托福阅读真题Official 44 Passage 2（五）

托福阅读真题Official 44 Passage 2（五）

The Use of the Camera Obscura

The precursor of the modern camera,the camera obscura is a darkened enclosure into which light is admitted through a lens in a small hole.The image of the illuminated area outside the enclosure is thrown upside down as if by magic onto a surface in the darkened enclosure.This technique was known as long ago as the fifth century B.C.in China.Aristotle also experimented with it in the fourth century B.C.,and Leonardo da Vinci described it in his notebooks in 1490.In 1558 Giovanni Battista Della Porta wrote in his twenty-volume work Magia naturalis(meaning“natural magic”)instructions for adding a convex lens to improve the quality of the image thrown against a canvas or panel in the darkened area where its outlines could be traced.Later,portable camera obscuras were developed,with interior mirrors and drawing tables on which the artist could trace the image.For the artist,this technique allows forms and linear perspective to be drawn precisely as they would be seen from a single viewpoint.Mirrors were also used to reverse the projected images to their original positions.

Did some of the great masters of painting,then,trace their images using a camera obscura.Some art historians are now looking for clues of artists’use of such devices.One of the artists whose paintings are being analyzed from this point of view is the great Dutch master,Jan Vermeer,who lived from 1632 to 1675 during the flowering of art and science in the Netherlands,including the science of optics.Vermeer produced only about 30 known paintings,including his famous The Art of Painting.The room shown in it closely resembles the room in other Vermeer paintings,with lighting coming from a window on the left,the same roof beams,and similar floor tiles,suggesting that the room was fitted with a camera obscura on the side in the foreground.The map hung on the opposite wall was a real map in Vermeer’s possession,reproduced in such faithful detail that some kind of tracery is suspected.When one of Vermeer’s paintings was X-rayed,it did not have any preliminary sketches on the canvas beneath the paint,but rather the complete image drawn in black and white without any trial sketches.Vermeer did not have any students,did not keep any records,and did not encourage anyone to visit his studio,facts that can be interpreted as protecting his secret use of a camera obscura.

In recent times the British artist David Hockney has published his investigations into the secret use of the camera obscura,claiming that for up to 400 years,many of Western art’s great masters probably used the device to produce almost photographically realistic details in their paintings.He includes in this group Caravaggio,Hans Holbein,Leonardo da Vinci,Diego Velázquez,Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,Agnolo Bronzino,and Jan van Eyck.From an artist’s point of view,Hockney observed that a camera obscura compresses the complicated forms of a three-dimensional scene into two-dimensional shapes that can easily be traced and also increases the contrast between light and dark,leading to the chiaroscuroartistic term for a contrast between light and dark effect seen in many of these paintings.In Jan van Eyck’s The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami,the complicated foreshortening(a technique for representing an image in art that makes it appear to recede in space)in the chandelier and the intricate detail in the bride’s garments are among the clues that Hockney thinks point to the use of the camera obscura.

So what are we to conclude.If these artists did use a camera obscura,does that diminish their stature.Hockney argues that the camera obscura does not replace artistic skill in drawing and painting.In experimenting with it,he found that it is actually quite difficult to use for drawing,and he speculates that the artists probably combined their observations from life with tracing of shapes.

Question 9 of 14

According to paragraph 3,Hockney believes that all of the following indicate use of a camera obscura EXCEPT

A.very detailed,realistic work

B.increased contrast between light and dark

C.oversimplification of forms when the image is traced

D.complicated foreshortening of objects

正确答案：C

题目详解

题型分类：否定事实信息题

原文定位：定位词：Hockney；use of a camera obscura。定位到第三段的后半部分，具体描述了Hockney对于暗箱使用的观点，从中我们依次排除掉文中提及的正确内容，未提及的或与原文描述不符的选项即为答案。

选项分析：

C选项oversimplification of forms when the image is traced，描绘图像时形式上进行过度简化。而文中说the intricate detail错综复杂的细节，因此与原文描述不符。

A选项very detailed,realistic work对应the intricate detail。

B选项increased contrast between light and dark对应increases the contrast between light and dark。

D选项complicated foreshortening of objects对应the complicated foreshorteninga technique for representing an image。

Question 10 of 14

The word“intricate”in the passage is closest in meaning to

A.surprising

B.complex

C.beautiful

D.clear

正确答案：B

题目详解

题型分类：词汇题

题干分析：词汇所在句子the complicated foreshortening technique for representing an image in art that makes it appear to recede in space in the chandelier and the intricate detail in the bride’s garments译为“按复杂的透视法使枝形吊灯在空间上看上去缩短了，同时表现出新娘服装的复杂细节”，intricate复杂的。另外句中and起到了并列关系，并列关系可以借助近义词来帮助理解所考察的单词词义，and前的complicated即是intricate的近义词表达。

选项分析：

B选项complex复杂的。

A选项surprising惊讶的。

C选项beautiful美丽的。

D选项clear清楚的。

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