[必备搭配]

　　inexorable decline势不可挡的衰退；arts coverage文艺报道；book-review section书评版；major papers主流报纸、主要报纸；classical-music critics古典音乐评论家；employ full-time critics雇佣全职评论家；review the event评论这一事件；cultural subject文化主题

　　(2)①It is, I suspect, difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. ②Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century, including Virgil Thomson’s The Musical Scene (1945)， Edwin Denby’s Looking at the Dance (1949)， Kenneth Tynan’s Curtains (1961)， and Hilton Kramer’s The Age of the Avant-Garde (1973) consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. ③To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their erudite contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies。

　　[译文]

　　我怀疑，年龄在40岁以下的普通读者无法想象那样一个能够在大部分的大城市报纸上找到高质量的文艺评论的时代。然而有大量在20世纪出版的具有最重要意义的评论作品，包括维吉尔·汤姆逊的《音乐现场》(1945年)、埃德温·登比的《看舞蹈》(1949)、肯尼斯·惕南的《窗帘》(1961)和希尔顿·克拉莫尔的《先锋派时代》(1973)在报纸评论中占据了很大部分。如今去读这种书籍会使人们对这样一种事实感到大为惊讶，那就是这些书籍广博的内容曾经被人们认为很适合在面对大众发行的日报上刊登。

　　[语篇分析]

　　①       用I suspect开头，表达了作者的观点。注意suspect表示“确定的怀疑”，而doubt则表示“不确定的怀疑”，请看柯林斯字典对这两个词的区分：suspect  You use suspect when you are stating something that you believe is probably true, in order to make it sound less strong or direct.；doubt  If you have doubt or doubts about something, you feel uncertain about it and do not know whether it is true or possible. If you say you have no doubt about it, you mean that you are certain it is true。对这两个词的区分，我们往往能判断出作者的态度是对某事物支持还是反对，有助于我们解题！②Yet表示转折，①说现在很难找到高质量的文艺评论，而②则以过去为例，说明了过去是一个怎样的情况，讲述了有大量在20世纪出版的具有最重要意义的评论作品占据了报纸评论的大部分，并举出四种评论作品。③又回到如今(today)，说去读这种书籍会使人感到大为惊讶，而在原来(were once)则被认为是一种正常的事情，这也说明了报纸的文艺报道在范围上倒退，证明文章主题(第一段①的后半句)。②③两句存在时间上的对比，而③句句内也存在这种时间对比。

　　[重点单词]

　　collection/kəˈlekʃən/ n. A collection of things is a group of similar things that you have deliberately acquired, usually over a period of time. 作品、收藏品

　　criticism /ˈkrɪtɪsɪzəm/ n. Criticism is a serious examination and judgment of something such as a book or play. 评论

　　erudite /ˈerʊdaɪt/ adj. If you describe someone as erudite, you mean that they have or show great academic knowledge. You can also use erudite to describe something such as a book or a style of writing. (FORMAL) 广博的、博学多识的