47 According to the passage, which of the following is true about France?
(A) She has the rich people share their wealth with the poor.
(B) She combines old and new elements in shaping her culture.
(C) She skillfully hides the ugly parts of the country from tourists.
(D) She replaces the historical buildings with modern architectural projects.

Wherever you go in France, the country’s artistic heritage遺產 is very much in evidence明顯. France does have her share of ugly urban sprawl城市蔓延 and unlovely out-of-town hypermarkets大型超市, but these are eclipsed by her wealth of beautifully restored恢復 and maintained historic buildings which, together with striking引人注目 new architecture and works of art, are part of the fabric織物 of everyday life.

France has had an important role throughout the history of western art which began with the cave painters洞穴壁畫 of the Dordogne多爾多涅省, long before their land became a nation.

From the Renaissance文藝復興 onwards向前 French kings invited the finest European歐洲人的 painters to decorate their palaces, and Paris became the center of nearly all important artistic developments, whether the artists concerned were French or not. It was only in the nineteenth century that French painters formed形成 a distinctively特殊 French movement that was far more influential有影響力 than the Flemish, German and Italian schools of previous先前的 centuries.

The impressionists印象派 and their successors radically根本地 altered改變 the direction方向 of European art, attracting吸引 even more foreign artists to Paris.

Since the seventeenth century, when the Academies of painting and sculpture雕刻, and architecture were founded, architecture and the visual arts視覺藝術 have been a central concern of the French state情況.

Today, the Ministry of Culture文化部 is housed安置 in the elegant優雅seventeenth-century Palais-Royal巴黎皇家殿, alongside旁邊 two of the nation’s highest institutions, the Conseil Constitutionnel and the Conseil d’Etat, exemplifying作為 the belief of Catherine Trautmann卡特琳・特勞特曼, the culture minister from 1997 to 2000, that “culture is at the heart of our democratic system.” This sentiment echoes回響 the aims of her predecessors前輩 who include de Gaulle’s戴高乐 post-war戰後 minister部長 Andre Malraux and Mitterrand’s innovative創新 and daring大膽 minister, Jack Lang, both of whom wanted to enrich the lives of ordinary citizens.

都市擴張

Urban Sprawl