1006G[REBORN FROM THE ASHES组]备考日记 by 正常点——任何的失败都有太多的必然

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名词grammar 继续~~

1．容易误用为复数的不可数名词：(这些名词一般不能用作复数，谓语动词用单数)
　　advice 建议，忠告 living 生活，生计
　　equipment 装备，设备 progress 前进，发展
　　furniture 家具，设备 scenery 风景，景色
　　information 通知；信息 machinery 机器，机械
　　knowledge 知识，学问 traffic 交通流量
　　baggage / luggage 行李，皮箱 trouble 烦恼，麻烦
　　cash 现金 thunder 雷声，轰隆声
　　apparatus 仪器 weather 天气，处境
　　clothing 衣服 work 工作，劳动
　　paper 纸，钞票 luck 运气，幸运
　　technology 工艺，技术 jewelry 珠宝
　　2．
复数形式的名词用于单数概念，其谓语动词用单数。(这些名词一般为表示学科或疾病的名词)
　　economics 经济学 measles 麻疹

　　physics 物理学 mumps 腮腺炎
　　mathematics 数学 rickets 软骨病，佝偻病
　　dynamics 动力学 news 新闻
　　The United States 美国 The New York Times 纽约时报

2．
就近原则：
由 either … or … ; neither … nor …; not only…but also…; …or …； there be …等引导的主语，
谓语动词的单复数取决于最靠近动词的名词的单复数。
　　Not only the students but also their teacher is invited to attend the party.
　　3．
就远原则：主语，＋ as well as +另一个主语，谓语动词的单复数取决于第一个主语的名词的单复数。
　　My mother, as well as my two brothers, has a key to the office.
　　我母亲，还有我的两个哥哥都有一把办公室的钥匙。
　　同例：with…; together with…; along with…; including…; in addition to…; besides …; except…; as much as…; accompanied by …; rather than…等等

　　5． and连接两个名词表示一个概念做主语时，谓语用单数; 若表示的是多个不同的概念时，谓语动词用复数。
　　War and peace is a constant theme in literature.
　　战争与和平是文学中永恒的主题。(War and peace是一对概念，看作一个主题)
　　同例： ham and eggs n.火腿蛋 steam and bread
　　law and order
       bread and butter
　　apple pie and ice cream
       folk and knife
　　wheel and axle 轮轴
       needle and thread
　   love and hate
      egg and rice 蛋炒饭
8．
由 every …and every …; each … and each…; no … and no…; many a …and many a …
等连接的并列主语，谓语动词用单数。
　　Every man and every woman working here is getting along well with me.
　　No difficulty and no hardship has discouraged him.

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Grammar

13. Tables are made of ______
A. wood
B. woods
C. wooden
D. some woods

19. You should do more _____. Don’t always sit at the desk busy doing your ____
A. exercise; exercises B, exercises; exercise C. exercises; exercises D. exercise; exercise

20. What____! Where did you get them?
A. big fish B. a big fish C a piece of big fish D. big a fish

21. Have you received ______ of his coming ?
A. a word
B. words
C, the word
D. word


13 B 19 A(exercise在含义为运动时不可数，含义为作业时可数) 20 A (fish是不可数名词)21 D（消息 不可数）

4. The teacher from American gave us ________ on how to learn English well.
A. an advice
B. some advices
C. some advice
D. a piece of advices


C

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grammar~


代词
五、表示相互关系的代词叫相互代词，有each other 和one another两组，但在运用中，这两组词没什么区别。
如： They love each other.他们彼此相爱。

不定代词中，none和由some，any，no等构成的复合不定代词只能作主语、宾语或表语；every和no只能作定语。

3.2 人称代词之主、宾格的替换
1)
宾格代替主格
a.
在简短对话中，当人称代词单独使用或在not 后，多用宾语。
---- I like English.--我喜欢英语。
---- Me too.--我也喜欢。
---- Have more wine?--再来点酒喝吗?
---- Not me.--我可不要了。

注意：在动词be 或to be 后的人称代词视其前面的名词或代词而定。
I thought it was she. 我以为是她。(主格----主格)
I thought it to be her.(宾格----宾格)
I was taken to be she.我被当成了她。(主格----主格)
They took me to be her.他们把我当成了她。 (宾格----宾格)

3.3 代词的指代问题
3）指代车或国家，船舶的名词，含感情色彩时常用she。

3.4 并列人称代词的排列顺序
2) 复数人称代词作主语时，其顺序为：
第一人称 －> 第二人称 －> 第三人称
we－>you －>They
注意： 在下列情况中，第一人称放在前面。
a. 在承认错误，承担责任时，
It was I and John that made her angry.
是我和约翰惹她生气了。
b. 在长辈对晚辈，长官对下属说话时，如长官为第一人称， 如：I and you try to finish it.
c. 并列主语只有第一人称和第三人称时，
d. 当其他人称代词或名词被定语从句修饰时。

3.7 反身代词

2）做宾语
a. 有些动词需有反身代词absent, bathe, amuse, blame, dry, cut, enjoy, hurt, introduce, behave
We enjoyed ourselves very much last night.我们昨晚玩得很开心。
Please help yourself to some fish.请你随便吃点鱼。
b. 用于及物动词+宾语+介词take pride in, be annoyed with, help oneself to sth.
I could not dress (myself) up at that time.那个时候我不能打扮我自己。
注：有些动词后不跟反身代词， get up, sit-down, stand up, wake up 等。
Please sit down.请坐。

3） 作表语； 同位语
be oneself: I am not myself today.我今天不舒服。
The thing itself is not important.事情本身并不重要。
4） 在不强调的情况下，but, except, for 等介词后宾语用反身代词或人称代词宾格均可。如：
No one but myself (me) is hurt.
注意：
a. 反身代词本身不能单独作主语。
(错) Myself drove the car.
(对) I myself drove the car.我自己开车。
b. 但在and, or, nor 连接的并列主语中，第二个主语可用反身代词，特别是myself 作主语。
Charles and myself saw it.

5）第二人称作宾语，要用反身代词。
You should be proud of yourself.你应为自己感到骄傲。

3.8 相互代词
1）相互代词只有each other和one another两个词组。他们表示句中动词所叙述的动作或感觉在涉及的各个对象之间是相互存在的，例如：
It is easy to see that the people of different cultures have always copied each other.
显而易见，不同文化的人总是相互借鉴的。

说明：传统语法认为，相互关系存在于两个人或物之间用each other， 存在于两个以上人和物之间用one another。现代英语中，两组词交替使用的实例也很多

3.9 指示代词
说明1：指示代词在作主语时可指物也可指人，但作其他句子成分时只能指物，不能指人，例如：
(对)That is my teacher.那是我的老师。（ that作主语，指人）
(对)He is going to marry this girl.他要和这个姑娘结婚。（this作限定词）
(错)He is going to marry this.（this作宾语时不能指人）

说明2：
That和those可作定语从句的先行词，但this和 these不能，同时，在作先行词时，只有those可指人，试比较：
(对) He admired that which looked beautiful.他赞赏外表漂亮的东西。
(对) He admired those who looked beautiful. 他赞赏那些外表漂亮的人。（those指人）
(错) He admired that who danced well.（that作宾语时不能指人）

