单选题 In the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, one scene shows an American newspaper reporter eagerly snapping photos of men looting a sabotaged train. One of the looters, Chief Auda abu Tayi of the Howeitat clan, suddenly notices the camera and snatches it. "Am I in this?" he asks, before smashing it open. To the dismayed reporter, Lawrence explains, "He thinks these things will steal his virtue. He thinks you're a kind of thief. " As soon as colonizers and explorers began taking cameras into distant lands, stories began circulating about how indigenous peoples saw them as tools for black magic. The "ignorant natives" may have had a point. When photography first became available, scientists welcomed it as a more objective way of recording faraway societies than early travelers' exaggerated accounts. But in some ways, anthropological photographs reveal more about the culture that holds the camera than the one that stares back. Up into the 1950s and 1960s, many ethnographers sought "pure" pictures of "primitive" cultures, routinely deleting modern accoutrements such as clocks and Western dress. They paid men and women to re-enact rituals or to pose as members of war or hunting parties, often with little regard for veracity. Edward Curtis, the legendary photographer of North American Indians, for example, got one Makah man to pose as a whaler with a spear in 1915—even though the Makah had not hunted whales in a generation. These photographs reinforced widely accepted stereotypes that indigenous cultures were isolated, primitive, and unchanging. For instance, National Geographic magazine's photographs have taught millions of Americans about other cultures. As Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins point out in their 1993 book Reading National Geographic, the magazine since its founding in 1888 has kept a tradition of presenting beautiful photos that don't challenge white, middle-class American conventions. While dark-skinned women can be shown without tops, for example, white women's breasts are taboo. Photos that could unsettle or disturb, such as areas of the world torn asunder by war or famine, are discarded in favor of those that reassure to conform with the society's stated pledge to present only "kindly" visions of foreign societies. The result, Lutz and Collins say, is the depiction of "an idealized and exotic world relatively free of pain or class conflict. " Lutz actually likes National Geographic a lot She read the magazine as a child, and its lush imagery influenced her eventual choice off anthropology as a career. She just thinks that as people look at the photographs of other cultures, they should be alert to the choice of composition and images.
单选题 What's the main idea of the passage?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:从文章中可以看出西方的媒体,为了迎合西方读者猎奇的心理,为了不与西方读者的中产阶级价值观发生冲突,在他们拍摄的照片中,并不是真正客观公正地反映经济发展水平较为落后的社会中人们的生活。他们经常有意删除照片中反映西方文明烙印的成分,甚至摆布照片中的主人公,以描绘出一个西方读者想象中的,经济不发达的,有异域风情的,相对地没有痛苦和阶级冲突的经济落后社会的画面。他们甚至避免刊登那些反映饥荒,战争,灾害的照片,以满足西方媒体“只刊登外国社会美好一面的照片”的默契。
单选题 We can infer from the passage that early travelers to the native lands often______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:文章第二段第二句说:“When photography first became available,scientists welcomed it as a more objective way of recording faraway societies than early travelers exaggerated accounts.”意思是:当照相术开始成为可能的时候,科学家们欢迎它,相对于早期旅游者夸大其辞的描述,科学家把摄影术当做是对遥远社会的一种更客观的记录。
单选题 The author mentions the movie Lawrence of Arabia to______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:作者用电影中描述的场景来说明一个论点。那就是来自原始社会的人,不知道相机为何物,对此产生恐惧感和误解。
单选题 "But in some ways, anthropological photographs reveal more about the culture that holds the camera than the one that stares back. " In this sentence, the "one culture that stares back" refers to______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:作者暗示,照片反映了西方摄影者的偏见和对落后文化固有的看法,反映的是西方的价值观,并不是完全真实客观的那些原始土著人们的写照。
单选题 With which of the following statements would Catherine Lutz most probably agree?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】解析:Catherine Lutz是1993年出版的Reading National Geographic的作者之一。她们在书中写道,《国家地理》杂志自从1888年创刊以来,就一直保持一种习惯,即只刊登那些不和美国中产阶级白人的价值观发生冲突的优美照片。因此答案:C The Western media are not presenting a realistic picture of the faraway societies(西方媒体并没有展现落后地区的真实画面)最能表现该作者的观点。