1 . Portraits as Art

According to a dictionary, portraiture is “a representation (描绘) of a person, especially of the face by drawing or painting a likeness.” However, this definition neglects the complexities of portraiture. Portraits are works of art that engage with ideas of identity rather than just a likeness. These concepts of identity involve social rank, gender, age, profession, character of the subject, etc. It is impossible to copy all the aspects of identity. Therefore, portraits reflect only certain qualities of subjects. Portrait art has also undergone significant shifts in artistic practice. The majority of portraits are the outcome of current artistic fashions and favored styles. Therefore, portrait art is an art category providing various engagement with social, psychological, and artistic practices and expectations.

Since portraits are different from other art categories, they are worthy of separate study. During their production, portraits require the presence of a specific person, or an image of the individual. In many instances, the production of portraiture has required sittings, which result in interaction between the subject(s) and the artist throughout the creation of the work. In certain instances, portrait artists depended on a combination of different involvement with their subjects. If the sitter can’t sit in the studio regularly, portraitists could use his or her photographs. In Europe, during the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the sitting time was sometimes decreased by focusing only on the head. Theoretically, portraitists could work from impressions or memories when creating a painting, but this rarely occurred according to documented records. Nonetheless, whether the work is based on model sittings, copying a photograph, or using memory, the process of painting a portrait is linked with the model’s attendance.

Furthermore, portrait painting can be distinguished from other artistic categories by its connection with appearance, or likeness. As such, the art of portrait painting got a reputation for imitation instead of for artistic innovation. Based on Renaissance art theory, portraiture was related to the level of a mechanical exercise as opposed to a fine art. Michelangelo’s well-known protest against portraits is only one example. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the attitude to portraiture was critical. Even so, artists from around the globe persisted in painting portraits despite their theoretical objections. Picasso, for example, became widely-known for cubist still-life painting (立体派静物画) early in his career, but some of his early experiments in this new style were his portraits of art dealers.

1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us?

A．The changing definition of portraiture reflects shifting attitudes to it.

B．Most portraits reflect artistic fashions and favored styles when created.

C．Portraiture is a more complex art form than is defined in a dictionary.

D．Portrait art shouldn’t be seen as a distinct art category for its complexity.

2. Which of the following is a characteristic of portraiture mentioned in paragraph 2?

A．Portraiture typically takes much less time than other art forms.

B．Portraiture often requires frequent cooperation between artists.

C．Portraits show models in a more accurate way than other art forms.

D．Portraits generally involve interaction between subjects and artists.

3. According to paragraph 2, during portraits’ production, artists __________.

A．based their work on the subjects’ attendance

B．preferred models’ photographs to their presence

C．were more willing to use impressions or memories

D．reduced sitting time to concentrate on a sitter’s head

4. Picasso is chosen as an example by the author because he __________.

A．altered the way other artists felt about portrait art

B．created portraits in spite of his objection to portrait art

C．depended on portrait art to establish a higher reputation

D．had fewer theoretical objections to portraitures than others

2 . Every dog owner knows that saying Good dog! A happy, high-pitched voice will bring about a flurry of joyful tail wagging in their pet.

That makes scientists curious. What exactly happens in your dog’s brain when it hears praise? And is it similar to the way our own brain processes such acoustic information?

When a person gets a compliment, the more primitive subcortical(皮下的)auditory regions first react to the intonation(声调) , the emotional force of spoken words. Next, the brain taps the more recently evolved auditory cortex(皮质)to figure out the meaning of the words, which is learned.

    1     Of course, dogs use their right brain hemisphere to do so, whereas we use our left hemisphere. Still, a mystery remains. Do their brains go through the same steps to process approval?

It’s an important question. Dogs are speechless species.    2     For instance, some dogs are able to recognize thousands of names of individual objects. They can even link each name to a specific object.

When the scientists studied scans of the brains of pet dogs, they found that theirs, like ours, processed the sounds of spoken words in a multi-step manner. They analyze first the emotional component with the older region of the brain, the subcortical regions. Subsequently, they deal with the words’ meaning with the newer part, the cortex.

Previous studies have shown that many animals, from songbirds to dolphins, use the subcortex to process emotional hints.    3    Zebras, for instance, can eavesdrop on the emotion, or fright to be precise, in other herbivore(食草动物)animals^’ calls. In this way they learn if predators are nearby.

