雅思阅读UNIT 15 Practice 3.doc

UNIT 15 Practice 3 ? Reading Passage 1 Graffiti ?Graffiti - Art or Crime? A People love to make their mark, and graffiti such as initials or drawings written or spray-painted onto subways, walls or footpaths is a universal phenomenon. It has existed since ancient times, and one of the oldest pieces of still-existing graffiti is an advertisement for a brothel in the ancient town of Ephesus, in Greece. There are many types of graffiti, and also a variety of views about it. Some see it as an art form, some use it as a form of protest against authority, others regard it as needless and destructive vandalism, and it is often seen as the precursor of gang-related crime in a neighbourhood. B The heyday of graffiti was in New York City in the 1970s. At that time, there was little money for the policing of graffiti, and artists targeted the subways and subway cars in particular. Graffiti became so popular at this time that artists wanted to identify their own particular work. They began to create distinctive stylised signatures and thus the art of tagging was born. Sales of spray paint increased significantly at this time, as more and more street artists began to explore this new medium of expression, and graffiti became bigger and more elaborate. Artists were competing to cover the whole city of New York with their work, and finally the Metro Transit Authority began to battle with graffiti artists, locking gates and removing pictures from subway trains. At the same time, graffiti began making its way into art galleries, as the established art world began to recognise it as a legitimate modern art form. C By the 80s, graffiti culture in New York was beginning to decline. It was becoming associated with the loc drug scene, and legal penalties for vandalism became more severe at this time. In particular, the MTA hugely increased its anti-graffiti budget, and it became much harder for artists to create elaborate pieces on subway cars, so graffiti was restricted to the st