Passage Two
Two important movements in the history of painting arc featured in the exhibition, “American Impression and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885— 1915.” Highlighted are works by the leading artists of both schools, including John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, William Meerritt Chase, John Sloan, and William Glackens.
For the first time in a major exhibition, the two groups of painters are united and their output thematically, in relation to the dynamic period that caused their creation. To illustrate the similarities as well as the differences among the painters and works of the two groups ； the focus is on the three broad subjects the artists of each movement explored: the country, city, and home.
“The American Impressionists and Realists saw themselves as two opposed groups of artists, and they have since been presented as such by many critics and scholars,”explains Philippe de Montebello, director, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. “This exhibition, however, saves to reunite the two groups to suggest that the continuities between them are more important that previously perceived, and the contrasts far more subtle.”
Although the American Impressionists and Realists reached their maturity in different centuries, painters from both groups shared common backgrounds. They all benefited from some measure of academic training, appreciated the works of certain Old Masters, and adopted the manner of the French Impressionists. In general, the American Impressionists came from comfortable families long established in the US, while the Realists were more socially and economically diverse. Yet, despite differences in technique and social background, most of the American Impressionists and Realists chose the same native subjects and produced an artistic register of an energetic nation caught in the throes of rapid change from and agricultural to an increasingly industrialized, urban society.
The exhibition is most important because________.
根据第三段，让这次展览如此重要的原因是“This exhibition，however, serves to reunite the two groups to suggest that the continuities between them are more important that previously perceived, and the contrasts far more subtle. ” 即帮助重新团结起来这两个对立的派别。
The exhibition focused on three broad subjects explored by the painters of each school,________.
根据二段最后一句“To illustrate the similarities as well as the differences among the painters and works of the two groups” 可选出答案。
American Impressionism is similar to Realism in all of the following aspects except that________.
根据最后一段第一句“Although the American Impressionists and Realists reached their maturity in different centuries...” 我们知道他们的成熟期相隔了几个世纪，因此C 项错误。
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
根据第三段第—句“The American Impressionists and Realists saw themselves as two opposed groups of artists, and they have since been presented as such by many critics and scholars ”可知批评家和学者长期以来都把它们看作对立的双方，因此可以说是造成了两个派别的冲突。A 项可以在文中直接找到，因此不能选。
The primary purpose of this passage is to ________.
本文表面上在将两个艺术派别之间的故事，其实是想借此宣传这场重要的展览，因此选A。