1 . During the 19th and 20th centuries, Qi Baishi (1864-1957) was one of the best-known Chinese artists. He grew up in a poor peasant family, but this did not prevent him from pursuing his interest in painting.
Qi was schooled for less than a year due to illness, and he dropped out of school. However, he was too weak to do much of the work and this was why he became a carpenter. As a carpenter, he showed his creativity. He could carve figures of animals, woodblock prints, and sniff-boxes. At the age of 20, he taught himself to paint with Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. He met many mentors who greatly influenced his painting skills through his painting journey, among whom are the renowned artists Zhu Da and Xu Wei. When he was 28, he became a student of the famous artist Hu Qinyuan, and he began to study Chinese painting.
Qi arrived in Beijing in 1917. While he was in Beijing, he stayed devoted to painting. Most of his paintings represented Chinese tradition. Qi’s works are now found in several famous museums, including National Gallery Prague and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. His works now are the most expensive ever sold at auctions.
Qi got noticed by many institutions, one of which is the Ministry of Culture. In 1954 he was selected as the representative of the Chinese people. Also, in 1956, he was awarded the World Peace Prize by World Peace Council. A college was also named after him, the Baishi School of Art in Hunan University of Science Technology.
1. Why did Qi Baishi drop out of school?A.He suffered from illness and was too weak. |
B.He wanted to devote himself to painting. |
C.He wasn’t interested in what he learned at school. |
D.His family was too poor to afford his schooling fees. |
A.He learned Chinese painting on his own. |
B.He showed great creativity of art since childhood. |
C.His works are one of the costliest ever sold at auctions. |
D.At first he learned to paint from some renowned artists. |
A.His painting style. | B.His painting works. |
C.His achievements. | D.His contributions to his hometown. |
A.By giving examples. | B.By using data. |
C.By raising questions. | D.By following the order of time. |
Zhao Chuang is a science artist working in Beijing,
be fond of emerge influential in particular purchase realistic subjective theme |
Unlike the earlier Realists who painted in a
4 . 听下面一段对话,回答以下小题。
1. What did Peter learn from his grandfather?A.How to appreciate art works. | B.How to deal with artists. | C.How to run a museum. |
A.He studied at a college. | B.He served in the army. | C.He worked in a gallery. |
A.Rembrandt’s. | B.Botticelli’s. | C.Rubens’. |
In recent years, many artists have taken part
1. What is the woman doing?
A.She’s interpreting a painting. |
B.She’s chairing a meeting. |
C.She’s hosting a program. |
A.From an oil painting. |
B.From a city in Mexico. |
C.From his initials in Spanish. |
A.His childhood friend. |
B.His father. |
C.A woman artist. |
A.His focus on life of the aged. |
B.His unique use of bright colors. |
C.His expression of childlike innocence. |
7 . Mary Shelley bends over her latest creation. Although the carving is only half complete, the image of a waitress holding a plate of eggs comes out from the board. Of Shelley’s nearly seven hundred carvings, many show scenes with cows on farms and people in restaurants.
From memories to carvings
“My work is a visual diary, ” Shelley says. “The carvings describe things I have experienced and felt at different times in my life.”
Every one of her carvings tells a story. Many of the stories in Shelley’s woodcarvings come from memories of her childhood in a rural (乡村的) area outside of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Shelley’s family managed a small farm. Mary was a serious girl who spent a lot of time raising animals, exploring outdoors, and reading. Although Shelley never felt especially artistic as a child, there was always an art project in the works in the Shelley household. Her grandmother painted. Her father was a commercial artist, who drew and wrote to make a living.
______
Shelley attended Cornell University and hoped to become a writer, but an unusual present took her in another direction. At age 23, she received a gift her father had made-a woodcarving of her as a girl on the farm. The gift caught her interest. After gathering boards from a building site where she worked as a carpenter, Shelley bought some tools and taught herself to carve.
Shelley soon realized that she loved the slow, thoughtful process of working with wood and painting. “A carving is like a jigsaw puzzle (拼图游戏),” she explains. “I didn’t know how it would all fit together, but the process of solving the puzzle kept me going.”
The Shelley style
Early in her career, people hired Shelley to carve special pieces that took four or five weeks to complete. The money she received motivated her to try more complicated scenes created by carving deeper in the wood. Over time, Shelley’s art began to have its own style. In a typical Shelley woodcarving, some objects seem to reach out of the frame while others drop back, creating a feeling of depth.
