and that we should always look in the next room. Great art and mediocrity (平庸) can get confused, even by experts. But that's why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more we're exposed to the good and the bad, the better we are at telling the difference. The eclecticists have it.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
46. According to Duncan Watts, the superiority of the \other works resulted from the cumulative advantage.
47. Some social scientists have raised doubts about the intrinsic value of certain works of art.
48. It is often random events or preferences that determine the fate of a piece of art.
49. In his experiment, Cutting found that his subjects liked lesser known works because of more exposure.
50. The author thinks the greatness of an art work still lies in its intrinsic value. 51. It is true of critics as well as ordinary people that the popularity of artistic works is closely associated with publicity.
52. We need to expose ourselves to more art and literature in order to tell the superior from the inferior.
53. A study of the history of the greatest paintings suggests even a great work of art could experience years of neglect.
54. Culture is still used as a mark to distinguish one social class from another. 55. Opinions about and preferences for cultural objects are often inheritable. Section C
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A. , B. , C. and D.. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer sheet with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 56 to 60 are based on the following passage.
When the right person is holding the right job at the right moment, that person's influence is greatly expanded. That is the position in which Janet Yellen, who is expected to be confirmed as the next chair of the Federal Reserve Bank (FeD. in January, now finds herself. If you believe, as many do, that unemployment is the major economic and social concern of our day, then it is no stretch to think Yellen is the most powerful person in the world right now.
Throughout the 2008 financial crisis and the recession and recovery that followed, central banks have taken on the role of stimulators of last resort, holding up the global economy with vast amounts of money in the form of asset buying. Yellen, previously a Fed vice chair, was one of the principal architects of the Fed's $ 3.8 trillion money dump. A star economist known for her groundbreaking work on labor markets, Yellen was a kind of prophetess early on in thc crisis for her warnings about the subprime (次级债) meltdown. Now it will be her job to get the Fed and the markets out of the biggest and most unconventional monetary program in history without derailing the fragile recovery.The good news is that Yellen,67, is particularly well suited to meet these challenges. She has a keen understanding of financial markets, an appreciation for their imperfections and a strong belief that human suffering was more related to unemployment than anything else.
Some experts worry that Yellen will be inclined to chase unemployment to the neglect of inflation.
But with wages still relatively flat and the economy increasingly divided between the well-off and the long-term unemployed, more people worry about the opposite, deflation (通货紧缩) that would aggravate the economy's problems.
Either way, the incoming Fed chief will have to walk a fine line in slowly ending the stimulus. It must be steady enough to deflate bubbles (去泡沫) and bring markets back down to earth but not so quick thatit creates another credit crisis.
Unlike many past Fed leaders, Yellen is not one to buy into the finance industry's argument that itshould be left alone to regulate itself. She knows all along the Fed has been too slack on regulation of finance. Yellen is likely to address the issue right after she pushes unemployment below 6%, stabilizes markets and makes sure that the recovery is more inclusive and robust. As Princeton Professor Alan Blinder says, \smart as a whip, deeply logical, willing to argue but also a good listener. She can persuade without creating hostility.\All those traits will be useful as the global economy's new power player takes on its most annoying problems.
注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。
56. What do many people think is the biggest problem facing Janet Yellen? A. Lack of money. B. Subprime crisis. C. Unemployment. D. Social instability.
57. What did Yellen help the Fed do to tackle the 2008 financial crisis? A. Take effective measures to curb inflation. B. Deflate the bubbles in the American economy. C. Formulate policies to help financial institutions. D. Pour money into the market through asset buying. 58. What is a greater concern of the general public? A. Recession. B. Deflation. C. Inequality. D. Income.
59. What is Yellen likely to do in her position as the Fed chief? A. Develop a new monetary program. B. Restore public confidence. C. Tighten financial regulation. D. Reform the credit system.
60. How does Alan Blinder portray Yellen? A. She possesses strong persuasive power. B. She has confidence in what she is doing. C. She is one of the world's greatest economists. D. She is the most powerful Fed chief in history. Passage Two