3.10 疑问代词
说明2：
Whom是who的宾格，在书面语中，它作动词宾语或介词宾语，在口语中作宾语时，可用who代替，但在介词后只能用whom, 例如：
Who(m) did you meet on the street?
你在街上遇到了谁？（作动词宾语）
Who(m) are you taking the book to?
你要把这书带给谁？（作介词宾语，置句首）
To whom did you speak on the campus?
你在校园里和谁讲话了？（作介词宾语，置介词 后，不能用who取代。）

3.11 关系代词

3） 关系代词which的先行词可以是一个句子，例如：
He said he saw me there, which was a lie.
他说在那儿看到了我，纯属谎言。

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Grammar

3.12 every , no, all, both, neither, nor


b. all 都，指三者以上。
all 的主谓一致：all的单复数由它所修饰或指代的名词的单复数决定。
All goes well.一切进展得很好。
all 通常不与可数名词单数连用，如：不说 all the book，而说 the whole book。
但all可与表时间的可数名词单数连用，如 all day，all night， all the year； 但习惯上不说 all hour，all century。
all还可以与一些特殊的单数名词连用，如 all China，all the city，all my life， all the way
2) 当做"某一"解时，也可与单数名词连用。（some= a certain）
You will be sorry for this some day.
总有一天，你会后悔这件事的。
A certain (some) person has seen you break the rule.
某些人不同意你的看法。

3.17 anyone/any one；no one/none；every/each
1．anyone 和 any one
anyone仅指人，any one既可指人，也可指物。
2．no one 和none
a)none 后跟of短语，既可指人又可指物，而no one只单独使用，只指人。
b)none 作主语，谓语动词用单，复数均可，而no one作主语谓语动词只能是单数。

3．every 和each
1)every 强调全体的概念， each强调个体概念。

Every student in our school works hard.我们学校的学生都很用功。

Each student may have one book..每个学生都可有一本书。
2)every 指三个以上的人或物(含三个)，each指两个以上的人或物 (含两个)。
3)every 只作形容词，不可单独使用。each可作代词或形容词。

Every student has to take one.

Each boy has to take one.

Each of the boys has to take one.

4)every不可以作状语，each可作状语。
5)every 有反复重复的意思，如 every two weeks等； each没有。
6)every 与not 连用，表示部分否定； each 和not连用表示全部否定。
Every man is not honest. 并非每个人都诚实。
Each man is not honest.这儿每个人都不诚实。



固定搭配:
only a few (=few)not a few (=many)quite a few (=many)
many a (=many)
Many books were sold.
Many a book was sold.
卖出了许多书。



动词的时态

4) wish, wonder, think, hope 等用过去时，作试探性的询问、请求、建议等。
I thought you might have some. 我以为你想要一些。
比较：
一般过去时表示的动作或状态都已成为过去，现已不复存在。
Christine was an invalid all her life.
(含义：她已不在人间。)
Christine has been an invalid all her life.
(含义：她现在还活着)
Mrs. Darby lived in Kentucky for seven years.
(含义：达比太太已不再住在肯塔基州。)
Mrs. Darby has lived in Kentucky for seven years.
( 含义：现在还住在肯塔基州，有可能指刚离去)
注意： 用过去时表示现在，表示委婉语气。
1）动词 want, hope, wonder, think, intend 等。
Did you want anything else?
I wondered if you could help me.
2）情态动词 could, would.
Could you lend me your bike?
3）句型：
It is time for sb. to do sth"到……时间了""该……了"
It is time sb. did sth. "时间已迟了""早该……了"
It is time for you to go to bed.你该睡觉了。
It is time you went to bed.你早该睡觉了。
would (had) rather sb. did sth.表示'宁愿某人做某事'
I'd rather you came tomorrow.


7 一般现在时表将来
1）下列动词：come, go, arrive, leave, start, begin, return的一般现在时表将来。这主要用来表示在时间上已确定或安排好的事情。
The train leaves at six tomorrow morning.
When does the bus start? It starts in ten minutes.

2）倒装句，表示动作正在进行，如：
Here comes the bus. = The bus is coming.
There goes the bell. = The bell is ringing.

3）在时间或条件句中。
When Bill comes (不是will come), ask him to wait for me.
I'll write to you as soon as I arrive there.

4）在动词hope, take care that, make sure that等后。
I hope they have a nice time next week.
Make sure that the windows are closed before you leave the room.
8 用现在进行时表示将来

意为："意图"、"打算"、"安排"、常用于人。常用词为 come, go, start, arrive, leave, stay等。
I'm leaving tomorrow.
Are you staying here till next week?

过去时与现在完成时比较
句子中如有过去时的时间副词（如 yesterday, last, week, in 1960）时，不能使用现在完成时，要用过去时。
（错）Tom has written a letter to his parents last night.
（对）Tom wrote a letter to his parents last night.

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Grammar~~

11 用于现在完成时的句型

1）It is the first / second time…. that…结构中的从句部分，用现在完成时。
It is the first time that I have visited the city.
It was the third time that the boy had been late.

2）This is the… that…结构，that 从句要用现在完成时.
This is the best film that I've (ever) seen.
这是我看过的最好的电影。
This is the first time (that) I've heard him sing.这是我第一次听他唱歌。

(2) ---Have you ____ been to our town before?
---No, it's the first time I ___ here.
A. even, comeB. even, have comeC. ever, comeD. ever, have come
答案D. ever意为曾经或无论何时，反意词为never，此两词常用于完成时。 This is the largest fish I have ever seen. It is / was the first time +that-clause 的句型中，从句要用完成时。
注意：非延续性动词的否定形式可以与表示延续时间的状语连用。即动作不发生的状态是可以持续的。
（错）I have received his letter for a month.
（对）I haven't received his letter for almost a month.

15 过去完成时
2） 用法
a.在told, said, knew, heard, thought等动词后的宾语从句。
She said (that) she had never been to Paris.
b. 状语从句
在过去不同时间发生的两个动作中，发生在先，用过去完成时；发生在后，用一般过去时。
When the police arrived, the thieves had run away.
c. 表示意向的动词，如hope, wish, expect, think, intend, mean, suppose等，用过去完成时表示"原本…，未能…"
We had hoped that you would come, but you didn't.

3)过去完成时的时间状语before, by, until , when, after, once, as soon as。
He said that he had learned some English before.
By the time he was twelve, Edison had began to make a living by himself.
Tom was disappointed that most of the guests had left when he arrived at the party.

典型例题
The students ___ busily when Miss Brown went to get a book she ___ in the office.
A. had written, leftB，were writing, has leftC. had written, had leftD. were writing, had left
答案D. "把书忘在办公室"发生在"去取书"这一过去的动作之前，因此"忘了书"这一动作发生在过去的过去，用过去完成时。句中 when表示的是时间的一点，表示在"同学们正忙于……"这一背景下，when所引导的动作发生。因此
前一句应用过去进行时。
注意：had no … when还没等…… 就……
had no sooner… than刚…… 就……
He had no sooner bought the car than he sold it.
19 不用进行时的动词
1) 事实状态的动词
have, belong, possess, cost, owe, exist, include, contain, matter, weigh, measure, continue
I have two brothers.
This house belongs to my sister.

