A
(2019·余姚高一检测)
Every day around the world, thousands of people with little or no scholarly training in art history walk into museums. They may or may not read noticeboards that share relevant information of the artworks or artists. Imagine, before being permitted to direct their eyeballs to the art on the walls, museum visitors were required to read a 15-or-20-page introduction to each piece or each artist. How many people would go to museums if that were the case?
Yet this seems to be the expectation when it comes to reading classic literature. Classic novels typically come with 15-or-20-page introductions, which often include spoilers, assuming that readers do not come to classic books to discover, be absorbed in, and be surprised by the story world. Also, apparently, we mustn’t read classic alone, without experts guiding our experiences.
However, classic literature is in a unique position to show us that we’re not alone in our pains and joys. By taking us out of our time, classic books free us to see beyond the set of beliefs we stick to and to connect human experiences that remain alive across time and place. What could be more grounding (有充分理由的), more comforting, than seeing ourselves in the battles, longings (渴望), and pleasures that have played out across hundreds, thousands of years of human history? Our personal engagement is the first step of a longer journey of discovery that deepens our knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our world. We may, for example, feel for Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter though we despair of the world she lived in.
While we’re letting go of things, let’s stop worrying about understanding everything. We can’t. It will be fun if we embrace curiosity, the pleasure of working out a mystery, and our common relationships as humans. We can feel, for example, the power of self-sacrifice in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities even when we lack full understanding of the cultural references and languages.
【文章大意】本文是一篇议论文。文章主要表达了人们缺乏专业的艺术知识以及经典文学对人们的重要性。
21. Most museum goers ______.
A. enjoy reading noticeboards.
B. understand the artworks well.
C. share common interest in artworks.
D. lack professional art knowledge.
【解析】选D。细节理解题。由文章第一段 “Every day around the world, thousands of people with little or no scholarly training in art history walk into museums. ” 可知, 许多去博物馆的人都缺乏足够的专业的艺术知识, 故选D。
22. What can the spoilers in Para. 2 possibly be?
A. plots given away in advance.
B. readers’ expectations.
C. guiding experts.
D. details given away.
【解析】选A。推理判断题。由文章第二段 “Classic novels typically come with 15-or-20-page introductions, which often include spoilers” 可推断出, 经典著作前言部分提供的是故事情节, 故选A。
23. What message is mainly conveyed in the passage?
A. We should find more fun from classics.
B. Experts need to give readers better guidance.
C. Reading classics is a personal exploration.
D. Classic literature only benefits a few readers.
【解析】选C。主旨大意题。由文章最后一段可知, 即使我们对名著缺乏足够的文化背景及语言了解, 我们也能从中感受到艺术的力量, 因此, 阅读经典的过程就是自我探索的过程, 故选C。