It’s likely that human language evolved from such hints. We employ the same neurological systems to develop speech.    4    Dogs have the very likeliness to make special use of the ancient connection to process human emotions. It helps explain why dogs are so successful at partnering with us and at times manipulating us with those soulful eyes.

A．It is widely recognized that the dog has a complex structure of brain, similar, in a way, to that of human’s.

B．But they respond correctly to our words.

C．Animals are found to have adopted various mechanisms to defend against enemies.

D．They are capable of obtaining mood implications even though they can’t talk.

E．It has been discovered that dogs’ brains, like those of humans, compute the intonation and meaning separately.

F．Domesticated animals have evolved alongside humans for the past thousands of years.

3 . Directions: Write an English composition in 120—150 words according to the instructions given below in Chinese.
请仔细阅读以下三幅图片《三代农夫》（Three Generations of Farmers）并完成写作。
在写作中，你必须：
1）简要描述三幅图片中的内容；
2）分析其背后所反映的现象及原因；
3) 对你的启示。

4 . Bad Dreams Are Good!

Most of us dream, whether we remember them or not. What are dreams for? A handful of _______ dominate. Sigmund Freud famously maintained that they reveal hidden truths and wishes. More recent research suggests that they may help us process intense emotions, or perhaps sort through and strengthen memories, or _______ random neuron（神经元） activity, or prepare responses to threatening situations. Others argue that dreams have no evolutionary function, but simply _______ personal concerns.

Despite being largely unsupported by _______, Freud’s view maintains a strong following around the world. Researchers found that students in the U.S., South Korea, and India were much more likely to say that dreams reveal hidden truths than to accept better _______ theories. In the same study, respondents said that dreaming about a plane crash would cause them more _______ than an official warning about a terrorist attack. Even if dreams can't foretell the future, they seem to _______ our shared fascinations. The majority of dreams occur during REM sleep （深度睡眠） cycles, of which the average person has four or five a night.

A study of Canadian university students found the most common dream topics include school, falling, being chased, and arriving too late for something. For all the commonalities dreams _______, they vary across time and culture — people who grew up watching black-and-white TV are more likely to dream in black and white. A 1958 study _______ that compared with Japanese people, Americans dreamed more about being locked up, losing a loved one, finding money, being ________ dressed or encountering a mad person. Japanese people were more likely to dream about school, trying repeatedly to do something, being paralyzed with fear, or “wild, violent beasts.” If human dreams sound ________, bear in mind that even negative ones can have positive effects.

In a study of students taking a French medical school entrance exam, 60 percent of the dreams they had beforehand ________ a problem with the exam, such as being late or leaving an answer blank. But those who reported ________ about the exam, even bad ones, did better on it than those who didn’t. So the next time you dream about an education related experience in which you are unable to answer the questions or solve a problem, don’t __________: It’s probably totally meaningless. Then again, your brain might be practicing so you'll be ________ if such an event ever comes to pass.

1.

A．symptoms

B．reviews

C．conflicts

D．theories

2.

A．take place of

B．make peace with

C．make sense of

D．come up with

3.

A．exemplify

B．dramatize

C．horrify

D．recognize

4.

A．evidence

B．information

C．qualification

D．inquiry

5.

A．assumed

B．connected

C．confirmed

D．realized

6.

A．curiosity

B．anxiety

C．fancy

D．reluctance

7.

A．expect

B．endure

C．expose

D．employ

8.

A．exhibit

B．explain

C．supply

D．identify

9.

A．diagnosed

B．dismissed

C．denied

D．determined

10.

A．unnecessarily

B．independently

C．inappropriately

D．impersonally

11.

A．puzzling

B．exciting

C．depressing

D．amusing

12.

A．revealed

B．guaranteed

C．traced

D．involved

13.

A．grades

B．concerns

C．dreams

D．memories

14.

A．hesitate

B．worry

C．pause

D．laugh

15.

A．ready

B．eager

C．nervous

D．curious

5 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. including     B. impressions     C. standing       D. restored     E. missing F. fun     G. comfort       H. associated        I. inspired       J. marked   K. contact

Ancient Civilizations Had Game Nights Too!

