1 . Mary Poppins held on to her famous black umbrella while floating overhead and singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” The audience watched in amazement, and many sang along! Poppins floated for a bit and eventually landed in the midst of the excited crowd before getting on stage. No, this wasn’t a scene from a Disney movie.     1    His background helps explain his passion for music. The world-renowned violinist and conductor was born into a musical family in October 1949 in Maastricht, Netherlands. He began learning to play the violin at age five and immediately fell in love with the instrument!

    2     He started by creating a small ensemble (乐团). Then in 1978, Rieu established the Maastricht Salon Orchestra, from which he later developed the Johann Strauss Orchestra.

They had limited success until 1995 when Rieu was asked to provide entertainment for a soccer game. He got the entire stadium to sing along to a popular waltz.     3    

Today Rieu is the best-selling classical artist worldwide. He has sold in the ballpark of an astonishing 40 million records. He is the biggest male solo touring artist on the planet. His concerts sell more tickets than Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen!

Many classical concerts are serious events, but Rieu’s are the opposite. He’s been nicknamed “The King of the Waltz” because he loves waltzes.     4     Rieu says, “I love Johann Strauss, but I am also fascinated by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Bruce Springsteen.”

His shows are attended by people of all ages and always include surprises, like the delightful appearance by Mary Poppins. As Rieu says, “I only play music that touched my heart. And I know when it touches my heart, it will touch your heart.” During his performances, many audience members are visibly moved. They often clap, sing, dance, laugh, weep or hug one another. Rieu promises his audience, “You will have an evening that you will never forget.”And he is true to his word.

A．Afterward, he sold over 200,000 CDs and his popularity rising.

B．Rather, it was part of one of André Rieu’s amazing concerts.

C．As a result, Rieu became a house-hold name and won great popularity.

D．Yet his shows consist of an extensive variety of musical genres and performances.

E．Then, Rieu continued his style until he got his nickname.

F．From early on, Rieu knew what he wanted - his own orchestra.

2 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Was Air Pollution Monet’s Muse (灵感之源)?

Claude Monet was a French painter who lived at the turn of the 20th century, from 1840 to 1926. He is credited as the founder of impressionism, a painting style characterized by its use of many thin brushstrokes     1    (create) a dream-like quality. Impressionist paintings are celebrated for the way     2     seem to capture a sense of life in motion. Monet didn’t just simply paint landscapes; he wanted to convey the sensations he experienced when he saw them.

Many of Monet’s paintings portray the passage of time, like clouds     3     (drift) through the sky. The landscapes in his paintings often have a misty appearance,     4     fog is clouding edges, and concealing objects that are far away. Some researchers have suggested the mist of Monet’s landscapes     5     have actually been air pollution.

Monet was painting at a time when heavy industry was starting to seriously impact the environment. This was especially true in urban centers like London and Paris. The supposition is that Monet’s works reflect the increasing levels of air pollution that Europe       6     (witness) in the late 19th century and early 20th century.     7     Monet’s painting career progressing, background visibility in his paintings seems to gradually decrease.

In letters to his wife, Monet sometimes described the smoke and fog in London, for     8     he obviously had a preference. Evidence suggests that     9     significant number of Monet’s works were influenced, or even inspired, by the way air pollution affected light and vision.     10     air pollution was the muse for one of modern history’s greatest artists might be true.

3 . Contemporary artist Nick Smith creates pixelated (像素化的) works with hand colour-chips, synonymous with colour swatches (色块), cleverly combining text and image to create interesting and fascinating collaged (拼贴的) works.

With a previous career in Interior Design spanning 11 years, Nick references his concept design background throughout his work, reworking the design aesthetic using unique colours watches in hand-made collages, placing his work firmly in the fine art category. From his first collage experiment back in 2011 of Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’, when he assembled a tessellation (镶嵌技术) of swatches as a challenge, this eventually inspired his career as an artist and determined his unique style he is now known for.

The multi-layered element of his work, which marries image and word, allows Nick to explore complex art-historical concepts. The text employed is often narrative, which can be read in sequence adding another element of intrigue and interest to the work. This additional element of text, placed under the empty space of each swatch,   creates either complimentary or subversive meanings. Nick deliberately leaves these word/image constructions open to viewer interpretation, sparking new debates and meanings.

Each P-series, such as Psycolourgy 2015, Purgatory 2019, explores complicatedly researched concepts, which are always the crucial starting point for each new series of work.Producing large-scale works to micro-chip collages, and multiple sell out print editions, Nick continues to develop his popular and recognisable art.

PSYCOLOURGY—January 2015 Lawrence Alkin Gallery,London

Smith’s debut solo exhibition with Lawrence Alkin Gallery in Soho, London , launched his unique visual reworking of classic paintings from the 20th Century canon. Universally known works, including David Hockney’s’ The Bigger Splash’, Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans’ and Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ were all recast, creating original collages that enquire ideas of depiction, digitalisation and recognition. A sell out show, with numerous successful subsequent print releases, Psycolourgy forged Smith’s path to a place among Britain’s notable contemporary artists.

