2. 外语
  3. "Popular art" has a number of meanings, impossible to define with any precision, which range from folklore to junk. The poles ar

"Popular art" has a number of meanings, impossible to define with any precision, which range from folklore to junk. The poles ar

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问题     "Popular art" has a number of meanings, impossible to define with any precision, which range from folklore to junk. The poles are clear enough, but the middle tends to blur. The Hollywood Western of the 1930’s for example, has elements of folklore, but is closer to junk than to high art or folk art There can be great trash, just as there is bad high art. The musicals of George Gershwin are great popular art, never aspiring to high art. Schubert and Brahms, however, used elements of popular music — folk themes — in works clearly intended as high art The case of Verdi is a different one: he took a popular genre — bourgeois melodrama set to music ( an accurate definition of nineteenth-century opera) and, without altering its fundamental nature, transmuted it into high art This remains one of the greatest achievements in music, and one that cannot be fully appreciated without recognizing the essential trashiness of the genre.
    As an example of such a transmutation, consider what Verdi made of the typical political elements of nineteenth-century opera. Generally in the plots of these operas, a hero or heroine — usually portrayed only as an individual, unfettered by class — is caught between the immoral corruption of the aristocracy and the doctrinaire rigidity or secret greed of the leaders of the proletariat Verdi transforms this naive and unlikely formulation with music of extraordinary energy and rhythmic vitality, music more subtle than it seems at first hearing. There are scenes and arias that still sound like calls to arms and were clearly understood as such when they were first performed. Such pieces lend an immediacy to the otherwise veiled political message of these operas and call up feelings beyond those of the opera itself.
    Or consider Verdi’s treatment of character. Before Verdi, there were rarely any characters at all in musical drama, only a series of situations which allowed the singers to express a series of emotional states. Any attempt to find coherent psychological portrayal in these operas is misplaced ingenuity. The only coherence was the singer’s vocal technique: when the cast changed, new arias were almost always substituted, generally adapted from other operas. Verdi’s characters, on the other hand, have genuine consistency and integrity. Even if, in many cases, the consistency is that of pasteboard melodrama, the integrity of the character is achieved through the music: once he had become established. Verdi did not rewrite his music for different singers or countenance alterations or substitutions of somebody else’s arias in one of his operas, as every eighteenth-century composer had done. When he revised an opera, it was only for dramatic economy and effectiveness.
Which of the following best describes the relationship of the first paragraph of the passage as a whole?
选项 A、It compares and contrasts several achievements that are thoroughly examined later in the passage.
B、It defines terms and relationships that are challenged in an argument later in the passage.
C、It provides a host of concrete examples from which generalizations are drawn later in the passage.
D、It leads to an assertion that is supported, by examples and manifestations later in the passage.
答案D
解析 题干问：“下面哪项最好地描述了第1自然段和全文的关系?”此题是一个纵观全文的推理题。作者在第1自然段最后引出一个论断，随后在第2、3自然段举例证实这一论断，因此选项D“引出一个论断，随后各段提出例证加以证实”为正确选项。而选项A“比较和对比几种成就。随后在各段进行仔细分析”，第1自然段虽然比较了几位艺术家的成就，但后面两段并没有根据这一思想来展开。选项B“给术语和关系下定义，随后在下文提出观点进行质疑”，第1自然段虽然也提到了下定义，但这并不是整篇文章的中心。选项C“提出许多具体的例证，随后在各段进行归纳”与这篇文章的写作模式相反，本文是先提出中心，后举例证明。
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