Exercises
A. Determining the main idea.
Choose the best answer. Do not refer to the text.
The main idea of the article is that ______. ( C )
(a) nowadays we have no standards for judging art
(b) we need standards to know whether a piece of art is good or bad
(c) we need sensible criticism and standards for judging art
(d) ability to judge art comes from practice
B. Comprehending the text.
Choose the best answer.
1. According to Marya Mannes, the fashion in criticism or appreciation of the arts for the last two decades is _______. ( D )
(a) to use a set of standards for judgment
(b) to use the words "good" or "bad" to describe pieces of art
(c) to please those critics fond of disciplines
(d) to relieve the critic of the responsibility of judgment and the public of the necessity of knowledge
2. In Marya Mannes' view, critics say that "No values are absolute" because ______. ( D )
(a) they always think they guess right
(b) they know the difference between a great artist and a writer who was once regarded as great
(c) they think one man’s mediocrity is another man’s good program
(d) it is far safer and easier to abdicate from the responsibility of judgment
3. The task of the audience, according to Marya Mannes, is to ______. ( C )
(a) accept as art and as literature that has been
(b) discard standards for judgment
(c) provide the artist with a good climate of appreciation and have great expectations in him
(d) find the "new" form that is good
4. In order to know the standards for judging arts, we need to ______. ( A )
(a) live and look more and be aware of a consistent pulse
(b) distinguish between diversity and chaos
(c) define all the reasons why certain expressions of art are timeless
(d) read Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen with the same interest
5. If standards of craftsmanship are avoided, the result will be that ______. ( D )
(a) actors project their voices
(b) singers phrase the songs well
(c) poets communicate their emotions
(d) writers have no vocabulary
6. The courage to say what a critic thinks and the ability to say it clearly can be seen in the example, given in the article, of ______. ( D )
(a) preface for a catalogue of an abstract painter
(b) a review in the Art News
(c) a review of an artist who made an abstract shape with automobile fragments
(d) a criticism about an exhibition
7. In order to appreciate and evaluate music, one needs to separate all of the following EXCEPT _____. ( A )
(a) experience from association
(b) intent from accident
(c) pretense from conviction
(d) design from experimentation
8. As far as art is concerned the question is ______. ( B )
(a) whether it is "modern" or conventional
(b) whether it is good or bad
(c) whether the subject is great
(d) whether it is abstract or representational
C. Understanding vocabulary.
Choose the correct definition according to the context.
1. For the last fifteen or twenty years the fashion in criticism or appreciation of the arts has been to deny the existence of any valid criteria and to make the words "good" or "bad"irrelevant, immaterial, and inapplicable. ( D )
(a) not concrete
(b) not realized
(c) not meaningful
(d) not related
2. Nobody recently has expressed this philosophy more succinctly than Dr. Frank Stanton, the highly intelligent president of CBS television. ( A )
(a) concisely
(b) ironically
(c) wittingly
(d) intelligently
3. At a hearing before the Federal Communications Commission, this phrase escaped him under questioning: "One man's mediocrity is another man's good program." ( C )
(a) medicine
(b) favorite
(c) commonplaceness
(d) hostility
4. Every age has its arbiters who do not grow with their times, who cannot tell evolution from revolution or the difference between frivolous faddism, amateurish experimentation, and profound and necessary change. ( A )
(a) not professional
(b) not scientific
(c) not healthy
(d) not accomplished
5. But all these, I maintain, are forms of abdication from the responsibility of judgment. ( D )
(a) intention
(b) commitment
(c) irresponsibility
(d) resignation
6. Conversely, only a public ill-served by its critics could have accepted as art and as literature so much in these last years that has been neither. ( B )
(a) To be specific
(b) On the other hand
(c) Generally speaking
(d) To tell the truth
7. Why is baroque right for one age and too effulgent for another? ( A )
(a) bright
(b) good
(c) inartistic
(d) inartistic
8. Or is it that other convenient abdication from standards of performance and judgment practiced by so many artists and critics that they, like certain writers who deal only in sickness and depravity, "reflect the chaos about them"? ( B )
(a) obscurity
(b) degradation
(c) poverty
(d) chaos
9. The only salvation here for the listener is, again, an instinct born of experience and association which allows him to separate intent from accident, design from experimentation, and pretense from conviction. ( A )
(a) deliverance
(b) hope
(c) requirement
(d) need
10. Entrenched prejudices, obdurate opinions are as sterile as no opinions at all. ( D )
(a) fierce
(b) flexible
(c) brilliant
(d) obstinate
11. And when you have committed yourself to them, you have acquired a passport to that elusive but immutable realm of truth. ( B )
(a) fashionable
(b) permanent
(c) reachable
(d) vast
D. Discussing the following topics.
1. What, according to Mannes, is a major cause of the philosophy of laissez faire in art criticism? What does she see as the dangers in the statement "No values are absolute"? To what extent does she believe that values may be absolute?
答案
The major cause of the philosophy of laissez faire in art criticism, according to Mannes, is the critics' fear of making wrong judgments. Many artists who were severely criticized at the beginning were later recognized as being great. Every age has its arbiters who do not grow with their times, who cannot tell evolution from revolution or the difference between frivolous faddism, amateurish experimentation, and profound and necessary change. In order to avoid making errors in judgment, some critics tend to apply to a safer technique of criticism. Inexplicit language is usually used in their criticism. According to Mannes, they are trying to evade the responsibility of judgment. Many people think that no values are absolute. To Mannes this is quite dangerous because it relieves the critic of the responsibility of judgment and public of the necessity of knowledge. It pleases those resentful of the disciplines, it flatters the empty minded by calling them open-minded, and it comforts the confused. Mannes believes that values are absolute. She advocates a kind of valid criteria in art criticism. She says, "Yet standards there are, timeless as the universe itself. And when you have committed yourself to them, you have acquired a passport to that elusive but immutable realm of truth. Keep it with you in the forests of bewilderment. And never be afraid to speak up."
2. Why does Mannes oppose the attack on craftsmanship in art?
Some critics believe that craftsmanship gets in the way of expression, but Mannes thinks that it is time they helped reverse this trend by trying to rediscover craft: the command of the chosen instrument, whether it is a brush, a word, or a voice. Mannes says, "When you begin to detect the difference between freedom and sloppiness, between serious experimentation and egotherapy, between skill and slickness, between strength and violence, you are on your way to separating the sheep from the goats, a form of segregation denied us for quite a while. All you need to restore it is a small bundle of standards and a Geiger counter that detects fraud.” Mannes concludes that the relationship between purpose and craftsmanship is that of the end and means. A standard of craftsmanship applies to arts of all ages.
3. Do you agree with Mannes’ definition of order in art?
I completely agree with Mannes' definition of order. Nowadays, the field of artistic criticism is extremely chaotic. Literary criticism has been to deny the existence of any valid criteria and to make the word "good" or "bad" irrelevant, immaterial and inapplicable. There is no discipline in criticism. The prime function of art is to create order out of chaos ─ not the order of neatness or rigidity or convention or artifice, but the order of clarity by which one will and one vision can draw the essential truth out of apparent confusion.
TOP
