Cloze On the anniversary of the artist's birth, Van Gogh's Sunflowers was 1 for just under £25 million at the fine art auctioneers (拍卖商), Christie's, in London. The 2 was triple the previous record of £8 million paid in 1985 for Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi. At least ten bidders 3 for the painting, half 4 telephone, anonymously battling it out in leaps of £500,000. Van Gogh wrote in a letter of 1889 that one of these Scots or Americans 5 to pay 500 francs—about £25 at that time—for 6 a painting. Christie's chairman 7 reporters after the sale, "it's a rare picture." A spokesman for the firm added, "It's fantastic." Not 8 who was at the auction agreed. One commented, "More money 9 sense." Many people do 10 uneasy that a picture could be auctioned for such an unbelievable sum. They find distasteful the contrast 11 this sort of money and the impoverished life of the painter 12 . Van Gogh, once a lay preacher among the miners of Belgium, was more 13 in producing work that dignified labor than he was in selling for a profit. Depressive, poor, unrecognized and 14 suicidal, he remains a romantic figure in the public 15 .
Frank Lloyd Wright probably is the greatest architect that the United States has ever produced. He was very 16 and had a natural ability 17 . His buildings were not only beautiful, but they were 18 functional. They fit their purposes very well. Wright's churches, 19 make people feel like 20 . His office buildings make people 21 working, and his houses make people 22 comfortable, at home. However. Wright's beautiful, 23 buildings are not the only reason 24 he is famous. There is another reason. Frank Lloyd Wright is called the greatest American architect because he started an American style 25 . Most of the architecture in the U. S. before Wright was really European, 26 . Wright's buildings do not 27 old European buildings. They have their own 28 . Wright's ideas about style are still used in the U. S. and in other parts of the world. The most important idea in Frank Lloyd Wright's Style of Architecture is that a building must 29 and the land around it . His houses are often called "grassland houses" because their lines are 30 to the lines on the grass land. 31 the lines of the grassland and the lines of Wright's houses 32 the horzon, the place 33 earth and sky seem to meet. They are horizontal lines. Most European style houses, 34 , have many vertical lines that form 90° angles 35 the horizon.