Art theft is an ancient and complicated crime. When you look at some of the most famous cases of art thefts in history, you see thoroughly planned operations that involve art dealers, art fakers, mobsters, ransoms, and millions of dollars. Here you can read about some of the most famous cases of art theft in the history.
The First Theft:  
The first documented case of art theft was in 1473, when two panels of altarpiece of the Last Judgment by the Dutch painter Hans Memling were stolen. While the triptych was being transported by ship from the Netherlands to Florence, the ship was attacked by pirates who took it to the Gdansk cathedral in Poland. Nowadays, the piece is shown at the National Museum in Gdansk where it was recently moved from the Basilica of the Assumption.
The Most Famous Theft:
The most famous story of art theft involves one of the most famous paintings in the world and one of the most famous artists in history as a suspect. In the night of August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen out of the Louver. Soon after, Pablo Picasso was arrested and questioned by the police, but was released quickly.
It took about two years until the mystery was solved by the Parisian police. It turned out that the 30×21 inch painting was taken by one of the museum employees by the name of Vincenzo Peruggia, who simply carried it hidden under his coat. Nevertheless, Peruggia did not work alone. The crime was carefully conducted by a notorious con man, Eduardo de Valfierno, who was sent by an art faker who intended to make copies and sell them as if they were the original painting.
While Yves Chaudron, the art faker, was busy creating copies for the famous masterpiece, Mona Lisa was still hidden at Peruggias’ apartment. After two years in which Peruggia did not hear from Chaudron, he tried to make the best out of his stolen good. Eventually, Peruggia was caught by the police while trying to sell the painting to an art dealer from Florence, Italy. The Mona Lisa was returned to the Louver in 1913.
The Biggest Theft in the USA:
The biggest art theft in United States took place at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the night of March 18, 1990, a group of thieves wearing police uniforms broke into the museum and took thirteen paintings whose collective value was estimated at around 300 million dollars. The thieves took two paintings and one print by Rembrandt, and works of Vermeer, Manet, Degas, Govaert Flinck, as well as a French and a Chinese artifact.
As of yet, none of the paintings have been found and the case is still unsolved. According to recent rumors, the FBI are investigating the possibility that the Boston Mob along with French art dealers are connected to the crime.
小題1: How long did it take to put back the stolen Mona Lisa in Louver ?___
A．Thirty six monthsB．Thirty months
C．Half a year D．Around two years
小題2:What does the underlined sentence, “he tried to make the best out of his stolen good” mean?
A．Chaudron wanted to sell the stolen painting.
B．Peruggia thought he didn’t need to work for Chaudon any more and wanted to market the painting.
C．Valfierno was tired of waiting.
D．Peruggia wanted to study the painting carefully.
小題3: Which case among those mentioned in the passage is still a mystery?
A．Mona Lisa case
B．Last Judgment case
C．Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thirteen paintings case
D．none
小題4:People from the country of _____ is not involved in the passage.
A．ChinaB．FranceC．DutchD．Vantican
小題5: Which statement is WRONG according to this article?
A．Picasso was ever considered a art theft suspect.
B．Art thieves normally not work alone.
C．The first documented case of art theft was conducted by pirates.
D．The mastermind of Mona Lisa was an art faker who wanted to sell copies.
小題6: The passage is not finished, which subtitle could be the next?
A．The Economic Value of Art TheftB．The Loss to Art Lovers
C．The Most Sought After PaintingD．Boston Mob and French Art Dealers

