1 . 阅读下面材料, 在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

When 35-year-old Chinese pianist WangYujia finished her last note on Tuesday, she received a standing applause from the audience. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, commonly     1     (know)as Yannick, the conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, even went down on his knees after watching her four-hour     2     (perform)at the Carnegie Music Hall.

She was considered as a superstar for her once-in-a-lifetime show. Yannick even compared the level of her excellence to     3     (climb)Mount Qomolangma. Despite the difficulty, however, it seemed she managed     4     (play)all the musical pieces with ease right to the last movement. Yannick noted that Wang was     5     ideal pianist because of her forceful and relaxed style. And he said that she was born for this kind of music. Wang showed a special interest     6     Rachmaninoff’s music when she was young. She began to play the piano when she was 6. At the age of 14, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music in the US and began to study it     7     (carefully)than before. She     8     (attract)by this Russian composer’s noble and pure music deeply at that time.

After graduation, she became one of the world’s most famous     9     (star)in classical music. Wang’s success also shows that her parents’ years of efforts have paid off,     10     will be very encouraging for other parents in China.

2 . 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.

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。

The creative concept of jinhuidui (literally “a pile of beautiful things from ash”), a Chinese art form which is said     1     (start) in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and boomed in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), shares similarities     2     pop art.

    3     (create) traditional jinhuidui artwork is much more difficult compared to pop art, as all the images are painted as if they were copied and pasted (粘贴). It requires     4     good command of calligraphy as well as excellent skill in painting flowers, birds, fish, insects, landscapes and     5     (figure), and a mastery of techniques such as seal carving.

Geng Xuezhi, 50, from Zibo city, Shandong Province, is one of the masters of jinhuidui. Geng has been learning Chinese painting and calligraphy     6     he was 16. He came into contact with jinhuidui painting skills through his father in 2006.

The artist says the distinctive feature of jinhuidui can be summed up as “broken”,     7     means that it has to present fragments in forms such as broken, rolled, overlapped,     8     (tear), burned or smoked. He adds it will take at least 10 years to master the skill.

The creation of jinhuidui is complex and lengthy, and     9     (it) dyeing process is laborious (费力的) and time-consuming. Sometimes a fragment needs to be dyed a dozen times. “A simpler work of jinhuidui takes about 20 days to complete, while a     10     (hard) one will take several months, and sometimes some extra effort has to be made,” Geng says.

4 . 阅读下面读文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Chopin was born on March 1st, 1810. He is a Polish French composer and pianist of the Romantic period, best     1    (know) for his pieces for piano. Although he wrote brief works, Chopin ranks as one of music’s greatest tone poets by reason of his superb imagination.

All Chopin’s family had artistic leanings, and even at an early age, Chopin was always strangely moved when listening to his mother or eldest sister playing the piano. By age six he was already trying to reproduce     2     he heard or to make up new tunes.     3     following year he started piano lessons with the 61-year-old Wojciech Zywny, an all-around     4    (music) with an intelligent sense of values. Zywny’s simple instruction in piano playing     5    (leave) behind soon by his pupil,     6     discovered for himself an original approach to the piano. Later, Chopin was allowed to develop     7    (smooth) by academic rules and formal training. Chopin found himself     8    (invite) at an early age to play at private parties, and at eight he made his first public appearance at a charity concert.

Piano playing was not alone responsible for his growing reputation as a child genius. At seven he also wrote a Polonaise in G Minor, which was printed. Chopin had a great gift     9     music and grew up with his efforts,     10    (become) a world-famous musician finally.

5 . To say that Spanish painter Pablo Picasso was a leader in Western art in the 20th century is to repeat an accepted fact, according to Time magazine. “No painter before him had enjoyed such a large following in his own lifetime.”

This year marks the 140th anniversary of Picasso’s birth. Born on Oct. 25, 1881, Picasso had created more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures and other pieces of art by the time he died at 91.

That’s a long time to paint! The result is not only a lot of art, but a lot of different phases in Picasso’s work. On its website, Christie’s auction (拍卖) house lists eight different periods in the course of his painting career.

Over a century ago, the painter once said that, “Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” So the eight periods are all very different in their choice of subjects and yet unmistakably drawn by Picasso’s hands. Financial Express called his style unusual.

As his style changed over time, it became more simplistic. A common joke is that Picasso forgot how to paint. After all, he was classically trained at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona.

Now he is best known for leading an artistic movement known as “Cubism (立体派)”. It used geometric shapes to create human and animal figures. With this method, Picasso tried to show his figures from multiple perspectives (视角) in two-dimensional space. For example, a person’s left eye may be shown from straight ahead while his right eye and nose are shown from the side. The result is strange and beautiful, frightening and funny.

Picasso often said that he admired primitive art and drawings made by youngsters. “When I was the age I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them,” he said. Maybe that’s why Picasso is still so popular. We look at his work and think, “Maybe I could do that!”

1. Which of the following best describes Pablo Picasso?

A．Productive.

B．Optimistic.

C．Traditional.

D．Generous.

2. Why did Financial Express call Picasso’s style unusual?

A．His act of creation was destructive.	B．He created a series of simple images.
C．His painting style remained unchanged.	D．He drew different subjects in different periods.

3. What is special about a cubist painting according to the text?

A．It is rather difficult to understand.	B．It shows figures from various perspectives.
C．It covers different subjects at the same time.	D．It reflects the relationship between humans and animals.

4. What does the underlined word “them” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Raphael’s works.

B．Artists.

C．Drawings.

D．Youngsters.