Unit 1 Women of achievement reading课时作业

阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)

　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　A

　　Vincent Van Gogh, for whom color was the most important form of expression, was born in Holland in 1853.Brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Van Gogh was highly emotional and lacked self­confidence.Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, Van Gogh had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore and an art salesman.He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty.One of his famous paintings is The Potato Eaters (1885)．

　　In 1886, he went to Paris to join his brother Théo.In Paris, Van Gogh studied with Cormon, later met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette(调色板)．His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night­long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health.He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art.Gauguin did join him but with bad results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to finally leave Arles.Van Gogh ran after him with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a part of his own ear off.Van Gogh then was sent to a mental (精神的) hospital for treatment.

　　In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers­sur­Oise under the watchful eye of Dr Cachet.Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all"．During his brief career he had sold one painting.Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years.His great fusion (融合) of form and content is powerful, dramatic and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence (精华) of man and nature.

　　1．Before Van Gogh started to learn art, .

　　A．he couldn't do his work well

　　B．he was confident about himself

　　C．he did a good job in a bookstore

　　D．he was one of the successful artists

　　解析：选A　细节理解题。根据第一段第三句可知，在Van Gogh决定成为画家之前，他的工作并不成功，也就是没能把自己的工作做好。

2．The underlined word "undermined" in Paragraph means " "．