Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-re

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问题 Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.
    It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.
    We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II , at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared. In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. "So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism," Newman wrote, "that I am tempted to define ’journalism’ as ’a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are’" .
    Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England’s foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.
    Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.
What is true about the current major English-language newspapers according to the first two paragraphs?

选项 A、High-quality arts criticism is rarely found.
B、Arts reviews are often copied from other publications.
C、Arts coverage is mainly composed of collections of criticism.
D、Arts criticism has disappeared since the start of the 20th century.

答案A

解析 细节题。前两段提到,在过去25年里英文报纸所发生的变化中,影响最深远的可能就是报纸对艺术方面的报道在范围上缩小了,严肃程度也降低了。对于平均年龄40岁以下的读者而言,很难想象曾有一个人们能在大多数大城市的主流报纸上读到高质量的艺术评论的时代。由此可知,目前主流英文报纸上高质量的艺术评论很罕见,并不是已经消失,A项正确,D项错误。原文前两段未提及B项“艺术评论通常从其他出版物中复制”和C项“艺术报道主要由评论文集组成”。故本题选A。
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