1 . Victor Hugo, 1802 -1885, was a celebrated French literary giant. After the British and French invaders(入侵者) bad burnt the Winter Palace(圆明园) in October, 1860, he wrote a reply to an officer named Bartlette one year later.
Sir, you ask me what I think of the expedition(远征) to China. You must feel that it was laudable. In your opinion, the expedition, performed under the joint banner(联合旗帜) of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon, was nothing short of a British-French glory. Therefore, you would like to know to what extent I appreciate this glory. Since you ask, I will answer as follows:
In a corner of the world there existed a man-made miracle - the Winter Palace. Art has two sources: one, an ideal, from which has come European art; two, fancy, from which has come Easter art. The Winter Palace belongs in the art of fancy. The Winter Palace, indeed, was the fruit of all of the art that an almost superman race could have fancied.
For whom was the Winter Palace built, after all? Eventually, for the people. Because as time passes by, all that the people has made remains in the possession of mankind. Great artists, poets, philosophers - they all knew about the Winter Palace. Voltaire once talked about it. Many people at different times compared the Winter Palace to the Parthenon, the Pyramids, the Arena, the Notre Dame. If they could not see the Winter Palace with their own eyes, they could dream about it- as if in the distance they saw a breath-taking masterpiece of art as they had never known before – as if there above the horizon of European civilization was towering the outline of Asian civilization.
Now, the miracle is no more! One day, two pirates broke into it One of them robbed; the other set every building and everything in it on fire! Judging by what they did, we know that the victors could degenerate into robbers. The two of them fell to dividing between themselves the treasure. What great victories they had won! What a heaven-sent fortune! One stuffed his pockets full to overflowing; the other filled in his bags with treasure. Then, hand in hand they made of, laughing happily.
Incidentally, I must thank you for giving me the opportunity to accuse. The rulers commit crimes but the ruled do not. The government becomes a robber, but the people will never.
France has gained a large portion of the treasure. Now, she thinks herself the rightful owner of the property财物), and she is displaying the riches of the Winter Palace! I can only hope that there will come one day when France will disburden herself of the heavy load on her conscience and clean herself off the crime by returning to China all the treasure taken from the Winter Palace.
Sit, such is my praise of the expedition to China.
1. Mr. Hugo wrote this letter mainly to_________.| A．show his praise of the expedition to China in reply to Bartlette’s request |
| B．persuade French officers to return the treasure taken from the Winter Palace |
| C．prove people hold different attitudes towards the burning of the Winter Palace |
| D．express his anger and condemnation over the burning of the Summar Palace |
| A．praiseworthy | B．violent | C．unreasonable | D．abundant |
| A．compare different architectural styles |
| B．praise European and African civilization |
| C．introduce some more famous buildings to Bartlette |
| D．emphasize the civilizational value of the Winter Palace |
| A．Bartlette and his fellow | B．Bartlette and Great Britain |
| C．France and Great Britain | D．the rulers and the ruled |
| A．satisfied | B．proud | C．disappointed | D．frightened |
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The lion dance is one of the most outstanding
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In one lion dance, the “lion” moves from place to place looking for some green vegetables, in
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4 . Car registration plates (车牌) are just a series of numbers and letters, right? Well, yes… but not for everyone.
Amazingly, number plates existed before cars. The city of Victoria in Canada gave horse-drawn carriages number plates as early as 1884. And France was the first country to introduce plates in 1893. Early number plates were different shapes and sizes, and made of lots of different materials. In fact, it was not until 1957 that car manufacturers and governments agreed on standardized plates, and even today there are three different sizes.
The first car registration number in the UK was A1. This was sold to Earl Russell by the London County Council in 1903. The letter “A” showed the number was from London, while the number “1” showed it was the first number issued. However, since then, the system has changed many times. At the moment, number plates in the UK consist of letters and numbers. Let’s look at the registration number plate “LK51 FTN”. First of all, “LK” shows which registration office has issued the registration number (in this case, it’s London Stanmore). The numbers 51 show the age of the car (51 means the car was licensed in the second half of 2001). And the last three letters are random.
