Part A Directions: Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. The art market is a window on the thoughts of the very rich. In November, 1994, Bill Gates, founder of the Microsoft computer empire, spent 30.8 million dollars on a 72 - page manuscript. written and illustrated by the left hand of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was not just one of the greatest artist of the Renaissance. He was also a farseeing scientist whose mind leaps ahead of his time. The manuscript, which contains Leonardo' s thoughts on the nature of water and on universe, was the only one of his 65 surviving manuscripts that was held in the United States. Six months later, Andrew Lloyd Webber, creator of a series of international hit musicals and a very wealthy man, spent 29.2 million dollars on Picasso' s portrait. It was the highest price paid at auction for a painting since the art market crashed in 1990. The Leonardo and the Picasso were the two highest prices of the 1994 - 1995 auction season. The very rich have got their confidence back, which has meant that buyers can be found for works of high quality. The nature of the market is changing. In 1980s, art was bought as a speculation: buy in April, sell for double the price in September. This attitude disappeared with the 1990 depression, but the very rich and their financial advisors think that it is wise to keep a percentage of your investment in art works of really outstanding quality. Besides Europe and America, there is now a growing market in the East. Indeed, the East has become the great hope of the dealers over the last three years--they have been aiming to find new buyers in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and China. There are more rich connoisseurs in Japan than anywhere else, who have the best understanding of arts', but they have not been in buying mood. Japanese speculators lost huge amounts of money in the 1990s crash and there are few collectors who dare to buy any works of art today. What does the first sentence of this text probably mean?