1 . Artists everywhere are getting “understandably nervous” about recent advances in artificial intelligence. Last month, a winner of an art prize at the Colorado State Fair “sparked a violent protest” when he posted the news and explained that he’d created his image using an AI program. Critics quickly accused 39-year-old Lance Allen of cheating. To be fair, Allen had won in the digital art category and made no secret of how the image had been produced. But the rules of art making are clearly changing.
Allen’s creative process, to be clear, “was not a push-button operation, ”said Jason Blain in Forbes. He claims to have spent 80 hours on his entry, first on fine-tuning his text prompts (提示), then by touching up the final image using Photoshop and similar tools, then arranging to print the image on canvas. He made the finished product using AI much as a photographer creates an image using a camera.
But Allen, a tabletop game developer, is awed by AI’s capabilities and urges artists and illustrators to welcome the technology rather than fight it. “Art is dead,” he says. “AI won. Humans lost.” A more inspiring lesson to take from his victory, though, is that image generators are likely to “expand the appreciation for and creation of art” by opening the field to people, like him, who could never draw anything as detailed as his award-winning image. “If anything, we will have more artists,” and as the technology progresses, “we might see the emergence of art styles that none have seen before.”
You can’t blame traditional artists if they’re unhappy. Image generators work their magic, after all, by analyzing the aesthetics (美学) of millions of pre-existing images. One of the most complicated image generators “makes crystal clear just how destructive this technology will be,” said Loz Eliot in New Atlas. Given a specific prompt, it can produce an image of just about anything you can imagine and even follow the style of a favorite artist’s work. Its arrival marks “an incredible popularization of visual creativity” while aiming “a knife to the heart of anyone who’s spent decades improving their artistic techniques hoping to make a living from them.”
1. Why are artists getting nervous about AI recently?| A．A winner of an art prize used AI. | B．Lance Allen cheated in the art competition. |
| C．The digital art will soon dominate. | D．There will be great changes in art creation. |
| A．It was no easy work for Allen even with Al. | B．Allen worked as a photographer creating an image. |
| C．AI played a key role in Allen’s art creation. | D．Although with AI, Allen’s creation counted a lot. |
| A．Human has been beaten by AI. | B．AI will make art more popular. |
| C．Greater artists and new art styles will appear. | D．AI enables amateurs to win art competitions. |
| A．It works by analyzing images created by human. |
| B．It can produce images beyond people’s imagination. |
| C．It makes artists’ long-time effort meaningless. |
| D．It makes it impossible for artists to make a living. |
“What will we be singing for the contest this year?” a student from my high school choir, a singing team, asked eagerly.
I hesitated this moment. “I was thinking,” I said, “maybe we’ll skip the contest and just work hard on the concerts this year.”
“NO!” the kids protested.
“We’ve got to go to contest!”
“In Class A.”
“It’s tradition!”
This was true. Awards lined the front wall of the music room from the past successes of large, talented classes. But a change in educational policies, with an emphasis on academics, had reduced my choir to a mere thirty-two students. My section leaders had graduated or been forced to drop music classes, leaving me with young, inexperienced kids who couldn’t read music, couldn’t hold their parts, and could sing only a simple melody or song.
“Maybe we could enter Class B this year,” I suggested, knowing even that would be a near-impossible mission.
“No!” the kids screamed. “Class A!”
I shook my head, “Class A is extremely difficult.”
“We can do it!” they shouted. “We can do it!”
“I’ll have to think about it,” I said, hoping their enthusiasm would die off in a couple of weeks.
But that didn’t happen. If anything, the class became more fixed. Every day they begged and begged and they insisted. Because I had to protect their self-pride I couldn’t tell them they weren’t good enough. My efforts to prevent their eagerness, by showing them a difficult piece of music from the contest list, simply ended with, “It’s okay, Mrs. Pliszka, we’ll get it.”
I struggled to make a decision. If I destroyed their hope, would I destroy their spirit? On the other hand, if we entered Class A, would they be humiliated by the judges’ comments? Finally one morning I walked into class. “Kids!” I demanded. “We are entering the contest in Class A…” The rest of my sentence was lost in screams of delight and applause. As the weeks progressed, each morning the kids practised singing, worked on reading music, learned musical terms, practiced rhythm and marked changes, prepared concert music, and went over and over the three contest numbers.
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When the contest day finally arrived, the kids felt ready to take on the world!
