preference in portrait painting托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

preference in portrait painting托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、preference in portrait painting 托福听力原文：

NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.

MALE PROFESSOR: As you know, uh, portrait artists often position their subjects so that their head is turned a little to one side … thereby presenting the artist with a semi-side view, uh a semi-profile view.

And for some reason, Western European artists have historically tended to show the left side of the subject's face more than the right. Uh, awhile back, some researchers examined about 1,500  portraits, painted from the sixteenth to the twentieth century in Western Europe, and in the majority of them, it's the left side of the face that's most prominently displayed … Why’s that?

And, interestingly enough, this tendency to show the left side has diminished over time, especially in the twentieth century. In fact, the left-right ratio is now about one to one, fifty percent left, fifty percent right.

Why’s that?

We do know that for many artists, the choice of left side/right side was very important. There's an image by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh called The Potato Eaters … that shows the profiles of a group of farmers …. It's a lithograph, which is a print made from images drawn on a stone. When you print something that way, what you get is a mirror image of the original picture—the exact same image, except that left and right are reversed. And van Gogh was so dissatisfied with the print that he wrote to his brother, quote, “the figures, I'm sorry to say, are now turned the wrong way,” end quote.

Anyway, why do you think so many painters in the past chose to depict the left side of their subject's face? Nancy?

FEMALE STUDENT: Could it have to do with whether the artists were left-handed or right- handed? Like maybe most of them were right-handed, and maybe for some reason they felt more comfortable painting the left side?

MALE PROFESSOR: Okay. Many right-handed artists do find it easier to paint left profiles, and many art historians think that’s the reason for the directional bias. But if that hypothesis—let's call it the, uh, the “right-handed hypothesis”—was correct, you'd expect that left-handed artists would find it easier to paint right profiles. But the research suggests that left-handed artists find it just as easy to paint left profiles as right …. So … any other ideas?<br>

Well, another theory's what's known as the parental imprinting hypothesis … which proposes that people are more used to seeing left profiles, because—supposedly—right-handed parents are more likely to hold their babies in their left arm …

FEMALE STUDENT:&nbsp;Well, my sister just had a baby, and she keeps talking about how her left arm is getting so much stronger than her right …

MALE PROFESSOR: Okay, so there's some anecdotal evidence.

FEMALE STUDENT: So then when the baby looks up at their parent, what they see is the left profile.

MALE PROFESSOR: Right, and—so the theory goes—the left side of the face becomes imprinted in our memories.

FEMALE STUDENT: But the parental imprinting hypothesis doesn't explain why left profiles have decreased over time. I mean, parents are still carrying their babies in their left arm, right?

MALE PROFESSOR: Exactly … Alright, what about the way the artist's studio is organized, specifically the light source?

Remember that the light source determines where the shadows are. So if you're a right-handed artist, you’d want the light coming from your left … because you don't want your painting hand to cast a shadow across your canvas. Right? And if the light's coming from your left, you'd want your subject to turn to their right, into the light …. And if they do that, what do you see?

FEMALE STUDENT: The left side of their face.

MALE PROFESSOR: Exactly. And, well into the twentieth century, many an artist's primary light source would be the sun, and they'd set up their studio to take maximum advantage of it … But then what happens as other high-quality, portable, artificial light sources become available?

FEMALE STUDENT: Well, you could position your subject in a lot more different ways and still have good lighting on your subject and on your canvas.

MALE PROFESSOR: So …

FEMALE STUDENT: You'd expect to see a more balanced ratio of left- and right-side portraits.

二、preference in portrait painting 托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在艺术史课上听一节课的一部分。

男教授：正如你所知，呃，肖像画家通常会把他们的主体放在一边，这样他们的头就会稍微转向一边……从而给艺术家呈现一个半侧面视图，呃，一个半侧面视图。

出于某种原因，西欧艺术家在历史上倾向于展示人物面部的左侧，而不是右侧。呃，不久前，一些研究人员研究了大约1500幅肖像画，这些肖像画是从16世纪到20世纪在西欧绘制的，在大多数肖像画中，最显眼的是脸部的左侧……为什么？

