“Painters, do not fear perfection. You will never achieve it! Just try as you will if you are ordinary. Even if you paint terribly, badly, people will still see that you are ordinary. ”
-Salvador Dali
“Every morning when I awake,” wrote the artist of the soft watches and burning giraffes, “the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dalí. . .” The Spanish artist, so famous and so rich, was creative not only in his art. He talked nonstop too; his favorite topic was how to be a genius. “Oh Salvador,” he concluded, “now you know the truth: that if you act the genius, you will be one!”
Had he lived during the Renaissance (文艺复兴), Dalí would have been recognized sooner as a genius. In our age, though, which he felt was growing increasingly stupid, Dalí represented an air of challenging and annoying everyone else. Today he is ranked alongside Picasso as one of the modernist greats, and the general public quite clearly loves his art as well; therefore, it is difficult to understand why he should still be seen as so challenging and annoying, and why many people should still consider him as mad. Dalí himself declared: “The only difference between myself and a madman is the fact that I am not mad!” Writer Michel Déon once said, “His personality -whether it is loved or hated-is based on something deep and appealing, and that is his roots and his feelings. Roots that reach deep into the earth, absorbing everything that has been produced in four thousand years of painting, architecture and sculpture. Feelings that are picking up things to come, from the future, expecting it and flying to it at lightning speed. It cannot be emphasized enough that Dalí is a man of tireless scientific curiosity.” One might say that Dalí was typical of his age: he had grasped how to make himself a star.
1. What does Dali actually want to say to other painters?| A．“Be brave to show yourself.” |
| B．“Be honest to yourself.” |
| C．“Be pleased to stay ordinary.” |
| D．“Be respectful to the public.” |
| A．He was too proud of himself. |
| B．He was undoubtedly a genius. |
| C．He was too challenging and annoying. |
| D．He was unfairly understood. |
| A．He was not only learned but advanced. |
| B．He was not only honest but emotional. |
| C．He was a scientist rather than an artist. |
| D．He was a star rather than a genius. |
| A．His amazing achievements in art. |
| B．His special ability in learning. |
| C．His extraordinary belief in himself. |
| D．His annoying behavior in public. |
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【推荐1】On a September afternoon in 1940, four teenage boys made their way through the woods on a hill overlooking Montignac in southwestern France. They had come to explore a dark, deep hole said to be an underground passage to the nearby manor（庄园）of Lascaux. Squeezing through the entrance one by one, they soon saw wonderfully lifelike paintings of running horses, swimming deer, wounded wild oxen, and other beings—works of art that may be up to 20,000 years old.
The collection of paintings in Lascaux is among some 150 prehistoric sites dating from the Paleolithic period（旧石器时代）that have been documented in France's Vezere Valley. This corner of southwestern Europe seems to have been a hot spot for figurative art. The biggest discovery since Lascaux occurred in December 1994, when three cave explorers laid eyes on artworks that had not been seen since a rockslide 22,000 years ago closed off a large deep cave in southern France. Here, by unsteadily shining firelight, prehistoric artists drew outlines of cave lions, herds of rhinos（犀牛）and magnificent wild oxen, horses, cave bears. In all, the artists drew 442 animals over perhaps thousands of years, using nearly 400,000 square feet of cave surface as their canvas（画布）. The site, now known as Chauvet-Pont-1'Arc Cave, is sometimes considered the Sistine Chapel of prehistory.
For decades scholars had theorized that art had advanced in slow stages from ancient scratchings to lively, naturalistic interpretation. Surely the delicate shading and elegant lines of Chauvet's masterworks placed them at the top of that progression. Then carbon dates came in, and prehistorians felt shocked. At some 36,000 years old—nearly twice as old as those in Lascaux—Chauvet's images represented not the peak of prehistoric art but its earliest known beginnings.
The search for the world's oldest cave paintings continues. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, for example, scientists found a large room of paintings of part-human, part-animal beings that are estimated to be 44,000 years old, older than any figurative art seen in Europe.
