In July, Australian artist Matthew Griffin had his work Pickle(《酸黄瓜》)exhibited at a New Zealand gallery. The work is merely a pickle taken from a McDonald’s burger, stuck onto the gallery’s ceiling with ketchup(番茄酱)on it. With a price tag of NZ$10,000 (about 42,200 yuan), it started an ongoing debate: Is this art?
In fact, this is not the only strange artwork people have seen in recent years. In 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s work Comedian featured a store-bought banana with duct tape(强力胶). Far before that, Artist Rogier van der Zwang used 3D animation instead of painting materials to make visual rainbow. These trends bring us back to the classic discussion on how to understand art.
As British art historian Ernst Gombrich famously put it, “There really is no such thing as art. There are only artists.” Art is a personal expression; ultimately its agency is created by the artist. As each era cultivates its unique artists, the private message an artwork conveys can connect with every individual across time. Great artists from the past to the present all enjoy both fame and criticism. The way they appeal to certain audiences and encourage a wide range of debates and interpretations is exactly the charm of art.
Opponents may hold that despite the artist’s right to create, it is not up to the artist to determine if a piece of work is considered art. It is true that we see only the leftover of a cheeseburger. There is no real technique in Griffin’s Pickle. However, this is also where it is open to interpretation: For some, the pickle seems meaningless and artificial; for some, the pickle can be a commercial and cultural symbol. There is undoubtedly an innovation of “form”. It shows the artist’s exploration of the vehicle of art. The slice of pickle can be seen as a symbol. The ketchup plays an influence on the colors, with the surrounding white wall being another vehicle for expression.
After all, art welcomes various responses, which explains why viewing art is such an engaging experience.
In a word, we should always keep an open mind toward any embodiment(化身)of art.
1. What do we know about the work Pickle?| A．It’s made on the gallery’s ceiling. |
| B．It is as simple as the banana work. |
| C．People’s opinions vary on the work. |
| D．People think it’s not worth the money. |
| A．Art can connect with people easily. |
| B．Artists are always admired by people. |
| C．The interpretation of art is critical. |
| D．The understanding of art is subjective. |
| A．Objective | B．Opposed | C．Favorable | D．Indifferent |
| A．connective but unreal | B．charming but untouchable |
| C．abstract but engaging | D．appealing but controversial |
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【推荐1】From now on, never spend your precious time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.
The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.
You cannot be successful without first developing your self-esteem. Your level of self-esteem is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-esteem are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are the perennial (长期的) victims and martyrs. They are leaves tossed (摇摆) by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.
You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.
Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.
If you associate with positive-thinking people, you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary, the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding, planting, and nurturing the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks.
In short, in all areas of your life, whether they be financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it, you are on the road to success.
1. People with low self-esteem are compared to leaves because they ______.| A．are ready to change their minds |
| B．are easily affected by windy weather |
| C．have the power to face their fate |
| D．can’t exercise control over themselves |
| A．success is the result of hard work |
| B．working hard will lead to success |
| C．their failure is only because of bad luck |
| D．they don’t make efforts to succeed |
| A．Whether we will succeed depends on our attitudes. |
| B．Confidence can contribute to success. |
| C．Thoughts and beliefs are the result of creative mind. |
| D．Setting our expectations is essential. |
| A．the proof of the author’s points |
| B．the conclusion of the argument |
| C．an introduction to another topic |
| D．a comparison between two views |
| A．Success Is a Choice |
| B．Be Responsible for Our Future |
| C．Develop Our Confidence |
| D．Success and Self-esteem |
【推荐2】I am a big laugher. I’ve been told that even in a room of a thousand people, you can always hear me laughing over the crowd. For me, laughter is the ultimate form of embodied joy. And by “embodied”, I mean that my whole body is involved when I laugh. On the inside, it’s like a bubbling fountain of joy spilling out all over the place.
But what is joy, anyway?
Life can be terrible, but if you decide to follow the sound of the joy-fountain, you will find joy showing up in all kinds of places: pets playfully bouncing around, kindness, or even in nothingness.
How can joy be found? A friend moved into a new apartment and needed some help, so I helped him. Afterwards, he was obviously so much happier and at ease. I noticed that playing even a small part in his happiness brought me great joy, and I took a moment to let this feeling of embodied joy in. We can practice letting joy in by noticing how it feels to smile. Where does your body light up when you smile? When I smile, it makes me want to take a deep breath, and I notice my shoulders and belly relaxing. When I embody caring and loving, it feels great!
Sadly, many of us are unaware of joy, or suspicious of it. Maybe you are afraid to open up to joy, or maybe you are so unfamiliar with what joy feels like that you ignore or resist it when it comes knocking. No one, other than you, owns your happiness, but you might unknowingly block feelings or experiences that help you embody joy. The fact is that when you can’t embody joy, you miss out on one of life’s essential vitamins.