2) 心理状态的动词
Know, realize, think see, believe, suppose, imagine, agree, recognize, remember, want, need, forget, prefer, mean, understand, love, hate
I need your help.
He loves her very much.

3 ) 瞬间动词
accept, receive, complete, finish, give, allow, decide, refuse.
I accept your advice.

4) 系动词
seem, remain, lie, see, hear, smell, feel, taste, get, become, turn
You seem a little tired.

22 一般现在时代替将来时
时间状语从句，条件句中，从句用一般现在时代替将来时
When, while, before, after, till, once, as soon as, so long as, by the time, if, in case (that), unless, even if, whether, the moment, the minute, the day, the year, immediately


(2) 表示现在已安排好的未来事项，行程等活动。
The museum opens at ten tomorrow.博物馆明天10点开门。(实际上每天如此。)

23 一般现在时代替过去时
1 )"书上说"，"报纸上说"等。
The newspaper says that it's going to be cold tomorrow.
报纸上说明天会很冷的。
2) 叙述往事，使其生动。
Napoleon's army now advances and the great battle begins.
24 一般现在时代替完成时
1) 有些动词用一般现在时代替完成时：
hear, tell, learn, write , understand, forget, know, find , say, remember.
I hear (= have heard) he will go to London.
I forget (=have forgotten) how old he is.
2) 句型 " It is … since…"代替"It has been … since …"
3) It is (= has been) five years since we last met.
25 一般现在时代替进行时
1) 句型：Here comes… ； There goes…
Look, here comes Mr. Li.

26 现在进行时代替将来时
1) 表示即将发生的或预定中计划好的活动。
Are you staying with us this weekend? 这周和我们一起度周末吗?
We are leaving soon.我们马上就走。
2) 渐变动词，如：get, run, grow, become, begin及die。
He is dying.


连词

连词主要可分为两类：并列连词和从属连词。并列连词用来连接平行的词、词组和分句。如：and, but, or, nor, so, therefore, yet, however, for, hence（因此，所以）, as well as, both…and, not only…but also, either…or, neither…nor, (and)then等等。

Make up your mind, and you'll get the chance.
= If you make up your mind, you'll get the chance.


注意： not only… but also 关联两个分句时，一个分句因有否定词not 而必须倒装。
Not only does he like reading stories, but also he can even write some.


2 比较and和or
1) 并列结构中，or通常用于否定句，and用于肯定句。

2) 但有时and 也可用于否定句。请注意其不同特点：

There is no air or water in the moon.
There is no air and no water on the moon.
在否定中并列结构用or 连接，但含有两个否定词的句子实际被看作是肯定结构，因此要用and。
典型例题
---I don't like chicken ___ fish.
---I don't like chicken, ___ I like fish very much.
A. and； and B. and； but C. or； but D. or；and
答案C。否定句中表并列用or, but 表转折。
判断改错：
(错) We will die without air and water.
(错) We can't live without air or water.
(对) We will die without air or water.
(对) We can't live without air and water.


5 表原因关系
注意：
a. 两个并列连词不能连用，但therefore, then, yet.可以和并列连词连用。
You can watch TV, and or you can go to bed.
He hurt his leg, and so / and therefore he couldn't play in the game.

b. although… yet…，但although不与 but连用。
(错)Although he was weak, but he tried his best to do the work..
(对)Although he was weak, yet he tried his best to do the work.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

grammar~

动词

英语中总共有三种非限定动词，分别是：动词不定式（Infinitive）、动名词（Gerund）、分词（Participle）

3） be + 动词不定式，可表示下列内容：
a. 表示最近、未来的计划或安排，例如：
He is to go to New York next week.他下周要去纽约。
We are to teach the fresh persons.我们要教新生。
说明： 这种用法也可以说成是一种将来时态表达法。
b. 表示命令，例如：
You are to explain this.对此你要做出解释。
He is to come to the office this afternoon.要他今天下午来办公室。
c.征求意见，例如：
How am I to answer him?我该怎样答复他？
Who is to go there?谁该去那儿呢？
d. 表示相约、商定，例如：
We are to meet at the school gate at seven tomorrow morning.我们明天早晨7点在校门口集合。



1）
若宾语补足语是不带to 的不定式，变为被动语态时，该不定式前要加"to"。此类动词为感官动词。
feel, hear, help, listen to, look at, make, observe, see, notice, watch

The teacher made me go out of the classroom.
--> I was made to go out of the classroom (by the teacher).
We saw him play football on the playground.
--> He was seen to play football on the playground.



3 表示"据说"或"相信" 的词组


believe, consider, declare, expect, feel , report, say, see, suppose, think, understand
It is said that… 据说
It is reported that… 据报道
It is believed that…大家相信
It is hoped that…大家希望
It is well known that… 众所周知
It is thought that…大家认为
It is suggested that…据建议
It is taken granted that… 被视为当然
It has been decided that… 大家决定
It must be remember that…务必记住的是
It is said that she will leave for Wuhan on Tuesday.

4 不用被动语态的情况


1) 不及物动词或动词短语无被动语态：
appear, die disappear, end (vi. 结束), fail, happen, last, lie, remain, sit, spread, stand
break out, come true, fall asleep, keep silence, lose heart, take place.
After the fire, very little remained of my house.
比较： rise, fall, happen是不及物动词；raise, seat是及物动词。
(错) The price has been risen.
(对) The price has risen.
(错) The accident was happened last week.
(对) The accident happened last week.
(错) The price has raised.
(对) The price has been raised.
(错) Please seat.
(对) Please be seated.
要想正确地使用被动语态，就须注意哪些动词是及物的，哪些是不及物的。特别是一词多义的动词往往有两种用法。解决这一问题唯有在学习过程中多留意积累。

2) 不能用于被动语态的及物动词或动词短语：
fit, have, hold, marry, own, wish, cost, notice, watch agree with, arrive at / in, shake hands with, succeed in, suffer from, happen to, take part in, walk into, belong to
This key just fits the lock.
Your story agrees with what had already been heard.

3) 系动词无被动语态：
appear, be become, fall, feel, get, grow, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn
It sounds good.

4) 带同源宾语的及物动词，反身代词，相互代词，不能用于被动语态：
die, death, dream, live, life
She dreamed a bad dream last night.

5) 当宾语是不定式时，很少用于被动语态。
(对) She likes to swim.
(错) To swim is liked by her.



5 主动形式表示被动意义


1)wash, clean, cook, iron, look, cut, sell, read, wear, feel, draw, write, sell, drive…
The book sells well.这本书销路好。
This knife cuts easily. 这刀子很好用。

2)blame, let(出租), remain, keep, rent, build
I was to blame for the accident.
Much work remains.

3) 在need, require, want, worth (形容词), deserve后的动名词必须用主动形式。
The door needs repairing.= The door needs to be repaired.
This room needs cleaning. 这房间应该打扫一下。
This book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

4) 特殊结构：make sb. heard / understood (使别人能听见/理解自己)，have sth. done ( 要某人做某事)。
6 被动形式表示主动意义


be determined, be pleased, be graduated (from), be finished, be prepared (for), be occupied (in), get marries
He is graduated from a famous university.
他毕业于一所有名的大学。
注意： 表示同某人结婚，用marry sb. 或get married to sb. 都可。
He married a rich girl.
He got married to a rich girl.

