浙江省长阅读题专项练习.docVIP

浙江省长阅读题专项练习 1 ROME: The legend of Leonardo da Vinci is covered in mystery: How did he die? Are the remains buried in a French castle really those of the master? Was the “Mona Lisa’ a self-portrait in disguise（伪装）? A group of Italian scientists believe the key to solving those puzzles lies with the remains, and they say they are seeking permission to dig up the body to conduct carbon and DNA testing. If the skullis undamaged, the scientists can go to the heart of a question that has fascinated scholars and the public for centuries: the identity of the “Mona Lisa.’ Recreating a virtual and then physical reconstruction of Leonardo’s face, they can compare it with the smiling face in the Painting. “We don’t know what we’ll find if the tomb is opened. We could even just find grains and dust,” says Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist who is participating m the project. “But if the remains are well kept, they are a biological record of events in a persons life, and sometimes in their death.” Silvano Vinceti, the leader of the group, said that he plans to press his case with the French officials in charge of the said burial site at Amboise Castle early next week. Leonardo moved to France at the invitation of King Francis I, who named him “first painter to the king.” He spent the last three years of his life there, and died in 1519 at age 67. The artist’s original burial place, the palace church of Saint Florentine, was destroyed dirring’ the French Revolution and remains that are believed to be his were eventually reburied in the Saint-Hubert Chapel near the castle. “The Amboise tomb is a symbolic tomb; it’s a big question mark,” said Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of a museum dedicated to Leonardo in his hometown of Vinci. Vezzosi said that investigating the tomb could help identify the artist’s bones with certainty and solve other questions, such as the cause of his death. He said he asked to open the tomb in 2004 to study the remains, but the Amboise Castle turned hi