小題1:D
小題2:B
小題3:C
小題4:D
小題5:C
小題6:C

試題分析：文章講述了世界歷史上一些非常著名的藝術品失竊事件。
小題1:細節(jié)題。從文章In the night of August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen out of the Louver. 及The Mona Lisa was returned to the Louver in 1913.可知，為兩年的時間，故為D
小題2:推斷題。從文章After two years in which Peruggia did not hear from Chaudron, he tried to make the best out of his stolen good. Eventually, Peruggia was caught by the police while trying to sell the painting to an art dealer from Florence, Italy.可知他想自己私自去出售這幅畫，結果被警察發(fā)現(xiàn)了，故選B
小題3:細節(jié)題。從文章As of yet, none of the paintings have been found and the case is still unsolved. 可知，Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum thirteen paintings case 這個事件到現(xiàn)在仍然沒有得到解決，故選C
小題4:細節(jié)題。從全文看，只有梵蒂岡的人們沒有在文章中間被提到，故選D
小題5:細節(jié)題。從文章While the triptych was being transported by ship from the Netherlands to Florence, the ship was attacked by pirates who took it to the Gdansk cathedral in Poland. 可知并非是海盜偷走了這幅《最后的審判》畫，而是在船運的過程中被海盜搶去了，故選C
小題6:推斷題。文章前文都講到了各個不同的盜竊，所以文章后文將會講到最受人追捧的繪畫，故選C
點評：說明文是高考必考題型，此類題型比較好解答，在答題過程中注意結合題目在文章中找到答案的位置，注意理解作者所要表達感情色彩和中心思想。 同時，如果第一遍不能理解，結合題目來進行理解全文，也不失為一個好的方法。
練習冊系列答案
相關習題

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

“A very disruptive(調皮搗蛋的) six-year-old child kicked my legs and clawed at my hand,” said one teacher. “ I broke up a fight and was kicked between my legs,” said another. Many people have heard stories like this. But the situation is more worrying still and it involves parents.
Every child, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born, has the right to achieve their potential, regardless of their parents’ wealth and class. And we recognize that, as a nation, it is a long way to achieve this goal. But with rights come responsibilities and what worries people is that we are in danger of ignoring the latter.
Far too many children are behaving badly at school, even to the point of being violent to staff. This is terrible enough, but it is hard to be surprised since many children are just mirroring the behaviour of their parents.
My members tell me that parents also come into school often and threaten staff and some staff have been attacked by a pupil’s parents. One father encouraged his child to start a fight on the playground before school started. A primary teacher reported that a parent shouted at him. We need to have a serious and sensible debate about the roles and responsibilities of parents and the support that they can reasonably expect of schools and teachers.
Children will not learn how to behave as social beings if they are stuck in front of the TV for hours every day. They need their parents to show an interest in them and to spend time with them, helping them to play with their peers(同齡人) and to learn the rules of social behavior.
Children are now arriving at school socially undeveloped, increasingly unable to dress themselves, unable to use the toilet properly, unable to hold a knife and fork and unused to eating at a table, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, writes in today’s Observer. Instead of taking responsibility themselves, too many parents expect teachers to control their children’s behaviour and wellbeing, she adds. Bousted says one mother blamed staff when she discovered that her 16-year-old son was smoking.
We are in danger of becoming a nation of families living separate lives under one roof. The bedroom, once a place to sleep, has become the living space for the young. Spending hours in front of computer screens, on social networking sites or being immersed(沉迷于) in computer games, children and young people spend little time with their parents. Parents are unable to monitor just what their children are watching.
Schools cannot right the wrongs of society and teachers cannot become substitute parents. Both parties need to work together. Parents must be helped and given confidence to take back control. They are responsible for setting boundaries for their children's behaviour and sticking to those boundaries. They are responsible for setting a good example to their children and for devoting that most precious of resources — time — so that children come to school ready and willing to learn.
小題1:In the opinion of the writer, what problem do people ignore?
A．The violence in the school
B．The study pressure of students.
C．The responsibilities of the students
D．The right to achieve students’ potential.
小題2:The underlined part in Paragraph 7 means _____.
A．parents care little about children’s life at home
B．parents and children live in their separate rooms
C．children don’t live with their parents in the same house
D．children live a different life from that of parents at home
小題3:The author’s attitude to the behaviour of parents may be ______.
A．dissatisfiedB．indifferent
C．understandingD．tolerant
小題4:From the last paragraph, we can infer that ______.
A．teachers have no responsibility for playing the role of parents
B．schools can’t correct the wrongs that society does to teachers
C．students are responsible for making themselves known in society
D．parents should spend time with children to make them ready to learn

