Part Ⅲ  Reading Comprehension  (55 minutes, 25 points, 1 for each)

    Directions: There are five passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and mark the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET

Passage one

　  The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”，at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th 2008. All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy.

　  The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising bewilderingly since 2003. At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, a research firm—double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries.

　　In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable, especially in New York, where the bail-out of the banks coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise of many art-buying investors. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector—for Chinese contemporary art—they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008. Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly $200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them.

　　The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989, a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the Second World War. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more fluctuant. But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”

　　What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half of 2006. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds—death, debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.

　　31.In the first paragraph, Damien Hirst's sale was referred to as “a last victory” because ____.

　　A. the art market had witnessed a succession of victories

　　B. the auctioneer finally got the two pieces at the highest bids

　　C. Beautiful Inside My Head Forever won over all masterpieces

    D. it was successfully made just before the world financial crisis

　　32.By saying “spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable”(Line 1-2,Para.3)，the author suggests that_____.

　　A. collectors were no longer actively involved in art-market auctions

　　B .people stopped every kind of spending and stayed away from galleries

　　C. art collection as a fashion had lost its appeal to a great extent

    D .works of art in general had gone out of fashion so they were not worth buying

　　33. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A .Sales of contemporary art fell dramatically from 2007 to 2008.

　　B. The art market surpassed many other industries in momentum.

　　C. The market generally went downward in various ways.

　　D. Some art dealers were awaiting better chances to come.

    34. What is the meaning of “coincided” according to the passage?

    A. coined              B. earned

    C. co-happened         D. aggravated

    35. The three Ds mentioned in the last paragraph are ____

　　A. auction houses ' favorites

　　B. contemporary trends

　　C. factors promoting artwork circulation

　　D. styles representing impressionists

　　36. The most appropriate title for this text could be ___

　　A. Fluctuation of Art Prices

　　B. Up-to-date Art Auctions

　　C. Art Market in Decline

　　D. Shifted Interest in Arts

Passage Two

    Over the past decade, many companies had perfected the art of creating automatic behaviors — habits — among consumers. These habits have helped companies earn billions of dollars when customers eat snacks, apply lotions and wipe counters almost without thinking, often in response to a carefully designed set of daily cues.

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