托福阅读真题Official 44 Passage 2（三）

托福阅读真题Official 44 Passage 2（三）

The Use of the Camera Obscura

The precursor of the modern camera,the camera obscura is a darkened enclosure into which light is admitted through a lens in a small hole.The image of the illuminated area outside the enclosure is thrown upside down as if by magic onto a surface in the darkened enclosure.This technique was known as long ago as the fifth century B.C.in China.Aristotle also experimented with it in the fourth century B.C.,and Leonardo da Vinci described it in his notebooks in 1490.In 1558 Giovanni Battista Della Porta wrote in his twenty-volume work Magia naturalis(meaning“natural magic”)instructions for adding a convex lens to improve the quality of the image thrown against a canvas or panel in the darkened area where its outlines could be traced.Later,portable camera obscuras were developed,with interior mirrors and drawing tables on which the artist could trace the image.For the artist,this technique allows forms and linear perspective to be drawn precisely as they would be seen from a single viewpoint.Mirrors were also used to reverse the projected images to their original positions.

Did some of the great masters of painting,then,trace their images using a camera obscura.Some art historians are now looking for clues of artists’use of such devices.One of the artists whose paintings are being analyzed from this point of view is the great Dutch master,Jan Vermeer,who lived from 1632 to 1675 during the flowering of art and science in the Netherlands,including the science of optics.Vermeer produced only about 30 known paintings,including his famous The Art of Painting.The room shown in it closely resembles the room in other Vermeer paintings,with lighting coming from a window on the left,the same roof beams,and similar floor tiles,suggesting that the room was fitted with a camera obscura on the side in the foreground.The map hung on the opposite wall was a real map in Vermeer’s possession,reproduced in such faithful detail that some kind of tracery is suspected.When one of Vermeer’s paintings was X-rayed,it did not have any preliminary sketches on the canvas beneath the paint,but rather the complete image drawn in black and white without any trial sketches.Vermeer did not have any students,did not keep any records,and did not encourage anyone to visit his studio,facts that can be interpreted as protecting his secret use of a camera obscura.

In recent times the British artist David Hockney has published his investigations into the secret use of the camera obscura,claiming that for up to 400 years,many of Western art’s great masters probably used the device to produce almost photographically realistic details in their paintings.He includes in this group Caravaggio,Hans Holbein,Leonardo da Vinci,Diego Velázquez,Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,Agnolo Bronzino,and Jan van Eyck.From an artist’s point of view,Hockney observed that a camera obscura compresses the complicated forms of a three-dimensional scene into two-dimensional shapes that can easily be traced and also increases the contrast between light and dark,leading to the chiaroscuroartistic term for a contrast between light and dark effect seen in many of these paintings.In Jan van Eyck’s The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami,the complicated foreshortening(a technique for representing an image in art that makes it appear to recede in space)in the chandelier and the intricate detail in the bride’s garments are among the clues that Hockney thinks point to the use of the camera obscura.

So what are we to conclude.If these artists did use a camera obscura,does that diminish their stature.Hockney argues that the camera obscura does not replace artistic skill in drawing and painting.In experimenting with it,he found that it is actually quite difficult to use for drawing,and he speculates that the artists probably combined their observations from life with tracing of shapes.

Question 5 of 14

Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage?Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A.One artist with a particularly interesting point of view about the use of the camera obscura in painting was Jan Vermeer,who lived in the Netherlands from 1632 to 1675.

B.Historical analyses suggest that Dutch masters were interested in the science of optics,so they may have used the camera obscura to trace images.

C.The use of the camera obscura is being analyzed in the paintings of Jan Vermeer,who lived in the Netherlands when art and science were flourishing there.

D.One view held by historians is that most Dutch masters were as interested in art as they were in science,and that provides clues about the techniques used in their paintings.

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：简化句子题

原文分析：该长难句中没有逻辑上的关系设置，主要是定语从句的体现，因此我们需要提炼出句子的主干信息。处理方式上我们可以以标点符号为分段，将句子进行拆分理解。第一个逗号前表达的信息是：Jan Vermeer是可以从使用暗箱的角度进行分析其画作的艺术家之一；第二个逗号前的信息是：他所生活的时期正是荷兰艺术和科学繁荣的时期；最后具体提到光学正在其中。

选项分析：

C选项中The use of the camera obscura is being analyzed in the paintings of Jan Vermeer对应原句中的第一个逗号前的内容，who lived in the Netherlands when art and science were flourishing there对应第一逗号后面的内容。flourishing对应flowering。

A选项中的with a particularly interesting point of view在原句中没有该信息，无中生有。

B选项中的Dutch masters were interested in the science of optics在原句中没有该信息，无中生有。另外so表达因果关系，也是乱添加的逻辑关系，原句中没有。因此该选项从内容和逻辑上都错误。

D选项中的most Dutch masters were as interested in art as they were in science在原句中没有该信息，内容上无中生有。

Question 6 of 14

What does paragraph 2 indicate about Vermeer’s The Art of Painting?

A.It is the first in a series of about 30 paintings that he created.

B.It may have been painted by one of his students.

C.It was in his possession until his death in 1675.

D.It has the same setting as several other works of his.

正确答案：D

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：定位词：Vermeer’s The Art of Painting。用定位词定位到文章第二段第四句和第五句，第五句中表达画中的房间和Vermeer其他画作中的房间是相似的。

选项分析：

D选项中的the same setting as several other works of his对应第五句的closely resembles the room in other Vermeer paintings以及the same roof beams,and similar floor tiles。

A选项提到the first，文中无此信息，无中生有。

B选项中painted by one of his students，而本段最后一句提到Vermeer did not have any students，因此该选项与原文不符。

C选项It was in his possession until his death in 1675该信息文章中没有提及，无中生有。