Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (40%)

阅读材料，回答下面试题：

Throughout the history of thearts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists.No matter what objects theyselect, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change——to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.

Landscape (风景.) is another unchanging elementof art.It can be found from ancient times through the17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impres-sionists.In the 1970s Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists,continued this practice.Leslie sought out the sameplace where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had pro-duced paintings of the samescene a century and a half before.Unlike Cole whoinsists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature,Ledge paints what he actually sees.In his paintings,there is no particular change in motion, and he includes ordinary things likethe highway in the background.He also takes advantageof the latest develop-ments of color photography (摄影术)to help both the eye and the memory when he im-proves his painting back in hisworkroom.

Besides, all art begs theage-old question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown theirunderstanding of reality in one form or another.The impressionists saw re-ality in briefemotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and theCro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in theancient for-ests.To sum up, understanding reality is anecessary struggle for artists of all periods.

Over thousands of years thefunction of the arts has remained relatively constant.

Past or present, Eastern orWestern, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experi-ence.Many and different are the facesof art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.

第16题单选 The underlined word "poetry"most probably means__________.

A.an object for artistic creation

B.a collection of poems

C.an unusual quality

D.a natural scene

参考答案：C

第17题单选 Leslie's paintings areextraordinary because __________.

A.they are close in style to works in ancienttimes

B.they look like works by 19th-century painters

C.they draw attention to common things in life

D.they depend heavily on color photography

参考答案：C

第18题单选 What is the author's opinion ofartistic reality?

A.It will not be found in future works of art.

B.It does not have a long-lasting standard.

C.It is expressed in a fixed artistic form.

D.It is lacking in modern works of art.

参考答案：B

第19题单选 What does the author suggestabout the arts in the last paragraph?

A.They express people's curiosity about the past.

B.They make people interested in everydayexperience.

C.They are considered important for variety inform.

D.They are regarded as a mirror of the humansituation.

参考答案：D

第20题单选 Which of the following is themain topic of the passage?

A.History of the arts.

B.Basic questions of the arts.

C.New developments in the arts.

D.Use of modern technology in the arts.

参考答案：B

阅读材料，回答下面试题：

There are two types of peoplein the world.Although they have equal degree of health and wealth and othercomforts of life, one becomes happy and the other becomes unhap-py.This arises from the different ways in which they consider things,persons, events and the resulting effects upon their minds.

People who are to be happy fixtheir attention on the convenience of things: the pleas-ant parts ofconversation, the well prepared dishes, the goodness of the wine and the fine weather.They enjoy all the cheerfulthings.Those who are to be unhappy think and speak onlyof the opposite things.Therefore, they are continuallydissatisfied.By their remarks,they sour the pleasureof society, hurt many people, and make themselves disagreeable everywhere.If this turn of mind was founded in nature, such unhappy personswould be the more to be pitied.The intention ofcriticizing (批评) and being disliked is perhaps taken upby imitation (模仿).It growsinto a habit, unknown to its possessors.The habit maybe strong, but it may be cured when those who have it realize its bad effectson their interests and tastes.I hope this littlewarning may be of service to them, and help them

change this habit.

Although in fact it is chieflyan act of the imagination, it has serious results in life since it brings ondeep sorrow and bad luck.Those people offend many others; nobody loves them, and no one treats them with more than the mostcommon politeness and re-spect.This frequently putsthem in bad temper and draws them into arguments.Ifthey aim at getting some advantages in social position or fortune, nobodywishes them success.Nor will anyone start a step orspeak a word to favor their hopes.If they bring onthemselves public objections, no one will defend or excuse them, and many willjoin to criticize their wrongdoings.These peopleshould change this bad habit and be pleased with what is pleas-ing, withoutworrying needlessly about themselves and others.Ifthey do not, it will be good for others to avoid any contact (接触) with them.Otherwise, it can bedisagreeable and sometimes very inconvenient, especially when one becomes mixedup in their quarrels.

第21题单选 People who are unhappy __________.

A.always consider things differently from others

B.usually are affected by the results of certainthings

C.usually misunderstand what others think or say

D.always discover the unpleasant side of certainthings

参考答案：D

第22题单选 The phrase "sour thepleasure of society" in Paragraph 2 most nearly means“__________”.

A.have a good taste with social life

B.make others unhappy

C.tend to scold others openly

D.enjoy the pleasure of life

参考答案：B

第23题单选 We can conclude from the passagethat __________.

A.we should pity all such unhappy people

B.such unhappy people are dangerous to sociallife

C.people can get rid of the habit of unhappiness

D.unhappy people can not understand happy persons

参考答案：C

第24题单选 If such unhappy persons insist onkeeping the habit, the author suggests that peo-ple should__________.

A.prevent any communication with them

B.show no respect and politeness to them

C.persuade them to recognize the bad effects

D.quarrel with them until they realize themistakes

参考答案：A

第25题单选 In this passage, the writermainly __________.

A.describes two types of people

B.laughs at the unhappy people

C.suggests the unhappy people should get rid ofthe habits of unhappiness

D.tells people how to be happy in life

参考答案：C