Niki de Saint Phalle, one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, was a French-American born in 1930. She was brought up in a very conservative family, and yet she rejected the conservative values of her family to pursue a career in painting. Her rebelliousness created a series of conflicts with her family, which led to a nervous breakdown at age 23.
Fortunately, painting offered her an effective treatment and a way to develop as an artist. Her famous “Nana” series gained universal praise. It is evidence to the glory of women. The series is mostly composed of life-size dolls(娃娃) of women in various roles such as brides and new mothers. Some of these sculptures are very big so that men would look small next to them. She used vivid colors in these works and her female subjects dance cheerfully and merrily. Through these joyful and powerful images of Nana, the artist sends a positive message to all women.
Saint Phalle’s sculptural park, “The Tarot Garden,” inspired by Tarot cards, is situated in the Italian province of Tuscany. Work on the garden began in 1979, and it was officially opened to the public in May, 1998. The park contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. The brightly colored combinations of buildings and sculptures reflect the special qualities represented by the 22 main tarot cards. The sculptures, however, have nothing to do with fortune telling. Instead, the works focus on the elements of life experience, personality, and self-knowledge that the cards refer to.
Saint Phalle passed away on May 21, 2002, in San Diego, California, at the age of 71. Her death meant the loss of a woman of diverse creative talents.
1. What does the underlined “rebelliousness” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．An attitude towards life. | B．Determination to succeed. |
| C．Unwillingness to obey rules. | D．A perspective different from others. |
| A．Saint Phalle’s series “Nana”. | B．Saint Phalle’s various roles. |
| C．Skills used in Saint Phalle’s works. | D．The variety of Saint Phalle’s female subjects. |
| A．There are 22 sculptures altogether. |
| B．They are associated with fortune telling. |
| C．They are modeled on the symbols of Tarot cards. |
| D．They display women’s personality and self-knowledge. |
| A．Innovative. | B．Critical. | C．Tolerant. | D．Selfless. |
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【推荐1】You’ve probably never heard of Dr. June McCarroll, but she’s truly a woman who left her mark on the world. Born in Nebraska, she was a doctor who lived in California. Interestingly enough, her claim to fame (名声) lies outside the world of medicine. An accident was the trigger that got her thinking about making our highways safer. Her car was sideswiped, and she was determined to do something about cars that crowded others off the road.
Driving on a road that bulged (凸起) down its center, Dr. McCarroll noticed that the bulge helped to keep cars on their own side of the road. That gave her an idea. She tried persuading the town council to “paint a line down the middle of the road” to set an example and “lead the nation in public safety”.
She got the typical bureaucratic response. However, she was someone who would not take no for an answer. So she took her idea to the local women’s club. The vote was in support of the project. Still, she continued to face bureaucratic stubbornness for seven long years before her idea was accepted.
In 1924 the California Highway Commission agreed to experiment with a centerline on two sections of Route 99. Accidents on both test roads reduced dramatically, and soon the entire state boasted McCarroll lines on its highways. Most of the world has since followed suit (学样).
When you come up with an idea in which you believe, go after that idea, especially if people you respect believe it’s a good one.
1. We can learn from the passage that Dr. McCarroll_________.| A．was a native Californian. |
| B．had worked in Nebraska. |
| C．contributed a lot to the road safety. |
| D．was famous in medicine around the world. |
| A．Her car was blocked by a lot of cars in front. |
| B．Her car was hit on the side by another car. |
| C．Her car hit a large bulge down the road’s center. |
| D．She was knocked down by a car and was injured. |
| A．approved. | B．refused. | C．agreed with | D．warned. |
| A．didn’t make any difference. | B．was supported by few people. |
| C．was not accepted until she died. | D．was popular around the world. |
【推荐2】Daphne Soares, a biologist, made an amazing discovery about alligators (短吻鳄). The investigation of the sensory dots of alligators began when she was at university. Now she holds a research position at the University of Maryland.
The first time Daphne Soares got really close to an alligator was when she was helping to hold down an eight-foot alligator. When she got close to the alligator, she noticed that its face was covered with little black spots.
She started her study of the black dots when she went to the library. When she read the books and the scientific journals, she learned that people had noticed the dots. People thought that the dots were some kind of sense organ. However, no one really knew what the dots were for.
