历年考研英语阅读理解mp3(06-4)

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[00:05.63]2006 Text4
[00:08.24]Many things make people think artists are weird¹.
[00:11.77]But the weirdest² may be this:
[00:14.29]artists' only job is to explore emotions,
[00:18.00]and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad.
[00:22.62]This wasn't always so.
[00:24.64]The earliest forms of art,
[00:25.90]like painting and music,
[00:28.18]are those best suited for expressing joy.
[00:31.92]But somewhere from the 19th century onward,
[00:35.44]more artists began seeing happiness as meaningless,
[00:39.69]phony or, worst of all, boring,
[00:42.79]as we went from Wordsworth's daffodils to
[00:45.44]Baudelaire's flowers of evil.
[00:48.45]You could argue that art became more skeptical³ of happiness
[00:52.18]because modern times have seen so much misery⁴.
[00:56.21]But it's not as if earlier times didn't know perpetual war,
[01:00.56]disaster and the massacre⁵ of innocents.
[01:03.68]The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite:
[01:07.02]there is too much damn happiness in the world today.
[01:11.15]After all, what is the one modern form of expression
[01:14.88]almost completely dedicated⁶ to depicting⁷ happiness?
[01:19.01]Advertising.
[01:20.32]The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks
[01:23.65]the emergence⁸ of mass media,
[01:25.88]and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness
[01:28.72]is not just an ideal but an ideology⁹.
[01:33.06]People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders¹⁰ of misery.
[01:37.48]They worked until exhausted,
[01:39.70]lived with few protections and died young.
[01:43.54]In the West, before mass communication and literacy,
[01:47.18]the most powerful mass medium was the church,
[01:50.50]which reminded worshippers that their souls were in danger
[01:54.03]and that they would someday be meat for worms.
[01:58.17]Given all this,
[01:59.44]they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too.
[02:03.77]Today the messages the average Westerner
[02:06.79]is surrounded with are not religious but commercial,
[02:10.33]and forever happy.
[02:12.71]Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers,
[02:16.06]all smiling, smiling, smiling.
[02:19.40]Our magazines feature beaming celebrities
[02:21.80]and happy families in perfect homes.
[02:25.41]And since these messages have an agenda
[02:28.04]--to lure¹¹ us to open our wallets
[02:30.46]--they make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable.
[02:34.89]"Celebrate!" commanded the ads for
[02:37.28]the arthritis¹² drug Celebrex,
[02:39.75]before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks.
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[02:44.49]But what we forget
[02:46.12]--what our economy depends on us forgetting
[02:48.72]--is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain.
[02:53.08]The things that bring the greatest joy
[02:55.40]carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment.
[02:59.43]Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness,
[03:03.53]we need art to tell us, as religion once did, Memento¹³ mori:
[03:08.60]remember that you will die,
[03:10.100]that everything ends,
[03:12.79]and that happiness comes not in denying this
[03:15.90]but in living with it.
[03:18.44]It's a message even more bitter than a clove¹⁴ cigarette,
[03:22.20]yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 weirdest   

怪诞的( weird的最高级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的

参考例句：

• Think of the weirdest, craziest shit you'd like to see chicks do. 想想这最怪异，最疯狂的屁事。你会喜欢看这些鸡巴表演的。
• It's still the weirdest damn sound I ever heard out of a Jersey boy. 这是我所听过新泽西人最为怪异的音调了。

3 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

4 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

5 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

7 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

8 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

9 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

10 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

11 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。

12 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

13 memento   

n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西

参考例句：

• The photos will be a permanent memento of your wedding.这些照片会成为你婚礼的永久纪念。
• My friend gave me his picture as a memento before going away.我的朋友在离别前给我一张照片留作纪念品。

14 clove   

n.丁香味

参考例句：

• If tired,smell a whiff of clove oil and it will wake you up.如果疲倦，闻上一点丁香油将令人清醒。
• A sweet-smell comes from roses and clove trees.丁香与玫瑰的香味扑鼻而来。