Nineteenth-century architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc contended that Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral, built primarily in the

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问题 Nineteenth-century architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc contended that Paris’s Notre-Dame cathedral, built primarily in the late twelfth century, was supported from the very beginning by a system of flying buttresses—a series of exterior arches(flyers)
line and their supports(buttresses)—which permitted the construction of taller vaulted
5 buildings with slimmer walls and interior supports than had been possible previously. Other commentators insist, however, that Notre-Dame did not have flying buttresses until the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when they were added to update the building aesthetically and correct its structural flaws. Although post-twelfth-century modifications and renovations complicate efforts to resolve this controversy—all
10 pre-fifteenth-century flyers have been replaced, and the buttresses have been rebuilt and/or resurfaced—it is nevertheless possible to tell that both the nave and the choir, the church’s two major parts, have always had flying buttresses. It is clear, now that nineteenth-century paint and plaster have been removed, that the nave’s lower buttresses date from the twelfth century. Moreover, the choir’s lower flyers have chevron
15(zigzag)decoration. Chevron decoration, which was characteristic of the second half of the twelfth century and was out of favor by the fourteenth century, is entirely absent from modifications to the building that can be dated with confidence to the thirteenth century.
Description
The passage describes a disagreement about when Notre-Dame cathedral was supported by flying buttresses, with Viollet-le-Duc arguing that buttresses were present from the cathedral’s construction in the late twelfth century and others claiming the buttresses were built later. The author of the passage goes on to present evidence that suggests that Viollet-le-Duc’s argument is correct.
The authors argument concerning Notre-Dame’s flying buttresses depends on which of the following assumptions about the choir’s lower flyers?

选项 A、They accurately reproduce the decoration on the choirs original lower flyers.
B、They have a type of decoration used exclusively for exterior surfaces.
C、They were the models for the choirs original upper flyers.
D、They were the models for the nave’s original lower flyers.
E、They were constructed after the nave’s flyers were constructed.

答案A

解析 The author supports the claim that flying buttresses were present on Notre-Dame from the twelfth century by noting that the choir’s lower flyers feature a chevron decoration that was characteristic of the twelfth century. But since all flyers constructed prior to the fifteenth century have been replaced, the chevron decorations can indicate only that flyers were present in the twelfth century if those decorations accurately reproduce the decorations that existed on the original flyers. Thus, Choice A is the correct answer.
Choice B is incorrect: whether chevron decorations are used only on the exterior is not a point of dispute in the passage. Choices C, D, and E are all incorrect: no part of the argument turns on any claim about the choir’s upper flyers, the nave’s lower flyers, or the sequence in which the choir’s and the nave’s flyers were constructed.
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