Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers is a celebration of an everyday object — the book, represented here in almost three hundred artworks from museums around the world. The image of the reader appears throughout history, in art made long before books as we now know them came into being. In artists’ representations of books and reading, we see moments of shared humanity that go beyond culture and time.
《阅读艺术：书香绘画》是对日常物品——书籍的一种赞美，本书收录了来自世界各地博物馆近三百幅艺术作品。阅读者的形象在历史上随处可见，早在书籍如今我们所熟知之前，艺术家们就已经通过艺术作品表现出了阅读的场景。在艺术家们对书籍和阅读的描绘中，我们看到的是超越文化和时代的共享人性时刻。

In this “book of books,” artworks are selected and arranged in a way that emphasizes these connections between different eras and cultures. We see scenes of children learning to read at home or at school, with the book as a focus for relations between the generations. Adults are portrayed (描绘) alone in many settings and poses — absorbed in a volume, deep in thought or lost in a moment of leisure. These scenes may have been painted hundreds of years ago, but they record moments we can all relate to.
在这本“书中之书”中，艺术品被精心挑选和安排，强调不同时代和文化之间的联系。 我们看到儿童在家里或学校学习阅读，书是代表代际关系的焦点。 成年人在许多不同场景和姿势中独自一人，专心阅读、深思或陶醉在休闲时刻。 这些场景可能是数百年前的作品，但记录了我们都能够共情的时刻。

Books themselves may be used symbolically in paintings to demonstrate the intellect (才智), wealth or faith of the subject. Before the wide use of the printing press, books were treasured objects and could be works of art in their own right. More recently, as books have become inexpensive or even throwaway, artists have used them as the raw material for artworks — transforming covers, pages or even complete volumes into paintings and sculptures.
书本本身在绘画中可以象征展示主体的才智、财富或信仰。在印刷术普及之前，书本是珍贵的物品，本身就可以是艺术品。近年来，随着书本变得廉价甚至是随意丢弃，艺术家们将它们作为艺术品的原材料，将封面、页码甚至整本书转化为绘画和雕塑作品。

Continued developments in communication technologies were once believed to make the printed page outdated. From a 21st-century point of view, the printed book is certainly ancient, but it remains as interactive as any battery-powered e-reader. To serve its function, a book must be activated by a user: the cover opened, the pages parted, the contents reviewed, perhaps notes written down or words underlined. And in contrast to our increasingly networked lives where the information we consume is monitored and tracked, a printed book still offers the chance of a wholly private, “off-line” activity.
通信技术的持续发展曾被认为会使印刷页面变得过时。从21世纪的角度来看，印刷书籍确实古老，但它仍然与任何电池驱动的电子阅读器一样互动。为了发挥其功能，一本书必须由用户激活：打开封面，打开页面，查看内容，也许写下笔记或划线。与我们越来越联网的生活形成鲜明对比，我们消化的信息被监视和追踪，印刷书籍仍然提供了一个完全私密的“离线”活动的机会。

1. Where is the text most probably taken from?
   A. An introduction to a book. B. An essay on the art of writing.
   C. A guidebook to a museum. D. A review of modern paintings.
   答案：B

2. What are the selected artworks about?
   A. Wealth and intellect. B. Home and school.
   C. Books and reading. D. Work and leisure.
   答案：C

3. What do the underlined words “relate to” in paragraph 2 mean?
   A. Understand. B. Paint.
   C. Seize. D. Transform.
   答案：A

4. What does the author want to say by mentioning the e-reader?
   A. The printed book is not totally out of date.
   B. Technology has changed the way we read.
   C. Our lives in the 21st century are networked.
   D. People now rarely have the patience to read.
   答案：A