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TOEFL Directory > TOEFL writing > TOEFL Reading Class Unit 2_Passage 20_Question 210-220
TOEFL Reading Class Unit 2_Passage 20_Question 210-220
You have about 15 minutes to finish this passage.
First,use about 3-4 minutes to read the passage, try to understand the main idea of this passage.
Don't read it so slowly or try to remember all details.You need to do "fast reading",and "scan" the passage.
Second, read questions 1-11, and with questions you go back the passage again and look for correct answers.
Question 210-220
Passge 20
Early experiments in light-sensitive images were conducted in France by the chemist Joseph N. Niepce. When he died in 1833, Niepce's photography process was taken up and perfected by Louis J. M. Daguerre.
Daguerre's procedure involved coating a copper plate with a light-sensitive emulsion, which, when exposed to light for 5 to 40 minutes, produced an image on the plate. Because there was no negative, as in modern film, the image, called a daguerreotype, was unique and could not be duplicated. In August 1839, he made his process public, and word of it spread far and wide.
After accounts of Daguerre's process appeared in United States newspapers, a Philadelphian, Joseph Saxon, produced what is believed to be the first daguerreotype in the United States. Robert Cornelius, a manufacturer of metal lamps in Philadelphia, was also one of the first to produce daguerreotypes, operating a studio from 1839 to 1842. His partner, Dr. Paul Beck Goddard, a chemistry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, discovered bromine, which reduced the exposure time necessary to produce an image sufficiently to make posing for a portrait possible. Philadelphia's credentials as an early center of photography were further established by the exhibitions of daguerreotypes held at the Franklin Institute and the American Philosophical Society in late 1839 and 1840.
In New York, the painter Samuel F. B. Morse was influential in the dissemination of the daguerreotype process. Morse had been in Paris in 1839 and knew Daguerre. When he returned, he began advocating the use of the daguerreotype process by artists---as president of the National Academy of Design, he was in a good position to do so.
The original camera was little more than a wooden box with a lens at one end and a sensitized plate at the other. The process of making a daguerreotype required only some mechanical aptitude and a little knowledge of chemistry, but no artistic talent. Suddenly anyone could produce images. This in itself effected a revolution in picture making. By 1853 there were reportedly 2,000 aguerreotypists practicing in the United States, most of whom were in the business to make money, not art. However, although the majority of early daguerreotypes had a relatively low aesthetic threshold, there were many powerful images among them showing perceptive observation and great exactitude in every detail.
210. What does the passage mainly discuss?
a) How the daguerreotype process functioned
b) Some early developments in the field of photography
c) The influence of Joseph N. Niepce on Louis J. M. Daguerre
d) Technical improvements in film processing
211. Which of the following differences between a modern camera and the daguerreotype process is mentioned in the passage?
a) The size of the lens
b) The cost of the supplies
c) The colors that could be produced
d) The number of copies that could be made
212. The word it in the passage refers to
a) film
b) image
c) process
d) word
213. How did Joseph Saxon learn how to make daguerreotypes?
a) He studied the process in Paris.
b) He read about the process in the newspaper.
c) Daguerre taught him the process when he visited Philadelphia.
d) He learned the process while he was working in Cornelius' studio.
214. It can be inferred that daguerreotype portraits were rarely made before the discovery of bromine because
a) people could not sit without moving for a long enough period of time
b) people had to maintain a safe distance from the equipment
c) daguerreotypists could make more money by producing other types of pictures
d) the lighting necessary to produce the picture made people's faces look unattractive
215. The word dissemination in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) purpose
b) creation
c) spread
d) change
216. The word advocating in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) considering
b) borrowing
c) releasing
d) recommending
217. Why does the author mention the National Academy of Design in the passage?
a) To emphasize Morse's influence in the art world
b) To argue that artists ought to have supported the work of Morse
c) To give an example of one of the places where Daguerre displayed his work
d) To explain that both New York and Paris were important centers of art
218. The phrase little more than in the passage is closest in meaning to
a) as small as
b) in addition to
c) possibly
d) simply
219. The author mentions 2,000 daguerreotypists in the
passage to support the idea that
a) it was relatively easy to make daguerreotypes
b) most daguerreotypists were professional chemists
c) the popularity of the daguerreotype lasted for only a short time
d) there were more daguerreotypists in Europe than in the United States
220. What does the author imply by stating in the passage that most early daguerreotypes had a relatively low aesthetic threshold?
a) Most daguerreotypes had little artistic value.
b) Some artists offered lessons on making daguerreotypes.
c) Few people bought daguerreotypes because they were expensive.
d) Most daguerreotypes failed to capture adequately the details of a scene.
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