In view of this, diversity, it is difficult to define modern art in a way that includes all of 20th-century Western art. For some critics, the most important characteristic of modern art is its attempt to make painting and sculpture ends in them selves, thus distinguishing modernism from earlier forms of art that had conveyed the ideas of powerful religious or political institutions. Because modern artists were no longer funded primarily by these institutions, they were freer to suggest more personal meanings. This attitude is often expressed as art for art's sake, a point of view that is often interpreted as meaning art without political or religious motives. But even if religious and government institutions no longer commissioned most art, many modern artists still sought to convey spiritual or political messages. Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, for instance, felt that color combined with abstraction could express a spiritual reality beneath ordi nary appearances, while German painter Otto Dix created openly political works that criticized policies of the German government.
Another theory claims that modern art is by nature rebellious and that this rebellion is most evident in a quest for originality and a continual desire to shock. The term avantgarde, which is often applied to modern art, comes from a French military term meaning "advance guard," and suggests that what is modern is what is new, original, or cutting-edge. To be sure, many artists in the 20th century tried to redefine what art means, or attempted to expand the definition of art to include concepts, materials, or techniques that were never before associated with art. In 1917, for example, French artist Marcel Duchamp exhibited everyday, mass-produced, utilitarian objects—including abicycle wheel and a urinal—as works of art. In the 1950s and 192s, American artist Allan Kaprow used his own body as an artistic medium in spontaneous performances that he declared to be artworks. In the 1970s American earthwork artist Robert Smithson used unaltered elements of the environment—earth, rocks, and water—as material for his sculptural pieces. Consequently, many people associate modern art with what is radical and disturbing. Although a theory of rebellion could be applied to explain the quest for originality motivating a great number of 20th-century artists, it would be difficult to apply it to an artist such as Grant Wood, whose American Gothic clearly rejected the example of the advanced art of his time.
Another key characteristic of modern art is its fascination with modern technology and its embrace of mechanical methods of reproduction, such as photography and the printing press. In the early 1910s Italian artist Umberto Boccioni sought to glorify the precision and speed of the industrial age in his paintings and sculptures. At about the same time, Spanish painter Pablo Picasso incorporated newspaper clippings and other printed material into his paintings in a new technique known as collage. By the same token, however, other modern artists have sought inspiration from the spontaneous impulses of children's art or from exploring the aesthetic traditions of nonindustrialized, non-Western cultures. French artist Henri Matisse and Swiss artist Paul Klee were profoundly influenced by children's drawings, Picasso closely observed African masks, and Pollock's technique of pouting paint onto canvas was in part inspired by Native American sand painting,
Yet another view holds that the basic motivation of modern art is to engage in a dialogue with popular culture. To this end, Picasso pasted bits of newspaper into his paintings, Roy Lichtenstein imitated both the style. and subject of comic strips in his paintings, and Andy Warhol made images of Campbell's soup cans. But although breaking down the boundary between high art and popular culture is typical of artists like Picasso, Lichtenstein, and Warhol, it is not of Mondrian, Pollock, or mos
A. Because he liked to do so.
B. He wanted to claim that modern art was by nature rebellious and that this rebellion was most evident in a quest for originality and a continual desire to shock.
C. He wanted to suggest that art was what was new, original, or cutting-edge.
D. To be sure, many artists in the 20th century tried to redefine what art means, or attempted to expand the definition of art to include concepts, materials, or techniques that were never before associated with art.
Rabies is an ordinarily infectious disease of the central nervous system, caused by a virus and, as a rule, spread chiefly by domestic dogs and wild flesh-eating animals. Man and all warm-blooded animals are susceptible to rabies. The people of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome ascribed rabies to evil spirits because ordinarily gently and friendly animals suddenly became vicious and violent without evident cause and, after a period of maniacal behaviour, became paralysed and died.
Experiments carried out in Europe in the early nineteenth century of injecting saliva from a rabid dog into a normal dog proved that the disease was infectious. Preventive steps, such as the destruction of stray dogs, were taken and by 1826 the disease was permanenfiy eliminated in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Though urban centres on the continent of Europe Were cleared several times during the nineteenth century, they soon became reinfected since rabies was uncon trolled among wild animals.
During the early stages of the disease, a rabid animal is most dangerous because it appears normal and friendly, but it will bite at the slightest provocation. The virus is present in the salivary glands(腺) and passes into the saliva so that the bite of the infected animal inmxluces the virus into a fresh wound. If no action is taken, the vires may become established in the central nervous system and finally attack the brain. The incubation(潜伏期) period varies from ten days to eight months or more, and the disease develops more quickly the nearer to the brain the wound is. Most infected dogs become restless, nervous, and irritable and vicious, then depressed and paralysed. With this type of rabies, the dog's death is inevitable and usually occurs within three to five days after the onset of the symptoms.
Anti-rabies vaccine(疫苗) is widely used nowadays in two ways. Dogs may begiven three-year protection against the disease by one powerful injection, while persons who have been bitten by rabid animals are given a course of daily injections over a week or ten days. The mortality rate from all types of bites from rabid animals hasdropped from 9% to 0.5%. In rare cases, the vaccine will not prevent rabies in human beings because the virus produces the disease before the person's body has time to build up enough resistance. Because of this, immediate vaccination is essential for anyone bitten by an animal observed acting strangely and the animal should be captured circumspectly, and examined profession ally or destroyed.
