149] READING COMPREHENSION [GCSE PREVIOUS EXAMS-EGYPT 1983]

Modern Civilisation & Man

 

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Ministry of Education

General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1983

For Science and Arts Candidates

English-Special Course

Time Allowed: 3 Hours

11. Read the following passage and then answer the questions below using your own words as far as possible:
As modern civilisation has made life more and more demanding. Man, in his turn, is becoming more and more materialistic. This has led art to recede from the focus of attention of most people, particularly that it has gained in complexity owing to the fact that life itself is getting more complex. Consequently, it has become difficult for the vast majority of people to appreciate art. In the past, when classical or romantic art prevailed, it was easy for anybody to understand what he sees. The mastery of a painter, for instance, lay in his ability to depict details so as to reproduce life exactly as it is. Everybody appreciated the genius of Leonardo da Vinci when he portrayed the Mona Lisa with her soft hands, every crease in her dress, her charming smile and the serene look in her eyes.
But modern art expresses concepts that interplay within the artist, and so the artists have found it inadequate to conform to the old ways of painting landscape and human beings as they are. Painting, and even sculpture, passed through different phases and new schools emerged until ultimately surrealism came into existence. Picasso being the most outstanding example, depicts concepts rather than objects. He goes deeper into human nature and into the essence of life at large and paints them as he conceives and visualises them. That is why we are how we have those bizarre paintings which only a majority can appreciate.
People look at the paintings of the old masters with their eyes, but at modern paintings with their eyes, minds, feelings and a whole background of tradition and culture.

    Questions:
1.   What, do you think, does the writer mean by ‘life is getting more and more demanding’?
2.   Give an example to illustrate that a man is becoming more materialistic.
3.   Why is it that has become difficult for the majority of people to appreciate art?
4.   Why does the writer bring up Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso the passage (text)?
5.   Comment briefly on the last paragraph. You can draw your ideas from the whole passage (text).