2（3）Early Cinema（人文科学-艺术）

字数：820

建议做题时间 20分钟

The cinema did not emerge as a form of mass consumption until its technology evolved from the initial "peepshow" format to the point where images were projected on a screen in a darkened theater. In the peepshow format, a film was viewed through a small opening in a machine that was created for that purpose. Thomas Edison's peepshow device, the Kinetoscope, was introduced to the public in 1894. It was designed for use in Kinetoscope parlors, or arcades, which contained only a few individual machines and permitted only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time. The first Kinetoscope parlors contained five machines. For the price of 25 cents (or 5 cents per machine), customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films (or, in the case of famous prizefights, successive rounds of a single fight).

These Kinetoscope arcades were modeled on phonograph parlors, which had proven successful for Edison several years earlier. In the phonograph parlors, customers listened to recordings through individual ear tubes, moving from one machine to the next to hear different recorded speeches or pieces of music. The Kinetoscope parlors functioned in a similar way. Edison was more interested in the sale of Kinetoscopes (for roughly $1,000 apiece) to these parlors than in the films that would be run in them (which cost approximately $10 to $15 each). He refused to develop projection technology, reasoning that if he made and sold projectors, then exhibitors would purchase only one machine---a projector---from him instead of several.

Exhibitors, however, wanted to maximize their profits, which they could do more readily by projecting a handful of films to hundreds of customers at a time (rather than one at a time) and by charging 25 to 50 cents admission. About a year after the opening of the first Kinetoscope parlor in 1894, showmen such as Louis and Auguste Lumiere, Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins, and Orville and Woodville Latham (with the assistance of Edison's former assistant, William Dickson) perfected projection devices. These early projection devices were used in vaudeville theaters, legitimate theaters, local town halls, makeshift storefront theaters, fairgrounds, and amusement parks to show films to a mass audience.

With the advent of projection in 1895-1896, motion pictures became the ultimate form of mass consumption. Previously, large audiences had viewed spectacles at the theater, where vaudeville, popular dramas, musical and minstrel shows, classical plays, lectures, and slide-and-lantern shows had been presented to several hundred spectators at a time. But the movies differed significantly from these other forms of entertainment, which depended on either live performance or (in the case of the slide-and-lantern shows) the active involvement of a master of ceremonies who assembled the final program.

Although early exhibitors regularly accompanied movies with live acts, the substance of the movies themselves is mass-produced, prerecorded material that can easily be reproduced by theaters with little or no active participation by the exhibitor. Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by mixing films and other entertainments together in whichever way they thought would be most attractive to audiences or by accompanying them with lectures, their creative control remained limited. What audiences came to see was the technological marvel of the movies; the lifelike reproduction of the commonplace motion of trains, of waves striking the shore, and of people walking in the street; and the magic made possible by trick photography and the manipulation of the camera.

With the advent of projection, the viewer's relationship with the image was no longer private, as it had been with earlier peepshow devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid. It suddenly became public---an experience that the viewer shared with dozens, scores, and even hundreds of others. At the same time, the image that the spectator looked at expanded from the minuscule peepshow dimensions of 1 or 2 inches (in height) to the life-size proportions of 6 or 9 feet.

题目

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雷哥托福原创答案解析

1. 排除题

解析：根据题干Kinetoscope parlors定位到Tomas Edison之后，然后一一对照每个选项是否在这部分内容有否提及，A对应原文“only one customer to view a short, 50-foot film at any one time”，AD对。B “customers moved from machine to machine to watch five different films”指出观众可以一部接一部地观看。B正确。所以选C，文章并未指出职业拳击赛(prizefight)是最流行的。

2. 目的题

解析：第2段开头几句提到phonograph parlors指出Kinetoscope arcades是仿制留声机会客厅(phonograph parlors)的，接下来描述留声机会客厅的设置，从而说明Kinetoscope parlors的类似作用。选B。

3. 句子简化题

解析：高亮句子说明爱迪生拒绝研发投影技术，并且给到原因：放映商只会购买一个机器。A选项意思不对，没有说他对developing a variety of machines更感兴趣，B原因错了：不替换新的机器，D的关系错了：除非怎么样。所以选C。

4. 词汇题

解析：readily这句话说明：电影放映者却想要最大化经济收益，他们可以通过一次性向数百名观众放映几部电影(而不是一次一位观众)，每位收费25到50美分从而很轻易地做到这一点。因此选择B。

5. 词汇题

解析：assistance 协助，选C帮助

6. 事实信息题

解析：根据early movies differ from previous 定位到But the movies differed...这句，说明movies不依靠live performance和involvement of ceremony master，对照4个选项：A未提及它是more expensive form, B未提及larger audiences, C 未提及more educational，所以选D，对应前者。

7. 事实信息题

解析：根据题干role early exhibitors play定位到Even though early exhibitors shaped their film programs by mixing films and other entertainments together ...即早期放映者试图将电影和其他娱乐元素结合起来，所以与此最接近的是A选项：决定如何将电影的不同构成结合

8. 事实信息题

解析：根据题干ways the Mutoscope differed from the Kinetoscope定位到devices such as the Kinetoscope and the Mutoscope, which was a similar machine that reproduced motion by means of successive images on individual photographic cards instead of on strips of celluloid.这里要注意的是which这个从句修饰的是M，而不是K和M，因为谓语用的是was。这句话说明M和K相似，而M通过individual photographic cards而非strips of celluloid上的图像来复制动画，也就是制作的材料不一样，所以选D

9. 指代题

解析：看it前面这句话的内容：the viewer's relationship with the image 不再私人化，而it这句说明变公开化，因此it指代the viewer's relationship with the image，选B。

10. 事实信息题

解析：题干让比较早期西洋镜和屏幕上投影的图像，定位到At the same time, the image that the spectator looked ...这句，说明后来的size expanded了，那么早期的size就更小，所以选A。

11. 词汇题

解析：expand扩大，与A同义。B改善，C变化，D拒绝

12. 句子插入题

解析：插入句提到this widespread use of projection technology，那么前句应该提到这个信息，CD都有提到projection technology，但是只有D提到这项技术的使用，所以选D.

13. 段落小结题

解析：正确答案应陈述文章主要内容：19世纪末开始的电影技术的进步。
A. 具体介绍Kinetoscope的原理，细节信息，A错
B. 信息错误，Kinetoscope并不是激发放映者发明放映机的原因，是追求利益最大化的欲望(Exhibitors,however, wanted to maximize their profits)导致了放映机的发明。B错
C. 早期电影允许私人化地通过特定机器来观看影片，这是指Kinetoscope的发明，C对
D. 描述放映机发明后幻灯片被放映给广大观众，细节信息，D错
E. 放映机的发明使得大荧幕放映成为可能，E对
F. 在电影可以被投影后，它逐渐成为大众消费, F对

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