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

People used to say, “The hand that rocks (搖) the cradle (搖籃) rules the world.” and “Behind every successful man there is a woman.”
Both these sayings mean the same thing. Men rule the world, but their mothers and wives rule them.
Most American women wish to make their husbands and sons successful, but some of them want more for themselves. They want good jobs. When they work they want to be better paid. They want to be as successful as men.
The American women’s liberation movement was started by women who didn’t want to stand behind successful men. They wanted to stand beside men, with the same chance for success. They refused to work side by side with men who do the same work for a higher pay.
A liberated woman must be proud of being a woman and have confidence in herself. If somebody says to her, “You have come a long way, baby.” she will smile and answer, “Not nearly as far as I’m going to go, baby!”
This movement is quite new, and many American women don’t agree yet. But it has already made some important changes in women’s lives--- in men’s lives, too.
小題1:“Behind every successful man there is a woman:” means______.
A．men are always successful but not women
B．women are not willing to stand in front of men
C．women do play an important part in men’s lives and work
D．women can be as successful as men
小題2:Which of the following is NOT true?
A．Some American women want to work side by side with men and get the same pay for the same work.
B．Most American women want to be more successful than men.
C．Not every American woman wants to get a job.
D．The American women’s liberation movement did make some changes in women’s lives.
小題3:“Not nearly as far as I’m going to go” means ______.
A．I’m still going to work farther away from home
B．I’m not going to work far away from home
C．I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done
D．What I have done is not far from success
小題4:The American women’s liberation movement ________.
A．has still a long way to go
B．is a failure
C．was started by many successful women
D．is a new thing not accepted by the writer

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists who expected their future to be worse.
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents (受訪者) were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio (比率) of disability and death for the study period.
“We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade,” wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
“Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (預防措施),” the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes.
However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. “We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic,” the authors concluded.
小題1:According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?
A．Optimistic adults.B．Middle-aged adults.
C．Adults in poor health.D．Adults of lower income.
小題2:Pessimism may be positive in some way because it causes people ______.
A．to fully enjoy their present life
B．to estimate their contribution accurately
C．to take measures against potential risks
D．to value health more highly than wealth
小題3:How do people of higher income see their future?
A．They will earn less money.
B．They will become pessimistic.
C．They will suffer mental illness.
D．They will have less time to enjoy life.
小題4: What is the clear conclusion of the study?
A．Pessimism guarantees chances of survival.
B．Good financial condition leads to good health.
C．Medical treatment determines health outcomes.
D．Expectations of future life satisfaction decline with age.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wages. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig（鉆探平臺）with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and the teacher have in common is that they have devoted several years to studying in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.
　　Another aspect we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling second-hand cars. Yet it is almost certain that the used-car salesman earns more than the nurse and the schoolteacher.
　　Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic（精神的）wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying repetitiveness of his work. It is significant that the jobs like nursing and teaching continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.
Although the amount of money that people earn is largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point would be to try to decide the ratio（比率）which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicated by two factors: firstly by the welfare benefits which every citizen receives, and secondly by the taxation system which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities will become disappointed, and might even end up by leaving for another country. If it is more, the difference between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead to social unrest.
小題1:Why do people naturally expect that doctors should be well-paid?
A．Their work requires greater intelligence.
B．They are under constant pressure at work.
C．They work harder than most other people.
D．They have studied for years to get qualified.
小題2:In Paragraph 2 and 3, the author indicates that __________.
A．the talented should do more important work
B．unskilled jobs have less social responsibility
C．those with more socially useful jobs earn less
D．people want to pay more to important services
小題3:Which of the following statements would the author agree?
A．It’s difficult to define the social value of a job.
B．The market will decide what the right pay is for a job.
C．People should find a proper ratio between high and low pay.
D．Those receiving high salary should carry heavy responsibilities.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