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3 . At the age of 12, I withdrew into my bedroom with my guitar. I had neither musical talent — many
The world favors achievement while
The seeking of accomplishment always
| A．added | B．tailored | C．expected | D．failed |
| A．Besides | B．Instead | C．Therefore | D．However |
| A．fruitless | B．matchless | C．effortless | D．senseless |
| A．wished | B．allowed | C．required | D．invited |
| A．masked | B．rooted | C．set | D．stuck |
| A．waited for | B．passed by | C．departed from | D．stayed with |
| A．exchange | B．reason | C．foundation | D．priority |
| A．relationship | B．difference | C．balance | D．similarity |
| A．ignoring | B．avoiding | C．assessing | D．defending |
| A．origin | B．process | C．decision | D．reward |
| A．lack | B．need | C．rush | D．dream |
| A．amazes | B．concerns | C．frightens | D．discourages |
| A．adventurous | B．dangerous | C．memorable | D．horrible |
| A．impression | B．performance | C．scene | D．harmony |
| A．pursued | B．accepted | C．interpreted | D．analysed |
4 . Think “art”. What comes to your mind? Is it Greek or Roman sculptures in the Louvre, or Chinese paintings in the Palace Museum? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a dancing pattern of lights?
The artworks by American artist Janet Echelman look like colourful floating clouds when they are lit up at night. Visitors to one of her artworks in Vancouver could not only enjoy looking at it, they could also interact with it-literally. They did this by using their phones to change its colours and patterns. Exhibits such as these are certainly new and exciting, but are they really art?
Whatever your opinion, people have been expressing their thoughts and ideas through art for thousands of years. To do this, they have used a variety of tools and technologies. Yet Michelangelo and others have been labelled (定义) as “artists”, but not “technicians”. This means that art and technology, have always been seen as two very separate (不同的) things.
Today, however, technological advances have led to a combination of art and technology. As a result, the art world is changing greatly. Now art is more accessible to us than ever before. Take for example one of China’s most famous paintings from the Song Dynasty, Along the River During the Qingming Festival. As this artwork is rarely on display, people have sometimes queued up to six hours for a chance to see it. Once in front of the painting, they only have limited time to spend taking in its five metres of scenes along the Bian River in Bianjing. Thanks to technology however, millions more people have been able to experience a digital version of this painting. Three-dimensional (3D) animation means that viewers can see the characters move around and interact with their surroundings. They can also watch as the different scenes change from daylight into nighttime.
The art-tech combination (结合) is also changing our concepts of “art” and the “artist”. Not only can we interact with art, but also take part in its creation. With new technological tools at our fingertips, more and more people are exploring their creative sides. The result has been exciting new art forms, such as digital paintings and videos.
However, where technology will take art next is anyone’s guess. But one thing is for sure—with so many artists exploring new possibilities, we can definitely expect the unexpected.
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．To explain the art. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To give the background. | D．To give a definition. |
| A．To show he is a famous artist. |
| B．To show he is also a technician. |
| C．To show art is different from technology. |
| D．To show art is the same as technology. |
| A．The history of technology and art. |
| B．The relation of technology and art. |
| C．The future of technology and art. |
| D．The examples of technology and art. |
| A．Positive. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Uncertain |
I spent 15 years trying to make it in the music industry. When I was a teenager, I did any odd job to afford time in a recording studio. I knocked at managers’ doors and sent out demo (录音样带) after demo, but I got nowhere. In 2010, aged 27, I was doing a job in a restaurant when I wrote a song called Dream Goes On. It was a song about never giving up. I just let out all of my frustrations at the keyboard.
Over the next five years, the music career never materialized but I persisted. Then, in 2019, I uploaded Dream Goes On to a music-sharing website. I just wanted someone to notice my music.
Later that year, I received an email out of the blue from Music World from South Korea, requesting a license for the song. They had chosen my song from the millions on the music-sharing website for a theme tune for one of their shows. I was amazed and negotiated a contract for $5,000 for the use of the song and signed up straight away. I was pretty excited, but didn’t think anything more would come of it, so I focused on my job in the restaurant.
This February, Music World organized a musical festival in Seoul and my song Dream Goes On was also chosen as the theme tune for the festival. I watched on YouTube as my song was being played to a huge crowd of people. It was amazing.
After three days of the festival, I was contacted by Music World and they asked if I’d like to go to Seoul to sing Dream Goes On in a concert. They flew me out there the next day. I was welcomed like a celebrity—everyone I met thought I was a big name in England. I had to break the news to them that I wasn’t a pop star.
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1. 续写词数应为150左右；
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I had never performed the song live, and hadn’t been on stage for years.
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After the concert, I had photographers and journalists battling to interview me.
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1. 艺术形式简介；
2. 推荐理由；
3. 表达期待。
注意：
1. 词数80左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear editor,
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Yours,
Li Hua
写作要求：
1．字数约120词，勿超出答题区；
2．可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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8 . While most musicians work with other artists when creating their music, Holly Herndon, an American musician and sound artist who is now based in Berlin, takes a different way, working with the machine learning software called Spawn. The software uses artificial neural networks modeled after the structure of the human brain. These networks learn patterns from datasets during the training process. Based on the data, the networks create new material that includes Herndon’s own voice.
When producing her album, PROTO, Holly trained datasets to write new music. The process requires the input data of music written by people or by artificial intelligence (AI). The neural networks then produce variations of that music. “Computers surprise you in a way that an instrument doesn’t,” Holly said. So what does music sound like when composed by what is essentially a robot? It sounds like music from the future!
