hce_tcu
106年
英文
第 31 題
📖 題組：
IV. Reading Comprehension: Read the following passage and choose the most appropriate answer for each question. 20% (A) On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh walked into a wheat field behind the chateau in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, and shot himself in the chest. Van Gogh had been suffering from mental illness ever since he sliced off his left ear in 1888. After this incident, he continued to experience sporadic and debilitating attacks that left him confused or incoherent for days or weeks at a time. In between these breakdowns, though, he enjoyed spells of calmness and lucidity in which he was able to paint. Indeed, his time in Auvers, where he arrived in May 1890, was the most productive period of his career. Despite this, he felt increasingly lonely and anxious, and became convinced that his life was a failure. Eventually, he got hold of a pocket revolver. When he pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted off a rib, and failed to pierce his heart. He lost consciousness and collapsed, and died the next night, aged 37. On the Verge of Insanity, an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in 2016, provides a meticulous and balanced account of the final year-and-a-half of the artist's life. Although it does not offer a definitive diagnosis of Van Gogh's illness – over the decades, a number of causes have been suggested – it does contain a severely corroded handgun that was discovered in Auvers around 1960. Analysis suggests that the pistol is probably the very one that Van Gogh used. The exhibition also features a recently discovered letter, written by Felix Rey, the doctor who treated Van Gogh in Arles. It contains a diagram illustrating precisely which part of his ear the artist removed. For years, biographers have debated whether Van Gogh sliced off the whole of his left ear or just its lobe. This letter proves without doubt that the artist cut off his entire ear. Another attention-grabbing item in the exhibition is an unfinished painting, called Tree Roots. Van Gogh worked on it during the morning of July 27, a few hours before he tried to kill himself. At first glance, this dense picture appears almost abstract – how are we supposed to 'read' its thicket of blue, green and yellow brushstrokes, all vigorously applied to the canvas, which remains visible in various places. The entire canvas, however, is devoted to a compact tangle of gnarled roots, trunks, branches and massed vegetation. In many ways, Tree Roots is an extraordinary image: an innovative, 'all-over' composition, without a single focal point. Arguably it anticipates later developments of modern art, such as abstractionism. Yet, shortly after it was made, Van Gogh attempted to commit suicide. What does it tell us about his state of mind? Certainly, the painting appears agitated, as though fraught with emotional turbulence. Moreover, its subject matter seems noteworthy. Years earlier, Van Gogh had made a study of tree roots that was meant to express something of life's struggles. Shortly before his death, in a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote that his life was “attacked at the very root.” Could it be that Van Gogh painted Tree Roots as a farewell? However, Nienke Bakker, who is responsible for the collection of paintings at the Van Gogh Museum, urges caution. “There is a lot of emotional agitation in works from the last weeks of Van Gogh's life,” she says. “Yet Tree Roots is also very vigorous and full of life.” She scotches the idea that Van Gogh's illness was the cause of his greatness as an artist. “All of these tortured, gnarled roots make Tree Roots a very hectic, emotional painting,” she says. “But it's not a painting created by a crazy mind. He knew very well what he was doing. Until the end, Van Gogh painted in spite of his illness, not because of it. It's important to remember that.”
IV. Reading Comprehension: Read the following passage and choose the most appropriate answer for each question. 20% (A) On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh walked into a wheat field behind the chateau in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, and shot himself in the chest. Van Gogh had been suffering from mental illness ever since he sliced off his left ear in 1888. After this incident, he continued to experience sporadic and debilitating attacks that left him confused or incoherent for days or weeks at a time. In between these breakdowns, though, he enjoyed spells of calmness and lucidity in which he was able to paint. Indeed, his time in Auvers, where he arrived in May 1890, was the most productive period of his career. Despite this, he felt increasingly lonely and anxious, and became convinced that his life was a failure. Eventually, he got hold of a pocket revolver. When he pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted off a rib, and failed to pierce his heart. He lost consciousness and collapsed, and died the next night, aged 37. On the Verge of Insanity, an exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in 2016, provides a meticulous and balanced account of the final year-and-a-half of the artist's life. Although it does not offer a definitive diagnosis of Van Gogh's illness – over the decades, a number of causes have been suggested – it does contain a severely corroded handgun that was discovered in Auvers around 1960. Analysis suggests that the pistol is probably the very one that Van Gogh used. The exhibition also features a recently discovered letter, written by Felix Rey, the doctor who treated Van Gogh in Arles. It contains a diagram illustrating precisely which part of his ear the artist removed. For years, biographers have debated whether Van Gogh sliced off the whole of his left ear or just its lobe. This letter proves without doubt that the artist cut off his entire ear. Another attention-grabbing item in the exhibition is an unfinished painting, called Tree Roots. Van Gogh worked on it during the morning of July 27, a few hours before he tried to kill himself. At first glance, this dense picture appears almost abstract – how are we supposed to 'read' its thicket of blue, green and yellow brushstrokes, all vigorously applied to the canvas, which remains visible in various places. The entire canvas, however, is devoted to a compact tangle of gnarled roots, trunks, branches and massed vegetation. In many ways, Tree Roots is an extraordinary image: an innovative, 'all-over' composition, without a single focal point. Arguably it anticipates later developments of modern art, such as abstractionism. Yet, shortly after it was made, Van Gogh attempted to commit suicide. What does it tell us about his state of mind? Certainly, the painting appears agitated, as though fraught with emotional turbulence. Moreover, its subject matter seems noteworthy. Years earlier, Van Gogh had made a study of tree roots that was meant to express something of life's struggles. Shortly before his death, in a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote that his life was “attacked at the very root.” Could it be that Van Gogh painted Tree Roots as a farewell? However, Nienke Bakker, who is responsible for the collection of paintings at the Van Gogh Museum, urges caution. “There is a lot of emotional agitation in works from the last weeks of Van Gogh's life,” she says. “Yet Tree Roots is also very vigorous and full of life.” She scotches the idea that Van Gogh's illness was the cause of his greatness as an artist. “All of these tortured, gnarled roots make Tree Roots a very hectic, emotional painting,” she says. “But it's not a painting created by a crazy mind. He knew very well what he was doing. Until the end, Van Gogh painted in spite of his illness, not because of it. It's important to remember that.”
What is the passage mainly about?
- A Van Gogh's life in Auvers
- B The mystery of Van Gogh's madness
- C Van Gogh's role in modern art
- D The characteristics of Van Gogh's masterpiece
思路引導 VIP
請觀察文章第二段提到的展覽名稱，並思考作者為什麼要同時並陳「割耳的書信證據」與「最後一幅畫作的線條風格」？這兩個看似不同的細節，共同指向了這位藝術家生命中的哪一個核心議題？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
同學，恭喜你精準地抓住了這篇長文的靈魂！能從豐富的細節中提煉出核心主題，顯示出你具備非常紮實的資訊整合能力。
瘋狂與藝術的交織
這篇文章的敘事重心始終環繞著 2016 年梵谷博物館的特展「在瘋狂的邊緣（On the Verge of Insanity）」。文中從梵谷的自殺疑雲出發，延伸到對他**心理疾病（mental illness）**的深度探討，包括透過遺留的鏽蝕手槍、醫生的信件來驗證其割耳與崩潰的真實情況。文末更進一步辯證了最後一幅畫作《樹根（Tree Roots）》與其精神狀態的關聯，探討疾病究竟是創作的推手還是阻礙。選 (B) 正是因為它能完美涵蓋從生平證據、醫學診斷到藝術解讀的所有面向。
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