Passage Six

　　Questions 26-30 are based on the following passage.

　　Where did the movies begin? It is often said that they are an American invention, but this is not entirely true. The motion picture has been the most international of arts before the dawn of the 20th century.

　　Soon after 1889, when the famous American inventor Thomas Edison first showed motion pictures through a device called the kinetoscope, other devices for the same purpose appeared all over the world. One other important contribution by Edison was the introduction of 35mm as the international standard film width. When it became possible to use any 35mm machine for showing movies from any part of the world, the international trading of films could begin.

　　During the first years, there were no special movie theaters. Films were often shown in buildings which had formerly been stores. In America, these became known as nickelodeons because each member of the audience paid a nickel (five cents) to watch the movie.

　　At first, movies pleased people just because the experience of watching them was new. In the black and white shadows, one could see larger-than-life images of reality and they moved! But images alone cannot keep people interested forever. Then cameras were taken to South Africa and Cuba to photograph wars in action. Prizefights were filmed, and so were religious processions. But none of these attractions could please the crowds for long.

　　What gave the movies the possibility of becoming an art form was the introduction of narrative. Someone realized that a film could tell a story.

　　Edwin S. Porter was a director and cameraman for Thomas Edison’s company. He advanced the art of the film by a giant step when, in 1903, he produced The Great Train Robbery. Although this account of a mail robbery and the pursuit of the robbers was very simple, it required the filming of several different locations. The result was a film that not only shifted freely from place to place but even enabled viewers to see two actions that occurred at the same time. They watched the robbers escape and then saw the pursuers gathering for the pursuit. Within this brief, eight-minute movie lay the seeds of a true art form.

　　In 1908, Biograph, a small film company in New York, employed a man who was to become the first true genius of motion pictures. He was D. W. Griffith, an unsuccessful actor and writer of plays, who had worked briefly for Porter. Griffith preferred writing to acting, but at Biograph he worked as a writer, an actor and a director. In less than five years, he directed almost 300 pictures, raised Biograph to a leading position among film companies, and laid the foundations for modern

　　film art.

　　26. The first motion pictures were shown by Thomas Edison in_______.

　　A. 1889 B. 1903

　　C. 1907 D. 1908

　　27. _______ made the international trading of films possible.

　　A. The use of nickels

　　B. Movie theaters

　　C. The introduction of 35mm as the international standard film width

　　D. A device called the kinetoscope

　　28. _______made it possible for films to become an art form.

　　A. Larger-than-life images of reality

　　B. The fact that wars were filmed

　　C. Prizefight

　　D. The introduction of narrative

　　29. The writer said that Porter advanced the art of the film by a giant step in producing The Great Train Robbery.This is probably because the film_______.

　　A. had a title which had a tremendous effect

　　B. was the longest at that time

　　C. was produced by a director

　　D. required the filming of several different locations

　　30. _______is regarded as the first true genius of motion picture.

　　A. Edison

　　B. Porter

　　C. Griffith

　　D. Biograph

　　IlI. Discourse Cloze. (10 points, 1 point for each)

　　Directions: The following passage is taken from the textbook. Read the passage and fill in the numbered spaces (there are more suggested answers than necessary). Write your answers on the Answer Sheet.

　　WORLD WAR II, the name commonly given to the global conflict of 1939-1945. It was the greatest and most destructive war in history. 31. _______, World War II included gigantic struggles not only in Europe but in Asia, Africa, and the far-flung (廣泛的,漫長的) islands of the Pacific as well. More than 17 million members of the armed forces of the various belligerents (交戰國) perished during the conflict. Its conduct strained the economic capabilities of the major nations and left many countries on the edge of collapse.

　　At the end of World War I the victorious nations formed the League of Nations for the purpose of airing international disputes, and of mobilizing its members for a collective effort to keep the peace in the event of aggression by any nation against another or of a breach (對法律、義務等的違犯) of the peace treaties. The United States, imbued (鼓吹) with isolationism, did not become a member. The League failed in its first test. In 1931 the Japanese, using as an excuse the explosion of a small bomb under a section of track of the South Manchuria Railroad (over which they had virtual control), initiated military operations designed to conquer all of Manchuria. 32. _______ Thereupon, Japan resigned from the League. Meanwhile, Manchuria had been overrun and transformed into a Japanese puppet state under the name of Manchukuo. 33. _______.

　　In 1933 also, Adolf Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and began to rearm the country in contravention (違反，違背) of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. 34.___. That year the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini began his long-contemplated invasion of Ethiopia, which he desired as an economic colony. 35. _______. British and French efforts to effect a compromise settlement failed, and Ethiopia was completely occupied by the Italians in 1936.

　　Alarmed by German rearmament, France sought an alliance with the USSR. Under the pretext that this endangered Germany, Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936. 36. _______. Emboldened by this success, Hitler intensified his campaign for Lebensraum (space for living) for the German people. 37. _______. In September, as Hitler increased his demands on the Czechs and war seemed imminent, the British and French arranged a conference with Hitler and Mussolini. At the Munich Conference they agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland, Hitler’s asserted last claim, in the hope of maintaining peace. This hope was short lived, for in March 1939, Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia and seized the former German port of Memel from Lithuania. There followed demands on Poland with regard to Danzig (波蘭港口) and the Polish Corridor. 38. _______. After surprising the world with the announcement of a nonaggression pact (條約) with his sworn foe, the Soviet Union, he sent his armies across the Polish border on Sept. 1, 1939.39. _______.

　　As the Germans devastated Poland, the Russians moved into the eastern part of the country and began the process that was to lead to the absorption in 1940 of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. They also made demands on Finland. 40. _______.

　　Meanwhile, Japan had undertaken military operations for the subjugation of China proper, and was making preparations for the expansion of its empire into Southeast Asia and the rich island groups of the Southwest Pacific. Mussolini watched the progress of his fellow dictator, Hitler, while preparing to join in the war at a favorable moment.

　　(From The World War II in Brief)