1. What can we infer from the “From memories to carvings” part?A.Art is from but beyond life. | B.Life is short and art is long. |
C.It is great art to laugh at your own misfortune. | D.Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist |
A.Life in School | B.A Dream Come True |
C.A Life-Changing Gift | D.Jigsaw Puzzles and Carving |
A.The dream to be an artist in her childhood. | B.Her father’s low-relief carving for her. |
C.The rugs hooked by her grandmother. | D.Her school life in Cornell University. |
A.is very popular | B.is very expensive |
C.has simple scenes | D.creates a feeling of depth |
As the daughter of a painter, Artemisia Gentileschi was afforded access to the art world at a young age. Early on, she was in her father’s workshop mixing paints and he supported her career when he noticed that she was gifted. As a famous painter of the Italian Baroque period, Artemisia Gentileschi did not let her gender hold her back from her subject matter. She painted Biblical and mythological (神话的) paintings, just like male painters.
Angelica Kauffman (1741—1807)
Born in Switzerland, Angelica Kauffman was the daughter of the artist Johann Joseph Kauffman. She received artistic training while acting as her father’s assistant from a very young age and copying the works of old masters as they traveled for commissions (委托). As a young woman, she also trained in Italy, where her historical paintings and portraits were well received.
Rosa Bonheur (1822—1899)
Like many female artists at the time, Rosa Bonheur’s father was a painter. The French Realist painter is considered one of the most famous female artists of the 19th century, known for her large-format paintings that featured animals. She showed her works regularly at the famous Paris salon and found success abroad in both the United States and Britain.
Berthe Morisot (1841—1895)
Considered one of the great female Impressionists, Berthe Morisot had art running through her veins. Born into a noble French family, she was the great-niece of celebrated Rococo painter Jean-Honore Fragonard. Her art often focused on family scenes, and she preferred working with pastels (粉彩), watercolor, and charcoal (木炭).
1. What artistic style do Artemisia Gentileschi’s paintings belong to?A.Rococo. | B.Baroque. | C.Realism. | D.Impressionism. |
A.Artemisia Gentileschi. | B.Angelica Kauffman. |
C.Rosa Bonheur. | D.Berthe Morisot. |
A.They all learned painting from their fathers. |
B.They all loved copying classic paintings. |
C.They were all born into a noble family. |
D.They all grew up in an artistic environment. |
Buster Keaton, often overshadowed (使黯然失色) by the fame of Charlie Chaplin, was a comedic talent in his own right. Born in 1895, he entered show business at a young age and quickly became known for his unique brand of physical comedy. Films
10 . Singer-songwriters write songs, but how do they do it? Where do musicians get their inspiration from? What comes first — the music or the lyrics (歌词)? It turns out that everyone has their own way of writing which works for them.
Bob Dylan
He is a musician with a unique musical style, which has been described as folk rock, gospel, country and jazz. He told the BBC that he gets a lot of his writing inspiration from novels like Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe. He said “They give you a way of looking at life and understanding of human nature and a standard to measure things by.” He has had a career spanning six decades and has won many songwriting awards.
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim, a musical theatre composer who died in 2021, said in an interview with The New Yorker that, when it comes to songwriting, the stress in a phrase is very important for him. “You can start writing a lyric, and then the inflection (变音) of the lyric suggests a tune.” Therefore, in his way of writing, the music and lyrics come at roughly the same time.
Taylor Swift
In 2022, Taylor Swift won a Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award. In her speech, she said lyrics are her favourite part of songwriting. She describes the majority of her songs as having a “modern storyline or references, with a poetic twist” and commonly uses real life experiences and conversations as influence.
John Denver
Denver earned international reputation as a songwriter, performer, actor, environmentalist and humanitarian. John said, “I obtain endless muse from my experiences in environmental and humanitarian work.” John was one of the first artists to share an environmental message through his music.
1. What type of music does Stephen Sondheim compose?A.Folk rock. | B.Musical play. | C.Country music. | D.Jazz. |
A.Bob Dylan’s. | B.Stephen Sondheim’s. | C.John Denver’s. | D.Taylor Swift’s. |
A.Culture. | B.Art. | C.Literature. | D.Language. |