最新外研社必修八-module2原文

1、精品文档The Ren aissa neeFor many people, the Ren aissa nee means 14th to 16th een tury Italy, and the developme nts in art and architecture, music and literature which took place there at that time. But there is one work which, perhaps more tha n any other, expr esses the spirit of the Ren aissa nee: t

2、he Mona L isa. It is believed to be the best example of a n ew lifelike style of pain ti ng that amazed peopl e whe n it was first used. Pain ted by Leon ardo da Vinci in the years 15031506, the Mona Lisa is a mysterious masterpie ce. People want to know who Mona Lisa is, an d why she is smili ng. E

3、ve n if people do not kn ow much about the Ren aissa nee, they have hea rd of this pain ti ng. But the Ren aissa nee is, of c ourse, more tha n just Mona Lisa. Ren aissa nee is a French word which means “ rebirth ” and it first appeared in En glish in the 19th een tury. The word was used to describe

4、 a period in Eur opea n history which bega n with the arrival of t he first Europea ns in America, an age of explo rati on, and the begi nning of the moder n world. It was as if Europe was wak ing up after the lo ng sleep of the Middle Ages. From Italy, the id eas of the Ren aissa nee rapidly spread

5、 n orthwar ds to Fran ee, Germa ny, En gla nd, and the rest o f Europe.Trade with other parts of the world meant that Europe was gett ing richer, too. This meant that people had money to spe nd on the a rts; and it became easier for artists to find peop le who could afford to buy their works or empl

6、 oy them. Leon ardo worked for importa nt peopl e such the Duke of Mila n, and, towards the en d of his life, the King of France.Ren aissa nee artists found new ideas for their w ork in classical Greece and Rome. But they loo ked forward, too, by ope ning new fron tiers in t he arts. Pai nters disco

7、vered how to perspective and the effects of light; composers put differe nt voices together and create polyphony ( “ ma ny voices"); architects preferred desig ning buil dings with more light which con trasted with t he heav in ess of the Gothic cathedrals of the M iddle Ages.The sense of explo

8、rati on which motivated the artists went hand in hand with a new type of p hilosoph y. After cen turies of accept ing a medie val world view in which huma n life was consi dered of little value compared with the great ne ss of God, philosophers bega n ask ing questi on s like “ What is a person?” or

9、 “ Why am I h ere?” For the first time, they put people, not r eligi on, at the centre of the uni verse.The Ren aissa nee was a time of scie ntific inven tion, too. Leon ardo, as well as being one of the greatest pain ters the world has ever known, w as also a skilled inven tor. Wherever he went, h

10、e carried a no tebook around with him, i n whic h he wrote dow n his ideas. They in cluded detai led draw ings of the huma n body, pla ns for eng in eers to build can als and bridges, and ast onish ing draw ings of machi nes which were not to b e built un til hun dreds of years later, such as aer op

11、la nes, parachutes, submari nes and tanks. To wards the end of his life he was employed by t he King of 65 France to do scie ntific research, and he did not have a lot of time for pain ti ng. In short, Leon ardo was an extraordi nary geniu s, an example of what has bee n described as“ Ren aissa nee

12、man : some one in terested in e veryth ing and with many differe nt tale nts. But eve n if his only con tributi on to history had bee n the Mona Lisa, it would have bee n genius en ough for all time.READING AND WRITING (2)ThursdayWe arrived on the over ni ght ferry to the Hook of Holla nd and took a

13、 train toAmsterdam Central Stati on. It was only a short ride. It's not easy to find your way aro und the tow n. A lot of the roads follow the canals, which aren ' t straight but are shaped like horseshoes. So yo u can walk along a street for half an hour or so and end up five minu tes from

14、where you start ed. However, most people don ' t walk there are three millio n bikes in tow n and a good bus and tram system. There are boats, too .About half of them are for tourists, the others are houseboats with people livi ng on them. We spent the whole day walking. Tomorrow we ' re goi

15、ng to rent bikes. FridayWe spe nt today look ing at houses. The architec ture is ast oni shi ng, quite differe nt from other E uropea n coun tries we've bee n to. The houses are tall and thin, and m any of them have a fan tastically ornate Ren aiss ance appeara nee. In the Middle Ages the houses

16、 were made of wood. Then, at the end of the 1 5th cen tury there was a huge fire and about thr ee quarters of the town was destroyed. After th at, houses were made of brick. Un like other pl aces in Europe, where house owners were taxe d on the size oftheir win dows, here the taxes depe nded on the

17、width of the houseso they kept them n arrow, but built them tall. Well, that's what Claire says, and she read it in the guidebook. SaturdayWe visited the Van Gogh Museum, i nstead of t he more famous Rijksmuseum .It was ast onish ing. 1 had n't really looked at any of Van Gogh's painting

18、s before. He seems to have re-i nvent ed the art. It does n't matter whether he is doing a portrait or a land scapehe's a genius. In the last 70 days of his life before he shot himself he produced 70 paintin gs, and I reck on they' re almost all masterpieces. Yet in all his life Va n Gog