Want more joy? Don’t be afraid to look silly. Silliness helps us take things less personally. It helps us see the world the way a kid does. When we can find more joy in the smalls of everyday life, we can embody happiness, rather than just pursuing it.
1. How is the topic of joy introduced at the beginning of the passage?| A．By highlighting a joyful experience. |
| B．By stressing the importance of laughing |
| C．By sharing the author’s understanding of joy. |
| D．By presenting an ultimate form of satisfaction. |
| A．Taking a deep breath. | B．Smiling to your friends. |
| C．Reflecting on nothingness. | D．Doing small acts of kindness. |
| A．That many of us refuse it on purpose. |
| B．That many of us are insensitive to joy. |
| C．That many of us lack life’s essential vitamins. |
| D．That many of us are likely to take joy for granted. |
| A．He who laughs last laughs best. |
| B．Happy people are happy in childhood. |
| C．Worry does not seek, but man seeks it. |
| D．Love of joy is belief; the creation of joy is life. |
【推荐3】“Lonely” is defined in the dictionary as “unhappy because you are alone or do not have anyone to talk to”. However, in my perspective, “being alone” can also be meaningful and enjoyable. In other words, “being alone” isn’t equivalent to “loneliness”. Actually, we can literally enjoy our time when staying alone.
Think of loneliness as the “tunnel phase” of our lives. It’s a time when we don’t have a group of friends around to keep us company; when we are away from the hustle and bustle (熙熙攘攘) of the outside world; when we get the chance to tune in to our inner monologue (独白); when we are given the time to recharge ourselves on our own so that we can focus entirely on ourselves. It is during these periods that, without being disturbed and distracted, we are able to discover the things we truly want from our lives. This process is like digging a tunnel, through which we improve ourselves, achieve our goals and get a jolt of power to prepare for the or darkness we may meet with in our future lives.
A distinguished figure skater (花滑冰运动员) once said in his interview that he often felt lonely, but the external environment would to some extent affect his mind and body, making it difficult for him to concentrate during his practice and performance, and thus he was actually willing to be alone and at times would rather be isolated from the world. This type of “loneliness” must be one of the reasons why he has been able to deliver so many elaborate and splendid performances throughout his career.
So don’t be frightened by the temporary void or unhappy feeling when you have to he alone. Instead, cherish and enjoy the sense of loneliness you get when you are completely free. Spend time with yourself.
We become more independent in loneliness. We grow stronger in loneliness. Most importantly, we find our complete selves in loneliness. When we learn to embrace the feeling of “loneliness” and enjoy the time in which there is no other, loneliness itself ceases to exist.
1. What’s the author’s opinion about “being alone”?| A．Being alone is as something shameful |
| B．Being alone means being lonely and helpless |
| C．There is no point in being alone. |
| D．We appreciate our time more when we are alone. |
| A．By providing examples. |
| B．By analyzing causes. |
| C．By making comparisons. |
| D．By listing figures. |
| A．To show athletes always feel lonely. |
| B．To demonstrate the factor of the success. |
| C．To indicate solitude (独处) is as important as practice. |
| D．To confirm the positive effect of “loneliness”. |
| A．Time spent with yourselves is more enjoyable than that with others. |
| B．People will always feel depressed when faced with being alone. |
| C．Loneliness can benefit us a lot in many aspects. |
| D．Loneliness can exist all the time, so we should change our attitude toward it. |
| A．To illustrate different opinions on staying alone. |
| B．To encourage people to learn to value and enjoy their time of loneliness. |
| C．To persuade people into staying away from others. |
| D．To offer some suggestions on how to spend time alone. |
【推荐1】Westerners usually don’t think of China as having a rich tradition of making comics, and discussions of Chinese comics focus on manhua, the Chinese comics that were inspired by Japanese manga. It’s true that most of the comics being produced now are manhua.
Most of the lianhuanhua that can still be found in China were printed in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Using newly imported printing techniques, publishers began releasing periodicals (期刊) that contained stories and illustrations.
Many of these early comics were multi-volume(多卷的) adaptations of martial arts epics or folk tales such as the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West.
| A．Their history reaches back much farther. |
| B．Most people couldn’t afford to rent one to read. |
| C．For a few coins，readers could sit down and read. |
| D．Others were adapted from theater shows or popular films such as King Kong. |
| E．But this was not the case for much of the 20th century. |
| F．But people could also enjoy foreign movie stories on lianhuanhua. |
| G．They named these works “lianhuanhua” (linked images). |
【推荐2】Using X-rays to peer into the chemical structure of a tiny speck (微粒) of the celebrated work of art “Mona Lisa”, scientists have gained new insight into the techniques that Leonardo da Vinci used to paint his groundbreaking portrait of the woman with the exquisitely mysterious smile.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, suggests that the famously curious, learned and inventive Italian Renaissance master may have been in a particularly experimental mood when he set to work on the “Mona Lisa” early in the 16th century.
