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剑桥雅思11Test2阅读原文READING PASSAGE 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
Raising the Mary Rose
How a sixteenth-century warship was recovered from the seabed
On 19 July 1545, English and French fleets were engaged in a sea battle off the coast of southern England in the area of water called the Solent, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Among the English vessels was a warship by the name of Mary Rose. Built in Portsmouth some 35 years earlier, she had had a long and successful fighting career, and was a favourite of King Henry VIII. Accounts of what happened to the ship vary: while witnesses agree that she was not hit by the French, some maintain that she was outdated, overladen and sailing too low in the water, others that she was mishandled by undisciplined crew. What is undisputed, however, is that the Mary Rose sank into the Solent that day, taking at least 500 men with her. After the battle, attempts were made to recover the ship, but these failed.
The Mary Rose came to rest on the seabed, lying on her starboard (right) side at an angle of approximately 60 degrees. The hull (the body of the ship) acted as a trap for the sand and mud carried by Solent currents. As a result, the starboard side filled rapidly, leaving the exposed port (left) side to be eroded by marine organisms and mechanical degradation. Because of the way the ship sank, nearly all of the starboard half survived intact. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the entire site became covered with a layer of hard grey clay, which minimised further erosion.
Then, on 16 June 1836, some fishermen in the Solent found that their equipment was caught on an underwater obstruction, which turned out to be the Mary Rose. Diver John Deane happened to be exploring another sunken ship nearby, and the fishermen approached him, asking him to free their gear. Deane dived down, and found the equipment caught on a timber protruding slightly from the seabed. Exploring further, he uncovered several other timbers and a bronze gun. Deane continued diving on the site intermittently until 1840, recovering several more guns, two bows, various timbers, part of a pump and various other small finds.
The Mary Rose then faded into obscurity for another hundred years. But in 1965, military historian and amateur diver Alexander McKee, in conjunction with the British Sub-Aqua Club, initiated a project called ‘Solent Ships’. While on paper this was a plan to examine a number of known wrecks in the Solent, what McKee really hoped for was to find the Mary Rose. Ordinary search techniques proved unsatisfactory, so McKee entered into collaboration with Harold E. Edgerton, professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1967, Edgerton’s side-scan sonar systems revealed a large, unusually shaped object, which McKee believed was the Mary Rose.
Further excavations revealed stray pieces of timber and an iron gun. But the climax to the operation came when, on 5 May 1971, part of the ship’s frame was uncovered. McKee and his team now knew for certain that they had found the wreck, but were as yet unaware that it also housed a treasure trove of beautifully preserved artefacts. Interest in the project grew, and in 1979, The Mary Rose Trust was formed, with Prince Charles as its President and Dr Margaret Rule its Archaeological Director. The decision whether or not to salvage the wreck was not an easy one, although an excavation in 1978 had shown that it might be possible to raise the hull. While the original aim was to raise the hull if at all feasible, the operation was not given the go-ahead until January 1982, when all the necessary information was available.
An important factor in trying to salvage the Mary Rose was that the remaining hull was an open shell. This led to an important decision being taken: namely to carry out the lifting operation in three very distinct stages. The hull was attached to a lifting frame via a network of bolts and lifting wires. The problem of the hull being sucked back downwards into the mud was overcome by using 12 hydraulic jacks. These raised it a few centimetres over a period of several days, as the lifting frame rose slowly up its four legs. It was only when the hull was hanging freely from the lifting frame, clear of the seabed and the suction effect of the surrounding mud, that the salvage operation progressed to the second stage. In this stage, the lifting frame was fixed to a hook attached to a crane, and the hull was lifted completely clear of the seabed and transferred underwater into the lifting cradle. This required precise positioning to locate the legs into the ‘stabbing guides’ of the lifting cradle. The lifting cradle was designed to fit the hull using archaeological survey drawings, and was fitted with air bags to provide additional cushioning for the hull’s delicate timber framework. The third and final stage was to lift the entire structure into the air, by which time the hull was also supported from below. Finally, on 11 October 1982, millions of people around the world held their breath as the timber skeleton of the Mary Rose was lifted clear of the water, ready to be returned home to Portsmouth.
