2007年英语专业八级考试听力真题MP3附试题及答案

2007年英语专业八级考试听力真题MP3附试题及答案

SECTION A Mini-lecture

In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You willhear the lecture once only. While listening, takenotes on the important points. You notes will not be mar ked, but you will need them tocomplete a gap-filling task for after the mini-le cture. When the lecture is over, you will be giventwo minutes to check your notes, and another ten minutes to complete the gap-filling task onAnswer sh eet one. Use the blank sheet for note-tanking.

What Can We Learn from Art?

I. Introduction

A. Differences between general history and art history

— Focus:

— general history: (1)_____

— art history: political values, emotions, everyday life, etc.

B. Significance of study

More information and better understanding of human society and civilization II. Types of information

A. Information in history books is (2)_____

— facts, but no opinions

B. Information in art history is subjective

— (3)_____ and opinions

e.g. — Spanish painter's works: misuse of governmental power

— Mexican artists' works: attitudes towards social problems

III. Art as a reflection of religious beliefs

A. Europe: (4)_____ in pictures in churches

B. Middle East: pictures of flowers and patterns in mosques, palaces Reason: human and (5)_____ are not seen as holy

C. Africa and the Pacific Islands: masks, headdresses and costumes in special ceremonies

Purpose: to seek the help of (6)_____ to protect crops, animals and people. IV. Perceptions of Art

How people see art is related to their cultural background.

A. Europeans and Americans

— (7)_____

— expression of ideas

B. People in other places

— part of everyday life

— (8)_____ use

V. Art as a reflection of social changes

A. Cause of changes: (9)_____ of different cultures.

B. Changes

— tribal people: effects of (10)_____ on art forms

— European artists: influence of African traditional art in their works

— American and Canadian artists: study of Japanese painting

Now listen to the Mini-lecture.

Good morning, today’s lecture is the very first of a series of lectures on art his tory, so I’d liketo spend some time discussing with you the following topic: W hy do we need to study arthistory? And what can we learn from it?

First of all, I’d say, if you study art history, this might be a good way to learn more about aculture than it’s possible to learn in general history classes. You know, most typical historycourses concentrate on politics,economics and w ar, but art history focuses on much morethan this. Because art reflects not onl y the political values of a people, but also their religiousbeliefs, emotions etc. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors can bepro vided by art, like what people did for a living, what kind of dress they wore, w hat ceremoniesthey held etc. In short, art can express the essential qualities of a time and a place, and thestudy of it clearly offers us a deeper understan ding than can be found in most history booksand enables us to learn more thi ngs about human society and civilization.

The second point I’d like to make is about the type of information. In history books, informationis objective, that is facts about political economic life of a country are given,but opinions arenot expressed.Art, on the other hand, is s ubjective.It reflects personal emotions andopinions. For example, Francisco Goya was a great Spanish painter and also perhaps the firsttruly political artis t. In his famous painting, The Third of May 1808, he showed soldiers shooting a group of simple people. His description of soldiers and their victims has be come a symbol ofthe enormous power or the misuse of this power that the government can have over itspeople. Over 100 years later, on another contin ent, the powerful paintings of Mexican artistsdepicted their deep anger and sa dness about social problems.In summary, through art youcan find a person al and emotional view of history.

Thirdly, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in E urope, religiousart was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings werefilled with paintings that showed people and sto ries from the Bible. By contrast, one of themain characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is), its absence of human andanimal images. This r eflects the Islamic belief that these images are unholy. Thus, on palaces,mosq ues and other buildings, Islamic artists have created unique decoration of g reat beautywith images of flowers of geometric forms, for example, circles, sq