7 need/want/require/worth

注意：当 need, want, require, worth(形容词)后面接doing也可以表示被动。
Your hair wants cutting.你的头发该理了。
The floor requires washing. 地板需要冲洗。
The book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

grammar

英语中总共有三种非限定动词，分别是：动词不定式（Infinitive）、动名词（Gerund）、分词（Participle）

3） be + 动词不定式，可表示下列内容：
a. 表示最近、未来的计划或安排，例如：
He is to go to New York next week.他下周要去纽约。
We are to teach the fresh persons.我们要教新生。
说明： 这种用法也可以说成是一种将来时态表达法。
b. 表示命令，例如：
You are to explain this.对此你要做出解释。
He is to come to the office this afternoon.要他今天下午来办公室。
c.征求意见，例如：
How am I to answer him?我该怎样答复他？
Who is to go there?谁该去那儿呢？
d. 表示相约、商定，例如：
We are to meet at the school gate at seven tomorrow morning.我们明天早晨7点在校门口集合。



1）
若宾语补足语是不带to 的不定式，变为被动语态时，该不定式前要加"to"。此类动词为感官动词。
feel, hear, help, listen to, look at, make, observe, see, notice, watch

The teacher made me go out of the classroom.
--> I was made to go out of the classroom (by the teacher).
We saw him play football on the playground.
--> He was seen to play football on the playground.



3 表示"据说"或"相信" 的词组


believe, consider, declare, expect, feel , report, say, see, suppose, think, understand
It is said that… 据说
It is reported that… 据报道
It is believed that…大家相信
It is hoped that…大家希望
It is well known that… 众所周知
It is thought that…大家认为
It is suggested that…据建议
It is taken granted that… 被视为当然
It has been decided that… 大家决定
It must be remember that…务必记住的是
It is said that she will leave for Wuhan on Tuesday.

4 不用被动语态的情况


1) 不及物动词或动词短语无被动语态：
appear, die disappear, end (vi. 结束), fail, happen, last, lie, remain, sit, spread, stand
break out, come true, fall asleep, keep silence, lose heart, take place.
After the fire, very little remained of my house.
比较： rise, fall, happen是不及物动词；raise, seat是及物动词。
(错) The price has been risen.
(对) The price has risen.
(错) The accident was happened last week.
(对) The accident happened last week.
(错) The price has raised.
(对) The price has been raised.
(错) Please seat.
(对) Please be seated.
要想正确地使用被动语态，就须注意哪些动词是及物的，哪些是不及物的。特别是一词多义的动词往往有两种用法。解决这一问题唯有在学习过程中多留意积累。

2) 不能用于被动语态的及物动词或动词短语：
fit, have, hold, marry, own, wish, cost, notice, watch agree with, arrive at / in, shake hands with, succeed in, suffer from, happen to, take part in, walk into, belong to
This key just fits the lock.
Your story agrees with what had already been heard.

3) 系动词无被动语态：
appear, be become, fall, feel, get, grow, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn
It sounds good.

4) 带同源宾语的及物动词，反身代词，相互代词，不能用于被动语态：
die, death, dream, live, life
She dreamed a bad dream last night.

5) 当宾语是不定式时，很少用于被动语态。
(对) She likes to swim.
(错) To swim is liked by her.



5 主动形式表示被动意义


1)wash, clean, cook, iron, look, cut, sell, read, wear, feel, draw, write, sell, drive…
The book sells well.这本书销路好。
This knife cuts easily. 这刀子很好用。

2)blame, let(出租), remain, keep, rent, build
I was to blame for the accident.
Much work remains.

3) 在need, require, want, worth (形容词), deserve后的动名词必须用主动形式。
The door needs repairing.= The door needs to be repaired.
This room needs cleaning. 这房间应该打扫一下。
This book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

4) 特殊结构：make sb. heard / understood (使别人能听见/理解自己)，have sth. done ( 要某人做某事)。
6 被动形式表示主动意义


be determined, be pleased, be graduated (from), be finished, be prepared (for), be occupied (in), get marries
He is graduated from a famous university.
他毕业于一所有名的大学。
注意： 表示同某人结婚，用marry sb. 或get married to sb. 都可。
He married a rich girl.
He got married to a rich girl.

7 need/want/require/worth

注意：当 need, want, require, worth(形容词)后面接doing也可以表示被动。
Your hair wants cutting.你的头发该理了。
The floor requires washing. 地板需要冲洗。
The book is worth reading.这本书值得一读。

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

耶！可以发checklist咯:lol:lol:lol

KiKi~淇水滺滺UID: 2679824

Hi~过来踩踩~加油~

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Costing catastropheDec 8th 2009
From Economist.com
Two economists consider how much people would pay to minimise the chance of a distaster.

HOW much will climate change end up costing the world? The estimates, not surprisingly, vary widely. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) estimates between $49 billion and $171 billion annually. A team of researchers at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London has published a report that says UNFCCC is underestimating by a factor of two or three. Between 1996 and 2005, they point out, the annual damages done by hurricanes, fires, and other extreme weather was already averaging more than $50 billion per year. Yet few governments are willing to spend even fractions of that on preventative maintenance. Look at widespread fiddling（摆弄，闲逛） over climate change; or the neglect of the dams surrounding New Orleans in the years before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

So would people be prepared pay to avoid future disasters? And if so, how much? That is the question tackled by Robert Pindyck of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Neng Wang of Columbia University, in a recent paper, "The Economic and Policy Consequences of Catastrophes." It is not easy to calculate accurately the likelihood of disasters. Some, such as rising sea levels or nuclear weapons gone rogue（游荡）, have few historical precedents on which to base estimates. So Messrs Pindyck and Wang chose instead to model how likely people think it is that a catastrophe will occur, and how much money they would be prepared to spend to prevent it. In their model, the hypothetical household had to decide both the likelihood of a potential catastrophe and its magnitude, since a high-risk disaster with little consequence would affect spending behaviour differently to a rare but devastating（破坏性的） event.

The model has the disadvantage of being, like many economic models, theoretical. But it has the advantages of not requiring people to have perfect information about the future, and being applicable to any disaster—not just climate change, but flu epidemics or widespread warfare. (Mr Pindyck himself reports being particularly worried about nuclear terrorism.)

Sky-is-falling economic modelling, so to speak, is not new. Two decades ago a paper by Thomas Reitz, then of the University of Iowa, pointed out that equity owners, even while acting averse to risk, demand high rates of return in anticipation of an unlikely, but severe, crash. More recently Richard Posner, of the University of Chicago, has argued at length that governments should spend more to prevent disasters that will probably not happen, but would be awful if they did. Mr Posner's blogging partner, Gary Becker, an economist, estimated in May the worldwide willingness to pay to avoid another flu pandemic at about $200 billion, even assuming the probability of such a pandemic occurring at only 1% over the next 20 years.