Questions 1-4
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1 There is some doubt about what caused the Mary Rose to sink.
2 The Mary Rose was the only ship to sink in the battle of 19 July 1545.
3 Most of one side of the Mary Rose lay undamaged under the sea.
4 Alexander McKee knew that the wreck would contain many valuable historical objects.
Questions 5-8
Look at the following statements (Questions 5-8) and the list of dates below.
Match each statement with the correct date, A-G.
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 5-8 on your answer sheet.
5 A search for the Mary Rose was launched.
6 One person’s exploration of the Mary Rose site stopped.
7 It was agreed that the hull of the Mary Rose should be raised.
8 The site of the Mary Rose was found by chance.
List of Dates
A 1836 E 1971
B 1840 F 1979
C 1965 G 1982
D 1967
Questions 9-13
Label the diagram below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.
Raising the hull of the Mary Rose: Stages one and two
剑桥雅思11Test2阅读原文READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26, which are based on Reading Passage 2 on the following pages.
Questions 14-20
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.
Write the correct number, i-ix, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.
List of Headings
i Evidence of innovative environment management practices
ii An undisputed answer to a question about the moai
iii The future of the moai statues
iv A theory which supports a local belief
v The future of Easter Island
vi Two opposing views about the Rapanui people
vii Destruction outside the inhabitants’ control
viii How the statues made a situation worse
ix Diminishing food resources
14 Paragraph A
15 Paragraph B
16 Paragraph C
17 Paragraph D
18 Paragraph E
19 Paragraph F
20 Paragraph G
What destroyed the civilisation of Easter Island?
A Easter Island, or Rapu Nui as it is known locally, is home to several hundred ancient human statues ?— the moai. After this remote Pacific island was settled by the Polynesians, it remained isolated for centuries. All the energy and resources that went into the moai — some of which are ten metres tall and weigh over 7,000 kilos — came from the island itself. Yet when Dutch explorers landed in 1722, they met a Stone Age culture. The moai were carved with stone tools, then transported for many kilometres, without the use of animals or wheels, to massive stone platforms. The identity of the moai builders was in doubt until well into the twentieth century. Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, thought the statues had been created by pre-lnca peoples from Peru. Bestselling Swiss author Erich von Daniken believed they were built by stranded extraterrestrials. Modern science — linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence — has definitively proved the moai builders were Polynesians, but not how they moved their creations. Local folklore maintains that the statues walked, while researchers have tended to assume the ancestors dragged the statues somehow, using ropes and logs.
B When the Europeans arrived, Rapa Nui was grassland, with only a few scrawny trees. In the 1970s and 1980s, though, researchers found pollen preserved in lake sediments, which proved the island had been covered in lush palm forests for thousands of years. Only after the Polynesians arrived did those forests disappear. US scientist Jared Diamond believes that the Rapanui people — descendants of Polynesian settlers — wrecked their own environment. They had unfortunately settled on an extremely fragile island — dry, cool, and too remote to be properly fertilised by windblown volcanic ash. When the islanders cleared the forests for firewood and farming, the forests didn’t grow back. As trees became scarce and they could no longer construct wooden canoes for fishing, they ate birds. Soil erosion decreased their crop yields. Before Europeans arrived, the Rapanui had descended into civil war and cannibalism, he maintains. The collapse of their isolated civilisation, Diamond writes, is a ‘worst-case scenario for what may lie ahead of us in our own future’.
C The moai, he thinks, accelerated the self-destruction. Diamond interprets them as power displays by rival chieftains who, trapped on a remote little island, lacked other ways of asserting their dominance. They competed by building ever bigger figures. Diamond thinks they laid the moai on wooden sledges, hauled over log rails, but that required both a lot of wood and a lot of people. To feed the people, even more land had to be cleared. When the wood was gone and civil war began, the islanders began toppling the moai. By the nineteenth century none were standing.