Morten Ramstad, a researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway, and his team spotted one of the rare objects while unearthing the remains of an Early Iron Age (400-300 BC) burial site in Western Norway. Burying loved ones with basic necessities like ceramic pots and clothing, to ensure their     1     in the afterlife, was a fairly common tradition in ancient cultures. However, the families of some lucky individuals went a step further by     2     a board game for entertainment.

Though the game board was     3    , the archeologists, who revealed their findings on April 5, 2020, managed to recover the dice（骰子）and 18 circular game pieces. Unlike the modern-day cubical（立体的）dice, which are     4     with a different number of dots from one to six on each face, the ancient game counter was square and had bulls-eye like     5    , which indicated zero to five on each of its four faces. The researchers suspect it may have been     6     by the oldest-known board game — the “Game of Mercenaries”. The two-person strategy game, which dates back to the 3rd century BC, was believed to be similar to modern-day chess.

The archeologists, who also unearthed remains of pottery jars and a bronze needle at the burial site believe the game pieces indicate the dead was a wealthy individual. In ancient civilizations, board games were a status symbol, signifying the owner’s high social and economic     7    . They indicated an individual’s intellectual ability and also proved he/she could afford to spend time on such activities.

“These are status objects that bear witness to     8     with the Roman Empire, where they liked to enjoy themselves with board games,” Ramstad said. “People who played games like this were from the upper class. The game showed that they had the time, profits, and ability to think strategically.”

The researchers planned to put the     9     game pieces in a museum as the discovery provides insights into Norway’s social structure during the Early Iron Age and gives some ideas of what tabletop     10     looked like during ancient times, at least for the upper class.

6 .

A．It was seriously damaged.	B．It was badly flooded.
C．It crashed on a bridge.	D．It was beyond repair.

7 .

A．Professor and student.	B．Employer and employee.
C．Interviewer and interviewee.	D．Salesperson and client.

8 . At the 4th Street Photo Gallery on the comer of the Bowery, many photos are strung together like clothes on a laundry line. There are portraits of Muhammad Ali and Jean-Michel Basquiat, plus a series of cityscapes detailedly captured over 60 years by Alex Harsley, a neglected but talented New York photographer.

The city has been Mr Harsley’s home since 1948, when, aged ten, he moved there from South Carolina. He took his first photograph ten years later, and became the first black photographer to work for the city’s district attorney’s office. His vivid pictures freeze moments in New York’s evolution from the 1950s to the present. “It could start with the smell of something burning.” he says of his method. “And then you see a family sitting on the steps of a funeral home sadly looking at the firemen going through their routine.”

Some of the scenes in the collection were captured from the window of his old apartment in Harlem; they include images of black activists, streets submerged in snow and shots of the Crown Heights riots of 1991. A.D. Coleman, a photography critic, says Mr. Harsley has been able to capture the lives of minority groups by making himself “invisible”. His aim has been to assemble these fragments (片段) into an extended history of the city.

Mr. Harsley’s gallery is a time capsule. For decades, it is also a hub for the city’s artistic underworld. In the 1970s New York’s photography scene was flourishing, but exclusive. As Mr. Harsley puts it, “a number of great artists were swept aside” because they lacked connections. Helping talent became part of his mission. In 1971 he established The Minority Photographers, an organization that helps up-and-coming artists exhibit their work. He opened his gallery two years later; many photographers have had their first shows there.

1. How does the author describe Alex Harsley in the first paragraph?

A．Undervalued but expert.	B．Gifted but exclusive.
C．Unknown but devoted.	D．Gifted but awkward.

2. What does the underlined sentence mean?

A．His pictures show freezing weather in New York from the 1950s to the present.

B．His pictures capture the cheerful moments in New York since the 1950s.

C．His pictures record some historic occasions of New York over the past decades.

D．His pictures illustrate the vivid lives of minority groups in New York over the past decades.

3. Why does Mr. Harsley make himself “invisible”?

A．To assemble the minority groups of the city.

B．To highlight the lives of minority groups.

C．To help promising artists attract more public attention.

D．To build connections between the minority groups and himself.

4. How did Mr. Harsley help the other artists?

A．He excluded those who looked down upon the unknown artists.

B．He set an organization displaying their works.

C．He established the connections between up-and-coming artists and famous ones.

D．He reduced the rents of the gallery where their photography works were shown.

