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 work 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：含义题。考生根据第一段的第一句话可以得知，这个持续时间最长的艺术品市场牛市是以赫斯特的56件作品成功拍卖而终止的，以及信号词后面的提示，即在赫斯特作品大卖的同时．雷曼兄弟的破产标志着世界经济开始走向衰退，所以作者将赫斯特作品的成功拍卖比作是艺术品市场交易的“最后的一次胜利”，D项“这次交易是在世界金融危机开始前完成的”，说法符合原文的意思，故为正确答案。A项“艺术品市场经历了一系列的成功交易”在文章中没有提及。B项“拍卖人最终以高价得到了两件作品”和C项“‘我脑海中永存的美丽’赢得了所有大作”原文中均未提到。

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

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】解析：含义题。题干信息为“作者提到‘任何花销都变得极不流行’，其实是想暗示______”。根据第三段中这句话的后续内容及上下文可以看出，在艺术收藏界里这就意味着收藏者们会远离画廊和拍卖场所。该信息与A项“收藏者们不再活跃于艺术品的拍卖活动中”含义一致，因此A项是正确答案。其他的选项内容与作者暗示的信息有出入。B项“人们取消任何花销并不再去画廊” 不切实际。C项“艺术收藏作为一种时尚在很大程度上已经失去了吸引力”没有提及。D项“艺术作品大体上已经不再流行，因此这些作品不值得购买”没有提及。

单选题 Which of the following statements is NOT true?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】解析：细节题。本题要求考生根据文章段落细节信息进行总结概括，选出与文章内容不符的选项。由于选项涉及的内容比较零散，需要考生注意并理解具体的信息。A项的意思是“在2007 年到2008年之间，当代艺术作品的交易量有巨大的下滑”。这一信息与第二段第二行和第三段第三行的内容一致，因此可以排除掉。B项“艺术品市场在市场发展势头方面超过了其他行业” 的说法与第二段第一句话的意思相左。首先文章中指出至2003年艺术品市场莫名出现增长后开始失去了发展动力，另外在第二段最后部分涉及艺术市场和其他行业的对比，但是并没有从发展动力的角度论述，因此B项为正确答案。C项“艺术品市场从多个方面开始走下坡路”与第三段内容相符。D项“一些艺术品商人正等待更好的机会”与文章的最后一句话内容相符。

单选题 The three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：细节题。本题测试考生对文中具体细节信息的理解能力。题干的意思是“在最后一段中提到的三个D指的是______”。根据最后一段内容可以得知，在当前的市场中缺少的不是对艺术品的需求，而是好卖的艺术品。题干中的三个D分别指的是Death(死亡)、Debt(债务)和Divorce(离婚)。这是三个将艺术品引入市场进行流通的途径。因此C项“促进艺术品流通的因素”为正确答案。A项“拍卖行的最爱”、B项“当代的趋势”和D项“印象派画家的风格”均不符合文章的内容。

单选题 The most appropriate title for this text could be

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】解析：主旨题。本题考查对全文主旨要义的理解，要求根据文章内容选择合适的标题。从整体结构来看，本文以赫斯特的作品成功拍卖引出论述的重点，即艺术品市场的低迷与衰退。第二段介绍了艺术品市场牛市阶段的特点，在第三四段分别论述了当前的艺术市场的形势，并在最后一段对未来作出了预测。因此最合适的标题为C项“衰退中的艺术品市场”。A项“艺术品价格的波动”和B项“最新的艺术品拍卖”包含的内容太少，没有从整体上概括全文。D项“对艺术品兴趣的转向”则有些混淆视听的效果。Arts一词可以指学科类别中的文科门类，也可以与定冠词一起泛指艺术。