A. After one month of painting every day, from sunrise to sunset, I was selling here and there, mostly right off the easel (画架), but I quickly burned through my savings, and soon after, lost my apartment and moved into my car parked along the Pacific Coastline. A few more months passed. I was underfed and had no gas to move my car, but I kept painting.
B. This was back in 2008 and so many years later, I’m painting more than ever. I will still pick up an illustration job from time to time, but painting plein air is what I love more than anything - this is how I spend my time. I have work in a couple of galleries here in Oregon, but I do most of my sales through my website, which is updated daily.
C. One day, with a dozen paintings laid out by my feet in South Laguna with a serious sunburn and hungry stomach, a woman walked by, complimented my work and then bought all of my paintings! Turns out this woman was a big art collector. Then she generously gave me a show in her home a couple of weeks later. I nearly sold out at the show and then I got picked up by a famous gallery in Laguna Beach the following week.
D. After graduating from art school with a degree in illustration (插图), I was at a stand still and didn’t know how to work in the art industry. Back then, I was still living in Laguna Beach, California, so I decided to try my hand at plein air (野外写生) painting. This was something I had only done once or twice before, and with little success.
E. After a week, I fell in love with the work of Edgar Payne, William Wendt and the like, and at that moment I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life.
A. Specifically, the Internet and mobile devices have completely changed the way people interact with each other.
B. While technology has developed over thousands of years, the last century has seen an explosion in it that has influenced fundamental changes in how humans see the world and interact with others.
C. Technology is more than an abstract concept associated with advanced tools and systems. It also shapes the way people behave, grow and develop, both within their own lives and in their relationships with others.
D. However, technology is sometimes considered to disconnect people from others around them. With cell phones, most people think that it’s easier and more convenient to text instead of meeting in person. An article shows that almost 60 percent of people feel disconnected from others around when they are on their phones.
E. Technology is helping people build newer and necessary communication skills in this sense. Office employees and managers use technology to send e-mails to one another in business. On social media, just share a few of your images and people start communicating on and about your images according to their viewpoint.
1. Question 7: (录音)
Answer:
2. Question 8: (录音)
Answer:
3. Question 9: (录音)
Answer:
4. Question 10: (录音)
Answer:
4 . Social media can lead to mental exhaustion (疲惫). And when mentally exhausted, you are more likely to be influenced by a high number of likes on posts - even to the point of clicking on ads for products you don’t need.
As a professor of advertising, I have studied social media behaviors for years. In late 2022, my colleague Eric Haley and I conducted three online studies on Americans aged 18-65 to test how people under various mental loads respond to ads differently.
The control group in each study were given no introductory task- we just had them look at an ad. A second group had to memorize a nine-digit number and then look at the ad. The third group looked through the Internet for 30 seconds and then looked at the ad. Participants randomly saw an ad with a few hundred likes or tens of thousands of likes. After viewing the ad, each participant rated how willing they would be to buy the product, and how much mental effort it took to think about the information.
The group that used the Internet first were the most likely to want to buy the featured product when there were lots of likes or comments, and they also reported using the most mental effort to assess the ad. Researchers refer to this mentally exhausted state as “cognitive (认知的) overload”. Using social media puts them in this state because they are constantly evaluating different types of texts, photos and video posts from so many different people. All of this evaluating leaves them feeling frazzled.
Imagine asking your roommate if they want to get pizza. Under normal conditions, the roommate might consider several factors such as cost, hunger, timing or their schedule. Now imagine asking your roommate the same question while they are on the phone with a sick relative. They no longer have the mental energy to logically consider whether pizza for dinner is a good idea. They might just yell “Yeah, sure!” while running inside to clean their shoes.
By understanding how social media influences them, consumers can be more thoughtful in regulating their use and hopefully will not buy yet another water bottle they don’t need.
1. How did the author conduct the studies?A.By questionnaire. | B.By interview. | C.Through the Internet. | D.Through observation. |
A.Excited. | B.Depressed. | C.Annoyed. | D.Tired. |
A.To further explain cognitive overload. |
B.To stress the importance of relationships. |
C.To strongly call on people to eat healthily. |
D.To remind people not to rely on mobile phones. |
5 . Have you seen the incredible guitar playing of man born with no arms? The musician who was born without arms is being
Mark Goffeney, 46 of San Diego, who is
Mark devoted every waking hour to searching his town and trying to join a
Things were
Today, Mark
A.praised | B.prepared | C.chosen | D.named |
A.arms | B.hands | C.feet | D.fingers |
A.treated | B.ignored | C.known | D.served |
A.suffering | B.injury | C.courage | D.disability |
A.dealt with | B.took up | C.set down | D.picked out |
A.guitar | B.piano | C.violin | D.drum |
A.doubtful | B.worried | C.curious | D.serious |
A.society | B.band | C.party | D.family |
A.comments | B.activities | C.difficulties | D.chances |
A.encouraging | B.interesting | C.easy | D.tough |
A.paused | B.changed | C.happened | D.formed |
A.stopped | B.began | C.enjoyed | D.finished |
A.figuring | B.working | C.looking | D.trying |
A.connects | B.meets | C.performs | D.communicates |
A.donated | B.required | C.charged | D.raised |
1. Question 1:
A.Ballet. | B.Modern dance. | C.Tango. |
A.Tom. | B.Shelley. | C.Mary. |
A.To improve her dance skill. | B.To teach others to dance. | C.To enjoy the free lessons. |
7 . Polar bears normally need sea ice to hunt seals, but an isolated (孤立的) group of polar bears living on the mountainous coast of southeast Greenland have figured out how to make a living, even though the sea ice there melts away early in the year.
