2018年12月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Early History of Motion Pictures

2018年12月5日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Early History of Motion Pictures

Motion pictures and television are possible because of two quirks of the human perceptual system: the phi phenomenon and persistence of vision. The phi phenomenon refers to what happens when a person sees one light sources go out while another one close to the original is illuminated. To our eyes, it looks like the light moves from one place to another. In persistence of vision, our eyes continue to see an image for a spit second after the image has disappeared from view. First observed by the ancient Greeks, persistence of vision became more widely known in 1824 when Peter Roget(who also developed the thesaurus) demonstrated that human begins retain an image of an object for about one-tenth of a second after the object is taken from view. Following Roget’s pronouncement, a host of toys that depended on this principle sprang up in Europe. Bearing fanciful manes (the Thaumatrope, the Praxinoscope), these devices made a series of hand-drawn pictures appear to move.

1. According to paragraph 1,what is the phi phenomenon?

A. The appearance of movement that occurs when one light is turned off while another lights up nearby

B. The tendency to see two lights placed close together as coming from a single light source

C. The fact that the human eye sees a light source for a split second after it has disappeared

D. The impression that there are several light sources when there is actually only one

2. According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements does NOT correctly describe persistence of vision?

A. It was originally noticed by the ancient Greeks

B. It refers to an image of an object seen by the human eye for one-tenth of a second after the object has disappeared

C. It is a scientific principle that was already widely accepted before Peter Roget demonstrated its validity

D. It provided the basis for a number of European toys,including the Thaumatrope and the Praxinoscope

3. The word “pronouncement” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. statement

B. advice

C. theory

D. Experiment

Before long, several people realized that a series of still photographs on celluloid film could be used instead of hand drawing. In 1878 a colorful Englishman later turned American. Edward Muybridge, attempted to settle a $25.000 bet over whether the four feet of a galloping horse ever simultaneously left the ground. He arranged a series of 24 cameras alongside a racetrack to photograph a galloping horse. Rapidly viewing the series of pictures produced an effect much like that of a motion picture. Muybirdge’s technique not only settled the bet (the feet did leave the ground simultaneously at certain instances) but also photography. Instead of 24 cameras talking one pictures in rapid order, it was Thomas Edison and his assistant, William Dickson, who finally developed what might have been the first practical motion-picture camera and viewing device, Edison was apparently trying to provide a visual counterpart to his recently invented phonograph. When his early efforts did not work out, he turned the project over his assistant. Using flexible film, Dickson solved the vexing problem of how to move the film rapidly through the camera by perforating its edge with tiny holes and pulling it along by means of sprockets, projections on a wheel that fit into the holes of the film in 1889 Dickson had perfected a machine called the Kinetoscope and even starred in a brief film demonstrating how it worked.

4. In paragraph 2, why does the author mention the bet that Edward Muybridge tried to settle about whether “the four feet of a galloping horse ever simultaneously left the ground”?

A. To introduce and explain a fundamental principle of motion-picture photography

B. To demonstrate that still photographs produced a visual effect that surpassed that of hand-drawn pictures

C. To emphasize that photographers had to be willing to take risks in order to portray their subjects

D. To suggest the difficulty of trying to capture animal movement in motion-picture photography

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