D Archaeologists Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo of California State University agree that Easter Island lost its lush forests and that it was an ‘ecological catastrophe’ — but they believe the islanders themselves weren’t to blame. And the moai certainly weren’t. Archaeological excavations indicate that the Rapanui went to heroic efforts to protect the resources of their wind-lashed, infertile fields. They built thousands of circular stone windbreaks and gardened inside them, and used broken volcanic rocks to keep the soil moist. In short, Hunt and Lipo argue, the prehistoric Rapanui were pioneers of sustainable farming.
E Hunt and Lipo contend that moai-building was an activity that helped keep the peace between islanders. They also believe that moving the moai required few people and no wood, because they were walked upright. On that issue, Hunt and Lipo say, archaeological evidence backs up Rapanui folklore. Recent experiments indicate that as few as 18 people could, with three strong ropes and a bit of practice, easily manoeuvre a 1,000 kg moai replica a few hundred metres. The figures’ fat bellies tilted them forward, and a D-shaped base allowed handlers to roll and rock them side to side.
F Moreover, Hunt and Lipo are convinced that the settlers were not wholly responsible for the loss of the island’s trees. Archaeological finds of nuts from the extinct Easter Island palm show tiny grooves, made by the teeth of Polynesian rats. The rats arrived along with the settlers, and in just a few years, Hunt and Lipo calculate, they would have overrun the island. They would have prevented the reseeding of the slow-growing palm trees and thereby doomed Rapa Nui’s forest, even without the settlers’ campaign of deforestation. No doubt the rats ate birds’ eggs too. Hunt and Lipo also see no evidence that Rapanui civilisation collapsed when the palm forest did. They think its population grew rapidly and then remained more or less stable until the arrival of the Europeans, who introduced deadly diseases to which islanders had no immunity. Then in the nineteenth century slave traders decimated the population, which shrivelled to 111 people by 1877.
G Hunt and Lipo’s vision, therefore, is one of an island populated by peaceful and ingenious moai builders and careful stewards of the land, rather than by reckless destroyers ruining their own environment and society. ‘Rather than a case of abject failure, Rapu Nui is an unlikely story of success’, they claim. Whichever is the case, there are surely some valuable lessons which the world at large can learn from the story of Rapa Nui.
Questions 21-24
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 21-24 on your answer sheet.
Jared Diamond’s View
Diamond believes that the Polynesian settlers on Rapa Nui destroyed its forests, cutting down its trees for fuel and clearing land for 21 __________. Twentieth-century discoveries of pollen prove that Rapu Nui had once been covered in palm forests, which had turned into grassland by the time the Europeans arrived on the island. When the islanders were no longer able to build the 22 __________ they needed to go fishing, they began using the island’s 23 __________ as a food source, according to Diamond. Diamond also claims that the moai were built to show the power of the island’s chieftains, and that the methods of transporting the statues needed not only a great number of people, but also a great deal of 24 __________.
Questions 25 and 26
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.
On what points do Hunt and Lipo disagree with Diamond?
A the period when the moai were created
B how the moai were transported
C the impact of the moai on Rapanui society
D how the moai were carved
E the origins of the people who made the moai
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on 剑 桥雅思11Test2阅读原文Reading Passage 3 below.
Neuroaesthetics
An emerging discipline called neuroaesthetics is seeking to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art, and has already given us a better understanding of many masterpieces. The blurred imagery of Impressionist paintings seems to stimulate the brain’s amygdala, for instance. Since the amygdala plays a crucial role in our feelings, that finding might explain why many people find these pieces so moving.
Could the same approach also shed light on abstract twentieth-century pieces, from Mondrian’s geometrical blocks of colour, to Pollock’s seemingly haphazard arrangements of splashed paint on canvas? Sceptics believe that people claim to like such works simply because they are famous. We certainly do have an inclination to follow the crowd. When asked to make simple perceptual decisions such as matching a shape to its rotated image, for example, people often choose a definitively wrong answer if they see others doing the same. It is easy to imagine that this mentality would have even more impact on a fuzzy concept like art appreciation, where there is no right or wrong answer.