Different EU countries use different arrangements of numbers and letters. For example, Spain uses four numbers and three letters, while Sweden uses three numbers and three letters, and Norway and Denmark use two letters and five digits. The system has changed many times because the letter-number combinations keep running out. UK number plates don’t have to include the European Union symbol although most EU countries use the symbol.
Some number plates have become extremely valuable, particularly those that spell out words. Basically, numbers on the plates can be used to represent words or parts of words. For example, “8” can mean “ate”; “4” can be “four” or “for”; and “2” can symbolize “to”, “two” or “too”. For example, “NVERLA8” means “Never late”.
Plates that represent words or phrases are commonly known as “vanity plates”. And they can be extremely expensive. Russian businessman Roman Abramovich is supposed to have paid over £250,000 for the plate “VIP 1”. Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has bought the plate “LEW 1S” and the most expensive number plate ever was “M1” which an anonymous buyer has acquired for £331,000.
So, what’s your number plate? It might be worth a fortune.
1. What can we learn from the development of car plates?| A．Canada, France and UK have invented three different plate sizes. |
| B．In terms of giving car plates, Canada acted much earlier than France. |
| C．UK has always been consistent in its system for car registration numbers. |
| D．Car producers and governments cooperated to form standards for plates. |
| A．No such agreement has been reached among different EU countries. |
| B．Much confusion has arisen from different digits adopted by EU countries. |
| C．Old letter-number arrangements were not adequate for increasing needs. |
| D．The British design of number plates differs from that of most EU countries. |
| A．it can be read out just the way of its master’s name |
| B．Lewis Hamilton believes that it can bring luck to him |
| C．the public consider it as a symbol of higher social classes |
| D．it has a long history and is different from current EU plates |
5 . Have you ever fallen for a novel and been amazed not to find it on lists of great books? Or walked around a sculpture known as a classic, struggling to see why it is famous? If so, you’ve probably thought about the question a psychologist, James Cutting, asked himself: How does a work of art come to be considered great?
The direct answer is that some works of art are just great: of inner superior quality. The paintings that win prime spots in galleries, get taught in classes are the ones that have proved their artistic value over time. If you can't see they’re superior, that's your problem. But some social scientists have been asking questions of it, raising the possibility that artistic canons(名作目录)are little more than old historical accidents.
Cutting, a professor at Cornell University, wondered if a psychological pattern known as the“mere-exposure effect”played a role in deciding which paintings rise to the top of the cultural league. Cutting designed an experiment to test his hunch(直觉). Over a lecture course he regularly showed undergraduates works of impressionism for two seconds at a time. Some of the paintings canonical, included in art-history books. Others were lesser known but of comparable quality were exposed four times as often. Afterwards, the students preferred them to the canonical works, while a control group liked the canonical ones best. Cutting’s students had grown to like those paintings more simply because they had seen them more.
Cutting believes his experiment casts light on how canons are formed. He reproduced works of impressionism today bought by five or six wealthy and influential collectors in the late 19th century.Their preferences given to certain works made them more likely to be hung in galleries and printed in collections. And the fame passed down the years. The more people were exposed to, the more they liked it, and the more they liked it, the more it appeared in books, on posters and in big exhibitions. Meanwhile, academics and critics added to their popularity. After all, it's not just the masses who tend to rate what they see more often more highly. Critics'praise is deeply mixed with publicity. “Scholars”, Cutting argues,“are no different from the public in the effects of mere exposure.”
The process described by Cutting show a principle that the sociologist Duncan Watts calls“cumulative advantage”:once a thing becomes popular, it will tend to become more popular still.A few years ago, Watts had a similar experience to Cutting's in another Paris museum. After queuing to see the"Mona Lisa "at the Louvre, he came away puzzled: why was it considered so superior to the three other Leonardos, to which nobody seemed to be paying the slightest attention?
When Watts looked into the history of"the greatest painting of all time", he discovered that, for most of its life, the"Mona Lisa"remained in relative obscurity. In the 1850s, Leonardo da Vinci was considered no match for giants of Renaissance art like Titian and Raphael, whose works were worth almost ten times as much as the"Mona Lisa" It was only in the 20th century that"Mona Lisa rocketed to the number-one spot. What brought it there wasn’t a scholarly re-evaluation, but a theft.In 1911 a worker at the Louvre walked out of the museum with the " Mona Lisa"hidden under his coat. Parisians were shocked at the theft of a painting to which, until then, they had paid little attention.When the museum reopened, people queued to see it. From then on, the"Mona Lisa "came to represent Western culture itself.
