The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

　　Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

　　Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expression ist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed indifferent ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.

　　Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.

　　1. What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with

　　[A]. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.

　　[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.

　　[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.

　　[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.

　　2. Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12—13?

　　[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.

　　3. Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?

　　[A]. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.

　　[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.

　　[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.

　　[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.

　　4. How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

　　[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.

　　[B]. It was art for recording the world.

　　[C]. It was a device for observing the world impartially.

　　[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.

　　VOCABULARY

　　1. Palaeolithic 旧石器时代的

　　2. Neolithic 新石器时代的

　　3. escalator 自动电梯，自动扶梯

　　4. ski-lift 载送滑雪者上坡的装置

　　5. mar 损坏，毁坏

　　6. blur 模糊不清，朦胧

　　7. smear 涂，弄脏，弄模糊(尤指画面、轮廓等)

　　8. evocative 引起回忆的，唤起感情的

　　9. El Dorado (由当时西班牙征服者想象中的南美洲)黄金国，宝山，富庶之乡

　　10. Kabul 喀布尔(阿富汗首都)

　　11. Irkutsk 伊尔库茨克(原苏联亚洲城市)

　　1. Air travel gives you a bird’s-eye view of theworld – or even if the wing of the aircraft happensto get in your way.

　　【参考译文】飞机旅行，你只可俯视世界――如果机翼碰巧挡住了你的视线，就看得更少了。

　　2. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the country-side constantly smearsthe windows.

　　【参考译文】如果乘车或火车旅行，郊外模糊朦胧的景象不断地掠过窗口。

　　写作方法与文章大意

　　文章以因果写作方法，写出了由于种种现代化交通设施、人们不需用脚走路，甚至也不需要用眼看景，出门就坐汽车、公交车、地铁、飞机……，车、机速度飞快，外边的景物难以看清，最终导致人们忘记用脚、用眼成为“无脚之人”。一切都经历不到。作者建议最佳的旅游方法是徒步――经历现实。

　　1. A 人们忘了用脚。答案在第一段：人类学家把以往年代的人们分别标上旧石器时代、新石器时代人，等等。干脆利落地总结了一个时期。当他们转向20世纪，他们肯定会标上“无脚的人”。因为在20世纪，人们忘了如何用脚走路。男人女人早年外出就坐车、公共汽车、火车。大楼里由电梯、自动扶梯，不需要人们走路。即使度假期间，他们也不用脚。他们筑有缆车道、滑雪载车和路直通山顶。所有的风景旅游区都有大型的汽车停车场。

　　B 人们喜欢汽车、公交车、火车等。 C 电梯、自动扶梯制止人们走路。 D 有许多交通运输工具。

　　2. A 人们的注意力在未来。见最后一段第一句话：当你高速旅行，现在等于零，你主要生活在未来，因为你大部分时间盯在前面到达的某个地方。真到了，又没有意义了，你还要再向前进。

　　B 是一种欢乐。 C 满足司机强烈的渴望。第二段中提及死机醉心于开车、不停车但不是快速前进着眼于未来。 D 生活的需要。这一条在第一段中提及这种情况是因为他们那异常的生活方法强加给时代的居民。这是指不用脚走路，而用一切代步器――交通运输工具，不是开快车。

　　3. C 人们在旅行途中什么都见不到。答案在第二段，由一地转向另一地，路上你什么都没有见到。乘飞机你只能俯视世界，火车，汽车，只见外界朦胧景象掠过窗子。海上旅游，只见到海。“我到过那里”此话含义就是“我以一小时一百英里在去某某地方时经过那里”。正因为如此，作者指出将来的历史书上会记录下：我们被剥夺了眼睛的应用。

　　A 人们不愿用眼睛。 B 在高速旅行中，眼睛没有用了。 D 旅行中，人们想睡觉。

　　4. D 旅行的最佳方式是走路。文章第一段、第二段分别讲述了旅行可不用脚、不用眼等情况。第三段，在讲述了人们只知向前向前，一切经历都停滞，现实不再是现实，还不如死的好。而用脚走路的旅行者总是生活再现实，对他来说旅行和到达是一回事，他一步一步走到某地，他用眼睛、耳朵，以至整个身体去体验现在时刻、旅行终点，他感到全身舒坦愉悦的疲劳，美美享受满足的酣睡;一切真正旅行者的真实报偿。这一段就是作者写文章的目的――走路是旅行的最佳方式。

　　A 脚变得软弱无力。 B 现代交通工具把世界变小。 C 没有必要用眼睛。

　　5. C 从高出向下看的景致：俯视。

　　A 用鸟的眼睛看景点。 B 鸟在看美景。 D 风景点。