|
SECTIONⅢ Reading Comprehension
(40 minutes)
Par A
Directions
Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1.
Text1
People seldom feel neutral about poetry. Those who love it sometimes give the impression that it is an adequate substitution for food, shelter, and love. It isn’t. Words, no matter how satisfying, are never an equivalent for life itself and its human experiences. Those who dislike poetry on principle sometimes claim, on the other hand, that poetry is only words and good for nothing. That’s not true either. It is easy to become frustrated by words------- in poetry or in life----but when words represent and recreate and genuine human feelings, as they often do in poetry, they can be very important. Poetry is, in fact, more than just words. It is an experience of words, and those who know how to read poetry can easily extend their experience of life, their sense of what other people are like, their awareness of themselves, and their range of human feelings.
One reason poetry can be so important is that it is so closely concerned with feelings. Poetry is often full of ideas, too, and sometimes poems can be powerful experiences of the mind, but most poems are primarily about how people feel rather than how people think. Poems provide, in fact, a language for feeling, and one of poetry’s most insistent merits involves its attempt to express the inexpressible. How can anyone, for example, put into words what it means to be in love or what it feels like to lose someone one cares about? Poetry tries, and it often captures exactly the shade of emotion that feels just right to a reader. No single poem can be said to express all the things that love or death feels like, or means, but one of the joys of experiencing poetry occurs when we read a poem and want to say, “Yes, that is just what it is like; I know exactly what that line means but I’ve never been able to express it so well.” Poetry can be the voice of our feelings even when our minds are speechless with grief or joy.
46. “People seldom feel neutral about poetry” in the first paragraph means that _____________.
A. few people think that poetry is neutral
B. people always differ in their views about poetry
C. people rarely take a partial opinion about poetry
D. people generally think of poetry as extremely important or totally useless
47. The author suggests that ____________________.
A. poetry tends to make the reader disappointed
B. poetry makes its readers sentimental
C. poetry is more important than words
D. poetry often captures real human feelings
48. According to the author, poetry ________________.
A. is more than just words
B. is the poet’s feelings about words
C. is anything but patterns of lines
D. is an experiment on the use of words
49. Poetry tries, persistently, to express _______________.
A. what love and death mean
B. what people think about themselves
C. what people feel but find it hard to describe
D. how people go through life
50. This passage is mainly about _____________________.
A. the structure of poetry
B. the component of poetry
C. the nature and importance of poetry
D. the appreciation of poetry Page] Text 2
Contemporary Western American art has been a very popular and lucrative part of the art marketplace. But unlike some artists who have begun to paint Western subjects precisely because there is a ready market for them, the members who makes up the Women Artists of the American West (WAOAW) paint the West because it has always been the primary subject matter for them. For the most part, these women have lived in the American West since birth, and their art is natural outgrowth of the habitat and habits of their daily lives.
The WAOAW was launched in 1971 by artists Gloria Bilotta and Mollie Graham. This organization brought Western artists together in the hope of making more of an impact of the art community than any of them could individually and to promote Western art by women.
In the more than 10 years of the organization’s existence, the work of WAOAW has become recognized as preeminent by collectors and critics of Western American art. Just what type of subject matter does this art genre include? The scenic landscapes and sprawling vistas of the West are, of course, popular subjects but the most recognizable are those landscapes and portraits featuring mountain men, cowboys, and various American Indian tribes. However, WAOAW artists believe that the subjects matter for Western art should not be confined to these narrow limitations. It should contain all aspects of ranch and pioneer life, including the large role played by women Western art should also depict Western wildlife and authentic Western artifacts as portrayed by Lisa Danielle Lorimer, Esther Maric Vetsch, Mary Thomson, and other members.
The artists who make up WAOAW, currently about thirty-five members have another character in common apart from their painting genre and that is the high quality of their art. When the group was originally formed, requirements for membership were not strict and involved willingness to participate and a membership fee. But as the group grew in prestige, it became necessary to tighten membership requirements considerably in order to justify the many hours and thousands of dollars spent by the group to promote the work of its members.
51. The best title for the passage is _______________.
A. Women Artists of the American West
B. Western Landscape Paintings
C. Famous Artists in the West
D. The Popularity of Western Art
52. All the following subjects are mentioned by the author as typical of WAOAW portraits EXCEPT __________________.
A. powerful American landowners
B. cowboys
C. mountain men
D. authentic western artifacts
53. An example of typical WAOAW painting would be __________________.
A. men attending an Eastern horse race
B. a woman participating in a Western horse show
C. a view of a portrait painter at work
D. collectors at an art auction
54. It can be concluded from the passage about WAOOW that ________________.
A. men are eligible for membership
B. the dues are reasonable
C. acceptance for membership is difficult to obtain today
D. it sets the standards for Western art
55. The word “lucrative” in line 1 is closest in meaning to __________________.
A. expanding
B. promising
C. influential
D. profitable
相关资料
| 
