The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the 1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed in different ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.

Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.

What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with

[A]. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.

[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.

[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.

[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.

Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12—13?

[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.

Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?

[A]. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.

[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.

[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.

[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.

How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.

[B]. It was art for recording the world.

[C]. It was a device for observing the world impartially.

[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.

阅读下面这首乐府诗，完成下列各题。

菩萨蛮

王安石【注】

数间茅屋闲临水，窄衫短帽垂杨里。花是去年红，吹开一夜风。

梢梢新月偃，午醉醒来晚。何物最关情，黄鹂三两声。

【注】：此词为王安石晚年罢相后回到金陵卜居于半山时所作。

词的开篇就点出“闲”字，请结合全词，谈谈作者是怎样表现“闲”字的？

素洁平易而又含蓄深沉是这首词的基本特色，请你就“含蓄深沉”这一特色谈谈对这首词的理解。

As a research shows, when it comes to strong emotion, the once serious British are now happy to shed tears quite openly．

"30% of all British males have cried in the last month．That is a very high figure," said Peter Marsh, director of the Social Issues Research Center．"Only 2% said they could not remember when they last cried", the head of the research group said．Long gone is the "No Tears — We’ re British" time when emotion was considered a bad form．"Among 2,000 people, very few in their forties or fifties had seen their father cry．Now it is twice as many, he told reporters．"77% of men considered crying in public increasingly acceptable．" Almost half the British men opened the floodgates over a sad movie, book or TV program．Self-pity got 17% crying． 9% cried at weddings．

From the days of Empire, the British have always considered themselves models of reserve （含蓄）, laughing at "excitable foreigners" who show no self-control．

Marsh argued the difference was still there: "We have probably not caught up with the Americans or the Italians when it comes to expressing emotions．"

"But we are clearly changing．What we take as typical British reserve has significantly faded．"

Women’ s battle for equal rights has certainly had an effect -- both in the workplace and at home． "Men in their twenties or thirties are interacting （交互影响） with women on equal terms much more than a generation ago． They have to relate to the opposite sex． Women become more man-like and men become more female．That transfers into the workplace too．" Marsh said．

1．The underlined phrase "opened the floodgates" probably means

A．fought against flood                             B．kept their feeling inside

C．opened doors for others                       D．burst into tears

2．The British used to think crying in public ______

A．natural                    B．polite               C．unacceptable           D．important

3．The research showed that British men cried most

A．over a sad film                                 B．over self-pity

C．at wedding                                    D．at graduation

4．The last paragraph is mainly about

A．women’s struggle for equal rights          B．the cause of the change

C．interaction between men and women    D．women’[s influence on men