【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[听力原文]
   One important thing about art movements is that their popularity can be affected by social conditions, which are themselves often affected by historical events. As an example, look at what happened in the United States early in the 20th century, around the time of the Great Depression, the art movement known as the Regionalism had begun in the United States even before the Depression occurred. But it really flourished in the 1930s, during the depression years. Why? Well, many artists who had been living in big cities were forced by the economic crisis to leave those big cities and move back to their small towns in rural America. Some of these artists came to truly embrace the life in small towns and to reject city life in so-called "sophisticated society." These artists or specifically certain painters really built the regionalist movement. They created things in everyday life in small towns or farming areas. And their style was not all neutral, but really big glorified or romanticized country life, showing it to be stable, wholesome, and embodying important American traditions. And this style became very popular, in part because of the economic conditions of the time.
   You see, the Depression had caused many Americans to begin to doubt their society. But regionalism artists painted scenes that glorified American values, scenes that many Americans could easily identify with. So the movement helped strengthen people's faith in their country, faith that had weakened as a result of the depression. But in the 1940s, before and after the Second World War, American culture began to take on a much more international spirit, and Regionalism, with its focus on small town life, well, it lost a lot of popularity, as American society changed once again.
   What is the lecture mainly about?
选项概括性强，结合听前预测可知本题考查短文主旨。录音中多次提到art movement(文化运动)，首句说“社会环境影响文化运动的普及度，而社会环境随着历史事件的改变而改变”。接着以美国两个时期艺术的改变来说明这种因素的影响。由此可推导出短文大意即How historical events affected an art movement，故答案为A。