有人说大学英语专八非常的难考，英语专八到底是什...

【10】

Practically speaking, the artistic maturing of the cinema was the single-handed achievement of David W. Griffith (1875-1948). Before Griffith, photography in dramatic films consisted of little more than placing the actors before a stationary camera and showing them in full length as they would have appeared on stage. From the beginning of his career as a director, however, Griffith, because of his love of Victorian painting, employed composition. He conceived of the camera image as having a foreground and rear ground, as well as the middle distance preferred by most directors. By 1910 he was using close-ups to reveal significant details of the scene or of the actors. The exploitation of the camera's possibilities produced novel dramatic effects. By splitting an event into fragments and recording each from the most suitable camera position, he could significantly vary the emphasis from camera shot to camera shot.

Griffith also achieved dramatic effects by means of creative editing. By juxtaposing images and varying the speed and rhythm of their presentation, he could control the dramatic intensity of the events as the story progressed. Despite the reluctance of his producers, who feared that the public would not be able to follow a plot that was made up of such juxtaposed images, Griffith persisted, and experimented as well with other elements of cinematic syntax that have become standard ever since. Those included the flashback, permitting broad psychological and emotional exploration as well as narrative that was not chronological, and the crosscut between two parallel actions to heighten suspense and excitement. In thus exploiting fully the possibilities of editing, Griffith transposed devices of the Victorian novel to film and gave film mastery of time as well as space.

Besides developing the cinema's language, Griffith immensely broadened its range and treatment of subjects. His early output was remarkably eclectic, it included not only the standard comedies, melodramas, westerns, and thrillers, but also such novelties as adaptations from Browning and Tennyson, and treatments of social issues. As his successes mounted, his ambitions grew, and with them the whole of American cinema. When he remade Enoch Arden in 1911, he insisted that a subject of such importance could not be treated in the then conventional length of one reel. Griffith's introduction of the American-made multireel picture began an elaborate historical and philosophical spectacle. It reached the unprecedented length of four reels, or one hour's running time. From our contemporary viewpoint, the pretensions of this film may seem a trifle ludicrous, but at the time it provoked endless debate and discussion and gave a new intellectual respectability to the cinema.

The author of this passage seems to imply that Victorian novels ______.

A．are like films

B．may not narrate events chronologically

C．exploit cinema's language

D．feature juxtaposed images

SECTION C NEWS BROADCAST

Directions: In this section you will hear everything ONCE ONLY. Listen carefully and then answer the questions that follow. At the end of each news item, you will be given 10 seconds to answer the questions.

听力原文： The cancellation of the 16-day flight means that the crew and scientists on the ground are pursuing only their most important experiments in the few remaining hours left before the shuttle laboratory is closed. The US sapce agency NASA decided Sunday to bring the orbiter home 12 days early because of fears of weakened power generator could explode. The generator has been turned off, leaving the shuttle with only two thirds of its normal power supply. To conserve electricity for the experiments the crew is working in dimmer lighting than normal and has turned off all unessential equipment. NASA says the two remaining generators are sufficient for Tuesday's landing, but had nevertheless ordered the astronauts to study emergency procedures in case another fails. The shuttle team has expressed its disappointment at the curtailment of the science mission, and says enough data have already been collected in the materials, combustion and biological experiments to push science further ahead. The scientist' goal is to complete the experiments on a later shuttle flight. David Batlery, VOA news, Washington.

Why did NASA decide to bring the shuttle home earlier?

A．The laboratory was closed.

B．The generator was turned off.

C．The power generator might explode.

D．Electricity was going to run out.

【M4】