Question

 NEW YORK (Reuters) — Artists and gallery owners have their fingers crossed at New York’s Affordable Art Fair this week,waiting to see how the economic downturn(衰退期) affects sales of their work even as demand in the high-end (高端的) market breaks down.

 Taking place for the eighth year,the fair aims to lure(引诱) new art buyers and long-time patrons(赞助人) with prices ranging from $ 75 to $ 10,000. Most of the work is priced at $ 5,000 or under.

 Despite the “ affordable” tag (标签) ，attracting buyers is still a daunting task when consumers are turning down anything expensive or unnecessary in the economic depression.

 About 64 galleries are participating in this year’s Affordable Art Fair,down from 70 last year. The fair opened in Manhattan on Thursday and ended on Sunday.

Jenny Hirst,an artist from Manchester,England, who exhibited her work at the namesake fair in London and was attending the New York show,said the demand for affordable art “is struggling a bit”.

“They(consumers) say it is nice,but walk away . instead of pulling out their checkbooks,” said Hirst， referring to art buyers.

The economic downturn has affected the high-end art market. Sotheby’s posted a 71 per cent drop in auc-tion(拍卖) sales in the past quarter,while some experts say demand is rare，or in the best case,scarce for expensive art.

“I don’t think it’s that people are saying, ^“1 can’t spend a million dollars so I’ll go out and spend $ 500,000，”’ said Constance Kamens，a private art dealer and appraiser.

“Some of them are not buying at all but when they are buying,they are buying carefully. ”

Popular belief is that the right piece of art can transform a space,making it an attractive alternative (选择) to buying a new home or redecorating in a recession marked by increasing job losses and tight access to credit.

1. Not many customers buy art works mainly because        .

   A. the art works are too expensive for them to buy one

   B.  they think it is unnecessary to buy an art work now

   C.  they cannot find art works on show are attractive

   D.  the art market is greatly affected by the financial crisis

2. From what Constance Kamens said,we can safely conclude       .

   A. the customers don’t care the price much

   B.  the customers want to buy cheap works

   C.  the customers often bargain with dealers

   D.  the customers are not interested in buying

3. The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 3 has the closest meaning to “      ”.

   A. frightening   B. discouraging

   C.  exciting   D. surprising

Answer 1

1. D细节理解题。从第一段的“…waiting to see how the economic downturn(衰退期) affects sales of their work".”可知没有多少顾客买艺术作品是因为受到经济危机的影响。所以选D项。

2. A 推理判断题。从第八段Constance Kamens所说的话，他认为人们不会因为这幅画是一百万美元太贵而去买一件价值五十万美元的作品。所以价格不是人们不买的主要原因。故选A项。

3. B词义猜测题。根据上下文内容：尽管价钱支付得起，但是当人们拒绝那些昂贵或不必要的艺术品时，要吸引顾客还是一项工作。从句意推断，应是“令人气馁的”。所以选B.