Reading

Rembrandt is the most famous of the seventeenth‐century Dutch painters. However, there are doubts whether some paintings attributed to Rembrandt were actually painted by him. One such painting is known as attributed to Rembrandt because of its style, and indeed the representation of the woman’s face is very much like that of portraits known to be by Rembrandt. But there are problems with the painting that suggest it could not be a work by Rembrandt.

First, there is something inconsistent about the way the woman in the portrait is dressed. She is wearing a white linen cap of a kind that only servants would wear‐yet the coat she is wearing has a luxurious fur collar that no servant could afford. Rembrandt, who was known for his attention to the details of his subjects’ clothing, would not have been guilty of such an inconsistency.

Second, Rembrandt was a master of painting light and shadow, but in this painting these elements do not fit together. The face appears to be illuminated by light reflected onto it from below. But below the face is the dark fur collar, which would absorb light rather than reflect it. So the face should appear partially in shadow‐which is not how it appears. Rembrandt would never have made such an error.

Finally, examination of the back of the painting reveals that it was painted on a panel made of several pieces of wood glued together. Although Rembrandt often painted on wood panels, no painting known to be by Rembrandt uses a panel glued together in this way from several pieces of wood.

For these reasons the painting was removed from the official catalog of Rembrandt’s paintings in the 1930s.

Listening

Professor:

Everything you just read about “Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet” is true, and yet after a thorough re‐examination of the painting, a panel of experts has recently concluded that it’s indeed a work by Rembrandt. Here is why.

First, the fur collar. X‐rays and analysis of the pigments in the paint have shown that the fur collar wasn’t part of the original painting. The fur collar was painted over the top of the original painting about a hundred years after the painting was made. Why? Someone probably wanted to increase the value of the painting by making it look like a formal portrait of an aristocratic lady.

Second, the supposed error with light and shadow. Once the paint of the added fur color was removed, the original could be seen, in the original painting, the woman is wearing a simple collar of lightcolored cloth. The light‐colored cloth of this collar reflects light that illuminates part of the woman’s face. That’s why the face is not in partial shadow. So in the original painting, light and shadow are very realistic and just what we would expect from Rembrandt.

Finally, the wood panel. It turns out that when the fur collar was added, the wood panel was also enlarged with extra wood pieces glued to the sides and the top to make the painting more grand and more valuable. So the original painting is actually painted on a single piece of wood, as would be expected from a Rembrandt painting. And in fact, researchers have found that the piece of wood in the original form of “Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet” is from the very same tree as the wood panel used for another painting by Rembrandt, his “Self‐portrait with a Hat”.

阅读听力要点概括

Reading Passage

Main points: Problems with painting suggest it is Rembrandt’s work.

Sub point 1: Inconsistent about woman’s dress.

Sub point 2: Light and shadow do not fit toghther.

Sub point 3: The painting is on a panel made of several pieces.

Lecture

Attitude: A re‐examination shows the painting is true.

Sub Point 1: X‐rays shows fur collar painted 100 years later.

Sub Point 2: Original painting’s light and shadow are realistic.

Sub Point 3: Original is painted on 1 piece of wood. (Wood from very same tree used by Rembrandt.)

范文逐段赏析

Paragraph 1

The lecture revises the idea presented in the text, that Rembrandt was not the artist who painted the famous painting “Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet.”

此段功能：(Listening passage 后文提到用L 代替，Reading passage 后文用R 代替) 开头段作者首先表明L 的逻辑，L 修改了R 的意见，然后总结了R 原来的意见：Rembrandt 不是一副名画的作者。

此段结构：开头段表示了逻辑相反并且总结了R 的意见，为辩论做好了铺垫。

Paragraph 2

The inconsistency between the white cap, which identifies the woman as a servant, and the expensive fur collar she wears dissolves as the professor explains that the fur collar was apparently painted over Rembrandt’s original in order to increase its worth by displaying an aristocratic woman.

此段功能：在第一点white cap 和collar 的解释上，作者复述到虽然white cap 证明这位妇女是一名仆人，不可能拥有一条昂贵的毛领，随后L 解释道这是后人故意画上去来增加价值的。

此段结构：此段为分分结构，作者引出矛盾现象后再列出L 的证据，清晰的解释了问题。

Paragraph 3

In addition, the assumption that the light and shadows in the painting do not fit together is refuted by the fact that in the original painting the woman wears a light cloth that illuminated her face. Thus, the presentation of light and shadow was indeed very realistic and accurate, as it is characteristic of Rembrandt’s paintings.

此段功能：在第二点明暗疑问解释上，作者写出，R 认为的明暗不合理是因为画中妇女身穿浅色衣服反光导致。所以其实画中呈现的明暗是非常极致追求真实和准确的，这是Rembrandt 画画的特征。

此段结构：此段为分分结构，就反光问题，作者复述L 的证据做出了解释。

Paragraph 4

Finally, the mystery of the panel consisting of patches glued together is also solved in the lecture. The wood panel was actually later enlarged to make it more grand in size and hence more valuable, but the original painting was painted on a single panel, as Rembrandt would have done. Furthermore, the wood was found to be made from the same tree Rembrandt used in many of his other paintings, like the “Self‐Portrait with a Hat.”

此段功能：在第三点绘画板解释上，作者说L 对于好几块拼接木板做出了解释，在重画过程中，画板被增大了用于画更大幅的图像以好增加价格，但是原画确实只有一块整画板。其次，画板的木头和另一幅R 的作品的画板，发现是从同一种树上制造的。

此段结构：此段为分分结构，作者开头提起了疑问后就一直在陈列L 给出的证据，最后达到了解释的目的。

Paragraph 5

All this information serves to support the argument that Rembrandt was the painter of this controversial work.

此段功能：最后一段作者总结这么多信息足够说明Rembrandt 是这副有争议的画的作者。

此段结构：一句话点名目的，和首段呼应。

范文全篇总评

逻辑结构

全文遵从总分结构，开头段逻辑相反并且总结了R 的意见，随后展开三段辩论。

在分论点辩论中，作者如实详细的写出L 补充的条件，合理解释了R 的疑点，最后达到了目

的：此画确实出自Rembrandt 之手。

语言表达

文中启用了一些生词，句式也十分紧凑，其中值得借鉴的有：

1. Revise： 校订，修改

/Alter/Correct/

We always have to revise our previous work and that way it gives us a great score.

2. Thus: 因此

/Therefore/Consequently/

He forgot to turn on the radio and thus missed the program.