今天小编给大家带来的是GRE阅读解释之Mediumpassage，希望对大家有所帮助。

Adividebetweenaestheticandtechnicalconsiderationshasplayedacrucialroleinmapmakingandcartographicscholarship.Sincenineteenthcenturycartographers,forinstance,understoodthemselvesastechnicianswhodidnotcareaboutvisualeffects,whileotherssawthemselvesaslandscapepainters.Thatdichotomystructuredthedisciplineofthehistoryofcartography.Untilthe1980s,inwhatBlakemoreandHarleycalledtheOldisBeautifulParadigm,"scholarslargelyfocusedonmapsmadebefore1800,marvelingattheirbeautyandsometimesregrettingthedeclineofthepre-technicalage.Earlymapmakingwasconsideredartwhilemoderncartographywaslocatedwithintherealmofengineeringutility.Alpers,however,hasarguedthatthisboundarywouldhavepuzzledmapmakersintheseventeenthcentury,becausetheyconsideredthemselvestobevisualengineers.

全文包括两个观点：

一是美学和技术是有界限的；

二是Alpers认为对17世纪的mapmaker来说并没有这样的界限。

1.Accordingtothepassage,Alperswouldsaythattheassumptionsunderlyingtheparadigm"wereA.inconsistentwiththewaysomemapmakerspriorto1800understandtheirownworkB.dependentonaseventeenth-centuryconceptionofmapmakingvisualengineering

C.unconcernedwiththedifferencebetweentheaestheticandtechnicalquestionsofmapmakingD.insensitivetodivisionsamongcartographersworkingintheperiodafter1800E.supportedbythedemonstrabletechnicalsuperiorityofmapmakingmadeafter1800

答案：A

解析：paradigm代表前一种观点，Alpers代表第二种观点，因此选A，Alpers认为paradigm包含的观点和17世纪的mapmaker不一样。

2.Itcanbeinferredfromthepassagethat,beginninginthe1980s,historiansofcartography

A.placedgreateremphasisonthebeautyofmapsmadeafter1800B.expandedtheirrangeofstudytoincludemorematerialcreatedafter1800C.grewmoresensitivetothewaymapmakerspriorto1800conceivedoftheirwork

D.cametoseethevisualdetailsofmapsasaestheticobjectsratherthanpracticalcartographicaidsE.reducedtheattentiontheypaidtothetechnicalaspectsofmapmaking

答案：B

审题重点：beginninginthe1980s

答案句：Untilthe1980s,inwhatBlakemoreandHarleycalledtheOldisBeautifulParadigm,"scholarslargelyfocusedonmapsmadebefore1800,marvelingattheirbeautyandsometimesregrettingthedeclineofthepre-technicalage.

解析：注意until表示upto，后面的句子讲述的是1980s前的事，而题目问1980s后的事，要取反。

小结：文章的核心就是两个不同的观点，头一题考查两个观点的碰撞（A如何看B0，第二题定位不难，着重考until的意思，也是一个常见的GRE阅读考点。