1 . Edinburgh: a city of culture
Edinburgh,
However, there is more to Edinburgh than tourism. Each year, the Edinburgh International Festival
So far, the Edinburgh International Festival
The popularity of the festival led
2 . Do you know sand has been used to draw pictures since ancient times? Today, sandpainting, an interesting art, will be produced to you.
Sandpainting is an art of using the sand to make a fixed or unfixed painting. Maybe we all played fixed sandpainting as we were young. We first painted a simple picture, then we brushed glue(胶水)to the section, and at last we poured colored sand onto the glue in order to make it fixed.Unfixed sandpaintings have a long cultural history around the world. People poured sand on a surface to make paintings or use some tools to draw pictures in the sand directly. They are often temporary(临时的). Different people draw sandpaintings to express different meanings: love of nature, admiration for God or love of beauty.
Nowadays, sandpainting becomes a performance art and its popularity has risen. On the stages, sandpainting performers make a series of images(图像)by drawing lines and figures in the sand with their fingers and hands. The series of images are used to tell a story.
Kseniya Simonova, who is from Ukraine, is one of the greatest sandpainting performers in the world. People call her “The Lady of the Sand”.
Simonova said that she never dreamed she’d become a sand artist, and when she began practicing, she nearly gave it up. But she persevered, caring for a household and her baby by day and training every night. You Are Always Nearby is one of the most famous performances of Simonoova. It is a story about a young couple separated by a war in which the solider is tragically killed, but returns in spirit to watch over his wife and child. This performance makes all audience cry.
Art is everywhere and is not far away from common people. Art of painting is in our life, even in the sand.
1. Which of the following is necessary to make a fixed sandpainting?| A．Glue | B．A printed picture |
| C．Colored paper | D．Water |
| A．She is the best painter in the world |
| B．Being a sand artist is her biggest dream |
| C．She once gave up performing for her family |
| D．Her performances are popular with people |
| A．How sandpainting is becoming popular |
| B．Why sandpainting is becoming popular |
| C．How an image is created in the sand |
| D．What sandpainting tries to express |
| A．set off | B．gave out |
| C．held on | D．ended up |
3 . While dog keepers realize their dogs can read their moods accurately,scientists have always been a little doubtful.Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna,Austria,we finally have some convincing evidence.
For their study,biologist Corson Miller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy.Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face,while the other half got their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.
Interestingly,the dogs were not provided with the entire face.Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves.That’s because the scientists believe humans show their emotions on their entire face.
After some training like how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions,the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face.The researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.
They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn.They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting,causing them to withdraw quickly.However,once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded,the trepidation seemed to disappear.In fact,the dogs had such a good time playing the computer "game" that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.
The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctl. Since the touchscreen models were all females, this confirmed what has been observed in previous studies-dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.
1. How did the scientists conduct the experiment?| A．By mixing the selected dogs together. |
| B．By leaving dogs to women who are either happy or angry. |
| C．By showing digital pictures of women’s happy or angry faces. |
| D．By rewarding only half of the dogs touching the screen. |
| A．The dogs were not all provided with the entire face. |
| B．The dogs couldn’t read strangers facial emotions. |
| C．According to their size,the dogs were given either upper or lower halves. |
| D．The dogs could make out small changes accompanying facial expressions. |
| A．curiosity | B．horror |
| C．excitement | D．doubt |
| A．They would be scared away at the sight of the pictures. |
| B．They found it easy to tell the emotions on the entire face. |
| C．They could only tell emotions on partial faces rather than on entire faces. |
| D．They found it hard to tell the moods on the faces of a different gender. |
