Precious Blue Pigment托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

Precious Blue Pigment托福听力原文翻译及问题答案

一、Precious Blue Pigment托福听力原文：

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

MALE PROFESSOR:OK,so when we were discussing Gainsborough's painting The Blue Boy,which he painted in 1770,I mentioned the story that the painting might’ve been an experiment…the result of a challenge—it was believed that blue couldn't be an important color in a painting—because,well,it tends to recede into the background.Not good for your main subject,right?

So,to show otherwise,Gainsborough created The Blue Boy,with the boy featured,large,in his famous blue clothes and,well,I guess he proved his point.

But,there was another challenge to blue—it was very,very expensive back then.Now,of course,because of modern chemistry,any color is available in tubes at any art supply store.But in the eighteenth century and before,it wasn’t so easy.

And blue…well,the color ultramarine—the most desired shade of blue—was made from the precious stone lapis lazuli,which had to be imported all the way from Afghanistan.

And the second-most favored shade of blue…after ultramarine made from lapis lazuli…was a shade of blue that came from another precious stone,azurite.

But azurite was,well,harder to work with.There is evidence that artists would try to get around these difficulties—for example,use pigment from lapis lazuli or azurite very sparingly and also use something cheaper,like smalt,which was made of ground glass.Thing is,smalt became discolored over time.So,many artists probably just avoided blues altogether,rather than use something cheap and impermanent.

So,blue,and especially ultramarine pigment,was a luxury,a status symbol—worth even more than gold at times—and you even had the wealthy ordering paintings with ultramarine to show others that they could afford something made from this precious pigment,much in the same way they’d order gold leaf.

Actually,the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue—the first synthetic pigment,in fact,if you can believe that!They passed the formula on to the Greeks and Romans,but then it was lost….

Anyway,not only was lapis lazuli hard to get,it was also hard to process.The recipe was difficult;the stone had to be ground finely—not easy to do with a rock!—then mixed with melted wax,resins,and oils,wrapped in a cloth and kneaded,like bread dough.The fine particles of ultramarine were then separated from the rest….The process was time-consuming,which also contributed to the high cost of producing ultramarine,and it didn’t even yield very much usable pigment.

As a result,the French government sponsored a competition in 1824 to find a cheaper way to make ultramarine pigment.And soon after,a process was demonstrated where a combination of coal,sulphur,and other cheap,commonplace substances were heated,creating a suitable synthetic substitute for lapis lazuli.So there’s no doubt that nineteenth-century artists,after good synthetic versions were available,used more ultramarine.Think of the Impressionists,for example.…They had a lot more choices—or at least less expensive choices—than painters not that long before them….

二、Precious Blue Pigment托福听力中文翻译：

旁白：在艺术史课上听一部分讲座。

男教授：好吧，当我们讨论盖恩斯伯勒1770年画的《蓝色男孩》时，我提到了这个故事，这幅画可能是一个实验……一个挑战的结果，人们认为蓝色不可能是绘画中的一种重要颜色，因为它往往会退到背景中。对你的主题不好，对吧？

所以，为了展示另一种情况，盖恩斯伯勒创造了蓝色男孩，这个男孩身材高大，穿着著名的蓝色衣服，我想他证明了他的观点。

但是，蓝色还有另一个挑战，那是非常非常昂贵的。当然，现在，由于现代化学，任何一种颜色都可以在任何艺术用品商店买到。但在18世纪及之前，这并不容易。

蓝色…嗯，最受欢迎的蓝色是由宝石天青石制成的，必须从阿富汗一路进口。

第二种最受欢迎的蓝色是来自另一种宝石蓝铜矿的蓝色。

但蓝铜矿更难处理。有证据表明，艺术家们会尝试绕过这些困难，例如，非常节省地使用天青石或蓝铜矿的颜料，也会使用更便宜的东西，比如用磨砂玻璃制成的smalt。事情是，斯马特随着时间的推移变得变色了。因此，许多艺术家可能只是完全避免了蓝调，而不是使用廉价和短暂的东西。

因此，蓝色，尤其是群青颜料，是一种奢侈品，一种地位象征，有时甚至比黄金更值钱。你甚至让有钱人订购群青颜料画，向其他人展示他们可以买得起这种珍贵颜料制成的东西，就像他们订购金叶一样。

事实上，如果你相信的话，古埃及人确实成功地制造出了人造蓝色——第一种合成色素！他们把这个公式传给了希腊人和罗马人，但后来它丢失了…。

无论如何，天青石不仅很难得到，而且很难加工。食谱很难；这块石头必须磨成细细的，用石头是不容易的-然后与熔化的蜡、树脂和油混合，用布包裹，然后像面包面团一样揉搓。然后将群青的细颗粒与其余部分分离…。这一过程非常耗时，这也导致了生产群青的高成本，而且它甚至不能产生非常有用的颜料。

因此，法国政府在1824年发起了一场竞赛，寻找一种更便宜的方法来制造群青颜料。不久之后，一种将煤、硫和其他廉价、普通物质结合起来加热的工艺被证明，创造了一种适合的合成天青石替代品。因此，毫无疑问，19世纪的艺术家，在有了好的合成版本后，使用了更多的群青。例如，想想印象派。…他们比之前不久的画家有更多的选择，或者至少是更便宜的选择…。

三、Precious Blue Pigment托福听力问题：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.The economic factors that made lapis lazuli expensive

B.The types of paintings in which the color blue is popular

C.Early processes for making blue pigments from stones

D.Difficulties using the color blue in early paintings

Q2:2.What was Gainsborough's goal when he painted The Blue Boy?

A.To find an acceptable alternative to ultramarine pigment

B.To demonstrate that blue should be used only in certain paintings

C.To contradict a common belief about the use of blue in a painting

D.To protest the high costs of painting with most blue pigments

Q3:3.What does the professor imply about smalt as a substitute for lapis lazuli?

A.It eventually became as expensive as lapis lazuli.

B.It was used frequently throughout the nineteenth century.

C.It was not of an acceptable quality for many artists.

D.It was seen as a better substitute for lapis lazuli than azurite was.

Q4:4.What two points does the professor make about the process of turning lapis lazuli into ultramarine?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.It took a lot of time.

B.It required expensive tools.

C.It did not produce much pigment.

D.It was perfected by the French.

Q5:5.Why does the professor mention the French government?

A.To indicate who sponsored the digging of additional lapis lazuli mines

B.To emphasize the importance of developing an affordable blue pigment

C.To point out that artists were not permitted to use certain stones to make pigments

D.To question the government's use of public funds to support the arts

Q6:6.What does the professor imply when he says this:(PROFESSOR)Actually,the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue—the first synthetic pigment,in fact,if you can believe that!

A.He is not convinced the Egyptians made the first synthetic pigment

B.He is impressed by the Egyptians’accomplishment.

C.The process the Egyptians used is now widely known.

D.The Egyptian pigment was of lower quality than today's pigments.

四、Precious Blue Pigment托福听力答案：

A1:正确答案：D

A2:正确答案：C

A3:正确答案：C

A4:正确答案：AC

A5:正确答案：B

A6:正确答案：B

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