Watercolour is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colours found in the earth with water.
Fresco (壁画), one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolour. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster (灰泥). Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo’s heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolour painting in the world.
The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go down-hill, and for the next several centuries watercolour was used mainly for doing sketches (草图) or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolour as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for outdoors and also small private pictures. The softness of watercolour had a remarkably strong attraction for them.
The popularity of watercolour continued to grow until the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolour, producing such well-known watercolour artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.
【小题1】 The purpose of the passage is to introduce . A．the gradual weakness of fresco paintingB．oils’ power or influence over watercolour C．the discovery of watercolour in EnglandD．the start and development of watercolour【小题2】 In the 16th and 17th centuries the artists thought . A．watercolour was softer, and thus betterB．oil painting lasted longer, and was betterC．watercolour wasn’t fit for finished worksD．watercolour was too hard to use in any works【小题3】According to the passage, watercolour painting was put back in England because A．it was easy to use outdoorsB．it was a strong medium C．it was extremely bright in colourD．it was suited to popular tastes【小题4】What would the next paragraph most probably deal with? A．The works of famous US watercolour artistsB．Modern American oil painters C．The weakness of oils as popular paintsD．Techniques of producing watercolourD
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(答案→)D
解析：
【小题1】通过阅读短文，可知本文主要是介绍的水彩画的产生与发展历史，故选D。
【小题1】根据第三段It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolour as a serious art form. 及上下文描述可知选C。
【小题1】根据第三段The English have a widely-known love for outdoors and also small private pictures. The softness of watercolour had a remarkably strong attraction for them. 描述，可知选D。
【小题1】本文最后一段介绍了两名美国著名的油画家，故下文可能要介绍他们的作品，故选A，美国著名油画家的作品。