Scholars don't know if art was invented many times over or if it was a skill developed early in our evolution. What we do know is that artistic expression runs deep in our ancestry.
1. According to the passage, where did the boys find the paintings?| A．In the woods on a hill | B．In a deep cave in France. |
| C．In a manor of Lascaux. | D．On an Indonesian island |
| A．conveys concepts by using accurate numbers and forms |
| B．makes stories in contrast to scientific subjects |
| C．represents persons or things in a realistic way |
| D．expresses ideas or feelings by using shapes and patterns |
| A．the Chauvet's paintings had been sealed by a rockslide until 1994 |
| B．the style of Chauvet's paintings is similar to that of the Sistine Chapel |
| C．Chauvet's images are the earliest figurative paintings that have been found |
| D．the main objects of Chauvet's images are part-human, part-animal beings |
| A．Value of Paleolithic Artwork | B．Preservation of Figurative Art |
| C．Artistic Expressions of Nature | D．Searches for Cave Paintings |
【推荐2】One late winter day in Manchester, UK, as I step inside the University of Salford’s latest research building, the cold 3°C air bites immediately. In fact, it’s a giant climate- controlled room, designed to test how homes built today will cope with the wilder weather climate change could bring.
Inside the £16-million room, researchers can create any weather they want with the touch of a button, from —20°C cold to 40°C heatwaves, alongside strong winds, snow and ice. KAnywhere people live, we can recreate those conditions,,, says Fitton, who leads the Energy House 2.0 project for the university.
Inside the building are two new-build homes, complete with brickwork and pot plants. Both are equipped with cutting-edge green technology) like electric vehicle charging points, and will act as test beds to build greener homes in the UK. In 2025, the Future Homes Standard(FHS) will require all new homes to be built without gas central heating and with other green measures. Homes built to the FHS must deliver a 75% to 80% reduction in carbon emissions compared with homes built today.
That is why Bellway, partnering with the project, has built the rooms from its Coppersmith range of homes inside the Energy House 2.0. Yet clearly this is no ordinary new-build. For one thing, packed inside are three different heating systems： two air source heat pumps? plus panel heaters dotted around the walls and ceilings. There’s also a solar power input, a battery and a smart hot water tank that heats water using solar generation.
Over the coming months, Bellway will test different combinations of these technologies to find the most cost-effective way of meeting the FHS regulations.
Financially, things are promising： Based on energy-performance calculations, Bellway says its Future Home could have energy bills of just £11 a year.
Energy House 2.0 will let researchers see how houses perform in the UK’s future climate. “We can cycle through the climate change predictions 50 years into the future and see if we have any problems says Fitton.”
1. What’s the aim of building the £16-million room?| A．To predict the extreme weather humans will face. |
| B．To test how long a house stands in extreme weather. |
| C．To find a way for homes to deal with climate change. |
| D．To explore the most habitable homes for humans. |
| A．To design green houses to meet the standards of FHS. |
| B．To explore the household use of advanced technology. |
| C．To sponsor the Energy House 2.0 for market profit. |
| D．To popularize its Coppersmith range of future homes. |
| A．It’ll explore the use of cutting-edge technology. |
| B．It’ll find how houses tackle future climate changes. |
| C．It’ll make future houses have zero carbon emission. |
| D．It5ll spread Coppersmith range all over the country. |
| A．Energy-Saving House Designs Put to the Test |
| B．The Expensive Room Holding Future Hopes |
| C．The Leading Place of the UK in Home Designs |
| D．Research into Homes for Future Climate Change |
【推荐3】You’ re enjoying a quiet evening at home when suddenly your neighbor’s dog starts barking (吠叫) and doesn’t stop. Sure, dogs need to bark every now and then, but if the barking is getting in the way of your daily life, you need to do something.
Before you take action, make records of when the dog is disturbing. Record the dates and times when the barking appears to find out the features of the barking. Check them carefully and get your facts straight. You might notice the barking only happens when the owners are at work, or during thunderstorms.
