《考研英语阅读理解100篇 高分版》 Unit 11 - TEXT TWO

Not all modern observers of Byzantium have been so willing to associate the city on the Bosphorus with universalism or cultural breadth. While Byzantium's rating has risen recently, it has not entirely shaken off the criticisms dished out in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the devastating verdict of William Lecky, an Irish historian, who in 1869 described the Byzantine empire as “the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilisation has yet assumed”.
Even Byzantium's modern defenders have tended to set out their case in qualified terms, stressing the empire's relationship to other historical developments. Some see it as a connecting line between classical antiquity and the modern world; others, particularly those who think that civilisations are doomed perpetually to clash, stress the empire's role as a bulwark against Islam, without which Europe as a whole would have turned Muslim. Others again see it as a catalyst for the European Renaissance, especially after Hellenic talent was freed from Byzantine dogmatism.
Judith Herrin, a professor at King's College London, sets out to show that there are far better reasons to study and admire the civilisation that flourished for more than a millennium before the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and whose legacy is still discernible all over southeast Europe and the Levant. She presents Byzantium as a vibrant, dynamic, cosmopolitan reality which somehow escaped the constraints of its official ideology. For example, despite the anti-Semitism of the empire's public discourse and theology, its complex, diversified economy could hardly have functioned without the 30-plus Jewish communities that Benjamin of Tudela, a 12th-century rabbi, described.
Ms. Herrin also shows that there was a fluid and perpetually evolving relationship between the competing influences of classical Greek learning, Greek Christianity and popular Byzantine culture. She pays particular attention to the powerful female voices that emerged from Byzantium: not just pious ladies who wrote saints' lives and hymns (including one breathtaking piece of sensual, almost erotic religious poetry) but the sophisticated political history that was penned by Anna Komnene, a frustrated would-be empress of the 12th century.
Ms. Herrin will certainly win over some sceptics. But it will remain the case that more people are drawn to Byzantine civilisation through its dazzling art and architecture than by its literature. In August 2006, for example, more than 1,000 academic specialists on Byzantium converged on London for a week-long conference. The success of the quinquennial event was a sign that Byzantine studies are flourishing in almost every corner of the world. But it is a reasonable bet that, whatever they ultimately studied, these scholars were first drawn to the Byzantine world by gazing in wonder at an icon or a frescoed church rather than by perusing the pages of Anna Komnene.
The brilliance of Byzantine art is proof enough that something extraordinary happened on the Bosphorus. And this brilliance remained undimmed even when the empire's geopolitical fortunes were collapsing. Snobbish Western classicists who called Byzantium a poor substitute for ancient Greece may have missed the point. True, the Byzantine world was weighed down by deference to classical Greek models. But that charge could also be laid against the pedagogues who used to dominate the study of the humanities in the Western world. Right now, Byzantine history is in vogue at many universities while old-fashioned classical studies are struggling to hold their own.
1. Modern observers and defenders do not highly praise Byzantium's culture because _____.
[A] the civilizations of the empire were short of universalism or cultural breadth
[B] William Lecky, who is the leading figure of the Byzantium's study, depreciated the culture of Byzantium greatly
[C] criticisms against the Byzantium in the history biased people
[D] Byzantium's culture was completely devastated in the 18th and 19th centuries
2. The example by Herrin in the third paragraph may prove that _____.
[A] the civilization of Byzantium is worth of studying and admiring
[B] Byzantium' civilization had flourished a much longer time than people usually perceive it and such influence has been neglected
[C] to some extent, it is not necessary to relate Byzantium the city with the whole empire's public discourse and theology
[D] the Jewish communities actually had made great contribution to Byzantium, which is against the conventional view of the study
3. Which one of the following statements is NOT true of the academic conference on Byzantium?
[A] The scholars were only interested in studying icons or frescoes in Byzantium.
[B] The success of this conference proves the study on Byzantium is in vogue.
[C] Scholars were drawn to Byzantium civilization by its art at the very beginning.
[D] Scholars showed less interest in the literature of Byzantium.
4. According to the passage, Byzantine culture _____.
[A] is merely a replica of the ancient Greece
[B] is quite independent from Greek culture in almost all aspects
[C] is of no relation with the ancient Greece in a subtle way
[D] is influenced by the Greek culture and theology
5. Towards the classical studies on Byzantium, the author's attitude can be said to be _____.
[A] biased
[B] negative
[C] skeptical
[D] objective