2020考研英語閱讀理解精讀100篇：Unit 17

Unit 17

His bio reads like a rock star’s. A precocious talent, he never married because, he said, it would have hurt his career. But he moved his girlfriend in with him while he worked his last gig—then died at the age of 37 from a fever brought on, some said, by carnal excess. The great painter Raphael （1483-1520） was one of the big three of Italy’s high Renaissance, along with Leonardo da Vinci （whose work he admired and studied closely） and Michelangelo （with whom he carried on a vigorous, if all too brief, competition to be the Vatican’s favorite artist）. He didn’t seem, however, to have a superstar’s attitude. The pope was his patron, and acquaintances described him as “sensible,” “well mannered,” “genial ” and “sweet.” On his deathbed, he bequeathed his mistress enough money to live “honorably” for the rest of her life. And he painted her portrait—one of the great paintings of all time, right up there with the “Mona Lisa”—as a final, loving tribute.

At least that’s how the legend goes. That portrait—which is touring the United States for the first time—constitutes a one-picture exhibition at the Frick Collection in New York through Jan. 30 （it will travel to Houston and Indianapolis）. Certainly, “La Fornarina”（“Baker’s Daughter”）comes from the hand of the incomparable Raphael. ① The gently tilting composition is perfect, the color finely balanced and the lady’s skin alabaster and flawless. （Raphael got so good with the then new medium of oil paint that his technique became known as sprezzatura, meaning, roughly, to hide with technical facility exactly how anything is done.）② In the classic Venus gesture of simultaneously trying to cover up and to showcase her erotic attributes （including a belly button under gauze）, she glances coyly to the side at, one presumes, a lover. “La Fornarina,” the renowned art historian and MacArthur fellow Leo Steinberg explains, “is the closest thing to soft porn in the high Renaissance.” But whether the seminude lady depicted is actually the baker’s daughter who was Raphael’s love remains a mystery.

Is Raphael himself the object of her gaze? Most people—including several British critics reviewing the big Raphael exhibition currently at the National Gallery in London—like to think so. Since live women models weren’t generally available five centuries ago, the reasoning goes, the lady’s posing undressed for Raphael must have been an intimate act. Besides, what else can the artist’s proprietary name on her armband mean? But the experts remain divided. With a fine disregard for attendance-boosting hype, Rome museums commissioner Claudio Strinati （“La Fornarina” usually resides at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome）lays out a less titillating hypothesis in a booklet accompanying the Frick display.

A recent cleaning of the painting reveals a wedding ring on the lady’s left hand; Raphael’s final and most prominent patron, the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, had just been married to one Francesca Ardeasca. Raphael’s name on the armband, Strinati says, is a tribute to Chigi. He concludes that “La Fornarina” is Ardeasca. Unfortunately, no other portraits of Chigi’s bride exist to confirm the ID. As Steinberg says, “It’s all an attractive myth, and like all myths it depends for interpretation on levels of reliable gossip.” Whatever one believes, “La Fornarina” is still a sweetheart of a painting.

注（1）：本文選自Newsweek；

注（2）：本文習題命題模仿對象為2002年真題Text 3。

1. The mystery of the woman lies in her ______.

A) beauty

B) unknown identity

C) seminude body

D) intimate relationship with Raphael

2. It can be inferred from the text that ______.

A) Raphael behaved like a superstar

B) Raphael died young because of overwork

C) Raphael enjoyed greater popularity than Michelangelo

D) one of Raphael’s paintings achieves as great fame as “Mona Lisa”

3. The vivid descriptions of the painting “La Fornarina” show that ______.

A) Raphael is good at soft porn

B) Raphael develops a special feeling towards the baker’s daughter

C) oil paint was not popular then

D) Raphael’s painting technique has reached maturity

4. We can draw a conclusion from the third paragraph that ______.

A) there is sound evidence to believe there exists an intimacy between Raphael and the woman in the painting

B) live women models were nowhere to find in Raphael’s time

C) nude models were easily available in Italy in Renaissance

D) it is generally agreed among experts that the woman is Raphael’s mistress

5. From the text, we can see that the writer ______.

A) shows curiosity towards the identity of the woman in the painting

B) is a Renaissance art historian

C) strongly supports the idea that “La Fornarina” is one of Raphael’s mistress

D) thinks low of Raphael’s technique in the painting

篇章剖析

本文以對畫壇巨匠拉斐爾的簡介開始，重點討論了他的畫作《福爾娜瑞娜》中神秘女郎的身份問題。第一段簡單介紹了拉斐爾及其在畫壇上的地位，并引出油畫《福爾娜瑞娜》。第二段對這幅畫進行了細膩描寫。第三段列出人們對畫中女郎身份的不同看法。第四段指出無論畫中女郎是誰，這幅畫都是一幅精品。

詞匯注釋

precocious /pr??k????s/ adj. 早熟的

gig /ɡ?ɡ/ n. 為生計而做的工作

carnal /?kɑ?nl/ adj. 肉體的；性的

genial /?d?i?ni?l/ adj. 和藹可親的

bequeath /b??kwi?e/ vt. 遺贈

alabaster /??l?bɑ?st?/ adj. （皮膚）光滑細膩的

erotic /??r?t?k/ adj. 挑逗的；性感的

gauze /ɡ??z/ n. 薄紗

proprietary /pr??pra??t?ri/ adj. 專有的；所屬的

titillate /?t?t?le?t/ v. （使）覺得癢；挑逗，使人興奮

難句突破

① The gently tilting composition is perfect, the color finely balanced and the lady’s skin alabaster and flawless.

