Part II. Reading Comprehension (2×15=30%) Directions: There are 3 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A,B,C and D.Choose the best answer from them. Passage One: How do we recognize great art? On the cave walls of Lascaux, in the south-west France, are some 2,000 images of animals and human figures. They are graceful paintings of horses and stags, cattle and bulls, pictures that an artist today would be proud to have painted, but these images are 17,300 years old, proof of the power and timelessness of the artistic impulse in man. This impulse, which drives certain fortunate individuals to create what we call art, is the same impulse that makes the rest of us appreciate art, crave it like a drug, and place such a great price on it, that those paintings and sculptures considered as great art are valued at millions.But what makes great art? The technical ability necessary to produce in the real world the image that the artist wants to portray is, of course, crucial. A person may have a striking image in their mind but only a talented few are capable of portraying it exactly as they imagine it. But over and above the technical ability, there is another factor involved. Call it the “X factor”, if you wish, something that is connected purely with the vision of the artist rather than their technical ability.So who decides if a piece of art possesses the X factor? One’s first reaction might be to say it’s the experts, those who have made art their study. But in the end, it is you, the person viewing the piece of art, who decides. It’s your reaction, which, if it is powerful enough, sends a shiver through your body and keeps you transfixed, that decides whether a picture or sculpture, or indeed any piece of art, is worthy of the term “masterpiece”. When, in an art gallery, we stand in front of van Gogh’s Sunflowers, we are dazzled, almost to the extent of shielding our eyes, by the brilliance of the sunflowers and those deep yellow and orange shades that seem to leap out of the painting at us. As we gaze at the British artist David Hockney’s painting, A Bigger Splash, the white movement of the “splash” against the blue of the swimming pool makes us feel that we have plunged into the water just as the invisible diver has done. Standing in front of Rodin’s famous sculpture The Kiss, we too are locked in the fierce embrace of the two stone lovers. Though we may not have the words for it, we recognize great art immediately by the force of its impact on us.31. The cave paintings of Lascaux show that .

A. people could not paint very well at that time
B. man’s love of art and desire to create is very old and powerful
C. man was very powerful 17,300 years age
D. we can appreciate paintings made over 17,000 years age