【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[听力原文]
   Hostess:
   Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It gives me great pleasure to introduce today's speaker, Dr. Smith, a professor at the University of British Columbia. He will give us a lecture about art history.
   Professor Smith:
   Good morning, everyone. In today's lecture, I'd like to spend some time discussing with you the following topic: Why do we need to study art history and what can we learn from it?
   A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this. Because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors—or of people very different from our own  can be provided by art. In short, a study of art enables us to learn more things about human society and civilization.
   Most people who want to know our history like to read history books. In history books, information is objective. Art, on the other hand, is subjective. It will reflect personal emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly "political" artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May 1808, he showed soldiers shooting a group of simple people. In summary, through art you can find a personal and emotional view of history.
   Art can also reflect a culture's religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that showed people and stories from the Bible. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was and still is, its absence of human and animal images. This reflects Islamic belief that these images are unholy. Thus, on palaces, mosques and other buildings, Islamic artists have created unique decoration of great beauty with images of flowers and geometric forms.
   To conclude my lecture, we can say that art is a reflection of various cultures. But at the same time, we have to remember that art also reflects the changes in society that take place when different cultures influence one another. As people from tribal societies move to urban areas, their values and beliefs change accordingly. And their traditional art forms begin to lose their function. At the same time, urban artists begin to learn a lot from traditional art. The result is that, as the world gets smaller, the art of each culture becomes more international.
   What do typical history courses concentrate on?
快速浏览本部分各题的所有选项，根据political values、religious beliefs、the Bible、traditional art等可推测本文可能与文化和艺术有关。
   四个选项都是名词性短语，涉及政治、文化、经济等方面。
   讲座中提到Most typical history courses concentrate on politics，economics and war，可知大多数典型的历史课重点关注的是政治、经济和战争事件。故D项为正确答案。A、B两项均为艺术所涉及的内容：艺术不仅是对一个民族的政治价值观的反映，也是对宗教信仰、情感和心理的反映，故排除A、B两项；C项讲座中没有提到，也可排除。