The oil-paint method Leonardo used as his base layer appears to have been different for the “Mona Lisa”, with its own distinctive chemical signature, the team of scientists and art historians in France and Britain discovered. “He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically,” said Victor Gonzalez, the study’s lead author and a chemist at France’s top research body, the CNRS. Gonzalez has studied the chemical compositions of dozens of works by Leonardo, Rembrandt and other artists.
Specifically, the researchers found a rare compound, plumbonacrite (水白铅矿) in Leonardo’s first layer of paint. The discovery confirmed for the first time what art historians had previously only assumed: that Leonardo most likely used lead oxide powder to thicken and help dry his paint as he began working on the portrait. Plumbonacrite is a byproduct of lead oxide, allowing the researchers to say with more certainty that Leonardo likely used the powder in his paint recipe. “Plumbonacrite is really a fingerprint of his recipe,” Gonzalez said, “It’s the first time we can actually chemically confirm it.”
After Leonardo, Dutch master Rembrandt may have used a similar recipe when he was painting in the 17th century. “It also tells us that those recipes were passed on for centuries,” Gonzalez said, “It was a very good recipe.” But the “Mona Lisa” and other works by Leonardo still have other secrets to tell. “There are plenty, plenty more things to discover, for sure. We are barely scratching the surface,” Gonzalez said, “What we are saying is just a little brick more in the knowledge.”
1. What kind of person is Leonardo da Vinci according to the new finding?| A．Adventurous and creative. | B．Ambitious and generous. |
| C．Intelligent and mysterious. | D．Sensitive and inspiring. |
| A．Rembrandt was fond of imitating Leonardo’s style. |
| B．It is most likely that Leonardo used to be a chemist. |
| C．The portrait may have been dried in a special way when finished. |
| D．Leonardo may have employed lead oxide powder in his work. |
| A．It is necessary to scratch the surface of the “Mona Lisa”. |
| B．There is little point in finding the chemicals in the portrait. |
| C．The scientists have revealed Leonardo’s technique thoroughly. |
| D．There is a long way to go for a deep understanding of Leonardo’s works. |
| A．Powerful Chemicals for Painting |
| B．Leonardo’s Experiments on Portraits |
| C．The New Secret of the “Mona Lisa” |
| D．Far-reaching Influence of the “Mona Lisa” |
【推荐3】Recently, craftsman Qian Gaochao and his son spent more than six months making three “chicken-blood” stone carvings, which showed the taekwondo and wrestling competitions of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022. Qian Gaochao is a national inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of the chicken-blood stone carving. He is working on the other carvings related to the Asian Games in the chicken-blood stone museum in Changhua town, Zhejiang Province.
Chicken-blood stone is one of China’s most valued decorative materials and has been used for centuries to create carved works with unique red markings. With its bright blood-red color, bright crystal-like jade texture, quality and shape, chicken-blood stone is admired all over the world. It is valuable in art because of its adaptability, which can be made into decorations of various sizes and forms. It not only records geological (地质的) changes, but also reflects the productivity of different times, living conditions and folk customs.
The stone has become a cultural symbol of deepening the friendship in diplomatic (外交的) activities. For example, in 1972, the Chinese premier gave Changhua chicken-blood stones to Japan as State gifts. In 1986, a seal of Changhua stone was presented to the US. In 2016, the Changhua stone sculpture “Haliaeetus Albicilla Duda Portrait Seal” was presented to Poland. In September 2016, 36 sets of portrait seals were given as gifts to guests who attended the 11th G20 Summit in Hangzhou.
“As a craftsman, I’m not only doing carving work but also recording the development and changes of our society and remembering the era through my carvings,” Qian Gaochao says. He has created fascinating works, many of which are related to important events in Chinese history and famous people who have made important contributions to the country.
“We are also hiring qualified people to continue to promote these traditional skills,” Qian Gaochao says. “Additionally, we often hold research activities and provide training courses, enabling more young students to understand and learn Chinese traditional culture,” he adds.
1. What are Qian Gaochao and his sons recent works about?| A．Famous sports athletes. |
| B．Beautiful natural scenery. |
| C．International sporting events. |
| D．Ancient folk customs in Changhua. |
| A．It is rare for its unique shape. |
| B．It has a bright blood-red color. |
| C．It is a mirror of the local customs. |
| D．It can be shaped into various designs. |
| A．To present the popularity of chicken-blood stone. |
| B．To show the role of chicken-blood stone in diplomacy. |
| C．To explain the ways to promote Changhua’s economy. |
| D．To prove the importance of Chinese culture in connecting the world. |
| A．He provides free carving courses for qualified students. |
| B．The protection of traditional culture faces great challenges. |
| C．Learning carving skills is not attractive to modern young people. |
| D．He devotes himself to recording Chinese development through carving. |
