2022年考研英语二|外刊英语阅读-低迷的艺术品市场Pt.2

考研人数逐年增加，竞争之激烈使得我们不得不加急复习的日程。众所周知，阅读理解占据了考研英语二100分试卷的一半分值，而考研英语阅读文章大多来自英美国家的主流报刊杂志，所以如果能在日常就多多阅读这些文章，对以后读懂文章做对题目来说会大有裨益。

学习步骤如下：

1.不看汉语译文自己看一遍短文做理解

2.看汉语译文比对自己理解的意思与之出入

3.强化记忆重点单词（以记忆其汉语意思为主）

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. 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, 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.

短文翻译

世界艺术品市场自2003年经历了令人震惊的上涨后,已经失去了原来的发展势头,这已持续有一段时间了。据艺术经济研完公司的创始人克莱尔·麦克安德鲁估算,在2007年的巅峰时期,艺术品市场价值约为650亿美元,是五年前的两倍。从那时起,这一数字可能降至500亿美元。但这一市场产生的利益远远超出了它的规模,因为它将巨大的财富、膨胀的自我、贪婪、激情和争议以一种其他行业几乎不能与之媲美的方式汇聚在一起。

在赫斯特的作品拍卖之后的几周甚至几个月里,任何形式的消费都变得非常不合时宜。在艺术界,这意味着收藏家远离画廊和拍卖行。从那时起截至2008年11月,当代艺术品的销售额下降了2/3,而在最热门的领域,销售下降了近90%。几周之内,世界上最大的两家拍卖行一苏富比和佳士得——不得不支付近2亿美元的担保金给那些将作品交由他们售卖的客户。

核心单词一览

真题练习

*一定要做题哦

22. 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

题目解析

22.【解析】根据题干定位到文章第三段第一句话“in the weeks and months that …deeply unfashionable”。下文中说“in the art world that meant…”中 that 充当代词，指代前一句话的内容，所以meant 后面的内容是对第一句话的解释说明，其意思是：在艺术收藏界里这就意味着收藏者们会远离画廊和拍卖会场。这一信息与 A 项“收藏者们不再积极参与到艺术平市场的拍卖会中”一致，因此为正确选项。B 项中的“停止各种花销”是原文未提及的内容，扩大了文章的描述范围。C 项在文中并未提及，题干并未提及有关吸引力（appeal）的方面。D 项没有结合句子所在的文本语境，仅仅对题干进行了字面意思的理解，故错误。