preference in portrait painting托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

preference in portrait painting托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、preference in portrait painting 托福聽力原文：

NARRATOR: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.

MALE PROFESSOR: As you know, uh, portrait artists often position their subjects so that their head is turned a little to one side … thereby presenting the artist with a semi-side view, uh a semi-profile view.

And for some reason, Western European artists have historically tended to show the left side of the subject's face more than the right. Uh, awhile back, some researchers examined about 1,500  portraits, painted from the sixteenth to the twentieth century in Western Europe, and in the majority of them, it's the left side of the face that's most prominently displayed … Why’s that?

And, interestingly enough, this tendency to show the left side has diminished over time, especially in the twentieth century. In fact, the left-right ratio is now about one to one, fifty percent left, fifty percent right.

Why’s that?

We do know that for many artists, the choice of left side/right side was very important. There's an image by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh called The Potato Eaters … that shows the profiles of a group of farmers …. It's a lithograph, which is a print made from images drawn on a stone. When you print something that way, what you get is a mirror image of the original picture—the exact same image, except that left and right are reversed. And van Gogh was so dissatisfied with the print that he wrote to his brother, quote, “the figures, I'm sorry to say, are now turned the wrong way,” end quote.

Anyway, why do you think so many painters in the past chose to depict the left side of their subject's face? Nancy?

FEMALE STUDENT: Could it have to do with whether the artists were left-handed or right- handed? Like maybe most of them were right-handed, and maybe for some reason they felt more comfortable painting the left side?

MALE PROFESSOR: Okay. Many right-handed artists do find it easier to paint left profiles, and many art historians think that’s the reason for the directional bias. But if that hypothesis—let's call it the, uh, the “right-handed hypothesis”—was correct, you'd expect that left-handed artists would find it easier to paint right profiles. But the research suggests that left-handed artists find it just as easy to paint left profiles as right …. So … any other ideas?<br>

Well, another theory's what's known as the parental imprinting hypothesis … which proposes that people are more used to seeing left profiles, because—supposedly—right-handed parents are more likely to hold their babies in their left arm …

FEMALE STUDENT:&nbsp;Well, my sister just had a baby, and she keeps talking about how her left arm is getting so much stronger than her right …

MALE PROFESSOR: Okay, so there's some anecdotal evidence.

FEMALE STUDENT: So then when the baby looks up at their parent, what they see is the left profile.

MALE PROFESSOR: Right, and—so the theory goes—the left side of the face becomes imprinted in our memories.

FEMALE STUDENT: But the parental imprinting hypothesis doesn't explain why left profiles have decreased over time. I mean, parents are still carrying their babies in their left arm, right?

MALE PROFESSOR: Exactly … Alright, what about the way the artist's studio is organized, specifically the light source?

Remember that the light source determines where the shadows are. So if you're a right-handed artist, you’d want the light coming from your left … because you don't want your painting hand to cast a shadow across your canvas. Right? And if the light's coming from your left, you'd want your subject to turn to their right, into the light …. And if they do that, what do you see?

FEMALE STUDENT: The left side of their face.

MALE PROFESSOR: Exactly. And, well into the twentieth century, many an artist's primary light source would be the sun, and they'd set up their studio to take maximum advantage of it … But then what happens as other high-quality, portable, artificial light sources become available?

FEMALE STUDENT: Well, you could position your subject in a lot more different ways and still have good lighting on your subject and on your canvas.

MALE PROFESSOR: So …

FEMALE STUDENT: You'd expect to see a more balanced ratio of left- and right-side portraits.

二、preference in portrait painting 托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：在藝術(shù)史課上聽一節(jié)課的一部分。

男教授：正如你所知，呃，肖像畫家通常會把他們的主體放在一邊，這樣他們的頭就會稍微轉(zhuǎn)向一邊……從而給藝術(shù)家呈現(xiàn)一個半側(cè)面視圖，呃，一個半側(cè)面視圖。

出于某種原因，西歐藝術(shù)家在歷史上傾向于展示人物面部的左側(cè)，而不是右側(cè)。呃，不久前，一些研究人員研究了大約1500幅肖像畫，這些肖像畫是從16世紀到20世紀在西歐繪制的，在大多數(shù)肖像畫中，最顯眼的是臉部的左側(cè)……為什么？

而且，有趣的是，這種顯示左翼傾向的趨勢隨著時間的推移而減弱，特別是在二十世紀。事實上，現(xiàn)在左右比例大約是1比1，左50%，右50%。

為什么會這樣？

我們知道，對于許多藝術(shù)家來說，選擇左側(cè)/右側(cè)是非常重要的。荷蘭畫家文森特·梵高（VincentVanGogh）的一幅名為《吃土豆的人》（the Potato Eaters）的圖像……展示了一群農(nóng)民的側(cè)面…。這是一種石版印刷術(shù)，是由石頭上的圖像制成的印刷品。當(dāng)你以這種方式打印東西時，你得到的是原始圖片的鏡像，即完全相同的圖像，只是左右顛倒。梵高對這張照片非常不滿，他寫信給他的兄弟，引用“很抱歉，這些數(shù)字現(xiàn)在被顛倒了方向，”引用結(jié)束。