閱讀下面短文并回答問題，然后將答案寫到答題卡相應的位置上（請注意問題后的詞數(shù)要求）。
[1] Parents and educators battle over how much homework kids should have, and how often they should have it. This past school year, my eldest daughter's teacher did not assign too much homework, and often gave the kids extra time during class to get it done. Meanwhile, my daughter's dear friend — who attends the same school and is in the same grade — struggled nightly with her lengthy homework assignments. She had work to do every night, extra projects to complete, and assignments to complete over holiday break.
[2] So which was the lucky kid? Some might argue that my child was — she had more time to play, and spent less time stressing over assignments. Others might feel that my child was missing out on a key element of her education by not having what she was learning during the school day reinforced.
[3] To be honest, I'm not really sure which camp I'm in, but it's debates like this one that have sparked a homework revolution between parents and schools all over the country. A New York Times article reported that the school district in Galloway, N.J., is considering a proposal to limit weeknight homework to 10 minutes for each year of school — 20 minutes for second-graders, 30 minutes for third-graders, etc. — and ban assignments on weekends, holidays and school vacations. The school district in Pleasanton, Calif., is looking at a similar proposal. __________, other schools around the country are introducing homework-free holidays, no-homework nights, and goal-work — instead of homework — that can be completed throughout the school day.
[4] Most of these changes are in response to annoyed parents who see lengthy homework assignments competing with what little family time they have each day. The documentary "Race To Nowhere" spurred（激起）more debate by highlighting the unnecessary pressure on kids in today's educational system.
小題1:What is the text mainly about? (no more than 8 words)
                                                                              
小題2:What sparked a homework revolution among parents and schools all over the country according to Paragraph 3? (no more than 5 words)
                                                                              
小題3:Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with proper words. (no more than 5 words)
                                                                              
小題4:What’s the parents’ attitude towards too much homework according to the last paragraph? (no more than 4 words)
                                                                              
小題5:What does the underlined word (Line 3, Paragraph 1) probably refer to? (no more than 3 words)
                                                                            

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

Virginia is set to begin enforcing the toughest drunken-driving punishment, one that will require thousands of first-time offenders­­—whether they were highly drunk or slightly over the limit – to install (安裝) in their cars blood-alcohol testing devices that can lock the ignition. The devices work like this－A driver must blow into a blood alcohol device linked to the car’s ignition. If the result is higher than the legal limit, the car will not start. The device also requires random “rolling retests” once the driver is on the road.
Virginia’s current law requires only repeat drunken-driving offenders or those with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher to have an ignition interlock device in their car.
The new law, which takes effect in July, will roughly increase the number of people required to use ignition interlock devices four times, and offenders will have to pay about $ 480 for a typical six-month installation.
The measure has caused a debate between groups battling drunken driving and those representing offenders. Such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Washington Regional Alcohol Program say that Virginia’s 274 alcohol-related road deaths and more than 5,500 injuries in 2010 remained unacceptably high despite years of cracking down on drunken driving. Ignition interlock devices, they say, reduce repeat offenses. But some public defenders and lawyers argue that the devices are too severe a punishment for offenders at the legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08, and that the court system will be burdened by more cases going to trial and lower-income drivers will be affected by the fees.
Del. Sal R. laquinto, who sponsored the bill, had a simple reply for concerns about the costs of the interlock devices: “How much does a life cost?” “Blowing into a tube for six months, you will remember that, ” Iaquinto said, “ and you are not likely to offend again. ”
小題1:The ignition probably refers to the part in a car where ______.
A．the alarm goes off B．the car is fueled
C．the key is placed D．the engine starts
小題2:Who are required to install the blood-alcohol devices according to the current law?
A．The repeat drunken-driving offenders.
B．The first time drunken-driving offenders.
C．Drivers whose blood alcohol level is below 0.15.
D．The drivers who are not able to pay offence fees.
小題3:Some groups support the new law because ______.
A．the government can be financed to build roads
B．some traffic deaths and injuries may be avoided
C．lower-income drivers will not afford to drink again
D．the court system is forced to work more effectively
小題4:The debate aroused by the measure suggests that ______.
A．justice has long arms
B．punishment is the key to all
C．no law is absolutely perfect
D．prevention is better than cure

