1 . Cimabue, the greatest painter of a Middle Ages in Italy, was surprised one day after his lunch break to discover that a fly had seated itself under the nose of a character that he had been working on. He swatted (重拍) at the fly, but it did not move. He reached out to touch the insect, only to find it was only wet paint. Turning around, he saw that his apprentice (学徒), Giotto, was laughing. Giotto had painted the fly when Cimabue was away, and it looked so real that Cimabue had been completely fooled.
Giotto di Bondone was born into a poor family in a village. Legend has it that one day, when Cimabue was wandering around the countryside, he spotted a young shepherd boy drawing pictures of his sheep, which were so vivid that Cimabue immediately asked him to come to Florence and learn how to paint. That was how Giotto’s story began in Florence, where the young student flourished under Cimabue’s instruction and soon surpassed his master in skill.
At that time, people in paintings didn’t look real, and the symbolism of art was difficult for viewers to connect with it. Innovation (创新) was not stressed, so art had remained the same for hundreds of years.
However, Giotto thought art should be something more connected with people in a more realistic way. His masterpieces included the forty major frescoes (壁画) for the Arena Chapel. Adopting many techniques that were uncommon then, he painted people the way he saw them, instead of the overly tall and boxy people that other artists painted. He created three-dimensional space by using perspective, something that had not been done since Roman times.
In addition to painting, Giotto wrote poetry and drew architectural plans. When Giotto was in his sixties, he painted the Ognissanti Madonna, another famous work of art. He continued working until the age of seventy. The ideas Giotto brought to painting throughout his life revolutionized the art world and made him one of the greatest painters ever.
1. What does the anecdote in paragraph 1 tell us about Giotto?| A．His humor. | B．His talent. | C．His courage. | D．His determination. |
| A．Impressed. | B．Hesitant. | C．Doubtful. | D．Amused. |
| A．Vivid colors. | B．Classic skills. |
| C．Original composition. | D．Lifelike quality. |
| A．Great minds think alike. |
| B．Innovation is the vitality of art. |
| C．Constant dripping wears away a stone. |
| D．A slow sparrow should make an early start. |
2 . Quick Talk
In the exciting thriller Baby Driver, the actor and DJ, Ansel Elgort, 23, plays a music-obsessed (对音乐着迷的) getaway driver trying to escape from a life of crime.
Your character gets turned on to new music from iPods he finds in stolen cars. Who has influenced your taste?
Eve Beglarian, a composer (作曲家) and friend of my mother’s, made me my first iPod (playlist). One of the songs was Easy by the Commodores. The auditions (试演) for Baby Driver weren’t going well, and director Edgar Wright said, “Do you know any songs that you know every word to?” I remembered Easy. He said, “When you’re ready, I want you to sing it.” He told me that that was what got me the role. I guess I have to thank Eve.
At times the movie plays like a very complex music video.
They filmed very rhythmically. If I wasn’t wearing earphones, I was wearing an earwig — like a radio, but it’s tiny and you can hear things in your ear. Whatever the audience hears, we heard while filming.
How much did you get to drive?
They only let me drive when no one else was in the car, so that wasn’t often. They didn’t want me to kill Jamie Foxx.
You’re known for your brave and confident fashion choices. When did you start caring about style?
I must have been in the sixth grade. I wore the same red Adidas sweatpants every day, a white T-shirt and blue shoes. I was like a cartoon character.
After young-adult films like The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent, were you eager to be in a more adult film?
I don’t look at The Fault in Our Stars as a teenage movie. I looked at it like, this is a great script (剧本) and a good character, and I was excited to do it. But of course I was looking forward to being part of a “real” movie. If it meant working with Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm, sign me up.
1. What helped Ansel get the role in Baby Driver?| A．Edgar’s suggestion. | B．Eve’s recommendation. |
| C．His excellence in driving. | D．His performance of a song. |
| A．He is pretty stylish. | B．He likes cartoon films. |
| C．He is a driving enthusiast. | D．He has starred in two films. |
| A．It’s encouraging. | B．It’s worth seeing. |
| C．There’s no film worse than it. | D．There’s room for improvement. |
3 . Xu Beihong was born in 1895 in Yixing, Jiangsu province. When he was only six, he began to learn the Chinese classic works and calligraphy under the direction of his father, who was a local portrait painter. At the age of nine, his father taught him art. His family was poor and at the age of eleven, young Xu had to leave home with his father and sell paintings to make a living. After several years, Xu achieved local success and recognition, but his father developed a serious illness and died shortly afterwards. Xu's early experiences of hardship and loss became the basis of the realism in his artistic creations.
In 1917, he went to Japan and studied art in Tokyo, and later, he was able to spend eight years studying art in Europe. He then returned to China to teach. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xu became president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of the Chinese Artists' Association.
Xu was primarily known for his Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds. However, his experiences in Europe drove his desire to create a new form of national art that combined the traditional Chinese paintings techniques with Western perspective and methods of composition to reflect a modern China. His talent and hard work led to the development of a new style of Chinese painting and an approach to art that is still taken by art institutions across China.
1. What has shaped Xu Beihong's realistic artistic creations?| A．His overseas study. | B．His talent in art. |
| C．His boyhood experiences. | D．His father's instructions. |
| A．The traditional Chinese style of painting. |
| B．Reflecting Chinese theme in traditonal national style. |
| C．Painting horses in the Western painting techniques. |
| D．Joining Chinese art techniques with Western skills. |
| A．Determined. | B．Creative. |
| C．Old-fashioned. | D．Imaginative. |
| A．A biography. | B．A news report. |
| C．A book review. | D．A short story. |
