单选题 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. All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. 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 bewilderingly 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. 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, 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. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more fluctuant. 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. 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 works 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.

单选题 In the first paragraph, Damien Hirst"s sale was referred to as "a last victory" because ______

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 虽然本题提问的是一个词组，但是对这个词组的理解一定要放在上下文中进行。第一段第一句提到艺术品市场的牛市结束，但同时提到了Hirst的拍卖会多么成功，第二句继续提到了Hirst拍卖会如何创下了单人拍卖纪录，第四句提到了雷曼兄弟银行的破产。上面谈Hirst拍卖会的成功，下一句谈以雷曼兄弟银行的倒闭为标志的国际金融危机的到来。在这个上下文中理解“它是最后一场胜利”，就能很容易地得出答案。而选择项A因为脱离了这个上下文，就不能被选为正确答案。

单选题 By saying "spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable" (Lines 1～2, Para. 3), the author suggests that ______

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 回答这道题跟回答上一道题一样，也必须把提问到的这个短语放到上下文中理解，不能过多地纠缠这个短语的意思。由于被问到的这句话是第三段第一句，因此本段下文应该为回答这个问题提供了更重要的线索。下文提到收藏家不再光顾美术馆或拍卖厅，各类艺术品的价格在下降。只有选择项A能与这个上下文的意思连贯一致，而选择项B表达的意思就跟这个上下文不一致——特别是stopped every kind of spending这一部分。

单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 注意，本题提问的是哪一个选择项与原文表达的意思不一致。既然本文谈论的主要是艺术品市场的衰退问题，选择项B肯定是不对的。在做这样的题时(挑出一个错误项)，考生需要逐个核对四个选择项，千万不要简单地挑出一个了事。
A：第三段第三句能直接证明本选择项符合原文表达的意思。在这个句子中，they指sales of contemporary art。
C：第三段总体都是说艺术品市场的衰落。
D：第四段提到了Dolman为代表的拍卖商的观点，他认为艺术品市场已经处于下降的底部，很快就会触底反弹。第五段最后一句也提到，有些人不急于把手上的艺术品出售，而等待着市场恢复信心。

单选题 The three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are ______

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 理解3个D的意思也同样要考察上下文，第五段提到艺术品市场的供与求的问题，在提到3个D的上一句，文章提到了市场不缺乏需求，缺乏的是好艺术品(的供应)，因此包括3个D的这句话应该是谈艺术品的供应。另外，下一句说不急于卖艺术品的那些人在等待市场转暖，这也告诉我们包括3个D的这个句子是在谈急于卖艺术品的人的心情。所以，3个D指促使艺术品被出售的因素。“死亡”这里指艺术品的拥有者死亡，“债务”指拥有艺术品的人欠债，不得不出售艺术品抵债，“离婚”经常涉及财产的分割，因此也可能促使当事人卖出收藏品。

单选题 The most appropriate title for this text could be ______

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 一篇文章的题目当然要概括这篇文章的要义，因此在考察选择项时，不能仅仅考察它有没有在哪一个段落或句子中被提到，而应该抓住文章主题。从本文的第一段我们就知道，这篇文章谈的是艺术品市场的问题。第一段——尤其是从It was a last victory起——就直接切入主题：艺术品市场正在走向衰落。下文各段都没有脱离这个主题。