Angelina Hawley-Dolan, of Boston College, Massachusetts, responded to this debate by asking volunteers to view pairs of paintings — either the creations of famous abstract artists or the doodles of infants, chimps and elephants. They then had to judge which they preferred. A third of the paintings were given no captions, while many were labelled incorrectly — volunteers might think they were viewing a chimp’s messy brushstrokes when they were actually seeing an acclaimed masterpiece. In each set of trials, volunteers generally preferred the work of renowned artists, even when they believed it was by an animal or a child. It seems that the viewer can sense the artist’s vision in paintings, even if they can’t explain why.
Robert Pepperell, an artist based at Cardiff University, creates ambiguous works that are neither entirely abstract nor clearly representational. In one study, Pepperell and his collaborators asked volunteers to decide how ‘powerful’ they considered an artwork to be, and whether they saw anything familiar in the piece. The longer they took to answer these questions, the more highly they rated the piece under scrutiny, and the greater their neural activity. It would seem that the brain sees these images as puzzles, and the harder it is to decipher the meaning, the more rewarding is the moment of recognition.
And what about artists such as Mondrian, whose paintings consist exclusively of horizontal and vertical lines encasing blocks of colour? Mondrian’s works are deceptively simple, but eye-tracking studies confirm that they are meticulously composed, and that simply rotating a piece radically changes the way we view it. With the originals, volunteers’ eyes tended to stay longer on certain places in the image, but with the altered versions they would flit across a piece more rapidly. As a result, the volunteers considered the altered versions less pleasurable when they later rated the work.
In a similar study, Oshin Vartanian of Toronto University asked volunteers to compare original paintings with ones which he had altered by moving objects around within the frame. He found that almost everyone preferred the original, whether it was a Van Gogh still life or an abstract by Miro. Vartanian also found that changing the composition of the paintings reduced activation in those brain areas linked with meaning and interpretation.
In another experiment, Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool analysed the visual intricacy of different pieces of art, and her results suggest that many artists use a key level of detail to please the brain. Too little and the work is boring, but too much results in a kind of ‘perceptual overload’; according to Forsythe. What’s more, appealing pieces both abstract and representational, show signs of ‘fractals’ — repeated motifs recurring in different scales. Fractals are common throughout nature, for example in the shapes of mountain peaks or the branches of trees. It is possible that our visual system, which evolved in the great outdoors, finds it easier to process such patterns.
It is also intriguing that the brain appears to process movement when we see a handwritten letter, as if we are replaying the writer’s moment of creation. This has led some to wonder whether Pollock’s works feel so dynamic because the brain reconstructs the energetic actions the artist used as he painted. This may be down to our brain’s ‘mirror neurons’, which are known to mimic others’ actions. The hypothesis will need to be thoroughly tested, however. It might even be the case that we could use neuroaesthetic studies to understand the longevity of some pieces of artwork. While the fashions of the time might shape what is currently popular, works that are best adapted to our visual system may be the most likely to linger once the trends of previous generations have been forgotten.
It’s still early days for the field of neuroaesthetics — and these studies are probably only a taste of what is to come. It would, however, be foolish to reduce art appreciation to a set of scientific laws. We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of the style of a particular artist, their place in history and the artistic environment of their time. Abstract art offers both a challenge and the freedom to play with different interpretations. In some ways, it’s not so different to science, where we are constantly looking for systems and decoding meaning so that we can view and appreciate the world in a new way.
Questions 27-30
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 27-30 on your answer sheet.
27 In the second paragraph, the writer refers to a shape-matching test in order to illustrate
A the subjective nature of art appreciation.
B the reliance of modern art on abstract forms.
C our tendency to be influenced by the opinions of others.
D a common problem encountered when processing visual data.
28 Angelina Hawley-Dolan’s findings indicate that people
A mostly favour works of art which they know well.
B hold fixed ideas about what makes a good work of art.
C are often misled by their initial expectations of a work of art.
D have the ability to perceive the intention behind works of art.
29 Results of studies involving Robert Pepperell’s pieces suggest that people
A can appreciate a painting without fully understanding it.
B find it satisfying to work out what a painting represents.
