Passage 9

  African-American filmmakers should be in an enviable position, for since the early 1990sthere has been a steady wave of low budget black films which have turned a solid profit due toa very strong response in the African-American community and a larger crossover audience than anticipated. Any rational business manager would now identify this sector as a prime candidate for expansion, but if the films have done so well with limited production and marketing costs,why have they not received full scale support7 Many analysts feel the business is engulfed in a miasma of self-serving and self-fulfilling myths based on the unspoken assumption that Mfrican-American films can never be vehicles of prestige, glamour, or celebrity. The relationship players have convinced themselves that black films can do only a limited domestic business under any circumstance and have virtually no for- eign box office potential. As executives who now control the film industry grew up in those de- cades when there were few black images on the screen and those that did exist were produced by film-makers with limited knowledge of the black community, it is little wonder that they avoid ideological issues, and seek to continue making films that they are comfortable with by avoiding they negative imagery of films they would prefer to eschew entirely.

  Also to blame for this deleterious phenomenon are legions of desperate and Machiavellian African-American film producers, directors, and writers who would transform The Birth of A Nation into a black musical as long as it would provide them with gainful studio employment. These filmmakers not only perpetuate negative stereotypes in their films, but they also season them with a sprinkling of African-American authenticity. This situation would be onerous enough, given the economic exploitation of the community involved; unfortunately these films also validate the pathologies they depict. The constant projection of the black community as a kind of urban Wild Kingdom, the glamorization of tragic situations, and the celebration of innercity drug dealers and gangsters has a programming effect on black youth. The power of music in film is a particularly seductive and propagandistic force which in the recent crop of African-American films has rarely been used in a positive social manner.

  What flows from this combination of factors is a policy of market exploitation rather than market development, evidenced by the fact that any number of films may open to 1,500 screens in one week, only to totally disappear in less than a month. This restricted body of film products erodes the genre's long-term viability, particularly with the more fickle non-African-American-can audiences and foreign audiences. Furthermore, when African-American actors begin to emerge as stars, their projects are usually designed to be "more" than a black film, such that any success that follows is therefore perceived not as a reflection of the viability of African-American filmmaking but as the broader pursuit of celebrity.

  46. According to the passage, all wise managers think that ___

  A) the industry of black film would increase in the future

  B) the industry of black film would decrease in the future

  C) the industry of black film would not receive full scale support

  D) the industry of black film is bound to win full scale support()

  47. It is suggested by the analysts that ___

  A) black films can be very successful

  B) black films can win prestige, glamour, or celebrity

  C) black films are mysterious

  D) black films can never be the road to prestige

  48. It can be inferred from the passage that ___

  A) the black community is wild

  B) the black youth may learn from the films and commit crimes

  C) the black films reflect the real life of the black

  D) the black community is flourishing

  49. The word "viability" ( in line 4, para. 4) could best be replaced by ______

  A) productivity

  B) vitality

  C) celebrity

  D) prestige

  50. This passage mainly discusses ______.

  A) the productivity of black films

  B) the limitations of black films

  C)the myth of American-African

  D)the prestige of American-African

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  Passage 9

  文章大意:

  本文讨论了美国黑人电影未被普遍认可的原因。文章首先指出,虽然黑人电影的现状令人羡慕,前景看好,但是还不是人人趋之若鹜。文章接下来分析了原因。一些分析家认为黑人电影只是自娱自乐、自我满足的神话,并不能使人声名斐然,因为电影业的大亨们尽量避免有关意识形态的争议的题材。此外,大批的制片人、导演和作家用电影加深了模式化的消极黑人形象,并佐以美国黑人真实生活的点滴,其宣扬的打斗、吸毒等题材教会了黑人年轻的一代。电影作品的题材的局限性影响了其生命力。文章最后提到,即使冒出一些黑人影星,他们的影片却不被作为黑人电影的成功而认可,只不过是白人名人的对事业的拓展。

  答案解析:

  [46]A参阅文章第一段最后一句:任何一个有理性的企业首脑都认为,这个行业是有望拓展的首选行业,但是,如果黑人电影用有限的生产和销售成本做得那么好,为什么还不能得到所有人的认可呢?

  [47]D参阅文章第二段第一句。“Vehicle”此处意为“媒介物”。

  [48]B文章第二段三,四句指出,黑人社会被影片、小说描写为城市的野性王国,渲染了其生活的悲剧性魅力,声名斐然的毒品交易者和匪徒。这些对黑人青年一代有很大。

  [49]B从该词的上下文可推断,该词意为“生命力,生机”。

  [50]B文章主要讨论了黑人电影的局限性。