Messrs Pindyck and Wang's study lends credence to previous work which maps（筹划，制定） not only the probability of a risk occurring, but also the expected damage should it occur. In their model, even when a hypothetical consumer estimates the risk of a disaster occurring is close to zero, he still estimates the scale of potential devastation to be between 26% and 32% of national capital stock, far greater than the effects of Hurricane Katrina or even the 2004 tsunami. To avoid such a disaster entirely, or reduce its impact, the households in the model would be willing to pay a permanent consumption tax of up to 15%, depending on the size of the reduction and the likelihood of catastrophe.

In theory, then, governments should be able to spend far less than 15% to minimise the danger of catastrophes without suffering (political) risk. Although not every potential disaster could be averted（避免）, such studies provide rationale（理论） for spending money on the most pressing issues: stockpiling flu vaccines, shoring up rotting infrastructure（巩固正在腐烂的基础设施）, and, yes, preparing for higher sea levels. Unfortunately, climate change is just one area where people fail to act as rationally as they do within economic models.

aladdin.ivyUID: 2596664

正常点~~也加油哈！:)

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Opportunity knocksDec 15th 2009
From Economist.com
Collectors hunt down the best European classics
ALL art booms are different. The previous one ended in 1989, when Japanese buyers withdrew from the Impressionist market(印象派市场). Interest rates rose in the slump（暴跌，不景气，陷落） that followed; there were plenty of sellers but no buyers. Today the reverse（挫折） is true. Interest rates are low, and buyers are looking to diversify（多样化） into alternative assets. The only problem is the sellers. There is plenty of money about, but little to buy.

Sothebys

It should follow, then, that buyers will snap up（抢购） anything. But that is not quite the case, as the Old Master sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London on December 8th and 9th showed only too well.

Old Master works that combine quality, rarity（稀有，杰出）, provenance and excellent condition come up less and less often at auction. When they do, dealers and collectors circle them as a lion would a baby kongoni on the African plain. In the recent sales the best pieces sold brilliantly, and the rest hardly at all.

The best included a top-quality Italian Baroque painting by Il Domenichino of St John, a late-period Rembrandt, a rare Raphael drawing, an elegant self-portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck, and one or two other surprises.

Many of the leading dealers were present, including Konrad Bernheimer, who heads a four-generation Old Master firm; Philip Mould, founder of Historic Portraits and better known as the BBC’s “art detective”; Johnny van Haeften, the leading Dutch specialist in London; Alfred Bader, a rich American art-market broker and former chemist; and the heirs（继承人） to two important art-dealing businesses, William Noortman and Simon Green.

Mr Mould arrived early at Sotheby’s sale, accompanied by a television crew（全体人员，班组）. Only when the auctioneer reached Lot 8, van Dyck’s elegant self-portrait (pictured above), did it become clear that Mr Mould had more in mind than just another a cameo appearance before the cameras. Van Dyck’s oval, painted in 1640, the year before he died, had been in the same family for almost 300 years. Mr Mould joined forces with Mr Bader to try and win the painting. Young Mr Noortman, the underbidder who was trying to buy the picture for stock, did not stand a chance(有希望，有可能). The winning bid was £7.4m (£8.3m, or $13.5m, including commission and taxes), nearly three times van Dyck’s previous record. Immediately afterwards, Mr Bader announced that the picture was once more for sale.

Christies Images Ltd

There was no doubt that the price for the van Dyck would be high. The only question was how high. Lot 18, which came up a few moments later, proved more of a surprise. Bearing an estimate of £50,000-70,000, the 17th-century Dutch oil, found in a private collection Vienna, looked at first like just another slightly kitsch girl in a hat holding up a basket of plums (pictured left). However, research on the picture confirmed it as a hitherto unrecorded and unpublished work by one of Holland’s most important classical painters of the period, Cesar Boetius van Everdingen. At £900,000, there were still three potential buyers in the ring（参加，在...范围之内）; a telephone bidder had to pay £1.2m, including commission and taxes, to secure the picture.

Other dealers（经销商） proved nearly as determined in their own specialities. Simon Dickinson, a London dealer with connections in the British (and especially Scottish) aristocracy, bought Sir Edwin Henry Landseer’s five-foot-long romantic Highland clan scene, with an £800,000 bid (£937,250 with commissions and taxes), the bottom of the estimate.

Luca Baroni, bidding with his daughter, paid £385,250, four times the top estimate, for a beautiful little grisaille oil, an early work by François Boucher which came out of a private collection in Lausanne.

There were high prices seen at Christie’s too. A single telephone bid of £18m, at the bottom of the estimate, saw off two ditherers in the room to secure Rembrandt’s late “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo”. The picture had been consigned（委托，交付） by Barbara Piasecka Johnson, a respected American collector now living in Italy. But that provenance was not enough to instil universal confidence. The picture had been restored and relined before the second world war, giving it a flattish appearance. It also needed further cleaning. There were doubts about how it would fare（旅行） once the decayed varnish（清漆） was removed.
Sothebys


By contrast, Domenichino’s “Saint John the Evangelist” (pictured left), which had hung in the organ room at the Christie family’s operatic home at Glyndebourne, Sussex, for nearly 100 years and is said to be the most important Baroque painting to come up at auction for a generation, was in surprisingly good condition. But the religious subject matter may have put off some buyers, especially in the Middle East. After Mr Noortman nervously offered £8.1m (again, like for the van Dyck, he was bidding for stock, he confirmed later), Christie’s Nicholas Raison secured the painting for a record £9.2m with commission and taxes.

But it is the small pictures that cause the biggest surprises. The last lot in Christie’s sale was a black chalk drawing, less than a foot square, by Raphael, an early 16th-century Italian master. It is the study of a head for one of the muses in “Parnassus”, a fresco in the Vatican, and used to belong to King William II of Holland, whose collection, sold in 1850, was considered one of the finest in Europe.

Possessed of a radiant serenity（镇静）, the drawing is in many ways more beautiful than the final fresco. The lines of the neck, robe and hairpiece are dotted（加点的） with tiny holes through which the artist would have pressed soot（烟尘） as a way of imprinting an outline of the drawing on the fresco wall. Its beauty, rarity and the sense that the study may well have been used by the artist himself when working on his fresco, drew collectors from far and wide. A number of potential buyers came to see it, including Bruno Eberli, a Swiss foreign-exchange dealer based on Park Avenue in New York. Mr Eberli is a known trophy hunter; four years ago he paid just over £15.6m for a rare blue-and-white Ming jar, the highest price for an Asian work of art at auction.

Christies Images Ltd

Christie’s had estimated the study would fetch £12m-16m. Bidding opened at £8.5m, with three buyers on the telephone. At £18m, Mr Baroni’s daughter joined in, her father beside her. (The Baronis are known for their courage, and their private client list; in July 2008, again at Christie’s, they paid a record £12.6m for a little caprice by Jean-Antoine Watteau that had been found in an English country house.)
Jennifer Wright, Christie’s New York-based drawings specialist, made a final bid for the Raphael of £26m—a world record for a work on paper—to a round of hearty applause. With commission and taxes, the final bill was £29.1m.

The distribution of buyers gave an indication of how the market is changing. Buyers were of 14 different nationalities, with 43% of the sale, by lot, going to America and 46% to Europe (including Russia). The biggest surprise is that 11% was bought by collectors in Asia and the Middle East.

