2010年英语二text1鲸洋三下

2010年英语二text1鲸洋三下

The longest bull run in a century of art-market history

ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst,

“Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”, at Sotheby’s in London

on September 15th 2008 (see picture). All but two pieces sold,

fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist.

It was a last hurrah. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New

York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers,

filed for bankruptcy.

The world art market had already been losing momentum for

a while after rising vertiginously since 2003. At its peak in

2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew,

founder of Arts Economics, a research firm-double the figure

five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50

billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size

because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed,

passion and controversy in a way matched by few other

industries.

In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale,

spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable, especially

in New York, where the bail-out of the banks coincided with the

loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise of many

art-buying investors. In the art world that meant collectors

stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary

art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector-for

Chinese contemporary art-they were down by nearly 90% in the

year to November 2008. Within weeks the world’s two biggest

auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly

$200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale

with them.

The current downturn in the art market is the worst since

the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989,

a move that started the most serious contraction in the market

since the second world war. This time experts reckon that prices

are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have

been far more volatile. But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief

executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”

What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is

that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early

1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even

though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in

the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half

of 2006. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special

report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack

of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds-death,

debt and divorce-still deliver works of art to the market. But

anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for

confidence to return.

the first paragraph,Damien Hirst's sale was referred

to as “a last victory”because ____.

art market hadwitnessed a succession of victoryies

auctioneer finally got the two pieces at the highest

bids

ful Inside My Head Forever won over all

masterpieces

was successfully made just before the world financial

crisis

saying “spending of any sort became deeply

unfashionable”(Line 1-2,Para.3),the author suggests

that_____ .

A . collectors were no longer actively involved in

art-market auctions

B .people stopped every kind of spending and stayed away

from galleries

collection as a fashion had lost its appeal to a great

extent

D .works of art in general had gone out of fashion so they

were not worth buying

of the following statements is NOT ture?

A .Sales of contemporary art fell dramatically from 2007to

2008.

art market surpassed many other industries in

momentum.

market generally went downward in various ways.

art dealers were awaiting better chances to come.

three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are ____

n houses ' favorites

porary trends

s promoting artwork circulation

representing impressionists

most appropriate title for this text could be ___

ation of Art Prices

-to-date Art Auctions

Market in Decline

d Interest in Arts

答案解析

本文主要就米恩・赫斯特的作品大卖后，艺术品市场出现的持续衰退现象进行了讨论。文章第一段介绍了持续一个世纪的牛市结束了，

其标志是赫斯特的56部作品的出售。第二段回顾了自2003年以来艺术品市场的走势情况，即经历了持续的上升期后，艺术品市场的势头大减。第三段对低迷的艺术品市场进行了详细的例示。第四段指出尽管当前的艺术品市场状祝糟糕，但佳士得的总裁对市场的复苏仍然充满信心。第五段指出这衰退与以在的情况不同，市场中缺的不是买家，而是吸引买家的好的艺术品，许多买家都在等待合适的时机再次进入艺术品市场。

21.【答案】D

【解析】根据“ In the first paragrap和信号词“ a last

victory可回文定位到首段倒数第二句“ It was a last victory”。答案应该在首段的尾句中寻: As the auctioneer called out bids，

Lehman Brothersfiled for bankruptcy“就在拍卖师喊出报价时，，，雷曼兄弟申请破产”。该句中提到的银行破产与D项中的“金融危机”相吻合。题干中的“a last victory'”显而易见是指金融危机前的最后一次成功的拍卖，所以D项为正确答案A项“艺术品市场经历了一系列的成功的交易”，B项“拍卖人最终以高价得到了两件作品”和C项““我脑海中永存的美丽'赢了所有大作”在文章中都没有提到，均属无中生有。

22.【答案】A

【解析〗根据“Line1-2，Para.”和信号词 spending，became

deeply unfashionable可回文定位到第三段首句“In the weeks and

months， spending， became deeply unfashionable。鉴于本题是

句子推断题，所以思路应该是关注定位信息的上下文，而此题的信息定位是段首句，因此应优先关注段内的下文信息.“ In the

artcollectors stayed away from galleries and saleroo銘.在艺术品领域，这意味着艺术家远离了画廊和销售店”。很显然指的是收藏家不再花钱购买艺术品了，即他们不再参与艺术品市场的拍卖了，所以D项为正确笞案B项的 people和 every kind of spending表达的逻辑范围过大，有化的味道。C、D两项逻辑意，思相近，都是说“艺术品不再时尚”，文章没有提及所以均应排除。

23.【答案】B

【解析】本题是事实细节题，这种题，题干往往缺乏信号词，所以需要对选项一一回文定位加以对照和判断B项的最-强烈信号莫过于 momentun，此词可回文定位到第二段的首句: The world

artmarket had already been losingmomentum，，但无论此句还是文章其他部分都没有提及“ surpassed many other industrie3所以此项为无中生有的错误项，所以B项为正确笞案A项可回文定位到第二段的二、三句: At its peak in2007 it was worth some

S65bi3inmthen it may havecome down to S50 billion.所以A项正确。C项可回文定位到第三段首句:， spending ofany sort became

deeplyunfashionable，此句中的 spending= the art market， of any

sort= generally和 in varlousways， became

deeplyunfashionable= went downward所以C项正确。D项可回文定位到尾段尾句: But anyoneavwaiting for confidence to return，

所以D项正确。

24.【答案】c

【解析】根据“ the last paragrap和信号词 the three D§可回文定位到尾段倒数第The three Ds-death debtand divorce-

still deliver works of art to the market三D因素一一死亡、债务、和离婚一依然会把艺术品推向市场。”词汇推断题的思路是跳出词汇本身，依据其前后信息的综合分析到线索。3Ds紧随其后的谓语部分是“stildeliver works of art to the makete与C项的逻辑对应，所以C项正确A项中的 auction houses favorites和B项中的 contemporary trends在文章均未提到属于无中生有干扰项。D项中的 Impressionists出自第四段句首，但与本选项毫无关系，故此项亦属于无中生有项。

25.【答案】C

【解析】主旨题的思路是对整篇文章的高度概括，考生可将各段的首句信息做综合处理。这篇文章的每一段的第句几乎都有“ art

market'这个词，即“艺术品市场”，而且通过文章的阅读，我们很容易抓住艺术品市场不景气主冒，因此C项正确。A项“艺术品价格的波动”和B项“最-新的艺术品拍卖”包含的内容太少，没有从整体上概括全文。D项“对文科兴趣的转向”则有些混淆视听的效果。Arts一词可以指学科类别中的文料门类，也可以与定冠词一起泛指艺术。