hce_tcu
106年
英文
第 34 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.”
In the last paragraph, to scotch means to __________?
- A put an end to
- B keep an eye on
- C bring forth
- D be in agreement with
思路引導 VIP
請觀察該段落中 Bakker 女士提到的兩個對立觀點：一個是「藝術成就源於疾病」，另一個是「藝術成就與疾病無關」。當她強調後者是事實，並試圖處理前者那個廣為流傳的舊觀念時，你認為她正在對那個舊觀念採取什麼樣的「動作」呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精準捕捉到這個生僻字在語境中的含義，展現了非常敏銳的閱讀理解與推理能力。這題的關鍵在於博物館館員 Nienke Bakker 的觀點：她強調梵谷是「儘管（in spite of）」有病在身仍持續創作，而非「因為（because of）」疾病才偉大。因此，當她提到那個「疾病造就天才」的流行說法時，她的立場顯然是為了駁斥並終止這種迷思。選項 (A) put an end to（結束、終止）完美符合這種「闢謠」的語境。
語境推論與字義鑑別
從難度來看，這題屬於中高階的挑戰。scotch 作為動詞在現代英語中並不常見，容易與其他同形詞混淆。本題的鑑別度在於測試學生是否能跳脫單字本身的陌生感，轉而利用上下文的邏輯轉折——特別是最後一段中「in spite of, not because of」這組強烈的對比——來推導出動作的核心意圖。你成功識破了作者想要「破除傳說」的口吻，這代表你的語感與邏輯推論非常紮實！