C vary widely in the time they spend looking at paintings.
D generally prefer representational art to abstract art.
30 What do the experiments described in the fifth paragraph suggest about the paintings of Mondrian?
A They are more carefully put together than they appear.
B They can be interpreted in a number of different ways.
C They challenge our assumptions about shape and colour.
D They are easier to appreciate than many other abstract works.
Questions 31-33
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.
Write the correct letters, A-H, in boxes 31-33 on your answer sheet.
Art and the Brain
The discipline of neuroaesthetics aims to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art. Neurological studies of the brain, for example, demonstrate the impact which Impressionist paintings have on our 31 __________. Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool believes many artists give their works the precise degree of 32 __________ which most appeals to the viewer’s brain. She also observes that pleasing works of art often contain certain repeated 33 __________ which occur frequently in the natural world.
A interpretation B complexity C emotions
D movements E skill F layout
G concern H images
Questions 34-39
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 34-39 on your answer sheet, write
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
34 Forsythe’s findings contradicted previous beliefs on the function of ‘fractals’ in art.
35 Certain ideas regarding the link between ‘mirror neurons’ and art appreciation require further verification.
36 People’s taste in paintings depends entirely on the current artistic trends of the period.
37 Scientists should seek to define the precise rules which govern people’s reactions to works of art.
38 Art appreciation should always involve taking into consideration the cultural context in which an artist worked.
