1 . Four Self-Portraits (自画像) by Famous Artists

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)—“Self-Portrait”, 1506

One of the beautiful self-portraits by famous artist Raphael was drawn at the age of 23. It measures around 45cm×33cm and is located at the world-famous Uffizi Gallery. The Italian painter used oil on board to draw his self-portrait, which was the clearest and the most recognizable self-portraits of Raphael himself.

Leonardo da Vinci—“Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk”, 1512

“Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk”is a self-portrait of da Vinci at the age of 60 and measures around 33.3cm×21.6cm, which is on display in Biblioteca Reale, Turin, Italy. It is drawn with red chalk on paper and represents the head of an elderly man in a three-quarter view. In the portrait, the length of the hair is uncommon in Renaissance (文艺复兴) portraits.

Rembrandt van Rijn—“Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-up Collar”, 1659

Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn painted his self-portrait in 1659 when he was 53 years old. It shows his worried expression that clearly portrays the troubled condition of his mind at that point of his life since the year 1659 was a year of anxiety for him. This self-portrait found its place among the Benjamin Altman Collection, which has been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1913.

Edgar Degas—“Degas Au Porte-Fusain’”, l855

Edgar Degas made this self-portrait only when he was twenty-one years old. It was one of the most remarkable of his fifteen self-portraits. Degas was seated as seemingly without fear and anxiety. The pose in the painting was formal and academic. The painting is located in the musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

1. Where should visitors go if they want to admire Raphael’s self-portrait in 1506?

A．Uffizi Gallery.	B．Biblioteca Reale.
C．The musée d’Orsay.	D．The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2. Which aspect of Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk was special during the Renaissance?

A．The red clothing.	B．The formal pose.
C．The long hair.	D．The worried expression.

3. Which painter was the youngest when painting the above-mentioned self-portraits?

A．Raphael.	B．Edgar Degas.
C．Leonardo da Vinci.	D．Rembrandt van Rijn.

2 . Famous People Who Begin With Difficulties

Oprah Winfrey

Probably having one of the most famous success stories, Oprah was born into a poor family in Mississippi, raised by a single mother living on welfare. She was physically, and mentally abused during her childhood. Despite her initial struggles as a young girl, she turned herself into one of the most successful talk show hosts of our time.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey has been the star of some of the most successful movies of all time. But Carrey grew up extremely poor in Canada. When he was a teenager, his family took security jobs in a factory to help pay the bills. And during his first stand-up comedy performance, he was booed off （喝倒彩） the stage. Not shortly after, he made it big on In Living Color and then went on to star in Dumb & Dumber, The Mask, and Ace Ventura in the same year!

James Dyson

If you thought Thomas Edison’s failures were bad, let me introduce you to James Dyson, the famous inventor of the Dyson vacuums （真空吸尘器） you see all over the television. Dyson developed over 5,000 failed prototypes （原型） before finding the bagless vacuum brand. Not only that, he put his entire savings account into his prototypes over fifteen years! Luckily, the bagless vacuum worked.

Stephen King

Before Stephen King became known as a great living writer—having written over 60 novels, many of which have been adapted for film and television—King was rejected over and over again. In his memoir, On Writing, King describes how he used to post his rejection letters on the wall for inspiration. His first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times.

1. What do Oprah and Jim have in common?

A．They were abused by parents.	B．They grew up in poor families.
C．They were hired as comedians.	D．They found jobs in a factory.

2. What did James Dyson do?

A．He repaired the failed prototypes.	B．He developed over 5,000 brands.
C．He put all efforts into marketing.	D．He invented the bagless vacuum.

3. Who is a novelist?

A．Oprah Winfrey.

B．Stephen King.

C．James Dyson.

D．Jim Carrey.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式，并将答案填写在答题卡上。

Known for his playful style of watercolor works, Qi Baishi is a well-known Chinese painter. His works usually focus    1     birds and flowers and are admired and praised by many worldwide.

