問題詳情

IV. Reading Comprehension: Read the following passage and choose the most appropriateanswer for each question. 20% 
(A) On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh walked into a wheat field behind the chateau in the Frenchvillage of Auvers-sur-Oise, and shot himself in the chest. Van Gogh had been suffering from mental illness ever since he sliced off his left ear in 1888.After this incident, he continued to experience sporadic and debilitating attacks that left himconfused or incoherent for days or weeks at a time. In between these breakdowns, though, he enjoyedspells of calmness and lucidity in which he was able to paint. Indeed, his time in Auvers, where he arrived in May 1890, was the most productive period of his career. Despite this, he felt increasinglylonely and anxious, and became convinced that his life was a failure. Eventually, he got hold of apocket revolver. When he pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted off a rib, and failed to pierce hisheart. He lost consciousness and collapsed, and died the next night, aged 37. On the Verge of Insanity, an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in 2016, provides a meticulousand balanced account of the final year-and-a-half of the artist’s life. Although it does not offer adefinitive diagnosis of Van Gogh’s illness – over the decades, a number of causes have beensuggested – it does contain a severely corroded handgun that was discovered in Auvers around 1960.Analysis suggests that the pistol is probably the very one that Van Gogh used. The exhibition also features a recently discovered letter, written by Felix Rey, the doctor whotreated Van Gogh in Arles. It contains a diagram illustrating precisely which part of his ear the artistremoved. For years, biographers have debated whether Van Gogh sliced off the whole of his left earor just its lobe. This letter proves without doubt that the artist cut off his entire ear.Another attention-grabbing item in the exhibition is an unfinished painting, called Tree Roots.Van Gogh worked on it during the morning of July 27, a few hours before he tried to kill himself. Atfirst glance, this dense picture appears almost abstract – how are we supposed to ‘read’ its thicket ofblue, green and yellow brushstrokes, all vigorously applied to the canvas, which remains visible invarious places. The entire canvas, however, is devoted to a compact tangle of gnarled roots, trunks,branches and massed vegetation. In many ways, Tree Roots is an extraordinary image: an innovative,‘all-over’ composition, without a single focal point. Arguably it anticipates later developments ofmodern art, such as abstractionism. Yet, shortly after it was made, Van Gogh attempted to commitsuicide. What does it tell us about his state of mind? Certainly, the painting appears agitated, as though fraught with emotional turbulence. Moreover,its subject matter seems noteworthy. Years earlier, Van Gogh had made a study of tree roots that wasmeant to express something of life’s struggles. Shortly before his death, in a letter to his brother Theo,Van Gogh wrote that his life was “attacked at the very root.” Could it be that Van Gogh painted TreeRoots as a farewell? However, Nienke Bakker, who is responsible for the collection of paintings at the Van GoghMuseum, urges caution. “There is a lot of emotional agitation in works from the last weeks of VanGogh’s life,” she says. “Yet Tree Roots is also very vigorous and full of life.” She scotches the ideathat Van Gogh’s illness was the cause of his greatness as an artist. “All of these tortured, gnarledroots make Tree Roots a very hectic, emotional painting,” she says. “But it’s not a painting createdby a crazy mind. He knew very well what he was doing. Until the end, Van Gogh painted in spite ofhis illness, not because of it. It’s important to remember that.”
31. What is the passage mainly about?
(A) Van Gogh’s life in Auvers
(B) The mystery of Van Gogh’s madness
(C) Van Gogh’s role in modern art
(D) The characteristics of Van Gogh’s masterpiece

參考答案

答案：B
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(3),B(4),C(0),D(1),E(0)

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