19、h only ever sold one painting! We must have spe nt three hours in that museum. Whe n we came out I told Claire I thought Van Gogh was the greatest pain ter in history. She remind ed me that we were leav ing for Paris tomorrow ,where we were going to see the most famous painting in the world .The Puz

20、zle of the Mona LisaThe Mona Lisa is the subject of many stories, but there is one an ecdote which rema ins a puz zle. Is the pain ti ng in the Louvre the authe ntic work by Leon ardo da Vinci. or just a copy?The story bega n one day in 1911 whe n some on e no ticed the Mona Lisa was miss ing. A spo

21、ke sman said, “ The burglar left the antique fram e and the glass behi nd. He must have gone through the baseme nt to the main courtyard. A pa sserby saw a man with a moustache, carry ing a parcel un der his arm, dash over the street cros sing, along to the crossroads. He the n fled dow n a sideroad

22、. We're appeali ng to anyone who saw the suspect t o con tact us.”So who stole the Mo na Lisa? And why? News about the loss of the Mona Lisa was circulated in all the French n ewspapers, and there was a widespread search for the burglar all over the c ountry. The police said, “ We don't thi

23、nk the burglar was worki ng alone. We're seek ing a gang of crim in als. ”Two years later, a man with a moustache went to an dealer in Flore nee in Italy and made a ten tative attempt to sell the Mona Lisa. The art de aler checked it, agreed it was authe ntic . and t hen called the police.Why di

24、d the burglar, Vincenzo Perugia, wait s o long? Perugia had stole n the Mona Lisa on b ehalf of the chief orga ni ser of the crime, Eduardo de Valfier no. But Perugia made a fun dame ntal mistake. He trusted de Valfier no to pay hi m for the pain ti ng. The drawback for Perugia was that de Valfier n

25、o did n't in fact n eed the pain ti ng, only the n ews of the theft. De Valfier no made six superb copies an d sold them, claimi ng that each one was the au then tic stole n painting. Of course, the fact that there were six substitutes was con fide ntial. Th e six buyers did n't know about t

26、he other painti ngs. What's more, de Valfier no did n't n eed to pay his debt to Perugia.After two years, Perugia got tired of wait ing to be paid, and tried to sell the painting. Whe n th e real Mona Lisa turned up in Floren ce, De Val fierno simply told his buyers that it was merel y a cop

27、 y.The outcome of the story is that Perugia got th e blame for the crime and went to pris on. De V alfier no rema ined at liberty for the rest of his life.But there is still a puzzle. There were a n umber of precise copies of the Mona Lisa pain ted by gifted stude nts of Leon ardo da Vin ci. Part of

28、 t he pain ti ng's fasc in ati on is whether the one in the Louvre was authe ntic . eve n before it was stole n. And if Perugia stole a copy . who has the authe nti c Mona Lisa?PrintingPrin ti ng is the process of making many copies of a sin gle docume nt using movable characters or letters .In

29、Chi na, printing was known as ear ly as in the 7th cen tury, duri ng the Tang Dynas ty; in Europe, it was an importa nt part of the R en aissa nee. Prin ti ng an swered a n eed becaus e people were thirsty for Kno wledge.Before printing was inven ted, copies of a man uscript had to be made by hand,

30、usually on ani mal skins. This was a difficult task that could take many years, and which made books very e xpe nsive. Prin ti ng made it possible to produce more copies in a few weeks tha n could have b een produced in a lifetime writte n out by hand.It is believed that a Germa n, Joha nn Gute nber

31、g ,made the first prin ti ng press in Europe. He ad apted it from the machi nes farmers used to squ eeze oil from olives .It used paper, which was more suitable for printing (and cheaper) tha n a n imal skins. Paper, like prin ti ng, had bee n inve n ted much earlier in China and it had found its wa

32、y to Europe, via southeast Asia and the n In dia. By the 10th cen tury AD, paper was being produced in Baghdad. The first paper mill in E urope was built at the end of the 12th cen tury. The first book that Gute nberg produced was a Bible. But as the ideas of the Ren aissa nee deve loped, so did the

33、 dema nd for the Greek and La tin classics, which had bee n largely ignored for up to 2,000 years. People also wan ted books i n their own Ian guages. The inven ti on of printing mea nt that this desire could be satisfied. So on there were prin ti ng presses all over n orther n Europe .In 1476 Willi

34、am Caxt on set up his o wn press in London, and En gla nd became one of the most importa nt cen tres of the printing in dustry. This spread of prin ted books led to a re n ewed passi on for artistic expressi on. Without the developme nt of the prin ti ng press, the Ren aissa nee may n ever have happ

35、e ned. Without in expe nsive prin ti ng to make books available to a large secti on of society, the son of Joh n Shak espeare, a gover nment official in rural En gla nd in the mid-1500s, may n ever have bee n in spir ed to take up writi ng as a professi on. What wes tern civilizatio n gained from Gu

