Question

 NEW YORK (Reuters) — Artists and gallery owners have their fingers crossed at New York’s Affordable Art Fair this week,waiting to see how the economic downturn(衰退期) affects sales of their work even as demand in the high-end (高端的) market breaks down.

 Taking place for the eighth year,the fair aims to lure(引誘) new art buyers and long-time patrons(贊助人) with prices ranging from $ 75 to $ 10,000. Most of the work is priced at $ 5,000 or under.

 Despite the “ affordable” tag (標簽) ，attracting buyers is still a daunting task when consumers are turning down anything expensive or unnecessary in the economic depression.

 About 64 galleries are participating in this year’s Affordable Art Fair,down from 70 last year. The fair opened in Manhattan on Thursday and ended on Sunday.

Jenny Hirst,an artist from Manchester,England, who exhibited her work at the namesake fair in London and was attending the New York show,said the demand for affordable art “is struggling a bit”.

“They(consumers) say it is nice,but walk away . instead of pulling out their checkbooks,” said Hirst， referring to art buyers.

The economic downturn has affected the high-end art market. Sotheby’s posted a 71 per cent drop in auc-tion(拍賣) sales in the past quarter,while some experts say demand is rare，or in the best case,scarce for expensive art.

“I don’t think it’s that people are saying, ^“1 can’t spend a million dollars so I’ll go out and spend $ 500,000，”’ said Constance Kamens，a private art dealer and appraiser.

“Some of them are not buying at all but when they are buying,they are buying carefully. ”

Popular belief is that the right piece of art can transform a space,making it an attractive alternative (選擇) to buying a new home or redecorating in a recession marked by increasing job losses and tight access to credit.

1. Not many customers buy art works mainly because        .

   A. the art works are too expensive for them to buy one

   B.  they think it is unnecessary to buy an art work now

   C.  they cannot find art works on show are attractive

   D.  the art market is greatly affected by the financial crisis

2. From what Constance Kamens said,we can safely conclude       .

   A. the customers don’t care the price much

   B.  the customers want to buy cheap works

   C.  the customers often bargain with dealers

   D.  the customers are not interested in buying

3. The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 3 has the closest meaning to “      ”.

   A. frightening   B. discouraging

   C.  exciting   D. surprising

Answer 1

1. D細節理解題。從第一段的“…waiting to see how the economic downturn(衰退期) affects sales of their work".”可知沒有多少顧客買藝術作品是因為受到經濟危機的影響。所以選D項。

2. A 推理判斷題。從第八段Constance Kamens所說的話，他認為人們不會因為這幅畫是一百萬美元太貴而去買一件價值五十萬美元的作品。所以價格不是人們不買的主要原因。故選A項。

3. B詞義猜測題。根據上下文內容：盡管價錢支付得起，但是當人們拒絕那些昂貴或不必要的藝術品時，要吸引顧客還是一項工作。從句意推斷，應是“令人氣餒的”。所以選B.