The intrinsic (本质的) quality of a work of art is starting to seem like its least important attribute. But perhaps it's more significant than our social scientists admit. Firstly, a work needs a certain quality to reach the top of the pile. The"Mona Lisa"may not be a worthy world champion but it was in the Louvre in the first place, and not by accident. Secondly, some objects are simply better than others.Read“Hamlet”after reading even the greatest of Shakespeare's contemporaries,and the difference may strike you as unarguable.
A study suggests that the exposure effect doesnt work the same way on everything, and points to a different conclusion about how canons are formed. Great art and mediocrity (平庸)can get confused, even by experts. But that’s why we need to see, and read, as much as we can. The more were exposed to the good and the bad, the better we are at telling the difference.
1. What is the function of the questions in the first paragraph?| A．To arouse readers' interest in the topic to be discussed. |
| B．To serve as an introduction to the topic to be discussed. |
| C．To explain the reasons for some works being great. |
| D．To share the similarity of classics to sculpture. |
| A．His subjects liked the famous paintings because of their comparable quality. |
| B．His subjects liked lesser known works because of more exposure to them. |
| C．His subjects showed no difference between the two types of works. |
| D．All the subjects preferred the famous works shown to them. |
| A．The preference of wealthy and influential collectors. |
| B．The theft of the painting by a worker. |
| C．The fame of Leonardo Da Vinci. |
| D．The cumulative advantage. |
| A．remained relatively unknown |
| B．became publicly known |
| C．was widely recognized |
| D．remained totally unchanged |
| A．“Hamlet”is the greatest work of Shakespeare. |
| B．the"Mona Lisa "is no comparable to"Hamlet" |
| C．the greatest of an art work lies in its inner value |
| D．The works of Shakespeare are worse than his contemporaries. |
| A．How exposure leads to fame |
| B．Why the Mona Lisa stands out |
| C．Cumulative advantage makes great works |
| D．The Mona Lisa,the greatest painting of all time |
6 . Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States alone.
The strength of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is its ability to show slavery’s effect on families. Stowe’s characters freely debated the causes of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Law(逃亡奴隶法), the future of freed people, what an individual could do, and racism. In the 1950s, poet Langston Hughes called the book a “moral battle cry for freedom.”
It is said that Abraham Lincoln greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862 by saying, “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Whether the story is true or not, there is some connection between Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Civil War. The Civil War rose from a mixture of causes including regional conflicts between North and South, economic forces, and concerns for the welfare of slaves. The four-year war almost destroyed the United States. Uncle Tom’s Cabin contributed to the outbreak of the war by personalizing the political and economic arguments about slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped many 19th-century Americans determine what kind of country they wanted.
Immediately after its publication, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was both praised as an achievement and attacked as inaccurate. Liberal abolitionists(废奴主义者) felt the book was not strong enough in its call to immediately end slavery, disliked Stowe’s tacit(暗含的) support of the colonization movement, and suggested that Stowe’s main character Tom was not forceful enough. More moderate anti-slavery advocates and reformers praised the book for putting a human face on those held in slavery, emphasizing the impact slavery had on families, and helping the public understand and empathize with the plight of enslaved mothers. Pro-slavery forces claimed that slavery was approved in the Bible, the Tom was too noble, and accused Stowe of fabricating(捏造) unrealistic, one-sided images of Southern slavery.
Stowe responded to her readers by writing The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her second anti-slavery novel, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856), was much more forceful and called for an immediate end to slavery. During the Civil War, Stowe criticized British businesses that continued to trade with Southern cotton suppliers, and was impatient with President Lincoln’s willingness to put off freeing people held in slavery.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin made Stowe an international celebrity. When she traveled to Britain in 1853 to secure copyright protection for her novel Dred, she was rushed excitedly by crowds on the streets and invited by nobility to their estates. She was presented with a 26 volume leather bound petition signed by British women living all over the world, including the Duchess of Sutherland, the Countess of Shaftsbury, and bakers’ wives, begging their American sisters to immediately abolish slavery.