Qi Baishi was born to    2    peasant family in Xiangtan, China. During his early teenage years, he taught     3    (he) how to paint while working as a carpenter. Through his own efforts, he    4    (be) able to master the skills of painting, calligraphy, and even poetry at the age of 27. Some of his major influences include the early Qing Dynasty painter Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) and the Ming Dynasty artist Xu Wei.

His artworks mostly belong to the gongbi mode(风格), a style     5    features “fine brushwork and great detail”. Through his paintings, he puts into focus the small things of the world rather than large landscapes. The fishes, shrimps, crabs, and frogs were said to be his favorite     6    (subject).

He was most     7    (experience) in simple, freely sketched compositions, but he could also    8    (successful) perform a meticulous(细节的)style.    9    (use) heavy ink, bright colors and vigorous strokes, he created works in a fresh and lively manner which expressed his love of nature and life. In 1955, he     10    (honour) with the International Peace Award.

4 . Derek Paravicini is lucky to be alive. Born three and a half months early, he weighed only 0.6 kilograms and almost _______ three times while he was in hospital. _______, Derek’s early birth left him with some disabilities — he is blind; he can’t tell left from right; he can _______ count to ten.

Yet Derek is a _______ talent. The 41-year-old remembers every one of the thousands of pieces of music he has ever heard and can play them without _______ on the piano — even if he only heard the song once. years ago. Because he is blind, he cannot _______ music. All of the music he plays is in his _______. His brain has been described as a perfectly programmed musical _______. When he hears a chord with ten notes in it, he can even _______ all ten, while most professional musicians can only recognise about five.

Derek was two years old before his family discovered his ________. When he was given an old keyboard, he ________ his family by reproducing the songs he had heard outside. His family then arranged for him to go to a school for the ________ where he met a university professor who helped him to ________ his musical talent.

By the age of nine, Derek had ________ at a large concert hall in London with a famous orchestra, Since then, he has appeared on TV shows and travelled the world ________ performances. He has recorded his own CDs and there is even a book about his life.

1.

A．smiled

B．cried

C．died

D．survived

2.

A．Strangely

B．Quickly

C．Secretly

D．Unluckily

3.

A．almost

B．hardly

C．still

D．even

4.

A．math

B．future

C．musical

D．natural

5.

A．words

B．numbers

C．mistakes

D．sounds

6.

A．read

B．improve

C．create

D．hear

7.

A．head

B．hands

C．eyes

D．mouth

8.

A．bank

B．hospital

C．community

D．computer

9.

A．count

B．send

C．recognize

D．leave

10.

A．voice

B．talent

C．book

D．illness

11.

A．moved

B．confused

C．shocked

D．annoyed

12.

A．blind

B．poor

C．needy

D．sick

13.

A．discover

B．turn

C．end

D．develop

14.

A．hosted

B．lectured

C．served

D．performed

15.

A．recording

B．giving

C．improving

D．supplying

5 . According to Gelb, although not everyone is born with the gifts and the capacities of Leonardo Da Vinci, it is possible for any person to use the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning to guide us toward the realization of our inner Da Vinci. One typical fundamental is curiosity. Curiosity is “The desire to know is natural to good men.” — Leonardo Da Vinci

The young Leonardo loved being in nature, showed an early gift for drawing and was fascinated by mathematics. Young Leonardo’s Curiosity regarding education and mathematics especially often raised constant unsureness and difficulties for the teachers who taught him and continuously proved them to be wrong. Most children have in them endless amounts of curiosity and sense of wonder. Unfortunately for multiple reasons these qualities are lost as children reach adulthood, not Leonardo though. Perhaps one of his greatest characteristics was his willingness to question accepted knowledge. Leonardo’s Curiosity never faded and fueled the lake of his genius for his entire life. Leonardo’s motives were not money, women or loyalty to any church or person. His pursuits were pure: the long search for beauty and above all: truth.

Leonardo would wonder around asking questions he did not himself yet understand. He always carried a notebook with himself so that he could quickly write down hundreds of questions, ideas, thoughts, impressions and observations as they occurred. He was expectant and reliant only upon himself to answer his own questions. Being modest, he was not afraid to make mistakes and appear foolish. Leonardo accepted the feelings of unfamiliarity and foolishness.