39 It is easier to find meaning in the field of science than in that of art.
Question 40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in box 40 on your answer sheet.
40 What would be the most appropriate subtitle for the article?
A Some scientific insights into how the brain responds to abstract art
B Recent studies focusing on the neural activity of abstract artists
C A comparison of the neurological bases of abstract and representational art
D How brain research has altered public opinion about abstract art
剑桥雅思11Test2阅读参考译文PASSAGE 1
打捞玛丽玫瑰号船
记一艘16世纪的战舰是如何从海底被打捞的
索伦特水域地处英国南部海岸，位于朴茨茅斯和怀特岛之间，1545年7月19日，英国与法国舰队在这里展开了一场海战。英国舰队中的一艘战舰名为玛丽玫瑰号。战舰于35年前在朴茨茅斯建造，她拥有长久而胜利的战斗历程，并且是国王亨利八世最喜爱的战舰。关于战舰上发生的事情说法各异：目击者认为战舰并非被法国人击中，有些人认为她过于老化，载重过多，并且在水中航行过低，另一些人认为战舰被不守纪律的船员进行了不当操作。然而无可争议的是，玛丽玫瑰号在那一天沉入索伦特海峡，船上至少有500人。战后人们试图找到这艘船，但均未成功。
玛丽玫瑰号靠在海底，以大约60度的角度倒向其右舷一侧。索伦特洋流带来的沙土和淤泥进入船体。因此，右舷一侧很快被填满，留下左侧经受海洋生物和机械降解的侵蚀。由于船只沉没的方式，右舷一侧几乎完整地保留了下来。在17和18世纪，整片区域被一层坚硬的灰色粘土覆盖，这使进一步的侵蚀降到最低。
然后，在1836年6月16日，索伦特海湾的一些渔民发现他们的设备被海底的某个障碍物卡住，而这正是玛丽玫瑰号。潜水员John Deane恰好正在探索附近的另一艘沉没船只，渔民靠近他，请他帮助松开齿轮。Deane下潜后发现设备被海底一个木制的轻微突出物体卡住。继续探査后，他发现了更多的木料以及一把铜制枪支。Deane断断续续地继续潜入这个地点直至1840年，他发现了更多的枪支、两把弓、各种各样的木制品、一只水泵的部件，以及各种各样的其他零碎物品。
玛丽玫瑰号随后又销声匿迹几百年。但是在1965年，军事史学家、业余潜水员Alexander McKee和英国潜水俱乐部，联合发起了一项名为“索伦特海峡的船只”的项目。在名义上这是一项研究很多索伦特海峡已知沉船的计划，而McKee真正希望的是找到玛丽玫瑰号。常规的搜索技术被证明无法令人满意，因此McKee开始同麻省理工学院的电子工程学教授Harold E. Edgerton合作。1967年，Edgerton的侧向扫描声纳系统展示出一个巨大的、形态独特的物体，McKee相信这就是玛丽玫瑰号。
进一步的发掘工作找到了散落的木头碎片以及一把铜制枪支。但是这个项目的高潮在1971年5月5 曰来到，船只结构框架的一部分被找到。McKee及其团队确信他们找到了沉船，但尚未意识到其中还有保存完好的精美工艺品宝藏。公众对这个项目的兴趣在増加，1979年，玛丽玫瑰号信托基金成立，Charles王子担任主席，Margaret Rule博士担任考古负责人。尽管1978年的发掘工作已经显示可能能够打捞起整个船体，而做出是否打捞船只的决定却并非易事。尽管最初的目标是在一切可行的情况下打捞起整个船体，但这一操作直1982年1月所有需要的信息都完备的时候才被允许执行。
试图打捞起玛丽玫瑰号要考虑的一个重要因素在于残留的船体是一个打开的外壳。这导致了一项重要的決定：即在三个非常重要的阶段进行起重操作。船体通过一系列螺栓和起吊索贴紧起吊架。通过使用12台液压起重机解决了船体被向下吸回到泥土中的问题。随着起吊架緩慢地升起它的四个支脚，船体在几天的时间里升起了几厘米。只有当船体完全悬挂在起吊架上，不受海底和周围泥土的吸力影响时，救援作业才进入到了第二个阶段。在这一阶段，起吊架被固定在一个绑在起重机上的挂钩上，船体被升起，完全脱离海底并在水下被转移至升降篮中。这要求精准的定位来将支脚固定在升降篮的“对扣引导”上。使用考古勘测绘图来设计升降篮与船体匹配，并且匹配气囊来为船体脆弱的木质框架提供额外的缓冲。第三个也是最后一个阶段是将整个船体升起到空中，同时船体从下方得到支撑。最终，在1982年10月11日，全世界数百万人屏吸见证玛丽玫瑰号的木质骨架升离水面，等待回到朴茨茅斯。
