Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力原文：

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

MALE PROFESSOR:OK,so when we were discussing Gainsborough's painting The Blue Boy,which he painted in 1770,I mentioned the story that the painting might’ve been an experiment…the result of a challenge—it was believed that blue couldn't be an important color in a painting—because,well,it tends to recede into the background.Not good for your main subject,right?

So,to show otherwise,Gainsborough created The Blue Boy,with the boy featured,large,in his famous blue clothes and,well,I guess he proved his point.

But,there was another challenge to blue—it was very,very expensive back then.Now,of course,because of modern chemistry,any color is available in tubes at any art supply store.But in the eighteenth century and before,it wasn’t so easy.

And blue…well,the color ultramarine—the most desired shade of blue—was made from the precious stone lapis lazuli,which had to be imported all the way from Afghanistan.

And the second-most favored shade of blue…after ultramarine made from lapis lazuli…was a shade of blue that came from another precious stone,azurite.

But azurite was,well,harder to work with.There is evidence that artists would try to get around these difficulties—for example,use pigment from lapis lazuli or azurite very sparingly and also use something cheaper,like smalt,which was made of ground glass.Thing is,smalt became discolored over time.So,many artists probably just avoided blues altogether,rather than use something cheap and impermanent.

So,blue,and especially ultramarine pigment,was a luxury,a status symbol—worth even more than gold at times—and you even had the wealthy ordering paintings with ultramarine to show others that they could afford something made from this precious pigment,much in the same way they’d order gold leaf.

Actually,the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue—the first synthetic pigment,in fact,if you can believe that!They passed the formula on to the Greeks and Romans,but then it was lost….

Anyway,not only was lapis lazuli hard to get,it was also hard to process.The recipe was difficult;the stone had to be ground finely—not easy to do with a rock!—then mixed with melted wax,resins,and oils,wrapped in a cloth and kneaded,like bread dough.The fine particles of ultramarine were then separated from the rest….The process was time-consuming,which also contributed to the high cost of producing ultramarine,and it didn’t even yield very much usable pigment.

As a result,the French government sponsored a competition in 1824 to find a cheaper way to make ultramarine pigment.And soon after,a process was demonstrated where a combination of coal,sulphur,and other cheap,commonplace substances were heated,creating a suitable synthetic substitute for lapis lazuli.So there’s no doubt that nineteenth-century artists,after good synthetic versions were available,used more ultramarine.Think of the Impressionists,for example.…They had a lot more choices—or at least less expensive choices—than painters not that long before them….

二、Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：在藝術史課上聽一部分講座。

男教授：好吧，當我們討論蓋恩斯伯勒1770年畫的《藍色男孩》時，我提到了這個故事，這幅畫可能是一個實驗……一個挑戰(zhàn)的結果，人們認為藍色不可能是繪畫中的一種重要顏色，因為它往往會退到背景中。對你的主題不好，對吧？

所以，為了展示另一種情況，蓋恩斯伯勒創(chuàng)造了藍色男孩，這個男孩身材高大，穿著著名的藍色衣服，我想他證明了他的觀點。

但是，藍色還有另一個挑戰(zhàn)，那是非常非常昂貴的。當然，現(xiàn)在，由于現(xiàn)代化學，任何一種顏色都可以在任何藝術用品商店買到。但在18世紀及之前，這并不容易。

藍色…嗯，最受歡迎的藍色是由寶石天青石制成的，必須從阿富汗一路進口。

第二種最受歡迎的藍色是來自另一種寶石藍銅礦的藍色。

但藍銅礦更難處理。有證據(jù)表明，藝術家們會嘗試繞過這些困難，例如，非常節(jié)省地使用天青石或藍銅礦的顏料，也會使用更便宜的東西，比如用磨砂玻璃制成的smalt。事情是，斯馬特隨著時間的推移變得變色了。因此，許多藝術家可能只是完全避免了藍調，而不是使用廉價和短暫的東西。

因此，藍色，尤其是群青顏料，是一種奢侈品，一種地位象征，有時甚至比黃金更值錢。你甚至讓有錢人訂購群青顏料畫，向其他人展示他們可以買得起這種珍貴顏料制成的東西，就像他們訂購金葉一樣。

事實上，如果你相信的話，古埃及人確實成功地制造出了人造藍色——第一種合成色素！他們把這個公式傳給了希臘人和羅馬人，但后來它丟失了…。

無論如何，天青石不僅很難得到，而且很難加工。食譜很難；這塊石頭必須磨成細細的，用石頭是不容易的-然后與熔化的蠟、樹脂和油混合，用布包裹，然后像面包面團一樣揉搓。然后將群青的細顆粒與其余部分分離…。這一過程非常耗時，這也導致了生產群青的高成本，而且它甚至不能產生非常有用的顏料。

因此，法國政府在1824年發(fā)起了一場競賽，尋找一種更便宜的方法來制造群青顏料。不久之后，一種將煤、硫和其他廉價、普通物質結合起來加熱的工藝被證明，創(chuàng)造了一種適合的合成天青石替代品。因此，毫無疑問，19世紀的藝術家，在有了好的合成版本后，使用了更多的群青。例如，想想印象派。…他們比之前不久的畫家有更多的選擇，或者至少是更便宜的選擇…。

三、Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the lecture mainly about?

A.The economic factors that made lapis lazuli expensive

B.The types of paintings in which the color blue is popular

C.Early processes for making blue pigments from stones

D.Difficulties using the color blue in early paintings

Q2:2.What was Gainsborough's goal when he painted The Blue Boy?

A.To find an acceptable alternative to ultramarine pigment

B.To demonstrate that blue should be used only in certain paintings

C.To contradict a common belief about the use of blue in a painting

D.To protest the high costs of painting with most blue pigments

Q3:3.What does the professor imply about smalt as a substitute for lapis lazuli?

A.It eventually became as expensive as lapis lazuli.

B.It was used frequently throughout the nineteenth century.

C.It was not of an acceptable quality for many artists.

D.It was seen as a better substitute for lapis lazuli than azurite was.

Q4:4.What two points does the professor make about the process of turning lapis lazuli into ultramarine?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.It took a lot of time.

B.It required expensive tools.

C.It did not produce much pigment.

D.It was perfected by the French.

Q5:5.Why does the professor mention the French government?

A.To indicate who sponsored the digging of additional lapis lazuli mines

B.To emphasize the importance of developing an affordable blue pigment

C.To point out that artists were not permitted to use certain stones to make pigments

D.To question the government's use of public funds to support the arts

Q6:6.What does the professor imply when he says this:(PROFESSOR)Actually,the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue—the first synthetic pigment,in fact,if you can believe that!

A.He is not convinced the Egyptians made the first synthetic pigment

B.He is impressed by the Egyptians’accomplishment.

C.The process the Egyptians used is now widely known.

D.The Egyptian pigment was of lower quality than today's pigments.

四、Precious Blue Pigment托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：D

A2:正確答案：C

A3:正確答案：C

A4:正確答案：AC

A5:正確答案：B

A6:正確答案：B

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