2010年
Text1
●The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a
sale of56works by Damien Hirst,“Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”,at Sotheby’s in London on September15th2008(see picture).All but two pieces sold,fetching more thanā70m,a record for a sale by a single artist.
It was a last hurrah.As the auctioneer called out bids,in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street,Lehman Brothers,filed for bankruptcy.
●The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising
vertiginously since2003.At its peak in2007it was worth some$65billion,reckons Clare McAndrew,founder of Arts Economics,a research firm—double the figure five years earlier.Since then it may have come down to$50billion.
But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth,enormous egos,greed,passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.
●In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale,spending of any sort became
deeply unfashionable,especially in New York,where the bail-out of the banks coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise of many art-buying investors.
In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms.Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds,and in the most overheated sector—for Chinese contemporary art—they were down by nearly90%in the year to November2008.
Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses,Sotheby’s and Christie’s,had to pay out nearly$200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them.
●The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying
Impressionists at the end of1989,a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the second world war.
This time experts reckon that prices are about40%down on their peak on average, though some have been far more volatile.But Edward Dolman,Christie’s chief executive,says:“I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”
●What makes this slump different from the last,he says,is that there are still buyers in the
market,whereas in the early1990s,when interest rates were high,there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell.www.chinahr
Christie’s revenues in the first half of2009were still higher than in the first half of 2006.Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell.
The three Ds—death,debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market.But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away,waiting for confidence to return.
21.In the first paragraph,Damien Hirst's sale was referred to as“a last victory”because____.
A.the art market had witnessed a succession of victoryies
B.the auctioneer finally got the two pieces at the highest bids
C.Beautiful Inside My Head Forever won over all masterpieces
D.it was successfully made just before the world financial crisis
22.By saying“spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable”(Line1-2,Para.3),the author suggests that_____.
B.people stopped every kind of spending and stayed away from galleries
C.art collection as a fashion had lost its appeal to a great extent
D.works of art in general had gone out of fashion so they were not worth buying
23.Which of the following statements is NOT ture?
A.Sales of contemporary art fell dramatically from2007to2008.
B.The art market surpassed many other industries in momentum.
C.The market generally went downward in various ways.
D.Some art dealers were awaiting better chances to come.
24.The three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are____
A.auction houses'favorites
C.factors promoting artwork circulation
D.styles representing impressionists
25.The most appropriate title for this text could be___
A.Fluctuation of Art Prices
B.Up-to-date Art Auctions
D.Shifted Interest in Arts
Text2
I was addressing a small gathering in a suburban Virginia living room--a women's group
that had invited men to join them.Throughout the evening one man had been particularly talkative frequently offering ideas and anecdotes while his wife sat silently beside him on the couch.
Toward the end of the evening I commented that women frequently complain that their husbands don't talk to them.This man quickly concurred.He gestured toward his wife and said"She's the talker in our family."
23考研第一批复试名单来了The room burst into laughter;the man looked puzzled and hurt."It's true"he explained.
"When I come home from work I have nothing to say.If she didn't keep the conversation going we'd spend the whole evening in silence."
This episode crystallizes the irony that although American men tend to talk more than women in public situations they often talk less at home.And this pattern is wreaking havoc with marriage.
●The pattern was observed by political scientist Andrew Hacker in the late'70s.
Sociologist Catherine Kohler Riessman reports in her new book"Divorce Talk"that most of the women she interviewed--but only a few of the men--gave lack of communication as the reason for their divorces.
Given the current divorce rate of nearly50percent that amounts to millions of cases in the United States every year--a virtual epidemic of failed conversation.
●In my own research complaints from women about their husbands most often focused
not on tangible inequities such as having given up the chance for a career to accompany a husband to his or doing far more than their share of daily life-support work like cleaning cooking social arrangements and errands.
Instead they focused on communication:"He doesn't listen to me""He doesn't talk to me."I found as Hacker observed years before that most wives want their husbands to be first and foremost conversational partners but few husbands share this expectation of their wives.
●In short the image that best represents the current crisis is the stereotypical cartoon scene
of a man sitting at the breakfast table with a newspaper held up in front of his face while
a woman glares at the back of it wanting to talk.
26.What is most wives'main expectation of their husbands?
A.Talking to them.
B.Trusting them.
C.Supporting their careers.
D.Shsring housework.
27.Judging from the context,the phrase“wreaking havoc”(Line3,Para.2)most probably means___.
C.causing damage
28.All of the following are true EXCEPT_______
三支一扶考试报名时间重庆招考网登录< tend to talk more in public tan women
C.women attach much importance to communication between couples
D.a female tends to be more talkative at home than her spouse
29.Which of the following can best summarize the mian idea of this text?
A.The moral decaying deserves more research by sociologists.
B.Marriage break_up stems from sex inequalities.
C.Husband and wofe have different expectations from their marriage.
D.Conversational patterns between man and wife are different.
30.In the following part immediately after this text,the author will most probably focus on______
A.a vivid account of the new book Divorce Talk
B.a detailed description of the stereotypical cartoon
D.a brief introduction to the political scientist Andrew Hacker
Text3
Over the past decade,many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors—habits—among consumers.
These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking,often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues.
●“There are fundamental public health problems,like hand washing with soap,that
remain killers only because we can’t figure out how to change people’s habits,”Dr.
Curtis said.“We wanted to learn from private industry how to create new behaviors that happen automatically.”
●The companies that Dr.Curtis turned to—Procter&Gamble,Colgate-Palmolive and
Unilever—had invested hundreds of millions of dollars finding the subtle cues in consumers’lives that corporations could use to introduce new routines.
●If you look hard enough,you’ll find that many of the products we use every day—
chewing gums,skin moisturizers,disinfecting wipes,air fresheners,water purifiers, health snacks,antiperspirants,colognes,teeth whiteners,fabric softeners,vitamins—are results of manufactured habits.
A century ago,few people regularly brushed their teeth multiple times a day.Today,
because of canny advertising and public health campaigns,many Americans habitually give their pearly whites a cavity-preventing scrub twice a day,often with Colgate,Crest or one of the other brands.
●A few decades ago,many people didn’t drink water outside of a meal.Then beverage
companies started bottling the production of far-off springs,and now office workers unthinkingly sip bottled water all day long.
Chewing gum,once bought primarily by adolescent boys,is now featured in commercials as a breath freshener and teeth cleanser for use after a meal.Skin
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