高考英语真题解析
Passage One
1.bull: 1)牛2）（文中含义）牛市
2.run: 时期，一段时间
* bull run: 牛市期
3.dramatic: 戏剧化的
4.note: 1.（文中含义）气氛 2. 笔记
* on a dramatic note: 戏剧性地
5.all but （two pieces）: 除....之外的所有东西
6.to fetch: 1）. （文中含义）售得（若干价钱）
*The painting is expected to fetch at least $20 million.人们认为这幅画可以卖到至少2000万美元。 2）去（某个地方）取回
*Shannon went upstairs to fetch some blankets.香农去楼上取来一些毯子。
7.auction：（名词）拍卖
* The house was sold at auction.房子拍卖出售。
auctioneer: 拍卖师
8.to call out bids; 喊出拍卖的报价
9.to file for sth：1）（文中含义）(法律上正式）提出申请
* The Morrisons have filed for divorce：莫里斯夫妇已经提出离婚。
# to file for bankruptcy: 提出破产的申请
# file a complaint/ lawsuit (against somebody)针对sb提出投诉/诉讼 Mr Genoa filed a formal complaint against the department. Genoa先生正式投诉了这个部门。
2）排队前行
* We began to file out into the car park. 我们开始排队进入停车场。* The mourners filed past the coffin. 吊唁者排队经过棺材。
The longest bull run in a century of art-market history ended on a dramatic note with a sale of 56 works by Damien Hirst, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby’s in London on September 15th 2008. All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last victory. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy. 在2008年9月15日伦敦苏富比拍卖行举行的“在我心中，美丽永恒”拍卖会上，Damien Hirst的56部作品成功售出，随着这些作品的售出，艺术品市场一个世纪以来最长的牛市戏剧性地落幕了。所有作品中只有两件没有售出，销售额超过了7，000万英镑，创造了单个艺术家的拍卖纪录。这是最后的胜利。（因为）就在拍卖师喊出报价的时候，纽约华尔街上历史最悠久的银行之一雷曼兄弟申请破产。
10.momentum: （名词）势头，力量
#gain/gather momentum 集聚力量，发力
* The campaign for reform should start to gather momentum in the new year.改革活动应该在新年发力。
* Governments often lose momentum in their second term of office.一般政府在第二任期内会失去势头。
11.peak: 1）顶点2）（文中含义）巅峰
# at one’s peak: 在巅峰状态
12.to reckon: 1）. 认为＝think
* Do you reckon he'll agree to see us？你觉得他会同意我们吗？
2）（文中含义）估算，估计
* We reckon that sitting in traffic jams costs us around $9 billion a year in lost output。我们估算在交通堵塞中的损失达每年90亿美元。
13.A is double B : A是B的两倍
14.ego: (名词) 自我
15.greed: （名词）贪婪
greedy: 贪婪的
16.controversy: （名词）争议
controversial: 有争议的
17.to match: （动词）1）.（文中含义）与….相当
* His strength is matched by his intelligence. 他的力量与智慧相当。
2）与….相配
We painted the cabinets green to match the rug. 我们把壁橱油漆成绿色和地毯相匹配。
* Do you think this outfit matches? 你觉得这套衣服搭配得当吗？
注意：我们不说“matches to” or “matches with another”. 而是说“one thing matches another” or “two things match”.
The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising bewilderingly since 2003. At its peak in 2007 it was worth some $65 billion, reckons Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, a research firm – double the figure five years earlier. Since then it may have come down to $50 billion. But the market generates interest far beyond its size because it brings together great wealth, enormous egos, greed, passion and controversy in a way matched by few other industries. 世界艺术品市场在经历了2003年起的急剧上升后，一段时间以来其发展势头已经开始丧失。Clare McAndrew 是一家名叫Arts Economics,研究公司的创始人，他估计在2007年的高峰期，世界艺术品市场的价值约为650亿美元，是五年前的两倍。从那时起，它的价值可能已经降到500亿美元。但是艺术品市场产生的利益远远超出它本身的规模，因为它汇集了巨大的财富、膨胀的自我、贪婪、激情和争议。其方式几乎没有哪个产业能与之相提并论。
18.to stay away from: 远离
19.sector: 领域，部门
20.guarantee: （名词）保证金
* In the weeks and months that followed Mr. Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable. In the art world that meant collectors stayed away from galleries and salerooms. Sales of contemporary art fell by two-thirds, and in the most overheated sector, they were down by nearly 90% in the year to November 2008. Within weeks the world’s two biggest auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, had to pay out nearly $200m in guarantees to clients who had placed works for sale with them. 在Hirst的作品拍卖会后的几个星期和几个月里，任何此类的投资都变得很不合时宜。在艺术品领域，这意味着收藏家远离了画廊和销售店。当代艺术品的销售额下降了三分之二，而在最热门的领域，那一年的销售额截止到2008年11月份下跌了近90%。几周之内，世界上两家最大的拍卖行，苏富比和佳士得，不得不支付近两亿美元把那些早已把作品交与他们出售的客户，以作为担保费用。
21.downturn: （名词）下降，衰退，低迷
the current downturn: 目前的低迷状态
22. on average: 平均而言
23. to fluctuate: 变动，震荡
fluctuant:：变动的，震荡的
24. be confident that….或者be confident about sth: 坚信…
用名词形式的话：to have confidence in sth……..注意介词的不同
25. be at the bottom: 在底部
The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989. This time experts reckon that prices are about
