1 . 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. |
| 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. |
| A．Oprah Winfrey. | B．Stephen King. | C．James Dyson. | D．Jim Carrey. |
2 . French artist Henri Matisse(1869-1954) was described as “a man ahead of his time” . In honor of the artist, an exhibition titled “Matisse by Matisse” will be held in China this year. It follows Matisse’s works across sixty years.
Originally, Matisse aimed to become a lawyer. He attended law school and worked as a law worker until he came down with a disease in1889. To help him kill time on the road to recovery, Matisse’s mother bought him painting tools. His feeling for color was waken up and he decided to become an artist.
Matisse wanted to create his own style. Instead of painting realistic objects people saw he preferred to express his emotions and feelings toward these objects. One way he achieved this was through using bold(大胆的) colors. In his eyes, colors had more meanings than people would usually think of.
Yet his style was so unusual that Matisse was called the “father of Fauvism(野兽派)” . Even so, Matisse never gave up digging out more for art. Matisse once wrote in the book Jazz that “an artist should never be a prisoner of himself”. In the later years of his life when he suffered from cancer and couldn’t paint, he tried a new kind of art: paper cut-outs. He took brightly painted papers, cut them into shapes, and arranged them in designs. That’s what Matisse called “painting with scissors”.
With great creativity, Matisse’s works have been welcomed and used in many forms of popular art. For example, Yves Saint Laurent, an influential European fashion designer, showed a section of his 1981 autumn-winter collection in honor of Matisse’s works. Now his cut-out patterns and stylish colors are still seen on album covers, T-shirts and in ads.
1. What inspired Matisse’s feeling for color?| A．The disease. | B．His career as a lawyer. |
| C．Some painting tools. | D．His mother’s encouragement. |
| A．Showing his feelings toward objects. |
| B．Realizing his dream to be an artist. |
| C．Drawing objects in real life. |
| D．Looking for his own painting style. |
| A．He was tired of painting. |
| B．Cut-outs were becoming popular. |
| C．His poor health stopped him continuing painting. |
| D．He was asked to create a new art form. |
| A．Expensive. | B．Popular. | C．Ordinary. | D．Traditional. |
3 . Four Most Famous Paintings in the World
The Starry NightArtist: Vincent Willem van Gogh
Where to see it: the Museum of Modern Art (New York, US)
Being treated for mental illness in hospital and inspired by the view from the window of his room, Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. The painting is famous for Van Gogh’s creative use of thick brushstrokes (笔画). The painting’s striking blues and yellows and the dreamy atmosphere have attracted art lovers for decades.
The ScreamArtist: Edvard Munch
Where to see it: the National Museum and the Munch Museum (Oslo, Norway)
The Scream is not a single work of art. According to a British museum’s blog, there are two paintings, two pastels (彩粉画) and a number of prints, The paintings are in the National Museum and the Munch Museum, and in 2012, one of the pastels was sold for almost 120 million.
Mona LisaArtist: Leonardo da Vinci
Where to see it: the Louvre Museum (Paris. France)
It should come as no surprise that one of the most famous paintings in the world is a woman with a mysterious smile. It is the earliest known Italian painting to focus closely on the sitter in a half-length portrait (像) , according to the Louvre, where it was first exhibited in 1804.
The Last SupperArtist: Leonardo da Vinci
Where to see it: Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan, Italy)
Leonardo is the only artist to appear on this list twice. The Last Supper is about the last time Jesus had dinner with his followers. The painting is actually a huge wall painting-4. 6 meters high and 8. 8 meters wide, which makes for a memorable viewing experience.
1. Where is The Starry Night exhibited?| A．In the Louvre Museum. |
| B．In the Munch Museum. |
| C．In the Museum of Modern Art. |
| D．In Santa Maria delle Grazie. |
| A．It is exhibited in three museums. |
| B．It includes a series of works of art. |
| C．It is famous for a smile in the painting. |
| D．It was painted in a mental hospital. |
| A．They feature religious figures. |
| B．They both belong to wall paintings. |
| C．They are exhibited in the National Museum. |
| D．They were painted by Leonardo da Vinci. |
4 . Eeva Simons shows us that a physical disability doesn’t necessarily bar one from dancing on the stage. With skillful handling, she can make her wheelchair do graceful moves and win applause worldwide. The 34-year-old is among a group of four Finnish performers with different physical disabilities.
Simons has been bound to a wheelchair since jumping from a roof in a suicide attempt that ended her dancing career 16 years ago. She said that for a long time she had been depressed, with no idea how to adapt to her changed conditions. “The incident had a big effect on me,” she said. “I had never thought what it would be like to be a wheelchair user. It was difficult.”
But positive changes came several years later when she met a group of disabled people at a community centre. Their interest in alternative ways of movement lighted her love for dance and life again.
Simons joined the PAA troupe, which experimented with new approaches to performing. In 2000, the group put on their first show. Although many professional dance moves are not possible, the show has been running more than 10 countries in Europe and won the “Theatre Event of the Year 2000” award in Finland.
Simons said her part required the upper part of her body to be strong, especially her arms, which had to perform everything from hand gestures to powering the wheelchair. “It is a challenge. We use our creativity to think of alternative ways to find beauty,” she said.
In one moving scene about her post-accident mental condition, the frustrated Simons sits on the floor, before crawling to a wheelchair and accepting her new tool. Director Paasonen said the dancers were sharing their life experiences, feelings, states and thoughts with audience and that the show was very personal.
“They are people with bodies that have stories to tell,” he said. “The show is about transformation, and how people deal with change, including how to deal with the transformation of our own body after it becomes disabled.”
1. The underlined word “bar” in the first paragraph means ________.| A．save | B．protect | C．encourage | D．prevent |
| A．became disabled accidentally. |
| B．once lost her hope for life. |
| C．learned how to dance after the incident. |
| D．wanted to kill herself to end her dancing career. |
| A．They are creative dancers. |
| B．Most of them are young. |
| C．They are able to do all professional dance moves. |
| D．They are discouraged by their disability. |
| A．A Special Troupe. |
| B．Disabled Dancers. |
| C．New Approaches to Dancing. |
| D．A Wonder in a Wheelchair. |