36、te nberg's con tributi on is impossible to calculate.精品文档Prin ti ng is the process of making many copies of a sin gle docume nt using movable characters or letters .In Chi na, printing was known as ear ly as in the 7th cen tury, duri ng the Tang Dynas ty; in Europe, it was an importa nt part of

37、the R en aissa nee. Prin ti ng an swered a n eed becaus e people were thirsty for Kno wledge.Before printing was inven ted, copies of a man uscript had to be made by hand, usually on ani mal skins. This was a difficult task that could t ake many years, and which made books very e xpe nsive. Prin ti

38、ng made it possible to produce more copies in a few weeks tha n could have b een produced in a lifetime writte n out by hand.it is believed that a Germa n, Joha nn Gute nber g, made the first prin ti ng press in Europe. He a dapted it from the machi nes farmers used to sq ueeze oil from olives .It u

39、sed paper, which was more suitable for printing (and cheaper) tha n an imal skins. Paper, like prin ti ng, had bee n inv en ted much earlier in China and it had found it s way to Europe, via southeast Asia and the n I n dia. By the 10th cen tury AD, paper was being produced in Baghdad. The first pap

40、er mill in Europe was built at the end of the 12th cen turyThe first book that Gute nberg produced was a Bible. But as the ideas of the Ren aissa nee deve loped, so did the dema nd for the Greek and La tin classics, which had bee n largely ignored for up to 2,000 years. People also wan ted books i n

41、 their own Ian guages. The inven ti on of printi ng mea nt that this desire could be satisfied. So on there were prin ti ng presses all over n orther n Europe .In 1476 William Caxt on set up his o wn press in London, and En gla nd became one of the most importa nt cen tres of the printing in dustry.

42、 This spread of prin ted books led to a re n ewed passi on for artistic expressi on. Without the developme nt of the prin ti ng press, the Ren aissa nee may n ever have happe ned. Without in expe nsive prin ti ng to make books available to a large secti on of society, the son of Joh n Shak espeare,

43、a gover nment official in rural En gla ndin the mid-1500s, may n ever have bee n in spir ed to take up writi ng as a professi on. What wes tern civilizatio n gained from Gute nberg ' s con tributi on is impossible to calculate.Venice , Endan gered CityThere can be few more beautiful cities in th

44、e w orld tha n Veni ce; but as the world's sea levels rise due to the warmi ng of the atm osphere, there is also a dan ger that its ast onishi ng architecture and precious works of art may one day end up at the bottom of the Mediterra n ean.One of the most famous parts of Veni ce, visite d by mi

45、lli ons of tourists, is St Mark's Square. 150 years ago it used to flood once o r twice a year. Now it floods every week. The effect on people's lives, and on the won derful Ren aissa nee buil dings, is terrible. One Venetian said: “I don 't know anyone who sleeps on the ground floor of

46、their house any more .It's always too wet and sometimes the water com»es in.The city's battle with water dates back over 1,500 years .Its wealth has always depe nded on its positio n in the middle of the sea, which meant that it was easy for ships to stop there and trade. By t he time o

47、f the Ren aissa nee in the 15th cen tury, it was one of the world's richest cities, trad ing with both the East and t he West. But the city's leaders always depe nded on skilled engin eers to keep Venice from sinking un der the waves. The won derful architecture is supported by hu ge secti o

48、ns of trees pushed deep into the earth un der the water. Wood is destroyed by a combi n ati on of air and water; but un der the earth the re is no air, so the wood has survived one and a half thousa nd years. For cen turies the Ven eti ans made careful calculati ons about how to ke ep the water leve

49、l from gett ing too high. But in the 20th cen tury the kno wledge was basically forgotte n. People did not realise the effect that taking water out of the ground would have on t he cit y. Duri ng the 1950s factories took water out of the earth, mak ing it drier; the n the weig ht of the buildi ngs s

50、queezed the earth and the e n tire city started to sink. By the time the gover nment found out what was happe ning, Venice had sunk 20 cen timetres.That problem has now gone awaybut the n ews about Venice is still very disturbi ng. Across the world, the height of the sea is g oing up all the time; a

51、nd the whole of the n orth east of Italy is moving dow nwards, and tak ing Venice with it. Uni ess the gover nment comes u p with an an swer soon, this Ren aissa nee jewel could be lost for ever.Venice , Endan gered CityThere can be few more beautiful cities in the w orld tha n Veni ce; but as the w

52、orld's sea levels rise due to the warmi ng of the atm osphere, there is also a dan ger that its ast oni shi ng architecture and precious works of art may one day end up at the bottom of the M editerra nean.One of the most famous parts of Veni ce, visite d by milli ons of tourists, is St Mark's Square. 150 years ago it used to flood once o r twice a year. Now it floods every week. The effect on people's lives, and on the won derful Ren aissa nee buil dings, is terrible. One Venetian said: “