Rabies is_____.
A. a disease which is infectious, caused by virus of dogs and wild flesh-eating animals
B. a disease caused by evil spirits
C. a disease spread by man and all warm-blooded animals
D. a disease causes animals to be vicious and violent
The selection of workers for particular jobs is essentially a problem of discovering the special intelligenc and personality characteristics needed for the job and of devising tests to determine whether candidates have such intelligence and characteristics. The development of tests of this kind has long been a field of psychological research.
Once the worker is on the job and has been trained, the fundamental aim of the industrial psychologist is to find ways in which a particular job can best be accomplished with a minimum of effort and a maximum of individual satisfaction. The psychologist's function, therefore, differs from that of the so-called efficiency expert, who places primary emphasis on increased production. Psychological techniques used to lessen the effort involved in a given job include a detailed study of the motions required to do the job, the equipment used, and the conditions under which the job is performed. These conditions include ventilation, heating, lighting, noise, and anything else affecting the comfort or morale of the worker. After making such a study, the industrial psychologist often determines that the job in question may be accomplished with less effort by changing the routine motions of the work itself, changing or moving the tools, improving the working conditions, or a combination of several of these methods. Industrial psychologists have also studied the effects of fatigue on workers to determine the length of working time that yields the greatest productivity. In some cases such studies have proven that total production on particular jobs could be increased by reducing the number of working hours or by increasing the number of rest periods, or "breaks," during the day. Industrial psychologists may also suggest less direct requirements for general improvement of job performance, such as establishing a better line of communication between employees and management.
One aim of psychological research is to_____.
A. study worker candidates' intelligence and characteristics
B. discover the special intelligence and personality characteristics of worker candidates'
C. solve the specific problem
D. help choose the right or suitable workers for particular jobs
SECTION B INTERVIEW
Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. Questions 1 to 5 are based on an interview. At the end of the interview you will be given 10 seconds to answer each of the following five questions.
Now listen to the interview.
听力原文: Officer: Mrs. Harrison (H), thanks very much for coming down here to the station. I—I know you've been through a terrible situation here today. Urn...I'd just like to go over some of the things that you told Sergeant Clark at the bank.
H: All right.
O: Uh, would you like a cup of tea?
H: No. No, I'm fine.
O: All fight.
H: Thanks.
O: Well, urn ... could you describe the two people who robbed the bank for this report we're filling out here? Now, anything at all that you can remember would be extremely helpful to us.
H: Well, uh ... just... I can only remember basically what I said before.
O: That's all right.
H: The man was tall ... uh ... about six feet, and he had dark hair
O: Dark hair.
H: And he had a moustache.
O: Very good. All right, did he have any other distinguishing marks, I mean scars, for example, anything like that?
H: Scars ...urn... no. No, none that I can remember.
O: Do you remember how old he was, by any chance?
H: Uh ... well, I—I guess around thirty,...
O: Around thirty.
H: ... may be younger, plus or minus a few years.
O: Mm-hmm. All right, do you, uh, remember anything about what he might have been wearing?
H: Yes. Yes, he—he had on a dark sweater, a—a solid colour. You know, the kind of colour young people fancy nowadays.
O: Or. Urn ... anything else that strikes you at the moment?
H: I—I remember he was wearing a light shirt under the sweater. A cotton one with dark, I think, dark stripes. It looked like a good brand.
O: Ah, very good.
H: Yes, yes.
O: Mm—hmm. All right, now, can you tell us anything about the female robber, Mrs. Harrison?
H: Well, I remember that she did most of the talking. She had the gun pointed at us and she told us to lie down, and not to move if we knew what was good for us. I remember it just felt like she was pointing the gun right at me, and my little daughter was right next to me and she—she was just so frightened...
O: Uh, Mrs. Harrison, could you describe her for us?
H: Ugh. She was wearing a wool sweater...
O: Ah, very good.
H: I remember it was a dark color, navy blue or ... or dark grey
O: darkgrey, mm—hmm.
H: ... and I guess she was in her late twenties. Uh, her hair was short, very short and a bit curly. O; Do you remember how tall she was?
H: Uh ... about the same as myself, around five four.
O: Five four, mm—hmm. All right, do you, uh .... remember anything else about this woman?
H: Yes. I remember that the woman was wearing a pendant around her neck.
O: Uh—hmm.
H: I remember specifically because I was then near the counter, next to the bank manager, and my little daughter started to cry
O: Oh.
H: ... and this woman came up to me and was very rude to my daughter. So I had a good look at her and ... and she was sort of, uh, pulling on the chain, uh, playing with the pendant.
O: Oh?
H: It was gold, uh, well. anyway, it looked like gold, and it got a strange shape.
O: Mm—hmm. Did either of them have any other, uh, noticeable characteristics, Mrs. Harrison? Now, just take a moment
H: No, I don't...
O: ... to think about this.
H: No. No, and this is really all I can remember.
O: Well, did either of them wear glasses?
H: No, No, I'm sure of that.
O: Mm hmm. All right, Mrs. Harrison, I really appreciate what you've been through today. I'm just going to ask you to look at some pohtographs before you leave, if you don't mind. It won't take very long. Can you do that for me?
H: Oh, all right.
O: Would you like to step this way with me, please?
H: Ok. Sure.
O: Thank y
A. clothes.
B. age.
C. physique.
D. appearance.