Question

    I live in Mentone, a quiet, simple, peaceful place, where the rich never come. I met Theophile Magnan, a retired, rich, old man from Lyons yesterday, in the Hotel des Anglais. Theophile looked sad and dreamy, and didn’t talk with anybody else, which brought me back to the past.

A long time ago, Francois Millet, Claude, Carl and I were young artists—very young artists—in fact.

Yes, Francois Millet, the great French artist, was my friend.

Millet wasn’t any greater than we were at that time. He wasn’t known, even in his own village.

We were all poor though we had stocks(存货) and stocks of as good pictures as anybody in Europe painted. Once a person ever offered four francs (法郎) for Millet’s “Angelus”, which he meant to sell for eight.

It was a fact in human history that a great artist would never be accepted until after he was starved and dead. His pictures climbed to high prices after his death.

Then we made a decision that one of us must die, to save the others and himself.

Millet was chosen, chosen to die.

During the next three months Millet painted with all his power, enlarged his stock all he could, not pictures, no! sketches, studies, parts of studies, fragments of studies, of course, with his cipher(暗号) on them.

They were the things to be sold.

Carl went to Paris to start the work of building up Millet’s name. Claude and I went to sell Millet’s small pictures and to build up his name as well.

We made Millet a master. I always said to my customer, “I am a fool to sell a picture of Francois Millet’s at all, for he is not going to live three months, and when he dies, his pictures can’t be had for love or money.”

Claude and I took care to spread that little fact as far as we could.

Carl made friends with the reporters, and got Millet’s condition reported to England and all over the Europe, and America, and everywhere.

The sad end came at last, Millet died, not really. He became Theophile Magnan.

The pictures went up. There’s a man in Paris today who owns seventy Millet pictures. He paid us two million francs for them. Do you still remember the “Angelus”? Carl sold it for twenty-two hundred francs.

We are no longer artists and Millet dead.

1.Why did the four friends decide to choose one of them to die?

A.They wanted to be rich. B.They wanted to be famous.

C.They wanted to save money. D.They wanted to be respected.

2.Which of these is a fact based on the passage?

A.The story was written in memory of Millet.

B.Millet was still alive but had a new name.

C.Millet lived a wealthy life at first.

D.Millet failed to make a famous artist.

3.What made the four friends’ plan succeed?

A.That they didn’t want to be artists any longer.

B.That Millet’s pictures were sold at very high prices.

C.That people had pity on these poor artists.

D.People’s wish to own valuable art works at low prices.

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.D

【解析】

本文讲述的是作者和他的几位朋友都是非常年轻的艺术家，虽然他们有很多好画，但是卖不出高价。他们知道一位伟大的艺术家死后，他的画可以卖出高价，所以他们当中的Millet被选择去死。他们到处宣传Millet快死了，终于Millet成为了大师，他的画也卖出了很高的价格。

1.推理判断题。A：他们想变得富有；B：他们想变得出名；C：他们想省钱；D：他们想被尊重。根据第六段中“It was a fact in human history that a great artist would never be accepted until after he was starved and dead. His pictures climbed to high prices after his death.”和第七段中“Then we made a decision that one of us must die, to save the others and himself.”可知，他们决定选他们中的一个去死，目的是为了把画卖出高价，变得富有。故选A。

2.推理判断题。A：写这个故事是为了纪念米勒；B：米勒还活着，但换了一个新名字；C：米勒一开始过着富裕的生活；D：米勒没能成为著名的艺术家。根据倒数第三段中“The sad end came at last, Millet died, not really. He became Theophile Magnan.”可知，米勒并不是真的死了，而是换了个名字继续活在世上。故选B。

3.推理判断题。A：他们不想再当艺术家了。B：米勒的画以很高的价格出售。C：人们同情这些可怜的艺术家。D：人们希望以低价拥有有价值的艺术品。根据第十二段中“I am a fool to sell a picture of Francois Millet’s at all, for he is not going to live three months, and when he dies, his pictures can’t be had for love or money.”可知，他们跟买画的顾客说后悔把弗朗索瓦·米勒的画卖了，因为他活不过三个月，他死后，无论如何也买不到他的画。所以他们的计划能成功是基于人们希望可以低价买到将死画家的画，以期望升值。故选D。