12. [A] categories [B] examples [C] patterns [D] samples
13. [A] imparted [B] immersed [C] injected [D] infected
14. [A] released [B] relayed [C] relieved [D] remained
15. [A] placing [B] delivering [C] taking [D] giving
16. [A] feasible [B] available [C] reliable [D] applicable
17. [A] prevalent [B] principal [C] innovative [D] initial
18. [A] presented [B] restricted [C] recommended [D] introduced
19. [A] problems [B] issues [C] agonies [D] sufferings
20. [A] involved in [B] caring for [C] concerned with [D] warding off
Section
Ⅱ
Reading comprehension
Part A
Directions:
Read the following four passages. Answer the questions below each passage by choosing A, B, C and D.
Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)
Text 1
The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by
Damien Hirst, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”
，
at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th 2008. All but two
pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. As the auctioneer
called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy.
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 Mc Andrew, 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,
especially in New York, where the bail-out of the banks coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the
financial demise of many art-buying investors. 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—for Chinese
contemporary art—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.
The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the
end of 1989, a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the Second World War. This time
experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more fluctuant.
But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”
What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market. Almost
everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of
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