After the sale, Christie’s international co-head, Richard Knight, was quick to point out that, at £68.4m, theirs had been the biggest Old Master sale ever. “This result shows what a very solid market this is,” he said. But that took no account of the failures, which were considerable. Fifteen of the 43 lots in Christie’s auction failed to sell at all, and at Sotheby’s the failure rate was 21 out of 50.
The Old Master market seems to be dividing in two. For top-quality works there is still plenty of money about. Much of the rest does not sell, however far prices fall.

The long history of Domenichino’s “Saint John” offers a salutary（有益的） lesson in the vagaries of the art market—and of taste. In the 18th century, this picture was one of the most expensive on record. In the midst of the Napoleonic wars it was taken to London, where it was sold to Richard Hart Davis, a member of Parliament.

In 1884 it was put up for sale by his grandson, and bought in at a bid of 700 guineas. In 1899 the next generation tried again to sell it, once more without success; on that occasion it was bought in at 100 guineas. Subsequently, it was sold to Colnaghi, a firm that now belongs to Mr Bernheimer. Colnaghi paid just 70 guineas for the work. In the century since, the price has risen 100,000 times. But it may never each that height again.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

REBORN FROM THE ASHES   第一次精选阶段作业（1）

A special report on climate change and the carbon economy

Getting warmer

Dec 3rd 2009 From The Economist print edition

So far the effort to tackle global warming has achieved little. Copenhagen（哥本哈根） offers the chance to do better, says Emma Duncan (interviewed here)
Illustration by M. Morgenstern

THE mountain bark beetle（树皮甲壳虫） is a familiar pest in the forests of British Columbia. Its population rises and falls unpredictably, destroying clumps of pinewood（松林） as it peaks（消瘦） which then regenerate as the bug recedes. But Scott Green, who studies forest ecology at the University of Northern British Columbia, says the current outbreak is “unprecedented in recorded history: a natural background-noise disturbance has become a major outbreak. We’re looking at the loss of 80% of our pine（松树） forest cover（森林覆盖率）.”* Other parts of North America have also been affected, but the damage in British Columbia is particularly severe, and particularly troubling in a province whose economy is dominated by timber.

Three main explanations for this disastrous outbreak suggest themselves. 1.It could be chance. Populations do fluctuate dramatically and unexpectedly. 2.It could be the result of management practices. British Columbia’s woodland is less varied than it used to be, which helps a beetle（甲壳虫） that prefers pine. 3.Or it could be caused by the higher temperatures that now prevail in northern areas, allowing beetles to breed more often in summer and survive in greater numbers through the winter.

The Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which the United Nations adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is now 17 years old. Its aim was “to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. The Kyoto protocol, which set about realising those aims, was signed in 1997 and came into force in 2005. Its first commitment period runs out in 2012, and implementing a new one is expected to take at least three years, which is why the 15th conference of the parties to the UNFCCC that starts in Copenhagen on December 7th is such a big deal. Without a new global agreement, there is not much chance of averting serious climate change.

Since the UNFCCC was signed, much has changed, though more in the biosphere than the human sphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body set up to establish a scientific consensus on what is happening, heat waves, droughts, floods and serious hurricanes have increased in frequency over the past few decades; it reckons(筹算，估计，推想) those trends are all likely or very likely to have been caused by human activity and will probably continue. Temperatures by the end of the century might be up by anything from 1.1ºC to 6.4ºC.

In most of the world the climate changes to date are barely perceptible（明显的） or hard to pin on（寄托） warming. In British Columbia and farther north the effects of climate change are clearer. Air temperatures in the Arctic are rising about twice as fast as in the rest of the world. The summer sea ice is thinning and shrinking. The past three years have seen the biggest losses since proper record-keeping started in 1979. Ten years ago scientists reckoned that summer sea-ice would be gone by the end of this century. Now they expect it to disappear within a decade or so.

Since sea-ice is already in the water, its melting has little effect on sea levels. Those are determined by temperature (warmer water takes up more room) and the size of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps（冰层）. The glaciers in south-eastern Greenland have picked up speed. Jakobshavn Isbrae, the largest of them, which drains 6% of Greenland’s ice, is now moving at 12km a year—twice as fast as it was when the UNFCCC was signed—and its “calving front”, where it breaks down into icebergs（冰山）, has retreated by 20km in six years. That is part of the reason why the sea level is now rising at 3-3.5mm a year, twice the average annual rate in the 20th century.

As with the mountain bark beetle, it is not entirely clear why this is happening. The glaciers could be retreating because of one of the countless natural oscillations（振荡） in the climate that scientists do not properly understand. If so, the glacial retreat could well stop, as it did in the middle of the 20th century after a 100-year retreat. But the usual causes of natural variability do not seem to explain the current trend, so scientists incline to the view that it is man-made. It is therefore likely to persist unless mankind starts to behave differently—and there is not much sign of that happening.

Carbon-dioxide emissions are now 30% higher than they were when the UNFCCC was signed 17 years ago. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 equivalent（等价物） (carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) reached 430 parts per million last year, compared with 280ppm before the industrial revolution. At the current rate of increase they could more than treble（增加两倍） by the end of the century, which would mean a 50% risk of a global temperature increase of 5ºC. To put that in context, the current average global temperature is only 5ºC warmer than the last ice age. Such a rise would probably lead to fast-melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, drought, disease and collapsing agriculture in poor countries, and mass migration. But nobody really knows, and nobody wants to know.

Some scientists think that the planet is already on an irreversible（不可逆转） journey to dangerous warming. A few climate-change sceptics（怀疑论者） think the problem will right itself. Either may be correct. Predictions about a mechanism as complex as the climate cannot be made with any certainty. But the broad scientific consensus is that serious climate change is a danger, and this newspaper believes that, as an insurance policy against a catastrophe that may never happen, the world needs to adjust its behaviour to try to avert that threat.

The problem is not a technological one. The human race has almost all the tools it needs to continue leading much the sort of life it has been enjoying without causing a net increase in greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere. Industrial and agricultural processes can be changed. Electricity can be produced by wind, sunlight, biomass or nuclear reactors, and cars can be powered by biofuels and electricity. Biofuel engines for aircraft still need some work before they are suitable for long-haul flights, but should be available soon.

Nor is it a question of economics. Economists argue over the sums (see article), but broadly agree that greenhouse-gas emissions can be curbed without flattening the world economy.

A hard sell

It is all about politics. Climate change is the hardest political problem the world has ever had to deal with. It is a prisoner’s dilemma, a free-rider problem（搭便车问题） and the tragedy of the commons all rolled into one. At issue（值得争论的是） is the difficulty of allocating the cost of collective action and trusting other parties to bear their share of the burden. At a city, state and national level, institutions that can resolve such problems have been built up over the centuries. But climate change has been a worldwide worry for only a couple of decades. Mankind has no framework（框架） for it. The UN is a useful talking shop, but it does not get much done.

The closest parallel is the world trading system. This has many achievements to its name, but it is not an encouraging model. Not only is the latest round of negotiations mired（陷入） in difficulty, but the World Trade Organisation’s task is child’s play compared with climate change. The benefits of concluding trade deals are certain and accrue（产生） in the short term. The benefits of mitigating climate change are uncertain, since scientists are unsure of the scale and consequences of global warming, and will mostly accrue many years hence. The need for action, by contrast, is urgent.

