阅读理解

Chinese Pottery

China has one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations—despite invasions and occasional foreign rule. A country as vast as China with so long-lasting a civilization has a complex social and visual history, within which pottery and porcelain play a major role.

The function and status of ceramics in China varied from dynasty to dynasty, so they may be utilitarian, burial, trade-collectors', or even ritual objects, according to their quality and the era in which they were made. The ceramics fall into three broad types—earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain—for vessels, architectural items such as roof tiles, and modeled objects and figures. In addition, there was an important group of sculptures made for religious use, the majority of which were produced in earthenware.

The earliest ceramics were fired to earthenware temperatures, but as early as the fifteenth century B.C., high-temperature stonewares were being made with glazed surfaces. During the Six Dynasties period (AD 265-589), kilns in north China were producing high-fired ceramics of good quality. Whitewares produced in Hebei and Henan provinces from the seventh to the tenth centuries evolved into the highly prized porcelains of the Song dynasty (AD. 960-1279), long regarded as one of the high points in the history of China's ceramic industry. The tradition of religious sculpture extends over most historical periods but is less clearly delineated than that of stonewares or porcelains, for it embraces the old custom of earthenware burial ceramics with later religious images and architectural ornament. Ceramic products also include lead-glazed tomb models of the Han dynasty, three-color lead-glazed vessels and figures of the Tang dynasty, and Ming three-color temple ornaments, in which the motifs were outlined in a raised trail of slip- as well as the many burial ceramics produced in imitation of vessels made in materials of higher intrinsic value.

Trade between the West and the settled and prosperous Chinese dynasties introduced new forms and different technologies. One of the most far-reaching examples is the impact of the fine ninth-century AD. Chinese porcelain wares imported into the Arab world. So admired were these pieces that they encouraged the development of earthenware made in imitation of porcelain and instigated research into the method of their manufacture. From the Middle East the Chinese acquired a blue pigment—a purified form of cobalt oxide unobtainable at that time in China—that contained only a low level of manganese. Cobalt ores found in China have a high manganese content, which produces a more muted blue-gray color. In the seventeenth century, the trading activities of the Dutch East India Company resulted in vast quantities of decorated Chinese porcelain being brought to Europe, which stimulated and influenced the work of a wide variety of wares, notably Delft. The Chinese themselves adapted many specific vessel forms from the West, such as bottles with long spouts, and designed a range of decorative patterns especially for the European market.

Just as painted designs on Greek pots may seem today to be purely decorative, whereas in fact they were carefully and precisely worked out so that at the time, their meaning was clear, so it is with Chinese pots. To twentieth-century eyes, Chinese pottery may appear merely decorative, yet to the Chinese the form of each object and its adornment had meaning and significance. The dragon represented the emperor, and the phoenix, the empress; the pomegranate indicated fertility, and a pair of fish, happiness; mandarin ducks stood for wedded bliss; the pine tree, peach, and crane are emblems of long life; and fish leaping from waves indicated success in the civil service examinations. Only when European decorative themes were introduced did these meanings become obscured or even lost.

From early times pots were used in both religious and secular contexts. The imperial court commissioned work and in the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1279-1368) an imperial ceramic factory was established at Jingdezhen. Pots played an important part in some religious ceremonies. Long and often lyrical descriptions of the different types of ware exist that assist in classifying pots, although these sometimes confuse an already large and complicated picture.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】

参考译文：

中国的陶瓷

尽管，在中国的历史上其短暂的被外国侵略以及占领，但是她仍然拥有世界上最悠久的历史以及从古时起直至今日都不断持续的文明（不知能不能直译成最悠久的礼仪或文明之邦）中国是一个大物博以及拥有悠久持续的文明的国家，而陶器和瓷器在其复杂的社会历史以及视觉美观的历史中占据了极为重要的地位。在中国，每一个朝代的陶器的功能和形态都是不同的，所以，他们中有些可能是有实用意义的，有些可能是陪葬品，有些被作为艺术收藏品，有些甚至是宗教仪式上的法器。根据制作他们的年代以及质量。瓷器可以被分为 3 大类，土质瓷器，石制瓷器，以及陶瓷制瓷器。比如，容器，诸如瓦之类的建筑的物件，模具或瓷器做的人物。另外，瓷器的类别中还有很重要的一类--主要成分是土的宗教用的瓷器。

尽管最早的瓷器制作是土器（应该是用土捏制出来的胚子）在合适的温度下烧制而成的，但是早在公元前 15 世纪，就有石制的瓷器被烧制成釉器。公元 960 年到 1279 年，这 6 个朝代的时段中，中国北方就有人用窑在高温下烧制高质量的瓷器。从第七世纪到第十世纪河北以及河南省产的白瓷逐渐的演变成为在被誉为“中国历史上最强大的陶瓷工厂”的宋朝被人广为称道的瓷器。瓷制神像（应该是比如教堂中圣母玛利亚一类人物的瓷器吧）的制作方式在历史上的大部分时段都不断的改进。但是他们对人物的描素并不像石质瓷器以及瓷器描素的那么清晰。因为神像的烧制方法继承了古时候上面拥有宗教图案的土质陪葬瓷器以及建筑装饰品的烧制传统。瓷器制品也包括汉朝的古墓模型的釉器，唐 3 彩的器皿和人物，明朝 3 色的寺庙的装饰品，很多陪葬瓷器都是用有内在实用价值的材料在器皿的模型中制成的。

西方国家和繁荣稳定的中国王朝之间的贸易，使瓷器匠们掌握了在瓷器制造方面的新的方法和技术。其中一个意义最为深远的例子是公元第九世纪的影响。中国的瓷器进军阿拉伯国家。阿拉伯国家对于中国的瓷器评价很高，这不仅促进了土制瓷器制作技术的发展，也促进了关于土制瓷器制作技术的一些研究的开展和进行。中东国家给中国提供一种蓝色的颜料 (一种由当时在中国还没有的氧化钴过滤而得到的成分，这种成分里只含有少量的锰元素), 中国自己提供的氧化钴一般都含有大量会让蓝色变的发灰的锰元素。17 世纪，大量的中国装饰类瓷器通过与荷兰人的东印度公司的交易而流入到了欧洲，这刺激了瓷器匠们去生产更多种类的瓷器，特别是代尔福特陶器。中国人生产了很多种类似于西方器皿一类的陶器，比如带有长的喷水口的瓶子以及专门为欧洲市场设计的一些特别的装饰用的陶器。

希腊壶罐的画色设计，在今天看来也许纯粹是为了装饰用，然而并非如此，事实上他们在当时都是被精心仔细的制作出来的，因此在那个时候，它们的含义是很明了的，这点上中国的瓷器也是一样的。20 世纪的眼光来看，中国制造的瓷器也许仅仅是装饰品，然而对于中国人来说，每个物件及它的装饰元素都有特定而重要的意义。龙代表了帝王，凤凰代表了皇后，石榴意味着富饶，双鱼意味着幸福，鸳鸯代表了婚姻的幸福美满，松树，桃树，以及鹤都是长寿的象征，鱼跳出水面意味着在科举上会高中状元。当欧洲的装饰主题被引入的时候，这些意义变得模糊甚至丢失了。

早期的壶罐既被用于宗教上，也被用于普通的日常生活上。元朝就有过皇室在景德镇建立皇家瓷窑的例子。壶罐在宗教仪式上也有着重要的地位。尽管瓷器身上那些长而抒情的描写有时使得原本已经大而复杂的图像更加令人费解，但是这些可以帮助我们去对瓷器进行分类。