After two to three weeks, visit your neighbors with the facts, your neighbors might not even realize the barking is a problem, for the worst noise may happen when they are gone.
Explain the times when the harking gets had, then suggest a way to solve the problem. Ask if the dog can stay inside during storm, or suggest a dog training class. Be open to compromise (妥协) because the owners might have other ideas about how to deal with the noise.
Befriending the dog could help. Have your neighbors introduce you to their dog. If they become more comfortable in your presence, they’re less likely to bark when they see you or when they are in the backyard. You might even be able to use commands such as “quiet” once the dog trusts you.
Avoid gossiping (流言蜚语) with other neighbors about the dog. “That’s when things become worse.” After all, most people will want to solve the problem.
1. What can you do first when your neighbor’s dogs barking influences your life?| A．Bring the dog to a training class. |
| B．Drive it out of your neighborhood. |
| C．Record the dates and times of the barking. |
| D．Show your complaint to your neighborhood. |
| A．They may like dogs barking. |
| B．They all think their dogs are friendly. |
| C．They have been used to the barking of the dogs. |
| D．They may be out when the worst barking happens. |
| A．Love me, love my dog. | B．Barking dogs seldom bite. |
| C．Treat violence with violence. | D．Good communication is a must. |
【推荐1】The moment he saw an organ, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart knew what to do with it, Aged six, already skilled at the clavier（键盘乐器）, he came across pedals （踏板） and stops for the first time in an Austrian church. Within moments he was playing an accompaniment and composing on the spot freely. In the following year, 1763, an official in Heidelberg was so astonished by his organ-playing that he had a plate carved for his church to mark the boy's visit. Mozart composed his first symphony at eight.
Youthful promise often declines. With Mozart the opposite was true. Through him classical music may have found its most ideal expression. As Jan Swafford writes in his outstanding biography, Mozart's compositions displayed “a kind of effortless perfection so easily worn that they seem almost to have written themselves”. He drafted quickly, often without needing to revise. He “could express delight by the yard”. A man of his time, Mozart was equally at home composing for the concert salon or the opera stage.
He is the subject of many biographies, but the leading one, by Hermann Aber, is 100 years old and 1, 600 pages long. Safford, himself a composer and a programme-writer, offers an updated and authoritative life, easy to understand, beautifully written, and full of critical judgments and sharp notes on the works.
Mozart' s way with melody （旋律） and keen view of human nature-his letters reveal an almost Dickensian ability to paint characters-combined to promote opera from desserts to a serious medium, the author argues. “His wisdom, his ability to observe people and their weaknesses, his fascination with the craze for love - al this made him the perfect composer" of the form, Mr Swafford thinks.
He was admired in his time. Most of his music stuck to conventional structures yet went over the heads of the average listener. Legend has it that his most important fan, Emperor Joseph II, reacted to one performance with an impressive comment: “Too beautiful for our ears, my dear Mozart!”
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly discuss?| A．The true origin of the symphony. |
| B．Musical instruments in Mozart's time. |
| C．Mozart's remarkable talent for music. |
| D．A friendship between Mozart and an official. |
| A．They sounded perfect. | B．They expressed his criticism. |
| C．They were created hurriedly. | D．They should be performed outdoors. |
| A．By comparing contemporary musicians' works. |
| B．By giving professional and accessible comments. |
| C．By including the remarks of Emperor Joseph II. |
| D．By referring to other writers' constructive advice. |
| A．Creating music for folk stories. |
| B．Inspirations for Dickens' works. |
| C．Reforms of conventional structures. |
| D．Transforming opera to a serious art form. |
【推荐2】There was once a man who penned comics(漫画) under the name Stan Lee. This man originally wished to leave comics behind and write serious literature. But he never made that career change.
Born Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922 in New York City, he has contributed more to the world than just a few fun stories. At 17, Lee began working as an assistant for the Timely comics group (today’s well-known Marvel Comics). Two years later he was given a chance to write for his first comic, “Captain America”. His skills in the business led him to become the comic-book division’s editor-in-chief until 1972.
