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  3. Birth, growth, decline, death: it is the usual cycle for people, companies and industries. But the story of violin-making in Cre

Birth, growth, decline, death: it is the usual cycle for people, companies and industries. But the story of violin-making in Cre

admin2017-04-13  69
问题     Birth, growth, decline, death: it is the usual cycle for people, companies and industries. But the story of violin-making in Cremona in northern Italy, which flourished under such master craftsmen as Andrea Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri and Antonio Stradivari from the mid-16th century to the early 18th, suggests that, for industries at least, there may be life after death.
    Violin-making in Cremona struggled through the 19th century in the hands of a few carpenters who turned out low-quality instruments. By the 1950s it had died out, says Gio Batta Morassi, a 73-year-old maestro liutaio(master violin-maker). Yet today, in workshops overlooking the city’s cobbled streets, more than 100 craftsmen cut and plane maple and spruce to make string instruments—more than in any other European city. Cremona is once again the capital of hand-crafted instruments.
    A new school to train craftsmen in instrument-making opened in Cremona in 1938, though when Mr. Morassi began his studies in 1950 there were just six students on the course, of whom only one other went on to make instruments. But this slight revival was sustained by a growing interest in Baroque music in northern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, says Hildegard Dodel, a German who studied at the school. It created new demand for instruments made in the traditional Cremonese style.
    Today Italians are a minority among the school’s 150 students; 30 are South Korean, 26 are Japanese, six are from China and three from Taiwan. Some will set up shop in the city: Ms Dodel worked for about ten years restoring and repairing instruments in Germany and the Netherlands before returning to open her own workshop in Cremona in 2003.
    Instrument-making is not an easy life. "I often thought of giving up," says Francesco Toto, who moved to Cremona 17 years ago and specializes in making cellos. Wood is expensive, must be seasoned properly and is at risk from woodworm; the maple for a cello costs around ￠1,500, for example. Mr. Toto was able to raise his prices after winning a competition, but to maintain quality he makes just four instruments a year. Violin-makers can produce perhaps seven top-quality instruments a year.(Cellos made by Cremona’s craftsmen typically cost ￠15,000-35,000, and violins ￠8,000-20,000.)Having come back from the dead, Cremona’s instrument-makers, like many others in Italian industries, hope that an emphasis on quality, tradition and craftsmanship will keep cheaper foreign rivals at bay.
From the second paragraph, we can learn that Cremona
选项 A、has more instrument workers than any other city.
B、had many carpenters to make violins in the past.
C、declined because of its carpenters’ poor handcrafts.
D、once was the capital of hand-crafted instruments.
答案D
解析 事实细节题。根据题干定位在第二段。该段末提到克莱蒙娜的弦乐器制作数量超过欧洲任何一个城市，再一次成为了手工乐器之都，故D项“克莱蒙娜曾经为乐器制造之都”正确。
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