PURGATORY-December 2019 Context，Art Miami

Purgatory is a shiny , sticky, glossy exploration of our societies attitude and approach to our excess,addictions and desires.

Excerpts from Dante’s Purgatory are woven through colourful works depicting popular covetable consumables, creating symbolic representations of the seven sins. Dante explores possible penance (悔) for our earthly suffering leading to spiritual growth. The results of these pairings offer a humorous, nostalgic and subversive opportunity to question our choices.our history and our future.

1. What made Nick launch his art career?

A．His deep love of fascinating collaged works.

B．His first collage work Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’

C．The challenge of piecing a tessellation of swatches.

D．The collage experiment dating back to 2012.

2. Which of the following statements about the text Nick uses is true?

A．His text contains concepts of art.

B．His text is usually illustrative.

C．His text can be read sequentially.

D．His text elements are very simple

3. What do we know about PSYCOLOURGY?

A．It opened Smith’s unique visual reinvention of classic 21th-century paintings.

B．David Hockney’s’Mona Lisa’ has been recreated by Lawrence Alkin Gallery.

C．The original collages affirm the ideas of depiction , digitisation and recognition.

D．It opened Smith’s path to becoming one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists.

4. What is the topic of this passage?

A．Some useful ways to create collaged works.

B．The life of contemporary artist Nick Smith.

C．Information about Psycolourgy and Purgatory.

D．The introduction to Nick Smith’s works.

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature

US music legend Bob Dylan won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the first songwriter to win the prestigious award in a decision     1     surprised prize watchers.

The 75-year-old Dylan —best known for tunes like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone”     2     (honor) “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, the Swedish Academy said.

The choice was met by gasps and a long round of applause from reporters     3     (attend) the prize announcement. The folk singer has been mentioned in Nobel speculation in the past few years,     4     he was never seen as a serious competitor.

“Dylan has the status of     5     important symbol. His influence on contemporary music is profound,” the academy wrote in biographical notes about the famously private singer.

The Nobel is the latest award for the singer, who has come a long way from his humble beginnings as Robert Allen Zimmerman, born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and who taught     6     to play the harmonica, guitar and piano.

Initially     7     (encourage) by the music of folk singer Woody Guthrie, Robert Allen changed his name to Bob Dylan and began performing in local nightclubs.

    8     dropping out of college, he moved to New York in 1960. His     9     (early) album contained only two original songs, but the 1963 breakthrough The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan featured a number of his own songs,     10     (include) the classic Blowin’ in the Wind.

5 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. lonely       B. convey       C. touches       D. inconvenience       E. widely       F. accompanying G. composition       H. captures       I. abandon       J. sensory       K. wearing

An Innovative Painter

Alan is a pioneering painter, working with oil paint on canvas in a traditional way. It is only in his use of paint that he differs from the usual practice of using brushes.

Although he does use a brush to draw the main lines of his     1    , he uses painting knives to apply the paint. Early on he found that paint laid on with painting knives gave him the particular body and texture (质地) he wanted to     2     his subjects. The knife is capable of an enormous variety of marks, from delicate     3     to fierce sweeping and slices of paint. The knife’s sharp edged marks create their own dynamic of light and shade. Alan possesses many painting knives of different sizes, but tends to favour three or four, which are now     4    thin with constant use. He is still discovering new possibilities with the knife, driven by the demands of a new subject. Although Alan’s paintings are made in the studio, they are all composed from drawings made outdoors. These drawings are the seed corn on which all his paintings are based. The marks that go down on paper make sure he     5    not just the actual scene but also the changing light, the direction of the wind and the     6     sounds and smells. For the painter, the whole     7     experience remains fixed within the drawing long after he has left the scene.

Throughout his life Alan has travelled     8    for particular places that fuel his creative imagination. He is an adventurous seeker, regardless of the     9     or difficulty of some of the locations. Long ago he decided to     10    the idea of working on large oil paintings out of doors because it involved canvases, oil paints and many other tools around. He now travels light, taking only sketchbooks, pens and a few watercolours with him. This gives him the freedom to draw anywhere and to catch the fleeting moment — the “here-and-now-ness” of the place.

6 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．Become artists just like him.	B．Understand him and learn from him.
C．Say something from their heart.	D．Create beauty and dreams themselves.

2.

A．Because they don’t bother to express themselves.

B．Because they use complicated words and phrases.

C．Because they use shapes and colors rather than words.

D．Because they don’t show any interest in everyday life.

3.

A．How painters communicate with each other.

B．How painters convey the ideas in their work.

C．Why painters are misunderstood by the public.

D．Why painters put much emphasis on creativity.

