l, art and business magazines. Some of the remaining copies will circulate as a spe cial Sunday supplement in the New York Times. The cost of launching Operation Co lumbus is a staggering US $ 5 million, but Ricci is hoping that 60% of the price tag will be financed by Italian corporations.¡° To land in America Columbus had to use Spanish sponsors,¡± reads one sentence in his promotional pamphlet. ¡°We would like Italians.¡±ª¥ 

Like Columbus, Ricci cannot know what his reception will be on foreign shor es. In Italy he gambled ¡ª and won ¡ª on a simple concept: it is more important to show art than to write about it. Hence, one issue of FMR might feature 32 fu ll-colour pages of 17th-century tapestries, followed by 14 pages of outrageous e yeglasses. He is gambling that the concept is exportable. ¡°I don¡¯t expect that more than 30% of my reader... will actually read FMR,¡± he says. ¡°The magazine is such a visual delight that they don¡¯t have to.¡± Still, he is lining up an impr es sive stable of writers and professors for the American edition , including Noam Chomsky, Anthony Burgess, Eric Jong and Norman Mailer. In addition, he seems to be pursuing his won eclectic vision without giving a moment¡¯s thought to such e s tablished competitors as Connosisseur and Horizon. ¡°The Americans can do almost everything better than we can,¡± says Rieci, ¡°But we(the Italians)have a 2,000 year edge on them in art.¡±ª¤ 

16. Ricci intends his American edition of FMR to carry more American art works in order to___.ª¤  

A. boost Americans¡¯ confidence in their artª¤ 
B. follow the pattern set by his Italian editionª¤ 
C. help Italians understand American art betterª¤ 
D. expand the readership of his magazineª¤ 

17. Ricci is compared to Columbus in the passage mainly because___. 
A. they both benefited from Italian sponsors 
B. they were explorers in their own waysª¤ 
C. they obtained overseas sponsorship 
D. they