1 . The Louvre is the most popular museum in the world. Last year, about 10 million visitors, more than 75% of whom were foreign tourists, came to the museum. About 80% of them were here for Mona Lisa-and most of them left unhappy.
According to a survey of British tourists earlier this year, Mona Lisa was voted the world’s most disappointing attraction, beating out Checkpoint Charlie, Spanish Steps, and Urinating Boy in Brussels.
If the museum thinks that it is inspiring the next generation of art lovers, it is in fact doing the opposite, thanks to the huge crowds in front of the picture. The overcrowding here was so bad that Jean-Luc Martinez, the museum’s director, has to admit, “We have to take steps to deal with the overcrowding in the coming years: new entrances and timed tickets for the museum.”
He misunderstands the problem-for the Louvre, with more gallery space than any museum on the planet, isn’t that crowed. On my last visit, the French painting wing had just a few visitors. Even Venus de Milo, perhaps the second most famous work of art in the museum, only drew a comfortable few dozen visitors. In other words, the Louvre does not have an overcrowding problem. It has a Mona Lisa problem. No other famous painting comes anywhere close to monopolizing (垄断) a museum like she does. It is time for the Louvre to admit its failure. The museum does not need new entrances or timed tickets.
Instead, it only needs to set up a moving walkway in front of Mona Lisa and let Samsung or another smartphone company to fix its cutest cameras around her. So visitors can strike a pose on the moving walkway, and download their cutest selfies (自拍像) with Mona Lisa later. I can even picture the moving walkway smoothly guiding tourists past the Mona Lisa into the gift shops, where millions of selfiers can take time to enjoy their pictures, and spend money.
It is time to set it up now since the 2024 Summer Olympics is around the comer.
1. Which was the most disappointing attraction according to the survey? ________| A．Mona Lisa. | B．Venus de Milo. | C．Spanish Steps. | D．Urinating Boy. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Practical. | C．Expensive. | D．Unworkable. |
| A．A lot of visitors stay there to appreciate it. | B．The room housing the picture is too small. |
| C．Too many visitors want to take a picture with it. | D．The ticket for the famous painting is too cheap. |
| A．To share his unpleasant visit to the Louvre. |
| B．To introduce a famous painting in a museum. |
| C．To offer a simple solution to the Mona Lisa problem. |
| D．To show the opportunity brought by the 2024 Olympics. |
