9分达人阅读第32套P3-Art in Iron and Steel

Art in Iron and Steel

A Art and engineering seem to have little opportunity to collaborate in their historical devel-opment, and even works of engineering and technology are sometimes viewed as the antitheses of art and humanity. Think of the connotations of assembly lines, robots and computers; such creations embody positive values in the human industry, which might be overwhelmed by the negative images of repetitive, stressful and threatened jobs. The images reinforce the arguments of critics of technology who, while enjoying the comfort and efficiency of industrialised and digitised society, might be driving powerful cars and using the Internet to protest the artless and dehumanising aspects of modern life. At the same time, landmark mega-structures such as the Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges are almost universally hailed as majestic human feats as well as great architectural jewels that have come to represent the spirits of their respective cities. The relationship between art and engineering has seldom been easy or consistent.

B The human worker may have appeared to be but a cog in the wheel of industry, yet pho-tographers could reveal the beauty of line and composition in a worker doing something as common as using a wrench to turn a bolt. When Henry Ford’s enormous River Rouge Plant opened in 1927 to produce the Model A, the painter and photographer Charles Sheeler produced a series of extraordinary photographs of workers who were toiling on assembly lines. The material from the world’s largest car factory was described by Sheeler as the most thrilling subject he ever had worked on. The artist also composed oil paintings of the plant, giving them the titles such as American Landscape and Classic Landscape.

C Long before Sheeler, other artists, too, had perceived the beauty and humanity in works of engineering and technology. This is remarkably evident in Coalbrookdale, England, where iron was worked for centuries. In 1779, the world’s first iron bridge, erected by Abraham Darby Ⅲ, was constructed of cast iron pieces whose strength is exploited in compression. This monument presented a dramatic distinction from the classic stone and timber bridges that dotted the countryside and were captured in numerous serene landscape paintings. The metal structure, known as Iron Bridge, still spans the river there, and has not only seized engineers, artists and tourists to gaze upon and walk across it, as if on a pilgrimage to a revered place, but also freed up the imagination of designers.

D At Coalbrookdale, the reflection of the ironwork in the water completes the semicircular structure to form a wide-open eye into the future that is now the past. One artist’s bucolic depiction shows pedestrians and horsemen on the bridge, as if on a woodland trail. On one shore, a pair of well-dressed onlookers interrupts their stroll along the riverbank, perhaps to admire the bridge. On the other side of the gently flowing river, a lone man leads two mules beneath an arch that lets the towpath pass through the bridge’s abutment. A single boatman paddles across the river in a tiny tub boat. He is in no rush because there is no towline to carry from one side of the bridge to the other. This is how Michael Rooker saw Iron Bridge in his 1792 painting. A colour engraving of the scene hangs in the nearby Coalbrookdale museum, along with countless other contemporary renderings of the bridge in its full glory and in its context, showing the iron structure not as a blight on the landscape but at the centre of it. The surrounding area at the same time radiates out from the bridge and pales behind it.

E In the 19th century, the railroads kindled the imagination of artists, and the steam engine in the distance of a landscape became as much a part of their works as the herd of cows in the foreground. Man-made structures like railway stations, cathedrals, and water lilies were represented in the paintings of the Impressionist Claude Monet. Engineers, inventors and their inventions, as well as the American founding fathers, had become the subjects of portrait painters such as Christian Schussele. By the 20th century, engineer-ing, technology and industry were very well established as subjects for artists.

F American-born Joseph Pennell, one of the major etchers and book illustrators of his time, illustrated many European travel articles and books. Early in his career, he produced a great number of artistic works on architectural subjects. Pennell is best known among engineers for his depiction of the Panama Canal as it neared completion and his etchings of the partially completed Hell Gate and Delaware River bridges.

G Pennell has often been quoted as saying, ‘Great engineering is great art’, a sentiment that he expressed repeatedly. ‘I understand nothing of engineering, but I know that engineers are the greatest architects since the Greeks,’ he wrote in several published books on painting and printmaking. His works pursued not only utility but also beauty. He felt he was not only presenting a concrete subject but also conveying the impression that it made on him. Pennell called this sensation that he felt before a great construction project ‘The Wonder of Work’. In his opinion, engineering is an artistic process, which is memori-alised in every spectacular engineering achievement.

H If Pennell experienced the wonder of work in the aggregate, Lewis Hine focused on the individuals who engaged in the work. Hine was once a sociologist but later became a photographer. In 1905, He began to document some migrants who crossed Ellis Island, photographing the tenements where they were forced to live and the sweatshops where they worked. After returning to New York, he was hired to record the construction of the Empire State Building, which resulted in the striking photographs that later became such famous images of daring and insouciance. To achieve proper aerial views, he had himself swung out beyond the building to photograph the workers on cables hundreds of feet in the air and resting on a high girder. To today’s engineers, one of the most impressive features of these photos, published in Men at Work in 1932, is the absence of safety lines and hard hats. However, perhaps more than anything, the photos evoked Pennell’s The Wonder of Work and inspired admiration for the bravery and skill that bring a great engi-neering project to completion.

Questions 27 – 31

Reading Passage 3 has eight paragraphs, A–H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.

• 27.the application of a kind of metal in certain architecture for the first time
• 28.natural creatures and constructions all being elements of artistic works
• 29.an artist who regarded the working conditions of workers as an exciting subject
• 30.artistic works on unfinished engineering projects
• 31.famous bridges being the iconic symbols of the cities

Questions 32 – 36

Look at the following statements (Questions 32–36) and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person, A–F.

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 32–36 on your answer sheet.

List of People

A Lewis Hine

B Charles Sheeler

C Claude Monet

D Joseph Pennell

E Michael Rooker

F Christian Schussele

• 32.made a comment that artistic creation can be presented in engineering works
• 33.made a romantic depiction of an old bridge in one painting
• 34.produced art pieces demonstrating the courage of workers
• 35.produced portraits involving subjects like engineers, inventions and historical heroes
• 36.produced paintings of a factory and named them ambitiously

Questions 37 – 40

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 37–40 on your answer sheet.

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