gre考试阅读真题解析(B)

　　One explanation for the tendency of animals to be more vigilant in smaller groups than in larger ones assumes that the vigilant behaviorlooking up, for exampleis aimed at predators. If individuals on the edge of a group are more vigilant because they are at greater risk of being captured, then individuals on average would have to be more vigilant in smaller groups, because the animals on the periphery of a group form a greater proportion of the whole group as the size of the group diminishes.

　　However, a different explanation is necessary in cases where the vigilant behavior is not directed at predators. J. Krebs has discovered that great blue herons look up more often when in smaller flocks than when in larger ones, solely as a consequence of poor feeding conditions. Krebs hypothesizes that the herons in smaller flocks are watching for herons that they might follow to better feeding pools, which usually attract larger numbers of the birds.

　　17. It can be inferred from the passage that in species in which vigilant behavior is directed at predators, the tendency of the animals to be more vigilant in smaller groups than in larger ones would most likely be minimized if which of the following were true?

　　 The vigilance of animals on the periphery of a group always exceeded that of animals located in its interior, even when predators were not in the area.

　　 The risk of capture for individuals in a group was the same, whether they were located in the interior of the group or on its periphery.

　　 Animals on the periphery of a group tended to be less capable of defending themselves from attack by predators than animals located in the interior of the group.

　　 Animals on the periphery of a group tended to bear marks that were more distinctive to predators than animals located in the interior of the group.

　　 Animals on the periphery of a group tended to have shorter life spans than animals located in the interior of the group.

　　18. Which of the following best describes the relationship of the second paragraph to the first?

　　 The second paragraph relies on different evidence in drawing a conclusion similar to that expressed in the first paragraph.

　　 The second paragraph provides further elaboration on why an assertion made at the end of the first paragraph proves to be true in most cases.

　　 The second paragraph provides additional information in support of a hypothesis stated in the first paragraph.

　　 The second paragraph provides an example of a case in which the assumption described in the first paragraph is unwarranted.

　　 The second paragraph describes a phenomenon that has the same cause as the phenomenon described in the first paragraph.

　　19. It can be inferred from the passage that the author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following assertions about vigilant behavior?

　　 The larger the group of animals, the higher the probability that individuals in the interior of the group will exhibit vigilant behavior.

　　 Vigilant behavior exhibited by individuals in small groups is more effective at warding off predators than the same behavior exhibited by individuals in larger groups.

　　 Vigilant behavior is easier to analyze in species that are preyed upon by many different predators than in species that are preyed upon by relatively few of them.

　　 The term vigilant, when used in reference to the behavior of animals, does not refer exclusively to behavior aimed at avoiding predators.

　　 The term vigilant, when used in reference to the behavior of animals, usually refers to behavior exhibited by large groups of animals.

　　20. The passage provides information in support of which of the following assertions?

　　 The avoidance of predators is more important to an animals survival than is the quest for food.

　　 Vigilant behavior aimed at predators is seldom more beneficial to groups of animals than to individual animals.

　　 Different species of animals often develop different strategies for dealing with predators.

　　 The size of a group of animals does not necessarily reflect its success in finding food.

　　 Similar behavior in different species of animals does not necessarily serve the same purpose.

　　The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photographys 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 defense 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 themselvesanything but making works of art. In the nineteenth century, photographys association with the real world placed it in an ambivalent relation to art; late in the twentieth century, an ambivalent relation exists because of the Modernist heritage in art. That important photographers 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, 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 Expressionist 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 photographys 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 the 1960s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist paintingthat is, abstract art as developed in different ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matissepresupposes 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 activityin short, an art.

　　21. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

　　 defining the Modernist attitude toward art

　　 explaining how photography emerged as a fine art after the controversies of the nineteenth century

　　 explaining the attitudes of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context

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

　　 identifying the ways that recent movements in painting and sculpture have influenced the techniques employed by serious photographers

　　22. Which of the following adjectives best describes the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism as the author represents it in lines 25-27?

　　 Objective

　　 Mechanical

　　 Superficial

　　 Dramatic

　　 Paradoxical

　　23. The author introduces Abstract Expressionist painters in order to

　　 provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art

　　 call attention to artists whose works often bear a physical resemblance to the works of serious contemporary photographers

　　 set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters

　　 provide a contrast to Pop artists and others who created works that exemplify the Modernist heritage in art

　　 provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art

　　24. According to the author, the nineteenth-century defenders of photography mentioned in the passage stressed that photography was

　　 a means of making people familiar with remote locales and unfamiliar things

　　 a technologically advanced activity

　　 a device for observing the world impartially

　　 an art comparable to painting

　　 an art that would eventually replace the traditional arts

　　25. According to the passage, which of the following best explains the reaction of serious contemporary photographers to the question of whether photography is an art?

　　 The photographers belief that their reliance on an impersonal machine to produce their art requires the surrender of the authority of their personal vision

　　 The photographers fear that serious photography may not be accepted as an art by the contemporary art public

　　 The influence of Abstract Expressionist painting and Pop Art on the subject matter of the modern photograph

　　 The photographers belief that the best art is subversive of art as it has previously been defined

　　 The notorious difficulty of defining art in its relation to realistic representation

　　26. According to the passage, certain serious contemporary photographers expressly make which of the following claims about their photographs?

　　 Their photographs could be created by almost anyone who had a camera and the time to devote to the activity.

　　 Their photographs are not examples of art but are examples of the photographers impartial observation of the world.

　　 Their photographs are important because of their subjects but not because of the responses they evoke in viewers.

　　 Their photographs exhibit the same ageless principles of form and shading that have been used in painting.

　　 Their photographs represent a conscious glorification of the mechanical aspects of twentieth-century life.

　　27. It can be inferred from the passage that the author most probably considers serious contemporary photography to be a

　　 contemporary art that is struggling to be accepted as fine art

　　 craft requiring sensitivity but by no means an art

　　 mechanical copying of reality

　　 modern art that displays the Modernist tendency to try to subvert the prevailing aims of art

　　 modern art that displays the tendency of all Modernist art to become increasingly formal and abstract

答案：17-27：BDDECEADDBD