It was a complete accident when she found out what the dots were used for. She placed electrodes (电极) on nerves coming from some of the sensory dots. When the nerves were stimulated, they created a tiny electric current. Just then she heard a small sound over a audio speaker. She tried to see if the dots acted like eyes and temperature sensors, but nothing worked. One day she accidentally dropped a tool into an alligator’s tank. When she put her hand in the tank to get the tool out, she made small ripples (涟漪) in the water. When the ripples reached the alligator’s face, she heard a noise over the speaker. She then realized that the dots must be sensitive to the changes in pressure when they were hit by ripples of water.
After that, she is now studying blind cavefish. She is trying to learn whether they are blind from birth or lose their sight as they grow up.
1. What was Daphne Soares doing when she noticed the black dots?| A．Studying the sense organ. |
| B．Helping to keep a hold of an alligator. |
| C．Observing an alligator in a pond. |
| D．Reading scientific journal in the library. |
| A．She collected data online. |
| B．She did some field observations. |
| C．She sought help from professionals. |
| D．She did some scientific experiments. |
| A．The sense of feeling. | B．The sense of sight. |
| C．The sense of taste. | D．The sense of hearing. |
| A．A Born Biologist | B．The Types of Alligators |
| C．A Discovery About Alligators | D．Daphne Soares’ Stories |
【推荐3】On the first day of school we were challenged to get to know a new classmate. I was looking around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I found a little old lad with a warm smile.
She said, “Hi, handsome! I’m Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug (拥抱)?” I laughed and heartily responded, “Of course!”
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent (天真的) age?”1 asked.
She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have children, and then travel around.”
“No, seriously,” I asked. I was curious why she took on this challenge at this age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me. We became instant friends.
Over the year, Rose became a campus icon (偶像) and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the attention from the other
students. She was living it up. At the end of the term we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. Here are the secrets to staying young. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have many people walking around who are dead, and they don’t even know it!” she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability,” she added. “But growing up requires finding the opportunity in change. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what they did, but rather for things they did not do.”
One week after graduation that year, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. She taught us by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.
1. Rose started college at the age of 87 in order to_____.| A．marry a rich man |
| B．travel around the world |
| C．make more friends |
| D．realize her dream |
| A．She was living a long life. |
| B．She was enjoying herself. |
| C．She was spending a lot of money. |
| D．She was killing time. |
| A．there’s no sense in living without your aim |
| B．you can’t sleep well every night |
| C．you are too old and have to stop playing |
| D．something is terribly wrong with your brain |
| A．Meet the Challenge |
| B．Never Waste Time |
| C．Grow Up or Grow Old? |
| D．Have You Got Ready? |
【推荐1】Some photographers have the good fortune to find a mentor in their young years who both inspires and encourages them. Jessica Backhaus found one in Gisele Freund, the great French photographer remembered for her portraits(肖像) of artists, especially writers. Gisele was a wonderful, sensitive portraitist whose pictures of Virginia Woolf, Andre Gide, James Joyce, George Bemard Shaw, Jean Cocteau, and a long list of well-known artists are unforgettable.
Jessica, a young photographer from Germany, was studying photography in Paris when she met the famous Gisele Freund, on November 5, 1992. Slowly a friendship developed, lasting until Gisele's death. in 2000; and in a way it still continues today. Gisele was generous in her concern for a new generation of photographers, and Jessica took to heart her advice to forget about technique and to take pictures with her eyes and heart. To thank her, Jessica decided to take the series of pictures published in the book One Day in November.
One day, before Jessica moved to New York, Gisele suggested that she write about their friendship. The book One Day in November begins with Jessica's essay on their shared memories and conversations, followed by her photographs. She calls it a visual poem, pointing out that she expresses in pictures rather than words.
The excellent photographs from her book can be seen in a splendid exhibition at Laurence Miller Gallery, along with a series of pictures from three of her other books: Jesus and the Cherries, portraits taken in a Polish village where time stood still; What Still Remains. pictures of objects left behind; and a new book of light reflections on water, I Wanted to See the World. All are guided by Gisele's advice and all are quite wonderful.
1. The underlined word “one” in Paragraph 1 refers to _______.| A．a responsible friend | B．a well-known artist |
| C．an inspiring instructor | D．an experienced photographer |
| A．It begins with photographs and ends with an essay. |
| B．It talks about the friendship between Jessica and Gisele. |
| C．it collects poems that provide readers with a visual feast. |
| D．It contains portraits taken in a village where time stood still. |
| A．Jessica's memories of Gisele | B．Gisele's influence on Jessica. |
| C．The photographs taken by Gisele | D．The achievements made by Jessica. |
【推荐2】Christo Javacheff the artist who worked to turn landscapes and buildings into massive, temporary works of art, died on March 2021 at age 84. Christo surprised the world again and again with the imagination and size of the artworks he created.
