(A) revolutionary (B) inconsequential
(C) outdated (D) derivative (E) incomplete
20. The passage suggests that if on a certain day the wind were to decrease until there was no wind at all which of the following would occur?
(A) The air closest to the ocean surface would become saturated with water vapor.
(B) The air closest to the ocean surface would be warmer than the water.
(C) The amount of moisture in the air closest to the ocean surface would decrease.
(D) The rate of heat and moisture transfer would increase.
(E) The air closest to the ocean would be at the same temperature as air higher up.
Extraordinary creative activity has been characterized as revolutionary, flying in the face of what is established and producing not what is acceptable but what will become accepted. According to this formulation, highly creative activity transcends the limits of an existing form and establishes a new principle of organization. How- ever, the idea that extraordinary creativity transcends established limits in misleading when it is applied to the arts, even though it may be valid for the sciences. Differ- ences between highly creative art and highly creative sci- ence arise in part from a difference in their goals. For the sciences, a new theory is the goal and end result of the creative act. Innovative science produces new proposi- tions in terms of which diverse phenomena can be related to one another in more coherent ways. Such phe- nomena as a brilliant diamond or a nesting bird are rele- gated to the role of data, serving as the means for for- mulating or testing a new theory. The goal of highly creative art is very different: the phenomenon itself becomes the direct product of the creative act. Shake- speare's Hamlet is not a tract about the behavior of indecisive princes or the uses of political power; nor is Picasso's painting Guernica primarily a propositional statement about the Spanish Civil War or the evils of fascism. What highly creative artistic activity produces is not a new generalization that transcends established lim- its, but rather an aesthetic particular. Aesthetic particu- lars produced by the highly creative artist extend or exploit, in an innovative way, the limits of an existing form, rather than transcend that form.
This is not to deny that a highly creative artist some- times establishes a new principle of organization in the history of an artistic field; the composer Monteverdi, who created music of the highest aesthetic value, comes to mind. More generally, however, whether or not a composition establishes a new principle in the history of music has little bearing on its aesthetic worth. Because they embody a new principle of organization, some musical works, such as the operas of the Florentine Camerata, are of signal historical importance, but few listeners or musicologists would include these among the great works of music. On the other hand, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is surely among the masterpieces of music even though its modest innovations are confined to extending existing means. It has been said of Beethoven that he toppled the rules and freed music from the stifling confines of convention. But a close study of his compositions reveals that Beethoven over- turned no fundamental rules. Rather, he was an incom- parable strategist who exploited limits-the rules, forms, and conventions that he inherited from predecessors such as Haydn and Mozart, Handel and Bach-in strik- ingly original ways.
21. The author considers a new theory that coherently relates diverse phenomena to one another to be the
(A) basis for reaffirming a well-established scientific formulation
(B) byproduct of an aesthetic experience
(C) tool used by a scientist to discover a new particular
(D) synthesis underlying a great work of art
(E) result of highly creative scientific activity
22. The author implies that Beethoven's music was strikingly original because Beethoven
(A) strove to outdo his predecessors by becoming the first composer to exploit limits
(B) fundamentally changed the musical forms of his predecessors by adopting a richly inven- tive strategy
(C) embellished and interwove the melodies of sev- eral of the great composers who preceded him
(D) manipulated the established conventions of musical composition in a highly innovative fashion
(E) attempted to create the illusion of having tran- scended the musical forms of his predecessors
23. The passage states that the operas of the Florentine Camerata are
(A) unjustifiably ignored by musicologists
上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] ... 下一页 >>