考研阅读精讲（三）（下）
2
2006 T4
1 Many things make people think artists are weird. But the weirdest may be this: artists’ only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.
weird [wɪəd]
adj.奇异的；不寻常的；怪诞的；离奇的；诡异的
n.命运；宿命；厄运；<古>命运女神
2 This wasn’t always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere from the 19th century onward, more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless, phony or, worst of all, boring, as we went from Wordsworth’s daffodils to Baudelaire’s flowers of evil.
3 You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen so much misery. But it’s not as if earlier times didn’t know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today.
massacre[ˈmæsəkə(r)]
n. 大屠杀；惨败；彻底破坏
v. 屠杀；彻底击败；彻底破坏；（非正式）搞砸；（非正式）笨拙地演奏
4 After all, what is the one modern form of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness? Advertising.
归根结底，几乎完全致力于描述快乐的现代表现形式是什么么呢？广告。
The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology.
5 People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
bummer [ˈbʌmə(r)]
n. 失望（或不愉快）的局面（或情形）；令人烦恼（或失望）的事；流浪汉，游手好闲的人
6 Today the messages the average Westerner is surrounded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agenda — to lure us to open our wallets — they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. “Celebrate!” commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
7 But what we forget — what our economy depends on us forgetting — is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need art to tell us, as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. It’s a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
It’s a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.
这样的信息可能比丁香烟更加苦涩，然而，某种程度上，也许是一股新鲜的空气。
36、By citing the examples of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that ________.
A. poetry is not as expressive of joy as painting or music
B. art grows out of both positive and negative feelings
C. poets today are less skeptical of happiness
D. artists have changed their focus of interest
参考答案：D
37、The word “bummer” (Line 5, paragraph 5) most probably means something ________.
A. religious
B. unpleasant
C. entertaining
D. commercial
参考答案：B
38、In the author’s opinion, advertising ________.
A. emerges in the wake of the anti-happy art
B. is a cause of disappointment for the general public
C. replaces the church as a major source of information
D. creates an illusion of happiness rather than happiness itself
参考答案：D
39、We can learn from the last paragraph that the author believes ________.
A. happiness more often than not ends in sadness
B. the anti-happy art is distasteful but refreshing
C. misery should be enjoyed rather than denied
D. the anti-happy art flourishes when economy booms
参考答案：B
40、Which of the following is true of the text?
A. Religion once functioned as a reminder of misery.
B. Art provides a balance between expectation and reality.
C. People feel disappointed at the realities of modern society.
D. Mass media are inclined to cover disasters and deaths.
参考答案：A
perpetual
[pəˈpetjuəl]
a.永久的，永恒的；终身的；无限期的
The perpetual noise of the traffic was stressful.
交通产生的持续性噪音让人精神紧张。
In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger and that they would someday be meat for worms.
literacy n.读写能力，有文化，认字
worship v.崇拜，敬仰
before mass communication and literacy是时间状语
which引导的从句是一个非限定性定语从句，
而在定语从句中，worshippers是间接宾语，
两个that引导的从句是两个直接宾语。
在大众通讯出现和人们有读写能力之前的西方，最强有力的大众媒介是教会，它提醒信徒他们的灵魂处于危险之中，他们的身躯有朝一日会被虫子吃掉。
beam
n. 横梁；光线；电波；船宽；[计量] 秤杆
vt. 发送；以梁支撑；用…照射；流露
vi. 照射；堆满笑容
Frances beamed at her friend with undisguised admiration.
弗朗西丝用毫不掩饰的羡慕的神情朝她的朋友们绽开了笑容。
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