9 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. benefits                 B. attract               C. engagement        D. track               E . measuring     F. committed           G. promoting     H. rewards               I . motivated            J. seeking       K. satisfaction

Work is necessary to earn an income. And if you get good job    1     , it’s a bonus! But what can make it more worthwhile are the extra perks(工资外的补贴) that your employer offers you as reward for your loyalty and commitment.

Employee    2     are commonplace these days. Traditionally, these have included a good pension and extra days off work. But when a job used to be for life, there wasn’t much incentive to try and keep staff. Now when millennials are    3    a position, they want to know the benefits they’ll get on top of their pay.

But these perks come at a cost to an employer, and now technology is being used to discover if and when they offer value for money. The idea aims to enable a company to tailor what it can offer to    4    and retain the right staff.

As an example, at the merchant bank, Close Brothers, Al has been used to develop chatbots that can help employees to find information on subjects ranging from mental health to saving for retirement at any time. And Microsoft has developed software to help businesses    5    their employee’s well-being needs. Anna Rasmussen, founder of Open Blend, told the BBC “It shows companies what their employees need to stay     6     and reach their full potential in real-time?” Insurance company Vitality offer wearable technology to track employees’ movements. Staff can earn ‘    7    ’ by having their activity tracked. A study found that by     8    the participants’ performance, they did the equivalent of 4.8 extra days of activity per month.

It seems that if used in the right way, technology can provide greater    9    between an employee and the company. That can lead to a happier, healthier and    10     work force. But HR experts warn against relying solely on tech for deciding on employee benefits provision, they say.

10 . Racial Discrimination in Science

You might expect that science, particularly American science, would be colour-blind. Once Someone from the country's ethnic minorities has got bench space in a laboratory, he might reasonably_______ to be treated on merit （功绩）and nothing else.

_______ a study published in Science by Donna Ginther of the University of     Kansas suggest? That is not true. Dr. Ginther, who was working _______ America's National Institutes of Health （NIH）, looked at the pattern of research grants awarded by the NIH and found that _______mattered a   lot .Moreover, it is not just a question of white supremacy. Asian and Hispanic scientists do just as well as white ones. Black scientists, _______ , do badly.

One possible explanation is that review panels are inferring applicants ethnic_________ from their names, or the institutions they attended as students. Consciously or not, the reviewers may then be awarding less merit to those from people with "black-sounding names, or who were educated at universities whose students are predominantly black. Indeed, a(n) _______ bias has been found in those recruiting for jobs in the commercial world. One well-known study, published by researchers at MIT and the University of Chicago, found that fictitious C以(简历) with stereotypically white names got 50% more _______of interviews than did CVs with black names, even when the applicants' stated_________were identical.

Another possible explanation is social __________: It is in the nature of groups of experts (such as review panels) to know both each other and each other's most promising assistants and followers. Applicants outside this charmed circle might have less chance of __________ consideration. If the charmed circle itself were racially unrepresentative, those____________from the network because their racial group was under-represented in the first place would find it harder to break in.

Though Dr. Ginther's results are______________, it is to the NIH's credit that it has published her findings. The agency is also starting a programme intended to alter the____________of the review panels to see whether removing potential racial cues from applications changes outcomes. Other agencies, and not just in America, should pay strict attention to all this, and ask themselves if they, too, are____________people of particular races. Such discrimination is a sheer waste of talent!

1.

A．expect

B．cooperate

C．decide

D．challenge

2.

A．Similarly.

B．Evidently

C．Unfortunately

D．Undoubtedly

3.

A．in favour of

B．on behalf of

C．in honor of

D．in the name of

4.

A．health

B．nationality

C．gender

D．race

5.

A．however

B．otherwise

C．therefore

D．meanwhile

6.

A．divisions

B．customs

C．origins

D．designs

7.

A．unknown

B．similar

C．obvious

D．strong

8.

A．feedback

B．types

C．elements

D．offers

9.

A．qualifications

B．interviews

C．names

D．researches

10.

A．security

B．status

C．networking

D．order

11.

A．moral

B．favorable

C．casual

D．minor

12.

A．excluded

B．installed

C．downloaded

D．restored

13.

A．positive

B．conclusive

C．troubling

D．encouraging

14.

A．position

B．subject

C．prospect

D．composition

15.

A．reminding

B．employing

C．informing

D．failing