The problem will be solved only if the world economy moves from carbon-intensive to low-carbon—and, in the long term, to zero-carbon—products and processes. That requires businesses to change their investment patterns. And they will do so only if governments give them clear, consistent signals. This special report will argue that so far this has not happened. The policies adopted to avoid dangerous climate change have been partly misconceived and largely inadequate. They have sent too many wrong signals and not enough of the right ones.

That is partly because of the way the Kyoto protocol was designed. By trying to include all the greenhouse gases in a single agreement, it has been less successful than the less ambitious Montreal protocol, which cut ozone-depleting gases fast and cheaply. By including too many countries in detailed negotiations, it has reduced the chances of agreement. And by dividing the world into developed and developing countries, it has deepened a rift（裂缝） that is proving hard to close. Ultimately, though, the international agreement has fallen victim to domestic politics（国内政策）. Voters do not want to bear the cost of their elected leaders’ aspirations, and those leaders have not been brave enough to push them.

Copenhagen represents a second chance to make a difference. The aspirations are high, but so are the hurdles. The gap between the parties on the two crucial questions—emissions levels and money—remains large. America’s failure so far to pass climate-change legislation means that a legally binding agreement will not be reached at the conference. The talk is of one in Bonn, in six months’ time, or in Mexico City in a year.

To suggest that much has gone wrong is not to denigrate（污蔑） the efforts of the many people who have dedicated two decades to this problem. For mankind to get even to the threshold of a global agreement is a marvel. But any global climate deal will work only if the domestic policies through which it is implemented are both efficient and effective. If they are ineffective, nothing will change. If they are inefficient, they will waste money. And if taxpayers decide that green policies are packed with pork（挤满了猪肉）, they will turn against them.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

Attentioned Sentence：
1.Its population rises and falls unpredictably, destroying clumps of pinewood as it peaks which then regenerate as the bug recedes.
2.To suggest that much has gone wrong is not to denigrate the efforts of the many people who have dedicated two decades to this problem.
Comments：
Contrasting with the World Trade Organization, the author makes the explanation concerning the climate change conference. As known to all, it is not a scientific or economic issue, but a political one. No one in the world has a savage abhorrence of the free-rider problem unless he is just the one to pay for others. In other words, it is the globalization that causes the worldwide challenge. No wonder the developed countries are reluctant to reach in common understandings with the developing countries under the heavy pressure from their tax payers. At the same time, the government would crash into collapse if the climate rescue plan failed in the end. This complex interaction relationship determines that the whole world has to make a comprehensive preparation in consideration of ecology, economy, politics and legislation before mankind could reach an agreement at more mundane level.

zhengchangdianUID: 2563082

REBORN FROM THE ASHES 精选阶段作业（2）
A special report on the art market

Suspended animation

Nov 26th 2009 From The Economist print edition


The art market has suffered from the recession, but globalisation should help it recover, say Fiammetta Rocco (interviewed here) and Sarah Thornton

Sothebys

THE longest bull（公牛，废物） 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 (see picture). All but two pieces sold, fetching more than ￡70m, a record for a sale by a single artist. It was a last hurrah（欢呼）. As the auctioneer called out bids, in New York one of the oldest banks on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers, filed for(申请) bankruptcy.

The world art market had already been losing momentum for a while after rising vertiginously（眩晕） 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.

In the weeks and months that followed Mr Hirst’s sale, spending of any sort became deeply unfashionable, especially in New York, where the （保释）bail-out of the banks（银行摆脱困境） coincided with the loss of thousands of jobs and the financial demise（消亡） of many art-buying investors. 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（部门）—for Chinese contemporary art—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（让他们代为销售物品）.

The current downturn in the art market is the worst since the Japanese stopped buying Impressionists at the end of 1989, a move that started the most serious contraction in the market since the second world war. This time experts reckon that prices are about 40% down on their peak on average, though some have been far more volatile（易变的，挥发的）. But Edward Dolman, Christie’s chief executive, says: “I’m pretty confident we’re at the bottom.”

What makes this slump different from the last, he says, is that there are still buyers in the market, whereas in the early 1990s, when interest rates were high, there was no demand even though many collectors wanted to sell. Christie’s revenues in the first half of 2009 were still higher than in the first half of 2006. Almost everyone who was interviewed for this special report said that the biggest problem at the moment is not a lack of demand but a lack of good work to sell. The three Ds—death, debt and divorce—still deliver works of art to the market. But anyone who does not have to sell is keeping away, waiting for confidence to return.

The best that can be said about the market at the moment is that it is holding its breath（屏住呼吸）. But this special report will argue that it will bounce back, and that the key to its recovery lies in globalisation. The supply of the best works of art will always be limited, but in the longer run demand is bound to rise as wealth is spreading ever more widely across the globe.

The World Wealth Report, published by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, charts the spending（花费的，奢侈的） habits of the rich the world over. It includes art as one of a range of luxury items they like to buy. According to the report, in 2007 there were over 10m people with investible assets of $1m or more. Last year that number dropped to 8.6m and many rich people scaled back their “investments of passion”—yachts, jets（喷气机）, cars, jewellery and so on. But the proportion of all luxury spending that went on art increased as investors looked for assets that would hold their value in the longer term.

The regional spread of buyers also changed significantly as some parts of the world became relatively richer. During the boom the number of wealthy people in Russia, India, China and the Middle East rose rapidly. In 2003 Sotheby’s biggest buyers—those who purchased lots costing at least $500,000—came from 36 countries. By 2007 they were spread over 58 countries and their total number had tripled.

That upward trend is still continuing, and many of the new buyers take a particular interest in the art of their own place and time. Last year China overtook France as the world’s third-biggest art market after America and Britain (see chart 1), and some 25% by value of the 100,000-plus works of art sold by Christie’s went to buyers from Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Auction records remain dominated by Impressionist and modern works (see table 2), but the biggest expansion in recent years has been in contemporary art. Prices of older works keep going up as more people have money to spend, but few such works become available because both collectors and museums tend to hold on to what they have. Old Master paintings, for example, have stuck（停驻） at around 5% of both Sotheby’s and Christie’s sales for many years. By contrast, contemporary art, which in the early 1990s accounted for less than 10% of Sotheby’s revenues, grew to nearly 30% of greatly increased revenues by last year. Dealers and auction houses now sell more post-war and contemporary art than anything else. This report will concentrate on that part of the market, which accounts for about half the world’s art trade and most of the excitement.

Part of the extra demand has come from a large increase in the number of museums. Over the past 25 years more than 100 have been built, not only in America and Europe but also in the sheikhdoms（酋长国） of the Persian Gulf and the fast-growing cities in Asia; sometimes in partnership with Western institutions, such as the Guggenheim or the Louvre, sometimes on their own. Many of these institutions have made their mark by buying contemporary art.