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

“I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net.”
“I often check my e-mail forty times a day. ”
“I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net.”
“I spend more time in chat rooms than with my ‘real-life’ friends.”
Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction（上癮）called Internet addiction. Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week. The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug（毒品）use. People lose control（控制）of the time they spend on the Internet.
For example, one college student was missing for several days. His friends were worried, and they called the police. The police found the student in the computer lab: he was surfing the net for several days straight.
Studies show that about 6% to 10% of Internet users become addicted. And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them. They spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.
Is “surfing the net” a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms（癥狀）:  ①You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet.  ②You can’t wait for your next online time.   ③You go out with your friends less and less.   ④You plan to spend a short time online, but then you spend several hours.
小題1:How does the writer describe the addicts’ use of Internet?
A．It is something like keeping drugs.B．It is like taking drugs.
C．It is a way of producing drugs.D．It is terrible to imagine.
小題2: Why do people worry about the teens?
A．The teens are wasting too much money.
B．They used to work on the Internet.
C．The playing field of the teens will disappear.
D．More and more of the teens will become addicted to the Internet.
小題3:The example in the passage shows that     .
A．some of the Internet users have already been seriously addicted
B．Internet addicts usually stay in the computer lab without sleep
C．Internet problems are more serious among college students
D．the police often help to find those Internet addicts
小題4:What is the writer trying to tell us at the end of the passage?
A．Do things as you have planned.B．Go to family activities more often.
C．Don’t be addicted to the Internet.D．Stay with your parents as often as possible.

查看答案和解析>>

科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

If you lose your wallet, how often do you think someone will be kind enough to return it to you, with cash and credit cards?
Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother(打攪) with the trip to the post office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard Wiseman, there’s one thing that’ll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet: a photograph of a cute baby.
In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered(分散) around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the addresses listed on the drivers’ licenses inside—but more than that, they wanted to find out what would make a person more likely to help out a stranger.
To finish this, they included personal things in most of the wallets: some included a photo of a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts(發(fā)票) showing that the wallet’s owner had recently donated to a charity（慈善）. Some contained no personal details.
As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any heart: only one in ten of the strangers who retrieved such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.
The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion(同情) for the young that’s been passed down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. “The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective(進化的角度),” he told the Times.
To ensure our species’ survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won’t feel compassion only for our own babies, but for any that we see—hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to the baby’s parent.
On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever lost, you’re more likely to get it back. “If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being returned if lost, gain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly displayed,” said Dr. Wiseman.
小題1:The main purpose of the psychologists’ leaving hundreds of wallets around was to find out________.
A．whether people were as honest as before
B．what made people willing to help strangers
C．what kind of feelings could be caused by a smiling baby
D．how evolution influenced human beings
小題2:The underlined word “retrieved” in Para. 5 probably means “________”.
A．picked upB．spread outC．found outD．looked for
小題3:Why did people return a wallet with a photograph of a cute baby in it?
A．Because the wallet was not attractive enough to keep.
B．Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them.
C．Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby
D．Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children.
小題4:If there are 30 lost wallets with a photograph of a cute baby, how many of them will probably be returned?
A．Only 3. B．About 15.C．20 or so.D．About 27.
小題5:We can learn from the last two paragraphs that________.
A．humans usually have compassion for the young
B．the caring feeling in people is gone during evolution
C．scientists believed that people only feel compassion for their own babies
D．a wallet with a cute baby’s picture in it cannot be lost

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習冊答案