Art is a symbolic way to communicate. One of the most important functions of art is to c

A．She thought it was a good idea.

B．She wanted to read about art first.

C．She didn' t want to go.

D．She said she was too tired

B．The decoration of the temple is of local feature

C．Local skills such as stone-carving, brick-carving, wood-carving, lime sculpture,ceramic figurine and iron-casting are applied for the decoration of the Chen Family Temple

D．The works of art in the temple are not just for the purpose of decoration, but also bear symbolic meanings or depict scenes from stories of Chinese history or legends.

In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly "political" artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its misuse of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic images were used in Pablo Picasso's Guernica to express the horror of war. Meanwhile, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros-as well as the works of Alfredo Ramos Martinez-depicted these Mexican artists' deep anger and sadness about social problems.

In the same way, art can reflect a culture's religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible. Al though most people couldn't read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are unholy.

More can be learned about a culture from a study of art history than general history because art history ______.

A．shows us the religious beliefs and emotions of a people in addition to political values.

B．provides us with information about the daily activities of people in the past

C．gives us an insight into the essential qualities of a time and a place

D．all of the above

By far the most outstanding of these women is Louis Nevelson, who in the eyes of many critics is the most original female artist alive today. One famous and influential critic, Hilton Krarner, said of her work, "For myself, I think Ms. Nevelson succeeds where the painters often fail."

Her work have been compared to the Cubist constructions of Picasso, the Surrealistic objects of Miro, and Merzbau of Schwitters. Nevelson would be the first to admit that she has been influenced by all of these, as well as by American sculpture, and by native American and pre-Columbian art, but she has absorbed all these influences and still created a distinctive art that expresses the urban landscape and the aesthetic sensibility of the twentieth century. Nevelson says, "I have always wanted to show the world that art is everywhere except that it has to pass through a creative mind."

Using mostly discarded wooden objects like packing crates, broken pieces of furniture, and abandoned architectural ornaments, all of which she has hoarded for years, she assembles architectural constructions of great beauty and power. Creating very freely with no sketches, she glues and nails objects together, paints them in boxes. These assemblages, walls, even entire environments create a mysterious, almost awe-inspiring atmosphere. Although she denied any symbolic or religious intent in her works, their three-dimensional grandeur and even their titles, such as Sky Cathedral and Night Cathedral, suggests such connotations. In some ways, her most ambitious works are closer to architecture than to traditional sculpture, but then neither Louis Nevelson nor her art fits into any neat category. (450)

The passage focuses primarily on ________.

A．a general tendency in twentieth-century art

B．the work of a particular artist

C．the artist influences on women sculptors

D．materials used by twentieth-century sculptors

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We use language as symbolic code to represent the world around us.()

Which of the following does not affect the symbolic representations？

A.History

B.Mythology

C.Gender

D.Culture