阅读理解

Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. For each of them there are four choices marked A.,B., C. and D. You should decide on the best choice.


Passage 1

A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than that 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, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than that can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects 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 criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso’s Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros—as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martines—depicted these Mexican artists’ deep anger and sadness about social problems.

In the same way, art can 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 depicted people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. 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 the Islamic (伊斯兰教的） belief that statues are unholy (不神圣的）. 

单选题 From passage one, we know that ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】由第一段中“art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions, and psychology”可知， 艺术反映了政治、 宗教信仰、 情感和心理。
单选题 Art is subjective in that it _____.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】第二段提到艺术是主观的， 因为其“reflects emotions and opinions”， 即反映了人们的情感与观点。
单选题 It may be concluded from this passage that _____.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】由最后一段可知， 欧洲的教堂和其他宗教建筑充满了描绘人们和圣经故事的绘画， 由此可见欧洲人很尊重圣经。
单选题 According to the passage, what can be usually found in a truly “political” artist’s work?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】A项是对宗教信仰的批评， 不属于政治。
单选题 The passage mainly discusses _____.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】文章提出， 研究艺术史对于研究历史有重要意义， 艺术作品反映了政治、 宗教、 情感和心理。 文章主要讨论了艺术史在了解历史上的价值。