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The end of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century were marked by the development of an international Art Nouveau style, characterized by sinuous lines, floral and vegetable motifs, and soft evanescent coloration. The Art Nouveau style was an eclectic one, bringing together elements of Japanese art, motifs of ancient cultures, and natural forms. The glass objects of this style were elegant in outline, although often deliberately distorted, with pale or iridescent surfaces. A favored device of the style was to imitate the iridescent surface seen on ancient glass that had been buried. Much of the Art Nouveau glass produced during the years of its greatest popularity had been generically termed “art glass.” Art glass was intended for decorative purposes and relied for its effect upon carefully chosen color combinations and innovative techniques.

France produced a number of outstanding exponents of the Art Nouveau style; among the most celebrated was Emile Galle (1846-1904). In the United States, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) was the most noted exponent of this style, producing a great variety of glass forms and surfaces, which were widely copied in their time and are highly prized today. Tiffany was a brilliant designer, successfully combining ancient Egyptian, Japanese, and Persian motifs.

The Art Nouveau style was a major force in the decorative arts from 1895 until 1915, although its influence continued throughout the mid-1920’s. It was eventually to be overtaken by a new school of thought known as Functionalism that had been present since the turn of the century. At first restricted to a small avant-garde group of architects and designers, Functionalism emerged as the dominant influence upon designers after the First World War. The basic tenet of the movement—that function should determine form—was not a new concept. Soon a distinct aesthetic code evolved: form should be simple, surfaces plain, and any ornament should be based on geometric relationships. This new design concept, coupled with the sharp postwar reactions to the styles and conventions of the preceding decades, created an entirely new public taste which caused Art Nouveau types of glass to fall out of favor. The new taste demanded dramatic effects of contrast, stark outline, and complex textural surfaces.

36. What does paragraph 1 mainly discuss?

A. Design elements in the Art Nouveau style

B. The popularity of the Art Nouveau style

C. Production techniques for art glass

D. Color combinations typical of the Art Nouveau style

37. What is the main purpose of paragraph 2?

A. To compare different Art Nouveau styles

B. To give examples of famous Art Nouveau artists

C. To explain why Art Nouveau glass was so popular in the United States

D. To show the impact Art Nouveau had on other cultures around the world

38. What does the author mean by stating that “function should determine form” (para 3, line 6)?

A. A useful object should not be attractive

B. The purpose of an object should influence its form

C. The design of an object is considered more significant than its function

D. The form of an object should not include decorative elements

39. It can be inferred from the passage that one reason Functionalism became popular was that it

A. clearly distinguished between art and design

B. appealed to people who liked complex painted designs

C. reflected a common desire to break from the past

D. was easily interpreted by the general public

40. Paragraph 3 supports which of the following statements about Functionalism?

A. Its design concept avoided geometric shapes.

B. It started on a small scale and then spread gradually.

C. It was a major force in the decorative arts before the First World WarD. It was not attractive to architects and designers

36.【答案】B

【解析】这是一道细节题。根据题干关键词“The EU is faced with so many problems”回文定位到文章首段第二句“Now even the project’s greatest cheerleaders talk of a continent facing a ‘Bermuda triangle’ of debt, population declineand lower growth.”题干是对这句话的同义改写，the EU = a continent，so many problems = a Bermuda triangle of…，isfaced with = facing，根据这句话前部分的内容答案选 B，是对原文信息的同义改写 even = Now even，its supporter =the project’s greatest cheerleaders, begin to feel concerned=talk of。

根据文章第二段第二句“Markets have lost faith that…”可知，市场丧失了对欧盟的信心，而非欧盟对市场丧失信心，故 A 项错误;C 项在文中并未提及，属于无中生有;D 项的干扰源自文章第二段尾句“which denies uncompetitivemembers the quick fix of devaluation”，但是这句话的意思是统一的货币让某些无竞争力的成员国无法快速地解决货币贬值的问题，而非否认货币贬值的可能性，D 项对原文信息进行了无依据的篡改，应该排除。

37.【答案】C

【解析】这是一道细节题。根据题干关键信息“the debate… is stuck because”定位到原文第三段第二句“It isstuck because the euro zone’s…harmonise. ”重点在于 but 之后的内容“disagree about what to harmonise”，“就协调的内容未能达成一致”，答案 C 为正确答案，是原文信息的同义改写。干扰选项 A、B 在文章中都未提起，属于无中生有;选项 D 的干扰源自文章第三段首句“Yet the debate abouthow to save Europe’s single currency from disintegration is stuck.”，这场辩论的目的是讨论如何使欧洲的货币不走向分裂，而非分裂，D 项属于曲解文意，故不正确。

38.【答案】B

【解析】这是一道细节题。根据题干关键信息“To solve the euro problem，Germany proposed”定位到文章第四段首句“Germany thinks…”，德国认为对欧元的拯救是通过实施严格的条例来实现的，故答案 B 是正确选项，属于原文内容的同义改写，stricter regulations = stricter rules, be imposed = by。A 和 D 选项的干扰源自文章第四段的第二句“These might include threats to…”，这句话旨在说明对于不严格遵守条例的成员国政府要进行惩罚，惩罚内容就包括冻结欧盟对贫困地区的资金资助和暂停某个成员国的表决权，因此A 和 D 两个选项内容与文章内容截然相反，不正确;C 项的干扰源自文章第四段第三句“It insists that economiccoordination should involve all 27 countries”，这句话明确说明德国坚持认为经济合作要囊括欧盟的 27 个成员国，而非只有核心成员国，故 C 项不对。

39.【答案】A

【解析】这是一道推理判断题。根据题干关键信息定位到文章倒数第二段首句“A ‘southern’ camp headed by Francewants…”，这句话说明法国阵营对于解决欧盟统一货币提出的建议，接下来的这句话对首句的意思进行了解释，说明具体的内容，包含了“从富国到穷国的再分配制度”，即贫穷的成员国更易获得资金，A 是正确答案，同时排除 C选项。

原文定位处提到货币政策，但说到的是政治家们人为地干预货币政策以及从穷国到富国的重新分配制度，并未提到穷富国的货币政策的问题，因此 B 项属于无中生有;D 项的干扰源自文章第四段的第二句话，其中提到了欧元债券，但说的却是以欧元债券的形式为成员国政府提供低息从而实现从富国到穷国的再分配目的，并未提到富国是否对欧洲债券有控制，故 D 项不对，也是属于无中生有。

40.【答案】D

【解析】这是一道态度题。作者在文章最后一段提出了自己对欧盟未来的看法“It’s too soon to write off the EU.It remains the world’s largest trading block…”在作者看来，现在就认为欧盟将失败还为时过早，欧盟仍然是世界的贸易区。由此可知，作者对欧盟的未来仍心存希望，故答案选 D。