主體句式：The composition is perfect, the color balanced and skin alabaster and flawless.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這句后半句是獨立主格結(jié)構(gòu)，分別在color和skin后省略了is。

句子譯文：那微微傾斜的布局堪稱完美，用色協(xié)調(diào)，女士的肌膚潔白無瑕。

② In the classic Venus gesture of simultaneously trying to cover up and to showcase her erotic attributes（including a belly button under gauze）, she glances coyly to the side at, one presumes, a lover.

主體句式：She glances to the side at a lover.

結(jié)構(gòu)分析：這句話中，cover up和showcase并列，它們的賓語是erotic attributes；one presumes是插入語。

句子譯文：畫中女郎面帶羞意，側(cè)頭凝望，有人猜測是在注視她的情人，她的體態(tài)呈經(jīng)典的維納斯式姿勢，性感之意欲遮彌彰（薄紗下面有若隱若現(xiàn)的肚臍）。

題目分析

1. B 細節(jié)題。從最后兩段可以清楚知道對畫中女郎的身份有各種不同的猜測。

2. D 推理題。從第一段對Raphael的細節(jié)介紹中可得出答案。

3. D 細節(jié)題。對這幅油畫精品的細致描寫只有一個目的，就是展示的天才般的繪畫技巧。從第二段“Raphael got so good with the then new medium of oil paint that his technique became known as...”一句中可以判斷出。

4. A 推理題。從第三段可知，500年前，女模特還不普遍，畫中半裸的女郎很容易被認為和畫家有親密關(guān)系。

5. A 推理題。全文一直在探討畫中女郎的身份，列出兩種不同的觀點，但并沒有結(jié)論。文章最后一句中whatever one believes更能幫助理解。

參考譯文

他的傳記讀起來像搖滾歌星的傳記。一個早熟的天才，終生未娶。因為據(jù)他說，那可能會影響他的事業(yè)。但他在創(chuàng)作最后一幅油畫時，還是請來了女友和他同住。然后在37歲時因為發(fā)燒不幸辭世。有人說，他發(fā)燒是由縱欲過度引起的。偉大的畫家拉斐爾（1483-1520）是意大利文藝復興全盛時期三大畫家之一，和達·芬奇、米開朗琪羅齊名。他欣賞達·芬奇的作品并對之仔細研究過。在誰是梵蒂岡最受歡迎的畫家這個問題上，他和米開朗琪羅爭得不相上下，只可惜他去世太早。不過，看上去他沒有明星的高傲派頭。教皇是他的贊助人。認識他的人都說他“明智”、“有教養(yǎng)”、“和藹”、“令人愉快”。在彌留之際，他給情婦留下足夠錢財，讓她“體面地”度過余生。他還為她畫了肖像，作為最后的愛的信物。這張肖像一直被認為是一幅偉大的杰作，和《蒙娜·麗莎》齊名。

至少故事是這么說的。那張肖像現(xiàn)在第一次來到美國巡展。為此紐約弗瑞克收藏店專為這一張油畫舉辦了展覽，展覽持續(xù)到1月30日（之后再去休斯敦和印第安納波里）?！陡柲热鹉取罚ㄓ置睹姘鼛煹呐畠骸罚┐_實出自無與倫比的拉斐爾之手。那微微傾斜的布局堪稱完美，用色協(xié)調(diào)，女士的肌膚潔白無瑕。（當時油畫還屬新興事物，但拉斐爾對繪畫掌握已十分純熟，以至于他的技巧被稱為sprezzatura，大意是作畫技巧精湛，下筆過程不露痕跡。）畫中女郎面帶羞意，側(cè)頭凝望，有人猜測是在注視她的情人，她的體態(tài)呈經(jīng)典的維納斯式姿勢，性感之意欲遮彌彰（薄紗下面有若隱若現(xiàn)的肚臍）?！啊陡柲热鹉取肥俏乃噺团d全盛時期最接近軟性色情的作品?！敝乃囆g(shù)史學家，麥克阿瑟研究會會員里奧·斯坦伯格說道。但畫中這位半裸的女子是不是拉斐爾所愛的面包師的女兒，仍然是個謎。

拉斐爾是不是她凝視的對象？大部分人都樂于這樣想，包括幾名正在倫敦國家美術(shù)館評論拉斐爾作品展的批評家們。理由是，500年前，女模特還不常見，畫中女子為拉斐爾擺出半裸的姿態(tài)肯定與其關(guān)系親密。而且，畫家的名字出現(xiàn)在她的袖帶上還能有別的意思嗎？但有些專家對此持有不同意見。羅馬博物館主管克勞第奧·斯提納地（《福爾娜瑞娜》平時就收藏在羅馬的Palazzo Barberini美術(shù)館）就完全不認同這種旨在大大提高參觀人數(shù)的不實之稱，他在弗瑞克展覽會上發(fā)放的一本小冊子中提出了一個不那么令人浮想聯(lián)翩的假設(shè)。

最近一次清理這幅油畫時有人發(fā)現(xiàn)畫中女郎的左手戴著婚戒；拉斐爾最后一位也是最重要的一位贊助人塞尼思銀行家阿果思提諾·齊格，那時剛與一個叫弗朗西斯卡·阿迪斯卡的女士結(jié)婚。斯提納地說，袖帶上拉斐爾的名字是向齊格表示敬意。他的結(jié)論是，油畫《福爾娜瑞娜》中的女郎就是阿迪斯卡。不幸的是，沒有其他肖像來證明畫中女郎就是齊格的新娘。正如斯坦伯格所說，“畫中女郎是誰是人人都想破解的謎，就像其他謎一樣，它的解釋取決于傳言的可信度?！辈还苋藗兿嘈拍姆N說法，《福爾娜瑞娜》仍是油畫中的上品。