Christo, born in Bulgaria in 1935, met his wife Jeanne-Claude in Paris in 1959. Together, the two formed a strong partnership that lasted the rest of their lives. They worked as a team to create huge works of art called installations. In these installations, Christo and Jeanne often changed the way buildings or large areas of land looked — a kind of art known as "land art”.
The two were most noted for “wrapping” things so large that most people would never think to wrap them. Many of their projects used huge pieces of cloth or plastic. For example, in 1969, they wrapped 1.6 miles of rocky coastline near Sydney, Australia and it was the largest artwork ever made. In 1995, they used cloth to wrap up the Reichstag, a famous and historic building in Berlin, Germany.
Being extremely large, their art works cost a fortune to create. The artists paid for the projects themselves by selling the plans, drawings, and models they made for each installation. Many projects seemed so unusual that the couple had to work very hard to get permission to create them.
But, like almost all of the artist's work, it was only meant to last a short time. Most of the installations only stayed up for a few weeks or months before being taken down.
“I am an artist, and I have to have courage," Christo said. "Do you know I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished." Christo himself has gone away, leaving behind an art world forever changed by the memory of his huge and daring artworks.
1. For what were the couple best known?| A．Overcoming financial problems. |
| B．Tearing down old-fashioned buildings. |
| C．Inventing innovative building materials. |
| D．Packaging huge landscapes and buildings. |
| A．Considerate and humble. | B．Creative and courageous. |
| C．Enthusiastic and careful. | D．Demanding and generous. |
| A．His artworks were temporary. |
| B．His hard work didn't pay off at last. |
| C．He regretted exhibiting his artworks. |
| D．He didn't expect his works to last long. |
| A．Christo's Collection of Massive Artworks |
| B．Christo's Enormous Influence on Architecture |
| C．Christo: an Artist Who Dreamed and Built Big |
| D．Christo and Jeanne: a Couple Who Warmed the World |
【推荐3】Workers at the National Galleries of Scotland recently experienced quite a surprise after they X-rayed a painting by Vincent van Gogh. Hidden on the back of the painting Head of a Peasant Woman, which Van Gogh completed in 1885, was a self-portrait (自画像) of the Dutch painter. No one had ever found it.
The hidden self-portrait had been covered by glue and cardboard that had been attached to the back of the painting. “It was absolutely exciting,” Lesley Stevenson, the museum’s worker, said about the discovery. “We weren’t expecting much of the little painting when we performed the scans,” she said. But museum experts quickly changed their expectations when they looked at the X-rays. “We didn’t see much of the peasant woman, but we saw the lead white that Van Gogh used for his face showing up after the X-ray went through the cardboard,” she added.
Van Gogh painted Head of a Peasant Woman as part of a series of works focused on the working-class residents of Nuenen, a small farming community in the southern part of the Netherlands where he lived briefly in the 1880s. The woman in the painting is Gordina de Groot, a farm worker. She wears a white headpiece. In a letter that Van Gogh penned about the series in 1885 to Anton Kerssemakers, a friend, he described his excitement at his working-class subjects. “I’m working with great pleasure these days, for I would rather paint people than paint anything else,” he wrote.
Van Gogh also loved creating self-portraits, producing about 20 paintings of himself by the end of his life while he was living in Paris. Recreating his own image was a cheap way for him to practice portraiture as he didn’t have to spend money hiring models, according to a report.
Art historians at the National Galleries hope that the hidden self-portrait may help us understand the life of the artist. The museum is currently considering how to best remove the unwanted protective materials without harming the painting.
1. What can be learned about the self-portrait on the back of the painting?| A．It isn’t in very good condition. | B．It describes a well-known woman. |
| C．It wasn’t known to exist for a long time. | D．It was sold to another artist by Van Gogh. |
| A．It was a wonderful surprise. | B．It failed to meet her expectations. |
| C．It was the result of her great efforts. | D．It deepened her understanding of Van Gogh’s life. |
| A．He was encouraged to try different subjects. |
| B．He was glad to find his love for figure paintings. |
| C．He was attracted by the lifestyle of people in Nuenen. |
| D．He wanted to improve the living conditions of the farmers. |
| A．X-rays can do harm to artworks |
| B．Van Gogh sent a secret message to his friend |
| C．Modern technology has a great influence on art |
| D．Van Gogh’s hidden self-portrait draws public attention |