Stowe was invited to anti-slavery rallies(集会), where she hid behind Victorian propriety and had her husband or her brother present comments on her behalf. Queen Victoria was eager to meet the famous author, but was urged by advisors not to receive such a controversial figure. Instead, as Stowe’s sister Mary related in a letter, the Queen arranged to pass Stowe’s carriage on the road, so the two women could silently nod to each other.
Stowe’s three European tours brought her similar acclaim. She was welcomed by ex-patriot American writers in Italy with whom she established long-term friendships. The power of her celebrity and influence made other social reform groups appeal for her support.
1. All of the following are correct according to the passage EXCEPT________.| A．Next to the Bible, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling book of the 19th century |
| B．The success of Uncle Tom’s Cabin lay in the great effect slavery had on families. |
| C．The author Stowe at one time gained some celebrities’ credit for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. |
| D．The outbreak of the Civil War was mainly caused by the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. |
| A．offering quotations |
| B．making classifications |
| C．analyzing causes and effects |
| D．following the order of importance |
| A．Uncle Tom’s Cabin was both praised and attacked |
| B．Uncle Tom’s Cabin really relates to the Civil War |
| C．Queen Victoria somewhat admired Stowe |
| D．Stowe was impatient with Lincoln’s abolishing slavery |
a. The Civil War broke out.
b. The book Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published.
c. Stowe criticized British businesses for continuing to trade with Southern cotton suppliers.
d. Stowe put out her second anti-slavery book.
| A．a-d-b-c | B．b-a-c-d |
| C．b-d-a-c | D．a-b-c-d |
| A．Americans’ increased awareness of the need to abolish slavery |
| B．an introduction to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s second novel Dred |
| C．the legend of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s special meeting with Queen Victoria |
| D．the influence and popularity of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin |
7 . Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.
The trend, then, was toward the “penny paper”—a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.
This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy) to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer’s office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny—usually two or three cents was charged—and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase “penny paper” caught the public’s fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.
This new trend of newspapers for “the man on the street” did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业) were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.
1. Which of the following best describes newspapers in America before the 1830s?| A．Academic. | B．Unattractive. | C．Inexpensive. | D．Confidential. |
| A．They would be priced higher. | B．They would disappear from cities. |
| C．They could have more readers. | D．They could regain public trust. |
| A．Local politicians. | B．Common people. |
| C．Young publishers. | D．Rich businessmen. |
| A．It was a difficult process. | B．It was a temporary success. |
| C．It was a robbery of the poor. | D．It was a disaster for printers. |
8 . Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place.Around 1870,it was experiencing an economic(经济的)boom,and the capital,Buenos Aires,attracted many people.Farmers,as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy,came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs.These jobs didn’t pay well,and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city.As the unhappy newcomers mixed together in the poor parts of the city,the dance known as the tango(探戈舞) came into being.
At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes.It was danced in the bars and streets.At that time there were many fewer women than men,so if a man didn’t want to be left out,his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women.Gradually,the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became more respectable.
In Europe at this time,strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning.This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris.Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞) to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters.After tango dancers from Argentina arrived in Europe,they began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exciting dance in cafes.Though not everyone approved of the new dance,saying it was a little too shocking,the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.
The popularity(流行) of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world.Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War Ⅰ brought the tango to North America.It reached Japan in 1926,and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador,and promote tango dancing throughout South Korea.
1. The origin of the tango is associated with .| A．belly dancers |
| B．American soldiers |
| C．a Spanish city |
| D．the capital of Argentina |
| A．It was created by foreigners from Spain and Italy. |
| B．People of the upper classes loved the tango most. |
| C．It was often danced by two males in the beginning. |
| D．A dancer in Seoul became the Argentinean ambassador. |
| A．America | B．Japan |
| C．France | D．South Korea |
| A．How to Dance the Tango |
| B．The History of the Tango |
| C．How to Promote the Tango |
| D．The Modern Tango Boom |
9 . Lost cities that have been found
The White City
In 2015, a team of explorers to Honduras in search of"the Lost City of the Monke God"led to the discovery of the White City. They found the ruins in the Mosquitia region of the Central American country which is known for poisonous snakes, vicious jaguars and deadly insects. It is believed that local people hid here when the Spanish conquerors(征服者) occupied their homeland in the16th century.