His questions led him to designing a snorkel (水下呼吸器) as well as diving equipment and even a submarine and also inventing flying machines and a parachute. His curiosity took him under the water and into the sky.

1. What does the underlined words “Da Vinci” refer to?

A．Potential.	B．Curiosity.
C．Honesty.	D．Motive.

2. What was most typical of the young Leonardo?

A．Educating kids.	B．Seeking for love.
C．Appreciating nature.	D．Questioning his teachers.

3. What can be learned about Leonardo’s sense of curiosity from the text?

A．It fooled himself.

B．It made him independent.

C．It inspired his whole life.

D．It disappeared in his adulthood.

4. Which saying can best reflect Leonardo Da Vinci?

A．An idle youth, a needy age.

B．First come, first served.

C．Stay hungry, stay foolish.

D．Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Bamboo weaving (编织) is a time-honored skill of weaving long and thin pieces of bamboo into various items by hand,     1     has been passed down from generation to generation.

Fu Yelin, a 58-year-old resident of Maoba Township and a skilled craftsman (手艺人),     2     (be) inseparable from bamboo weaving since he was 12. “Back then, I     3       (use) to get cut during bamboo weaving,” he says. It requires     4       (patient) to complete the work. After decades of practicing, Fu has equipped himself with the skill. Fu     5       (eventual) opened a store in 2003 in Yongshun’s Furong Town, a place famous for its typical customs and natural scenery, to observe the aesthetic (审美的) trends in     6       (people) consumption of daily items.

“I want to conduct exchanges with bamboo weavers of different styles     7    (widen) my vision and further train my skills, ” he says, adding that he is confident about his own     8    (create) ideas, and wants to expand the influence of bamboo weaving. Fu would like to teach more people to carry on     9     the craft. For Fu, bamboo weaving is not just a lifelong practice,     10     a reminder of who he is and where he was born.

7 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

As you walk into the Shandong Arts and Crafts Exhibition Center, you are greeted by a magnificent sight: a larger-than-life rabbit. Its face     1    (decorate) with an artistically painted Chinese character, quan, and the cloud beneath it features the landscape of Baotu Spring, one of the most famous scenic     2    (spot) in Jinan.

The     3     (create) of the rabbit figure is 52-year-old Yang Feng, a local craftsman.     4    (lie) on the second floor of the exhibition center is his studio,     5     he displays his works, in different designs and sizes.

In 2004, Yang noticed a competition was being held     6    (develop) a souvenir (纪念品) for Jinan which needed to represent local culture. Yang thought that the rabbit god fit all the requirements and it took     7    (he) a whole month to make one.

His winning top prize at the competition encouraged him to quit his job     8     a designer and devote himself to making statues of the rabbit god. Yang said, “For me, crafting the rabbit is not just a job,     9     a lifelong career that I will stick with. I hope my creations can remind tourists of the old and happy times. What is even     10    (important), they can get to know Jinan’s history and culture and fall in love with the city.”

8 . Pop art, which emerged in the '50s and rose in popularity throughout the '60s, sought to challenge the idea of fine art.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987)

Andy Warhol is probably the most influential figure of Pop Art. He became a famous celebrity himself. Understanding ‘star-culture’, advertisement and the effect of the media, he made these the core of his work. His screenprinted images of Marilyn Monroe, Soup cans, and sensational newspaper stories, quickly became synonymous(同义词) with Pop art.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)

Roy Lichtenstein is one of the fathers of the Pop Art movement. In November 2015, Christie’s sold Lichtenstein’s ‘Nurse’ for a record $95.4 million. In this piece, as well as in other works, we can see how the enlarged imagery of adverts and comics with recognisable characters, highlights the ironic(讽刺好笑的) images and situations in every-day life.

Mimmo Rotella (1918-2006)

Italian artist Mimmo Rotella, was one of the most important figures of post-war European art. He combined pieces of adverts and posters in his works. For this technique he used a series of torn posters, gathering them to create a tremendously expressive and powerful aesthetic(美学). His works Sempre lei Marilyn (2002) and Viva America(1963) are easy to recognize.

