阅读理解 Unlike those available for painting, the opportunities to exhibit sculpture in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century were quite scarce. There was almost no room for sculpture at the influential Fine Arts Society’s 57th Street Galleries in New York. As late as 1905, the Monumental News, a journal dedicated to thepromotion of sculpture, lamented, “Exhibitions of sculptors’ works are so comparativelyrare.” In response to this dire predicament, the sculptor Frederick W. Ruckstull and Charles de Kay, art editor of the newspaper The New York Times, founded the NationalSculpture Society (NSS) in 1893, the first organization dedicated solely to the advancement of sculpture. Incorporated in 1896 to promote sculptural production and encourage the exhibition and sale of the plastic arts, the National Sculpture Society (NSS) elected John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910), the prestigious sculptor of public monuments, to serve as its first president, an office he held from 1893 to 1905. During the last twenty years of his life, Ward dedicated much time to public and private organizations that promoted public art. To the end, he headed the NSS committee that oversaw the sculptural decoration of the Library of Congress Reading Room in Washington D.C. as well as the building and decorating of the Dewey Arch----a monument in New York to honor Admiral George Dewey. He was a champion of the City Beautiful Movement---an effort to increase the presence of urban art---and defended the central role that sculpture played in its nationalprogram. The National Sculpture Society promoted the production of sculpture by standardizingprocedures for competitions, enhancing the professional status of sculptors, and encouraging commissions for American sculpture in homes, public buildings, parks, and squares. Moreover, it included members in its organization who were not sculptors,hoping to close the gap between artists and the great body of the people, not merely well-to-do patrons, but the working public. The NSS encouraged the commission andpurchase of sculptures for both private consumption---home and garden---and for publicenjoyment---parks and squares. Through this campaign, small-scale sculptures---eitherreductions of monumental artworks or smaller-sized originals----were brought to theattention of an interested public.

单选题 What does the passage mainly discuss?

单选题 The word “scarce” in line 2 is closest in meaning to

单选题 The word “lamented” in line 5 is closest in meaning to

单选题 What is the “dire predicament” mentioned by the author in line 6?

单选题 The passage suggests which of the following about early-twentieth-century art?

单选题 According to the passage, who was the first president of the National Sculpture Society?

单选题 The phrase “that end” in line 15 refers to

单选题 The word “champion” in line 18 is closest in meaning to

单选题 According to the passage, what was a goal of the City Beautiful Movement?

单选题 According to the passage, the National Sculpture Society promoted the production of sculpture by doing which of the following?