Watercolor is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.
Fresco(壁画), one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster(灰泥). Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo's heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolor painting in the world.
The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go down-hill, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly for doing sketches(素描) or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for the outdoors and also small, private pictures. The softness of watercolor had a remarkably strong attraction for them.
The popularity of watercolor continued to grow until in the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolor, producing such well-known watercolor artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.
小题1:What is the passage mainly about?
A．The gradual weakness of fresco painting.
B．Oils having more power or influence over watercolor.
C．The rediscovery of watercolor in England.
D．The start and development of watercolor.小题2:The first watercolor artists were ______.
A．early cave men
B．Italian fresco artists
C．Flemish masters
D．English artists of the 18th century小题3:In 16th and 17th centuries the artists thought ______.
A．watercolor was more costly, but was better
B．oil painting lasted less long, but clearer and brighter
C．watercolor was not suitable for finished works
D．oil painting was difficult to use小题4:According to the passage, watercolor painting was put back in England because ______.
A.it was easy to use outdoors B.it was a strong medium
B.it was extremely bright in color D.it was well suited to popular tastes
小题5:What would the next paragraph most probably deal with?
A．The works of famous American watercolor artists.
B．The weakness of oils as popular paints.
C．Techniques of producing watercolor.
D．Modern American oil painters.