TEST 2 PASSAGE 2 参考译文：
什么破坏了复活节岛的文明?
A 复活节岛，在当地被称为拉帕努伊(Rapu Nui)，是几百个远古人类雕像(摩艾像)的故乡。波利尼西亚人(Polynesians)在这个遥远的太平洋岛屿定居之后，在几个世纪里复活节岛都与世隔绝。一些摩艾像高达十米，重量超过7000公斤，它们所需的所有能源和资源都来自岛屿自身。当荷兰探险家在1722年登陆时，他们见到了石器时代文化。摩艾像由石器工具雕刻而成，之后在没有使用动物或车辆的情況下长途运送，到巨大的石台上。摩艾像建造者的身份直到20世纪才确定。 来自挪威的民族志学者以及探险家Thor Heyerdahl认为，雕像由秘鲁的前印加时代的人们建立。瑞士畅销作家Erich von Daniken认为它们由滞留的外星人建立。现代科学(语言学、考古学和遗传学证据)确切地证明了摩艾像的建造者为波利尼西亚人，但并不清楚他们如何移动自己的创作品。当地传说认为雕像可以行走，而研究者往往认为当地祖先使用了某些方式拖拽雕像，如使用绳索或原木。
B 当欧洲人抵达时，拉帕努伊是一片草原，只有很少的小树木。但是在20世纪70年代和80年代，研究者们在湖泊沉积物中发现了花粉，证明岛屿曾被郁郁葱葱的棕榈树林覆盖了几千年。只是在波利尼西亚人到来之后这些树林才消失。美国科学家Jared Diamond认为是拉帕努伊人(波利尼西亚定居者的后代)破坏了他们自己的环境。他们不幸地定居在了一座板度脆弱的岛屿——干燥，寒冷，太遥远以至于无法得到风吹来的火山灰而变得丰饶。当岛上居民为了木柴和农耕清除了树林，森林便不再生长。随着树木的减少，他们不再能够建造独木舟来捕鱼，转而以鸟类为食。水土流失降低了他们的作物产量。他说，在欧洲人来到之前，拉帕努伊沦落到了内战和自相残杀的地步。他写到，他们文明的坍塌，是一种“在我们自己的未来，可能出现在我们面前的最坏情況”。
C 他认为摩艾像加速了当地的自我毁灭。Diamond将其解释为一种竞争的首领之间的力量展示，他们被困在遥远的小岛上，没有其他方式来巩固自己的統治。因此他们通过建造越来越大的人像来竞争。Diamond认为他们将摩艾像放在木质雪橇上，在木轨上拉动，但这需要大量的木头和人力。为了供养他们，需要清理掉更多的土地。当木头用光，内战开始，岛上居民开始推翻摩艾像。到19世纪已经没有摩艾像屹立在那里了。
D 夏威夷大学的考古学家Terry Hunt和加州州立大学的Carl Lipo认为复活节岛失去了茂盛的树林是一种“生态灾难”——但他们认为岛上的居民本身不应该受到指责。摩艾像当然也不应该受到指责。考古发掘表明拉帕努伊人做出了巨大的努力去保护他们受狂风席卷且并不肥沃的土地。他们建造了上千的环形石头防风林，在其中栽培花木，并使用破碎的火山岩保持土壤湿润。简言之，Hunt和 Lipo认为，史前的拉帕努伊人是可持续农业的先行者。
E Hunt和Lipo认为摩艾像的建立是一项有助于维持岛上居民间和平的活动。他们同样认为移动摩艾像并不需要多少人力，也不需要木头，因为它们可以直立移动。Hunt和Lipo说，在这个问题上，考古学证据支持拉帕努伊的民间说法。最近的实验表明，三条结实的绳子再加上一些练习，仅仅18个人就能够轻松地控制一座1000公斤的摩艾像复制品移动几百米。人像较大的腹部使它们向前倾斜，D字形的底部使操作人员可以把它们从一侧滚向另一侧。
F 此外，Hunt和Lipo相信树木破坏并非完全由岛上居民所致。考古学研究发现在已经灭绝的复活节岛的棕榈树上的坚果显示出微小的凹槽，这是波利尼西亚鼠的牙齿造成的。Hunt和Lipo估计鼠类同定居者一同到达这里，在短短几年间，它们就覆盖了整座岛屿。也许是它们阻止了缓慢生长的棕榈树林的再次播种，因而甚至在没有居民进行森林砍伐的情况下，注定了拉帕努伊森林的毁灭。毫无疑问老鼠也会以鸟类的蛋为食。Hunt和Lipo同样发现没有证据表明拉帕努伊文明在棕榈树林消失时坍塌。他们认为在欧洲人到来之前，岛上人口在快速増加之后保持了或多或少的稳定，欧洲人带来了致命的疾病，而岛上居民对这些疾病并不具备免疫能力。之后19世纪贩奴商大量杀害岛民，到1877年人口仅剩111人。