After working with comics for many years, Lee became tired of the material he was told to write. For a long time, comic books were considered silly stories. The characters weren’t complex, and the dialogue was short and simple. Lee wanted more from his work.
The Fantastic Four was born after his wife asked, “Why don’t you write one book the way you would like to do it?” With that comic, Lee helped change comics from simple action stories to the complex narratives (叙述文) they are today. However, he still hasn’t done changing the industry.
In the early 1960s, Stan Lee and another writer created the Spider-Man character. In one edition of Spider-Man, Lee wrote a story in which the superhero’s friend almost dies from drug abuse. From the 1950s until 2011, comic publishers followed the rules given by the Comics Code Authority (CCA), who disapproved of drug use in comics.
But Lee published the comic without CCA’s agreement. The story sold, and there was a positive response to the story’s focus on a serious problem in society. The CCA ended up changing its rules to allow more inspirational stories like this.
From this victory, Lee went on to create more interesting and realistic characters that dealt with both super and real life problems.
1. The underlined part “that career” in Paragraph 1 refers to the job as _____.| A．a superhero | B．a comic actor |
| C．a comic book creator | D．a serious literature writer |
| A．In 1939. | B．In 1941. | C．In 1960. | D．In 1972. |
| A．Spider-Man was published. |
| B．Stan Lee left the comic industry. |
| C．Stan Lee’s wife began to work on comics. |
| D．The comics began to tell complex stories. |
| A．Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee himself. |
| B．Stan Lee likes to discuss social issues in his comics. |
| C．The story of Spider-Man came from Stan Lee’s friend. |
| D．The CCA has been carrying out rules without changing them. |
【推荐3】About 20 years ago, Daniel Hoffman, a classically trained violinist met a young musician playing in the town square in Marrakech, an ancient city in Morocco. They communicated in the little French they both knew, but their main common language was music. On the back of a motorbike of the fellow violinist, Hoffman weaved through the back streets of the city and then learned his first lessons in Andalusian music, the classical music of North Africa.
That experience gave birth to an idea: What would it be like to try to learn how to play different violin styles around the world in just one week? Oh. yes, and at the end of that week, play a concert. He even got a name for the concept “musical extreme sports”.
It took him almost two decades to launch that dream with a friend, who introduced him to the wonders of Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects. Up to now, the dream has taken the form of a new documentary currently airing on American public television stations called “Otherwise, It’s Just Firewood.”
In the documentary, Hoffman travels to County Clare, Ireland, where he takes lessons with James Kelly, a master Irish violin player, for less than a week and then performs together with him in front of an audience, many of whom are star Irish musicians.
The film is what Hoffman hopes will be the first of an eventual series of short documentaries, showing him learning to play the violin in a variety of styles, including the folk music of south India, Sweden, Greece, Romania, and West Virginia.
That would add to his extensive repertoire (全部曲目), which already includes Balkan, Middle Eastern, and Turkish styles. “The big joke is what’s the difference between the fiddle and the violin? It’s the person who plays it,” says Niall Keegan, a traditional flute player. “It’s the music you make on it that makes it Irish or English or French or classical or jazz or whatever else. It’s how we imagine it and how we create through it that make it and give it character.”
“Otherwise, it’s just firewood,” he says, words that became the film’s title.
1. Where does Hoffman’s idea of musical extreme sports come from?| A．His exploration of the local music. |
| B．His cooperation with the young violinist. |
| C．His sightseeing tour on a motorbike seat. |
| D．His constantly changing taste in violin styles. |
| A．help Hoffman to become a master violin player |
| B．are funded by American public television stations |
| C．introduce different styles of musicians around the world |
| D．record Hoffman’s experience in learning various violin styles |
| A．the power of diversified artistic expression |
| B．the pleasure in learning traditional music |
| C．the technique of instrument playing |
| D．the importance of famous artists |