James Rosenquist (1933-2017)

James Rosenquist can be considered one of the strongest and most influential modern Pop Art artists. His work dived deep into cinematography and advertising. He employed techniques which are conventionally used to create Commercial Art. His works appear as an overwhelming mixture of fragmented(成碎片的) images of current celebrities, everyday objects and popular foods - giant lipsticks or spaghetti. If you go to Centre Pompidou, Paris, you can see his work President-Elect.

1. What artwork will you turn to if you are interested in Andy Warhol?

A．Marilyn Monroe.	B．Nurse.
C．Viva America.	D．President-Elect.

2. Which artist creates his works by putting together cut and torn posters?

A．Andy Warhol.	B．Roy Lichtenstein.
C．Mimmo Rotella.	D．James Rosenquist.

3. What do the four pop art artists’ works have in common?

A．They are typical fine art.

B．They show ironic everyday life.

C．They employ traditional techniques.

D．They are somewhat related to commercials.

9 . Michael Nesmith, the guitarist of the 1960s pop group The Monkees, died at the age of 78. The famed singer-songwriter, who composed some of the band’s catalogue, including tracks such as “Papa Gene's Blues,” “You Told Me” and “You Just May Be the One,” died of natural causes on Friday morning, according to the statement released by his family.

The Monkees member Micky Dolenz is now the only surviving member of the group. “I’m heartbroken. Dolenz said in a statement following Nesmith’s death. The Monkees television debut (首演) turned him and fellow band members Dolenz, Peter Tork and David Jones into overnight rock stars. The show, which premiered in 1966, rocketed the group to fame, scoringNo.1 hits and chart-topping albums. During the two-year run, The Monkees: won the 1967 Emmy for best comedy series.

Following the group’s breakup in 1970, Nesmith moved on to a long and creative career, not only as-a musician but as a writer, producer and director of films, author of several books, head of a media arts company and creator of a music video format that led to the creation of MTV.

Nesmith rarely rejoined the others for reunion tours, leading many to believe he disliked the band and the show, something he steadfastly denied. For the Monkees’30th anniversary he persuaded the others to reunite to record a new album, “Justus,” for which all four composed the songs and played the instruments. He also rejoined the others for a brief tour and wrote and directed their 1997 TV reunion film, “Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees.”

After fighting for creative control in The Monkees in the late 1960s, Nesmith went on to form the country rock outfit. The First National, which scored a top 25 hit in 1970 with “Joanne” according to Billboard.

1. What makes The Monkees rise to fame overnight?

A．Its numerous tracks.	B．Its creative members.
C．Its 1967 Emmy award.	D．Its first television show.

2. Which of the following is most suitable to describe Nesmith?

A．Accomplished.	B．Get-it-alone.
C．Enthusiastic.	D．Simple-minded.

3. What does “a brief tour” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．A fast trip.	B．A short holiday.
C．A road show.	D．A temporary party.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A band.	B．A musician.
C．Hit shows.	D．Golden compositions.

10 . 阅读下面短文, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Pippa Dyrlaga has been carefully making paper cuts since 2010, in addition to     1     (work) as a printmaker. Much of Dyrlaga’s childhood     2     (spend) in rural Yorkshire, England, where her family lived in a canal boat. Those days of youth connected to nature are a huge factor driving her art.

Dyrlaga’s work often     3     (feature) plants and animals, and the distinct patterns that one might see on leaves, flowers, roots and wings —except that they are explained again in a refreshing way —    4     particular.

Dyrlaga says she is often drawn to the creative potential of paper and     5     (it) existence everywhere: “The simplicity of a blank sheet of paper appeals to me. Paper is used in so many aspects of our lives and used     6     (communicate) with each other, and I want to do this through my work. There is nothing as ordinary     7     a blank sheet of paper, but it has so many possibilities and can be turned into something beautiful or     8     (meaning). ”

Dyrlaga believes artists have a role to play in changing the environmental crisis     9     is threatening us. Through conveying (传达) a message to bring various     10     (topic) to the discussion table, artists can create something real and visual that people can connect with emotionally.