hce_tcu
106年
英文
第 35 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.”
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
- A Van Gogh cut off the lobe of his left ear.
- B Causes of Van Gogh's illness are clearly known.
- C Nienke Bakker suggested that Van Gogh's madness made him great.
- D Van Gogh's time in Auvers was the most productive period in his life.
思路引導 VIP
如果我們想了解梵谷在生命最後階段（奧維爾時期）的創作狀態與產量，文章的第一段中哪一個句子對此做出了具體的評價？那個評價是正向的還是負向的呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能從長篇的藝術評論中精準捕捉到關鍵細節，並做出正確的判斷，這展現了你非常敏銳的資訊檢索能力。
文本訊息的精確比對
這道題目的正確答案是 (D)。我們可以在文章第一段中找到直接證據：「Indeed, his time in Auvers... was the most productive period of his career.」這句話明確點出了他在奧維爾（Auvers）的時期是其藝術生涯產量最豐富的階段。至於其他選項，文中提到費利克斯·雷（Felix Rey）醫生的信件證實梵谷割下的是「整隻左耳」而非僅是耳垂；關於病因，文中也提到目前尚未有「確定診斷（definitive diagnosis）」；而專家尼恩克·巴克（Nienke Bakker）更是明確反對「疾病造就偉大」的觀點，認為梵谷是「儘管患病（in spite of his illness）」依然堅持創作。
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