G 因此，以Hunt和Lipo的观点来看，这个岛屿上居住着和平的有独创性的摩艾像建造者们以及小心翼翼的土地维护者，而不是不计后果毁掉自己的环境与社会的破坏者。他们认为“拉帕努伊是一个不太可能的成功故事，而非一个不幸的失败事件”。不论事实如何，必然存在一些整个世界可以从拉帕努伊的故事上学到的宝贵经验。
剑桥雅思11Test2阅读参考译文PASSAGE 3：
神经美学
一种称为神经美学的新兴学科正试图将科学的客观性引入艺术研究，并且已经带给我们对很多名作更好的理解。例如，印象派绘画模糊的图像似乎可以刺激大脑杏仁核。由于杏仁核对我们的感觉有至关重要的作用，这一发现或许可以解释为什么很多人认为这些画如此生动。
同样的方法也可以用于阐释抽象的20世纪作品么?从蒙德里安的几何色块，到波洛克看上去似乎随意泼在画布上的色彩?怀疑论者相信人们声称喜欢这些作品仅仅是因为它们非常有名。我们确实有从众的倾向。例如，当被要求做出简单的知觉判断比如给旋转的图像匹配形状，如果人们看到他人做出同样的行为，他们经常会选择错误的答案。很容易想象这种心态对模糊概念会有更多影响，例如艺术鉴赏，在这方面没有正确或错误答案之分。
马萨诸塞州波士顿学院的Angelina Hawley-Dolan回应这一争论的方式是让志愿者们观察一些作品——著名抽象派画家的作品或是婴儿、猩猩或大象的涂鸦。他们需要判断更喜欢哪一种。有三分之一的作品没有给出图片说明，而很多是被错误标注的——当志愿者看到一幅受人赞扬的名画时，他们可能认为自己正在观看黑猩猩杂乱无章的绘画。在每一组试验中，志愿者往往更喜欢著名艺术家的作品，即使他们认为这是由动物或儿童完成的。似乎观察者能够感觉到艺术家在作品中的意义，即使他们无法解释为什么。
卡迪夫大学的艺术家Robert Pepperell创作了模棱两可的作品，它们既不是完全抽象的，也不是清晰具象的。在一项研究中，Pepperell和他的同事要求志愿者判断他们认为一幅作品是多么“有力”，以及他们是否在作品中看到了任何熟悉的事物。他们用来回答问题的时间越久，经过观察后给出的分数越高，并且他们的神经活动越活跃。这或许意味着大脑将这些图像看做谜题，破解其含义的过程越困难，识别的时候就会有更多收获感。
那么像蒙德里安这样的艺术家呢?他的作品完全由水平的和垂直的线条将彩色的色块包含其中。蒙德里安的作品使人误以为非常简单，但是眼球追踪研究证明这些作品被细致地创作，并且仅仅旋转图画就会彻底改变我们欣赏它的方式。对于原作，志愿者的眼睛往往在图画的特定地点停留较长时间，但是对于改动过的版本他们会更快地掠过。因此，当志愿者们随后对作品进行评分吋，他们认为改动过的版本不那么令人愉快。
在一项类似的研究中，多伦多大学的Oshin Vartanian要求志愿者比较原作和在作品框架内移动物体后的作品。他发现几乎每个人都更喜欢原作，无论它是梵高的静物作品还是米罗的抽象派作品。Vartanian同样发现改变绘画的构成方式会降低那些与意义和理解有关的大脑区域的激活。
在另一项实验中，利物浦大学的Alex Forsythe研究了不同艺术作品的视觉复杂性，她的研究结果表明很多艺术家使用关键的细节来令大脑愉悦。根据Forsythe的观点，细节太少，作品会过于乏味，而细节太多会导致一种“知觉超载”。此外，吸引人的作品，无论抽象或具象，都表现出“分形”的迹象——重复的图形以不同的比例重现。分形在自然中非常普遍，例如在山峰或是树枝的形状中。可能我们在户外进化的视觉系统发现处理这类模式更为简单。
同样有趣的是当我们看一封手写的信件时，大脑会对动作进行加工，就像我们在重放作者的创作过程。这使得一些人猜想是否波洛克的作品令人感觉如此生动是因为大脑重建了作者绘画时使用的生动动作。这可能是由于我们大脑的“镜像神经元”，它们会模仿他人的动作。然而，这一假设需要被彻底地验证。或许我们甚至可以使用神经美学研究来理解一些艺术作品的经久不衰。一时的时尚可能会造就当今流行什么，一旦之前的流行趋势被忘记，最适应我们视觉系统的作品或许最有可能被留下。
神经美学领域依然处于初期阶段——这些研究或许仅仅是一种尝试。然而，将美学鉴赏简化为一系列科学法则是不明智的。我们不应该低估某类特定艺术家的风格、历史地位及其所处时代的艺术环境的重要性。抽象派艺术对不同的诠释方式提供了挑战与自由。通过某些方式，艺术与科学不会如此之不同，在科学领域中，我们一直在寻找系统并解码其含义，这样我们可以以一种新的方式观察和欣赏这个世界
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