But Holly Herndon isn’t the only one exploring AI in composition. Machines have played an increasingly important role in music over the last century. The godfather of computer science, Alan Turing, developed the first computer generated music in 1951. Then in 1980. David Cope from the University of California, Santa Cruz developed EMI — Experiments in Musical Intelligence, a system that analyzes existing music and produces new pieces based on it.
AI might not take over the job of the “pop star” anytime soon, or will it? Miquela Sousa is a computer-generated artist with over one million followers on Instagram. “I’m a model and singer. And I’m a robot,” Miquela said. This then raises the question: Can we reproduce creativity using a computer?
Though those questions are not easy to answer, I believe the next frontier of music lies somewhere in between. I can see the path forward with a new dawn of creativity that combines human inventiveness with AI. And the next chapter of music will certainly become wonderful as music and AI become even more closely connected.
1. What plays an important role in producing PROTO?| A．Holly’s special voice. | B．The input of existing music. |
| C．Holly’s rich knowledge. | D．The use of an instrument. |
| A．To promote deep thinking on AI musicians. |
| B．To show the popularity of smart robots. |
| C．To explain the tasks of computer-generated artists. |
| D．To make comparisons between human and robotic artists. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Surprised. | C．Confused. | D．Confident. |
| A．The increasing diversity of AI music. | B．The development of musical composition. |
| C．The history of computer-generated music. | D．The combination of AI and musical composition. |
9 . What Makes Art Valuable?
Why do people buy art? An even bigger question is, why do people pay tens of millions of dollars to own art? Is it for status, prestige(威望), and approval from peers? One thing to remember is that value isn’t only linked to its artist quality.
Provenance
In the art world, an artwork’s value can be the result of provenance. In other words, who has owned the painting in the past.
The Thrill of Auction(拍卖)
The salerooms at Christie’s or Sotheby’s are full of billionaires—or better yet, their advisors.
Historical Significance
Historical significance works in a couple of ways when it comes to determining the value of art. Firstly, you can consider the piece in terms of its importance to art history in its genre. For example, a painting by Claude Monet is worth more than other more recent impressionist work since Monet changed the standard of art history and impressionism as a whole.
| A．World history also affects the value of art. |
| B．It’s interesting to explore what makes art valuable. |
| C．It seems as though all of these factors combine to determine the value of art. |
| D．Auctioneers are skilled salesmen who help raise those prices up and up and up. |
| E．It’s obvious that changes in polities have a historical effect on the value of art to different people. |
| F．For instance, art describing beautiful women tends to be sold for higher prices than that of beautiful men. |
| G．For example, Mark Rothko’s White Center was owned by the Rockefeller family, one of America’s most powerful dynasties. |
10 . In August, Jason M. Allen’s piece “Theatre D’opéra Spatial” — which he created with Al image generator Midjourney — won first place in the emerging artist division’s “digital arts photography” category at the Colorado State Fair Fine Arts Competition. The definition for the category states that digital art refers to works that use “digital technology as part of the creative process”.
Allen’s award-winning image has led to debates about what, exactly, it means to be an artist and whether AI can truly make art. “It felt bad for the exact same reason we don’t let robots participate in the Olympics,” one Twitter user wrote. “This is the literal definition of ‘pressed a few buttons to make a digital art piece’,” another tweeted.
Yet while Allen didn’t use a paintbrush, there was plenty of work involved, he said. First, he played around with phrasing that led Midjourney to generate images of women in elegant dresses and space helmets, in an attempt to mix Victorian-style costuming with space themes. Over time, with many slight changes to his written prompt (提示符), he created 900 different versions of what led to his final image. Then he improved its resolution through Gigapixel AI and finally had the images printed.
Allen is glad the debate over whether AI can be used to make art is attracting so much attention. “Rather than hating on the technology, we need to recognize that it’s a powerful tool and use it for good so we can all move forward,” Allen said.
Cal Duran, one of the judges for the competition, said that while Allen’s piece included a mention of AI, he didn’t realize that when judging it. Still, he sticks by his decision to award it first place. “I think the AI technology may give more opportunities to people who may not find themselves artists in the conventional way,” he said.
1. Why has Jason’s work led to debates?| A．It was a copy of a photograph. |
| B．He challenged the older artists. |
| C．It was created with the help of AI. |
| D．He broke the rule of the competition. |
| A．Cooperative. |
| B．Energy-consuming. |
| C．Straightforward. |
| D．Imagination-lacking. |
| A．It is a double-edged sword. |
| B．It attracts conventional artists. |
| C．It strikes art judges as no surprise. |
| D．It may open a new world to artists. |
| A．A trend to be AI artists. |
| B．An AI-generated art contest. |
| C．Responses to a winning AI artwork. |
| D．Curiosity about an image generator. |
