Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-re

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问题     Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.
    It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.
    We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. "So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism," Newman wrote, "that I am tempted to define ’journalism’ as ’a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are.’"
    Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England’s foremost classical-music critics, a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.
    Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.
What would be the best title for the text?

选项 A、Newspapers of the Good Old Days.
B、The Lost Horizon in Newspapers.
C、Mournful Decline of Journalism.
D、Prominent Critics in Memory.

答案C

解析 主旨大意题。选项A“报纸行业过去的黄金岁月”,没有点出作者对现在的报纸的惋惜之情;选项B“报纸行业的消失的视野”,本选项的错误类型和A一样;选项D“记忆中杰出的评论家”,本文的中心不是怀念过去,而是批判现在的堕落。对主旨题,可以利用串线法解出本题。第一段开宗明义:过去这些年英语报纸上所发生的最有影响力的变化的可能是艺术评论在报道范围和严肃性上的堕落(decline)。第二段承接第一段的意思。第四段首句:“不幸的是,这些批评家几乎被忘记了。”言语之间是作者对报纸评论堕落的惋惜之情。第五段:“Cardus那样的评论会重现吗?不太可能!”再一次点明了作者所讨论的中心:报纸行业的堕落(decline),所以正确选项为C“令人惋惜的新闻业的堕落”。
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