而且，有趣的是，这种显示左翼倾向的趋势随着时间的推移而减弱，特别是在二十世纪。事实上，现在左右比例大约是1比1，左50%，右50%。

为什么会这样？

我们知道，对于许多艺术家来说，选择左侧/右侧是非常重要的。荷兰画家文森特·梵高（VincentVanGogh）的一幅名为《吃土豆的人》（the Potato Eaters）的图像……展示了一群农民的侧面…。这是一种石版印刷术，是由石头上的图像制成的印刷品。当你以这种方式打印东西时，你得到的是原始图片的镜像，即完全相同的图像，只是左右颠倒。梵高对这张照片非常不满，他写信给他的兄弟，引用“很抱歉，这些数字现在被颠倒了方向，”引用结束。

不管怎样，你认为为什么过去有那么多画家选择描绘他们主体面部的左侧？南希？

女学生：这可能与艺术家是左撇子还是右撇子有关吗？也许他们中的大多数人都是右撇子，也许出于某种原因，他们觉得画左边更舒服？

男教授：好的。许多右撇子艺术家确实发现画左轮廓更容易，许多艺术历史学家认为这就是方向偏差的原因。但是如果这个假设，我们称之为，呃，“右手假设”——是正确的，你会认为左手艺术家会发现画右轮廓更容易。但研究表明，左撇子艺术家发现，画左轮廓和画右轮廓一样容易…。那么…还有其他想法吗<br>

嗯，另一种理论是所谓的父母印记假说……它提出人们更习惯于看到左撇子的侧面，因为据说右撇子的父母更有可能把孩子抱在左臂上…

女生：；嗯，我妹妹刚生了个孩子，她一直在说她的左臂比右臂强壮得多…

男教授：好吧，有一些轶事证据。

女学生：那么当婴儿抬头看着他们的父母时，他们看到的是左边的轮廓。

男教授：对，所以理论是这样的，左边的脸会在我们的记忆中留下印记。

女学生：但是父母的印记假说并不能解释为什么左轮廓会随着时间的推移而减少。我的意思是，父母仍然用左臂抱着孩子，对吗？

男教授：没错……好吧，艺术家工作室的组织方式如何，特别是光源？

请记住，光源决定阴影的位置。因此，如果你是一个右手艺术家，你会希望光线从你的左手射出……因为你不希望你的绘画手在画布上投射阴影。正当如果光是从你的左边来的，你会希望你的主体转向他们的右边，进入光中…。如果他们这样做了，你会看到什么？

女学生：他们脸的左侧。

男教授：没错。而且，进入二十世纪后，许多艺术家的主要光源都是太阳，他们建立工作室是为了最大限度地利用它……但是，当其他高质量、便携的人造光源出现时，会发生什么呢？

女学生：嗯，你可以用更多不同的方式来定位你的主题，在你的主题和画布上仍然有很好的照明。

男教授：那么…

女生：你希望看到左右侧肖像的比例更加平衡。

三、preference in portrait painting 托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A. Techniques for creating lifelike portraits

B. Theories about a preference in portrait painting?

C. Reasons for a decline in the popularity of portrait painting

D. Ways researchers determine whether a painting is authentic

Q2:2.According to the professor, what change occurred in portrait paintings over time?

A. Portrait artists became more skilled at painting profiles.

B. Portrait artists began painting a greater variety of subjects.

C. The percentage of left profiles decreased.

D. A left profile became a symbol of the subject's social status.

Q3:3.What point does the professor emphasize by his discussion of the lithograph The Potato Eaters?

A. Profiles are more difficult to create than head-on portraits.

B. Some artists consider the direction of the profile a key element in a portrait.

C. Most group portraits include both left and right profiles.

D. The direction of a profile is usually determined by the characteristics of the subject.

Q4:4.According to the professor, what is the problem with the “right-handed” hypothesis?

A. Left-handed artists are equally comfortable painting left and right profiles.

B. Right hands tend to cover up facial features when painting left profiles.

C. Statistics show that right-handed artists tend to paint right profiles.

D. Left hands are less likely to cast shadows when painting right profiles.

Q5:5.What does the professor imply about the "studio organization" hypothesis?

A. It has been disproved by recent studies.

B. It accounts for an important change in portrait painting.

C. It is based on a study of a relatively small number of portraits.

D. It was first proposed by the owner of a modern-day portrait studio.

Q6:6.Why does the student say this:

A. To explain why he prefers to paint left profiles

B. To point out a difference between adult portraits and baby portraits

C. To point out a fact that contradicts the "parental imprinting" hypothesis

D. To provide support for the "parental imprinting” hypothesis

四、preference in portrait painting 托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：B

A2:正确答案：C

A3:正确答案：B

A4:正确答案：A

A5:正确答案：B

A6:正确答案：D

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