TOEFL Exams: Reading Comprehension - Lesson 55 (Đọc hiểu - TOEFL - Bài 55)
Đọc đoạn văn sau và trả lời các câu hỏi:As part of the American Revolution, many, if not most, Americans also wanted a cultural break with Europe. European art, culture, and society were attacked as being "aristocratic." They were seen as a threat to the ideal of democracy. They were described as being decadent, 5 degenerate, and debased. Benjamin Franklin, a man who had close personal ties to Europe and who had often been honored there for his intellectual brilliance, characterized England on the eve of the Revolution as a bad influence on American society and morals. The art of America, like the country, would need a fresh start. This view of European 10 culture, that it was decadent and rotten, was to remain strong in the United States for a long time.
From the other side came an argument about American culture that was to be repeated again and again over the years. This argument, the 15 so-called elitist or aristocratic position, was that republican America, the new democracy of the common man, could not possibly support the finer things in life. The rise of the common man could only mean a decline in art and culture.
20 Europeans, of course, sided with this view. They, the Americans, had no aristocracy, and so would have no appreciation of the artistic aspects of life that view was flawed, as can be easily seen by observing the growth of an American culture despite everything the Europeans and their elitist followers in America said, because its believers 25 confused the artist in society with his patron, the person who employs him, which used to be the aristocracy. However, in the United States, artists made a name for themselves largely without the need of patrons, and thus American culture was born.
From the other side came an argument about American culture that was to be repeated again and again over the years. This argument, the 15 so-called elitist or aristocratic position, was that republican America, the new democracy of the common man, could not possibly support the finer things in life. The rise of the common man could only mean a decline in art and culture.
20 Europeans, of course, sided with this view. They, the Americans, had no aristocracy, and so would have no appreciation of the artistic aspects of life that view was flawed, as can be easily seen by observing the growth of an American culture despite everything the Europeans and their elitist followers in America said, because its believers 25 confused the artist in society with his patron, the person who employs him, which used to be the aristocracy. However, in the United States, artists made a name for themselves largely without the need of patrons, and thus American culture was born.
2. In which part of the passage can we find the American attitudes which were critical of European culture?
3. According to the passage Europeans felt that American culture would not succeed because
4. Benjamin Franklin probably
5. What is the tone of the passage?
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Reading Comprehension TOEFL Exams
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