Over the same period the number of wealthy private collectors has also increased many times over, and so has their diversity. The record price for one of Andy Warhol’s giant faces of Chairman Mao was $17.4m, paid by Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong property developer. It was the first major Warhol to go to the Far East. A month later the Qatar royal family bought a Hirst pill cabinet, entitled “Lullaby Spring”, for ￡9.7m, the first major Hirst bound for the Middle East. Everyone wants an iconic（偶像的） work, which helps explain the global demand for artists such as Warhol, Jeff Koons and Mr Hirst—and the eye-watering（泪水盈眶） prices such work can command.
Masters of the art universe

Straddling（跨越） all areas of the art market is a handful of individuals who have emerged as the key figures in the art world in recent years. Chief among them is François Pinault, a luxury-goods billionaire who is also a noted collector of contemporary art and the owner of Christie’s. Philippe Ségalot, his French-born adviser, was behind one of the biggest deals involving a single work of art, the private sale of Warhol’s 1963 painting, “Eight Elvises”, to an anonymous buyer for over $100m.

Mr Ségalot is also believed to be advising the royal family of Qatar, which in the past two years has spent large sums buying modern art at auction, including record-breaking works by Mark Rothko and Mr Hirst. Steven Cohen, an American hedge-fund billionaire, also owns works by Warhol, Mr Hirst and Mr Koons. Mr Cohen used to be a sizeable shareholder（股东） of Sotheby’s and is still an important provider of liquidity to art buyers.

The popularity of blockbuster（一鸣惊人） art exhibitions and the emergence of buyers with a different cultural history have helped change tastes. Artists such as Edvard Munch and Vasily Kandinsky rose sharply after solo shows in London and New York. Alexei von Jawlensky and Emil Nolde were regarded as specialist interests until Russian collectors began seeking them out. Zhao Wuji used to be just another Chinese painter-in-exile（流亡）; now he is recognised as an Abstract Expressionist master influenced by Paul Klee and praised by both Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso.
How to sell it

One of the biggest changes since the market last peaked in 1989 has been the expansion of the auction houses and the change in the nature of the dealer business. Twenty years ago auction houses sold to dealers, and dealers sold to private customers. Today many collectors are advised by auctioneers, both at sales and privately.

Rising costs brought trouble to many old-fashioned fine-art dealer emporiums（商场）. In London Christopher Gibbs has sold his stock and Partridge is in administration. In Paris Galerie Segoura has closed, as has Salvatore Romano in Florence. Many dealers now prefer to take art works on consignment, matching sellers to buyers for a commission rather than investing in stocks of art.

About half the market’s business, reckons Ms McAndrew of Arts Economics, is conducted at public auctions, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s taking the lion’s share（占很大的份额）. Smaller houses include Drouot in Paris, Bonhams, which is based in London but has several offices abroad, and Doyle in New York. The other half is generated by private dealers and galleries that are notoriously secretive（守口如瓶）. One of the biggest private deals in recent years came to light only because the details were disclosed in an American court following the Bernard Madoff scandal. Last July ten paintings by Rothko and two sculptures by Alberto Giacometti were sold by a New York financier to help repay Mr Madoff’s investors. A mystery buyer spent $310m on the works. Two dealers earned $37.5m in fees.

By comparison with that private world, Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction business looks like a model of transparency. Although buyers and sellers are rarely named, the auction price is public. Yet even here there are dark corners. The leading auctioneers offer inducements such as guaranteed prices to persuade sellers to part with their treasures, and generous（慷慨） terms of payment for buyers.

One thing that differentiates the two auction houses is their ownership structure. Sotheby’s is a quoted company whereas Christie’s, once listed, was taken private in 1999 by its current owner, Mr Pinault. Christie’s business has since expanded hugely, partly thanks to Mr Pinault’s pivotal（关键的） position in the international art world. Even though the company can pick and choose what information it wants to reveal, it has in fact become more open over the past ten years.

Sotheby’s, for its part, is still smarting from the public beating it received in America nearly a decade ago when its chairman, Alfred Taubman, and its chief executive, Diana Brooks, were found guilty of conspiring with Christie’s to fix commissions（固定佣金）. Mr Taubman served ten months of a one-year prison sentence; Mrs Brooks was given six months’ house arrest, a $350,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service. No one was charged at Christie’s, which had blown（吹） the whistle on the commission-fixing. Sotheby’s lives in fear of the regulators and discloses only as much financial information as it has to.

In the decade since the scandal both auction houses have concentrated on expansion. Sotheby’s was the first auctioneer to become interested in Russia and remains bigger there than its rival（对手）. Christie’s, which has long been especially strong in the Far East, has put a lot of effort into China. Foreigners are not allowed to own auction houses there, but Christie’s has got around that by signing a licensing agreement with a leading Chinese auctioneer. Both houses have their eye on the Middle East. Christie’s holds regular auctions in Dubai, of which its art and jewellery sales are the most successful. Sotheby’s has opened an office in Qatar which is important for its relationship with the Qatar royal family, one of its biggest clients.

The response of both auction houses to the current slump（暴跌，不景气） has been broadly similar: staff cuts, unpaid leave, a squeeze on salaries, slashed marketing and travel budgets（旅游市场营销和削减预算）, and an edict（法令） that the glossy（光辉的，有光泽的） auction catalogues（目录）, which in the boom（繁荣） cost each of them ￡25m a year to produce, were no longer to be handed out（分发） like chocolate drops.

With a hugely expanded international client base, it was only a matter of time before both auctioneers started to muscle in（强行加入） on areas that had previously been the preserve of private dealers, matching buyers and sellers and selling new art rather than items that had already been in the market. Sotheby’s proved to be much the more ruthless（无情） of the two. All the lots in Mr Hirst’s September 2008 sale, for example, had been consigned to Sotheby’s directly from the artist’s workshop, which shocked dealers who had not previously thought of the auction houses as direct competitors.

In 2006 Sotheby’s paid $56.5m for Noortman Master Paintings, a leading dealer in Old Masters. Less than a year later Christie’s bought Haunch of Venison, another high-profile（外形，轮廓）（高调） dealer set up in 2002, whose founders included a former director of Christie’s contemporary-art department. Noortman gave Sotheby’s an entry into the Maastricht Art Fair（博览会）, the pre-eminent dealers’ fest（卓越的经销商巨星）, and Haunch of Venison helped make Christie’s Mr Pinault the biggest art trader in the market. Both galleries operate independently of the auction houses, but the relationships are close.

All things to all men（对什么人说什么话，八面玲珑）

Both auction houses have also put a lot of effort into advising buyers on how to improve their collections. As Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s European president, says, “We’re much more than an auction house now.” The recession has made many collectors nervous about offering their treasures at auction, so they are selling them privately（私人的，背地的）. In 2007 Christie’s chalked up（记下） private sales of $542m and Sotheby’s of $730m, which means the two auction houses are now among the world’s biggest private dealers. Both often get calls like the one Sotheby’s recently took from a Moscow collector with $2m to spend on an “optimistic” Chagall oil, “not too feminine” and no more than a metre in height. “We put out the word and immediately received several offers from our offices in London, Geneva and New York,” says Mikhail Kamensky, the firm’s head of CIS business.

In 2007 private deals accounted for 8.7% of Christie’s business. Mr Pylkkanen expects that figure to go up to 20% of its revenue within three years. That should put the wind up（使…害怕） private dealers.