Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures. The increasingly pop

Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures. The increasingly popular “design museums” that are opening today, however, perform quite a different role. Unlike most art museums, the design museum shows objects that are easily found by the general public. These museums sometimes even place things like fridges and washing machines in the center of the hall.

People have argued that design museums are often made use of as advertisements for new industrial technology. But their role is not simply a matter of sales--it is the honoring of excellently invented products. The difference between the window of a department store and the showcase in a design museum is that the first tries to sell you something, while the second tells you the success of a sale.

One advantage of design museums is that they are places where people feel familiar with the exhibits. Unlike the average art museum visitors, design museum visitors seldom feel frightened or puzzled. This is partly because design museums clearly show how and why mass-produced products work and look as they do, and how design has improved the quality of our lives. Art museum exhibits, on the other hand, would most probably fill visitors with a feeling that there is something beyond their understanding.

In recent years, several new design museums have opened their doors. Each of these museums has tried to satisfy the public's growing interest in the field with new ideas. London's Design Museum, for example, shows a collection of mass-produced objects from Zippo lighters to electric typewriters to a group of Italian fish-tins. The choices open to design museums seem far less strict than those to art museums, and visitors may also sense the humorous part of our society while walking around such exhibits as interesting and unusually attractive toys collected in our everyday life.

40. Showcases in design museums are different from store windows because they __

A. show more technologically advanced products

B. help increase the sales of products

C. show why the products have sold well

D. attract more people than store windows do

41. The author believes that most design museum visitors.

A. do not admire mass-produced products

B. are puzzled with technological exhibits

C. dislike exhibits in art museums

D. know the exhibits very well

42. The choices open to design museums          

A. are not as strict as those to art museums

B. are not aimed to interest the public

C. may fail to bring some pleasure to visitors

D. often contain precious exhibits

43. The best title for this passage is    .

A. The Forms of Design Museums

B. The Exhibits of Design Museums  

C. The Nature of Design Museums

D. The Choice Open of Design Museums

40．C

解析：从第二段内容可知。

41．D

解析：普通博物馆似乎拒人于千里之外，但大多数参观“设计博物馆”的人十分喜欢这种形式，那么对展品就不太陌生,甚至很了解了。

42．A

解析：见最后一段第三句话。

43．C

解析： nature此处指“本性、特征”。而不是指自然。因此“设计博物馆的特性”便是最好的标题了。