Canopus and Heracleion
Modern researchers were teased by the ancient writings about the Egyptian cities Canopus and Heracleion- where Queen Cleopatra often visited. But the cities weren’t found until 1992, when a search in Alexandria waters found that the two cities had been flooded for centuries. Artifacts(史前器物) showed that the cities once highly developed as a trade network, which helped researchers piece together more about the last queen of Egypt.
Machu Picchu
A Yale professor discovered "the Lost City in the Clouds"in 1911. A combination of palaces, plazas, temples and homes, Machu Picchu displays the Inca Empire at the height of its rule. The city, which was abandoned in the 16th century for unknown reasons,was hidden by the local people from the Spanish conquerors for centuries keeping it so well preserved.
Troy
The ancient city of Troy in homer's The Iliad was considered a fictional setting for his characters to run wild. But in 1871, explorations in northwestern Turkey exposed nine ancient cities layered (层叠) on top of each other, the earliest dating back to about 5,000 years before. It was later determined that the sixth or seventh layer contained the lost city of Troy and that it was actually destroyed by an earthquake, not a wooden horse.
1. Why did people hide in the White City in the 16th century?| A．To survive the war |
| B．To search for a lost city. |
| C．To protect their country. |
| D．To avoid dangerous animals |
| A．The White City |
| B．Canopus and Heracleion |
| C．Machu Picchu |
| D．Troy |
| A．It was built by Homer. |
| B．It consisted of nine cities |
| C．It had a history of 5,000 years |
| D．It was ruined by a natural disaster. |
10 . DINERS
TONY SOPRANO’S LAST MEAL
Between 1912 and the 1990s, New Jersey State was home to more than 20 diner manufacturers who made probably 95 percent of the diners in the U.S, says Katie Zavoski, who is helping hold a diner exhibit. What makes a diner a diner? (And not, say, a coffee shop?) Traditionally, a diner is built in a factory and then delivered to its own town or city rather than constructed on-site. Zavoski credits New Jersey’s location as the key to its mastery of the form. “It was just the perfect place to manufacture the diners,” she says. “We would ship them wherever we needed to by sea.”
VISIT “Icons of American Culture: History of New Jersey Diners,” running through June 2017 at The Cornelius House/Middlesex County Museum in Piscataway, New Jersey
GOOD FOOD, GOOD TUNES
Suzanne Vega's 1987 song “Tom's Diner” is probably best known for its frequently sampled “doo doo doo doo” melody rather than its diner-related lyrics. Technically, it’s not even really about a diner — the setting is New York City’s Tom's Restaurant, which Vega frequented when she was studying at Bamard. Vega used the word “diner” instead because it “sings better that way,” she told The New York Times. November 18 has since been called Tom’s Diner Day, because on that day in 1981, the New York Post's front page was a story about the death of actor William Holden. In her song Vega sings: “I Open /Up the paper/There’s a story /Of an actor /Who had died/While he was drinking.”
LISTEN “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega
MEET THE DINER ANTHROPOLOGIST
Richard J.S. Gutman has been called the “Jane Goodall of diners” (he even consulted on Barry Levinson’s 1982 film, Diner).His book, American Diner: Then Now, traces the evolution of the “night lunch wagon,” set up by Walter Scott in 1872, to the early 1920s, when the diner got its name (adapted from “dining car”), and on through the 1980s.Gutman has his own diner facilities (floor plans, classic white mugs, a cashier booth); 250 of these items are part of an exhibit in Rhode Island.
READ American Diner: Then & Now (John Hopkins University Press)
VISIT “Diners: Still Cooking in the 21st Century,” currently running at the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island
1. In what way is a diner different from a coffee shop?| A．Its location. | B．Its management. |
| C．From what it is built. | D．Where it is constructed. |
| A．It warns people not to drink. | B．It was inspired by Tom’s Diner Day. |
| C．Its melody is preferred to its lyrics. | D．Its original title was Tom’s Restaurant. |