These bears have found a way to supplement (补充) their limited sea ice supply by hunting on freshwater ice that comes from glaciers on land. The glacial ice falls off in pieces into fjords (峡湾), where the pieces get together into a floating platform that the polar bears use to catch seals, according to a report in the journal Science.
Climate change is making sea ice less and less. “Loss of sea ice is the primary threat to polar bears,” says Kristin Laidre of the University of Washington, lead author of the new study. But, she says, this new work suggests some bears might be able to deal with a decreased amount of sea ice - at least for a while - in places like Greenland where they can take advantage of floating glacier ice.
While local people have long known that bears live in southeast Greenland, it’s a remote, challenging environment that’s not frequented by humans. “It’s a coastline with huge mountain peaks, lots of winds, extreme conditions and plenty of fogs.” says Laidre, who has spent years working with colleagues to survey polar bears living on Greenland’s 1,800-mile-long east coast.
To see what they could find in southeast Greenland, the team had to take helicopters from the nearest settlement and fly for two hours in a straight line to the coast. “We arrived in these fjords, very isolated fjords, and there’s essentially no sea ice or very poor sea ice offshore,” says Laidre, explaining that the researchers expected to find few bears. “But there were a lot of bears in these fjords,” she says. “It was clearly just a unique habitat.”
The sea ice continues to exist in these fjords for only around a hundred days a year, she notes, meaning that bears don’t have much time to use it as a hunting ground.
1. What will happen to pieces of glacial ice after falling off?A.They will gather to block some fjords. |
B.They will exist in fjords for only a hundred years. |
C.They will float into cold places and never disappear. |
D.They will form a platform used by polar bears for food. |
A.Lack of food sources. | B.Loss of freshwater ice. |
C.Human activities in their habitats. | D.Decrease of sea ice due to climate change. |
A.Polar Bears Use Floating Glacial Ice to Hunt | B.The Exploration of Southeast Greenland |
C.Polar Bears Can Survive in Isolated Areas | D.The Importance of Sea Ice to Polar Bears |
8 . The story of Oprah Winfrey’s life is one of overcoming incredible difficulties and achieving great success. Born into poverty in Mississippi, Winfrey faced numerous challenges throughout her childhood. She was raised by her grandmother, who passed on her a love of reading and a moral duty in work. However, Winfrey was also the victim of abuse and neglect (忽视), both at home and in her community.
Despite these obstacles, Winfrey showed great promise from a young age. At age 19 she became a news anchor (主播) for the local television station, and in 1976 she was made a reporter and co-anchor for the ABC news in Baltimore, Maryland. She found herself limited by the objectivity required of news reporting, and in 1977 she became co-host of the Baltimore morning show People Are Talking.
Winfrey excelled in the casual and personal talk-show format, and in 1984 she moved to Chicago to host the declining talk show AM Chicago. Winfrey’s honest and engaging personality quickly turned the program into a success, and in 1985 it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey’s warmth, intelligence, and empathy (同理心) made her a beloved figure to millions of viewers. She used her platform to address important social issues, such as child abuse, domestic violence, and poverty.
Despite her success, Winfrey faced many challenges along the way. She struggled with her weight, and was often criticized for her appearance. She also faced many personal and professional setbacks in her life and work. However, Winfrey refused to give up. She continued to work hard, launching her own production company, Harpo Productions, and starting her own cable network, OWN. She also became a charitarian, donating millions of dollars to charitable causes.
Today, Winfrey is one of the most successful and influential people in the world. She has won lots of awards for her work. She is also a best-selling author and a respected public speaker. Winfrey’s story proves the power of perseverance, hard work, and faith in oneself.
1. What can we infer about Oprah Winfrey when she was young?A.She led a comfortable life. |
B.She was brought up by her parents. |
C.She worked early to support her family. |
D.She was positively impacted by her grandmother. |
A.A news anchor. | B.A talk show co-anchor. |
C.A manager of a company. | D.A reporter of a TV station. |
A.It was Winfrey’s excellent qualities that made it popular. |
B.It called on viewers to fight against international crimes. |
C.It was meant to help the local citizens. |
D.It was designed only for Winfrey. |
A.Oprah Winfrey’s struggle against poverty. |
B.Oprah Winfrey’s rise to fame and success. |
C.Oprah Winfrey’s contributions to society. |
D.Oprah Winfrey’s influence on the media industry. |
For me, education has three main o
Advertising agencies used to create this kind of advertising and it could be very