不管怎樣，你認為為什么過去有那么多畫家選擇描繪他們主體面部的左側(cè)？南希？

女學(xué)生：這可能與藝術(shù)家是左撇子還是右撇子有關(guān)嗎？也許他們中的大多數(shù)人都是右撇子，也許出于某種原因，他們覺得畫左邊更舒服？

男教授：好的。許多右撇子藝術(shù)家確實發(fā)現(xiàn)畫左輪廓更容易，許多藝術(shù)歷史學(xué)家認為這就是方向偏差的原因。但是如果這個假設(shè)，我們稱之為，呃，“右手假設(shè)”——是正確的，你會認為左手藝術(shù)家會發(fā)現(xiàn)畫右輪廓更容易。但研究表明，左撇子藝術(shù)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，畫左輪廓和畫右輪廓一樣容易…。那么…還有其他想法嗎<br>

嗯，另一種理論是所謂的父母印記假說……它提出人們更習(xí)慣于看到左撇子的側(cè)面，因為據(jù)說右撇子的父母更有可能把孩子抱在左臂上…

女生：；嗯，我妹妹剛生了個孩子，她一直在說她的左臂比右臂強壯得多…

男教授：好吧，有一些軼事證據(jù)。

女學(xué)生：那么當(dāng)嬰兒抬頭看著他們的父母時，他們看到的是左邊的輪廓。

男教授：對，所以理論是這樣的，左邊的臉會在我們的記憶中留下印記。

女學(xué)生：但是父母的印記假說并不能解釋為什么左輪廓會隨著時間的推移而減少。我的意思是，父母仍然用左臂抱著孩子，對嗎？

男教授：沒錯……好吧，藝術(shù)家工作室的組織方式如何，特別是光源？

請記住，光源決定陰影的位置。因此，如果你是一個右手藝術(shù)家，你會希望光線從你的左手射出……因為你不希望你的繪畫手在畫布上投射陰影。正當(dāng)如果光是從你的左邊來的，你會希望你的主體轉(zhuǎn)向他們的右邊，進入光中…。如果他們這樣做了，你會看到什么？

女學(xué)生：他們臉的左側(cè)。

男教授：沒錯。而且，進入二十世紀后，許多藝術(shù)家的主要光源都是太陽，他們建立工作室是為了最大限度地利用它……但是，當(dāng)其他高質(zhì)量、便攜的人造光源出現(xiàn)時，會發(fā)生什么呢？

女學(xué)生：嗯，你可以用更多不同的方式來定位你的主題，在你的主題和畫布上仍然有很好的照明。

男教授：那么…

女生：你希望看到左右側(cè)肖像的比例更加平衡。

三、preference in portrait painting 托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A. Techniques for creating lifelike portraits

B. Theories about a preference in portrait painting?

C. Reasons for a decline in the popularity of portrait painting

D. Ways researchers determine whether a painting is authentic

Q2:2.According to the professor, what change occurred in portrait paintings over time?

A. Portrait artists became more skilled at painting profiles.

B. Portrait artists began painting a greater variety of subjects.

C. The percentage of left profiles decreased.

D. A left profile became a symbol of the subject's social status.

Q3:3.What point does the professor emphasize by his discussion of the lithograph The Potato Eaters?

A. Profiles are more difficult to create than head-on portraits.

B. Some artists consider the direction of the profile a key element in a portrait.

C. Most group portraits include both left and right profiles.

D. The direction of a profile is usually determined by the characteristics of the subject.

Q4:4.According to the professor, what is the problem with the “right-handed” hypothesis?

A. Left-handed artists are equally comfortable painting left and right profiles.

B. Right hands tend to cover up facial features when painting left profiles.

C. Statistics show that right-handed artists tend to paint right profiles.

D. Left hands are less likely to cast shadows when painting right profiles.

Q5:5.What does the professor imply about the "studio organization" hypothesis?

A. It has been disproved by recent studies.

B. It accounts for an important change in portrait painting.

C. It is based on a study of a relatively small number of portraits.

D. It was first proposed by the owner of a modern-day portrait studio.

Q6:6.Why does the student say this:

A. To explain why he prefers to paint left profiles

B. To point out a difference between adult portraits and baby portraits

C. To point out a fact that contradicts the "parental imprinting" hypothesis

D. To provide support for the "parental imprinting” hypothesis

四、preference in portrait painting 托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：B

A2:正確答案：C

A3:正確答案：B

A4:正確答案：A

A5:正確答案：B

A6:正確答案：D

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