請回答第 35 題至第 38 題:
Vincent Van Gogh, one of the three great Post Impressionists, is regarded as the greatest Dutch painter after
Rembrandt. During his short ten-year painting career, he produced more than 800 oil paintings and 700 drawings, but he
sold only one of them in his lifetime.
At the early age of sixteen, Van Gogh started to learn art dealing and had worked in the Hague, London, and Paris
until 1876. Disliking art dealing, Van Gogh began to isolate himself and became a minister. But in 1880, he was
dismissed by his superiors and became poor. Then he began to draw. He understood the limitations of learning by
himself, so he went to Brussels to study drawing.
In 1881, he went to the Hague and produced his first masterpiece, The Potato Eaters, in 1885. He then attended an
art school in Belgium. Inspired by the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens at the school, he was soon off to Paris, where he
met Gauguin and found Impressionists like Camille Pissarro. Van Gogh established his personal style of painting during
his two years’ stay in Paris.
Tired of city life, Van Gogh left Paris and rented a house in Arles in the south of France. Gauguin joined him later in
October, but in a quarrel on Christmas Eve, Van Gogh cut off part of his own left ear. He was then kept in a psychiatric
hospital for one year. Then, he moved to the home of a physician-artist. But two months later, on July 27, 1890, he shot
himself and died.
【題組】36 Why did Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear?
(A) Because he didn’t want to be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
(B) Because he had an angry argument with his friend.
(C) Because the busy city life exhausted his mind and body.
(D) Because he knew very well that he was going to die.