7 . In 2001, artist Michael Landy destroyed all his possessions in a work he called Break Down. The exhibition, which was held in an empty department store in central London, cost £100,000 to put on and lasted for two weeks. Landy had spent three years cataloguing the 7,226 separate items.

More than 45,000 people came to watch him and his ten helpers destroy everything he’d ever owned, right down to his last sock, his passport and even his beloved Saab (萨博车).

Many of those who came to the exhibition applauded and encouraged Landy in his two weeks of destruction, but his mother wasn’t one of them. “I had to throw my mum out,” said Landy. “She started crying and I couldn’t handle those emotions. She had to go.”

Many other people were equally upset, especially those in the art world thought it was unacceptable to destroy famous artists’ work. Landy destroyed pieces of art given to him by people such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst. But on that point Landy said he felt no guilt. After all, he had destroyed all his own work — a collection that covered 15 years.

Landy said that Break Down was an examination of consumerism — others said it was a case of madness. In fact, a minister and a doctor believed he was mentally ill and offered him counselling. However, Landy’s description of his state of mind at that time was very different. “When I finished, I did feel an incredible sense of freedom,” he said, “the possibility that I could do anything. But the freedom is gradually destroyed by the everyday concerns of life. Life was much simpler when I was on my platform.”

The art world eagerly awaited the destroyed remains of his possessions. Indeed, Landy was supposed to give the sacks of smashed metal, plastic and paper to the people who had given him financial backing for the project, and each sack would have been worth £4,000. But he had a change of heart at the last minute and ended up burying it all.

After the exhibition, offers from galleries all round the world poured in. He was even asked to repeat Break Down in a Brazilian gallery. However, as Landy points out, Break Down was a one-off.

1. When destroying all his possessions, Landy ________.

A．went totally mad	B．did not feel regretful
C．was desperately upset	D．was very much worried

2. Landy destroyed all his possessions in Break Down in order to ________.

A．show off his enormous fortune

B．break free of his mum’s control

C．express his envy for other artists

D．prove his willpower to live simply

3. What can be learned from the passage about Landy?

A．He merely smashed his own artworks.

B．He suffered a major failure in his career.

C．He would do Break Down again some other time.

D．He had thought about selling the sacks of remains.

8 . Last summer, a video from Cardiff showed opera coach Mary King wet-eyed during the finals of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.Who had moved her to tears? Mongolian baritone (男中音) Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar, towering, broad-shouldered, with a huge smile and a mighty voice, the 29-year-old sang Rossini,Verdi and Tchaikovsky and charmed everyone, including the judges, who declared him joint winner of the Song prize. “There was something so imposing about the sound,” King said. “Contained and glorious. It’s very unusual to find this combination of presence, power and effortlessness.”

Ariunbaatar doesn’t have a typical background for a contestant in one of the world’s most celebrated opera contests. He grew up in the traditional Mongolian way, living in circular tents with his nomadic (游牧的) family. As a child, he rode some 60 miles a day, and he was always singing. He won a place at university in Ulaanbaatar but dropped out after two years when he couldn’t pay the fees, became a taxi driver and one night got chatting to a customer who happened to be the chief of police. Long story short: he joined Ulaanbaatar’s police orchestra, worked his way back to university, then onwards to the grand opera houses of Russia and Europe.

That backstory aroused my curiosity — so much so that three months later I was on a flight to Ulaanbaatar with a radio producer and suitcase of audio equipment. I had the same basic knowledge many westerners share about Mongolia: Genghis Khan, Gobi desert, furry camels, wild horses, wonderful throat singers. My guidebook described a proud nation. “It is rude to turn down an offer of horse’s milk,” I read, “for it is considered a gesture of friendship.”

International wins have made Ariunbaatar famous at home. Politicians hope his career will secure Mongolia’s position on the opera map-portraying it as a modern nation. He says he has no intention to leave Mongolia. His family still travel on the plain, still ride on horseback, still packup their tents to follow new grasslands. “Being with them on the land is what gives me inspiration to sing.” he says. “Wherever I am, that is what I imagine when I sing.”

1. Ariunbaatar won the Song prize mainly because of            

A．his command of different songs.

B．his charming appearance.

C．his unusual background.

D．his impressive sound.

2. What is most likely to be Ariunbaatar’s turning point before he rose to fame?

A．He was admitted to a university for the first time.

B．He became a member of the police orchestra.

C．He moved Mary King and got the big prize.

D．He was raised in the traditional Mongolian way.

3. What can be learned from the last paragraph about Ariunbaatar?

A．He cares little about fame.

B．He hopes to become better known.

C．He wants to give his family a better life.

D．He draws inspiration from the horses.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．How Ariunbaatar became a famous star.

B．An introduction to an opera singer.

C．Why the author travelled to Mongolian.

D．A video about a celebrated opera contest.

9 . Frida Kahlo was one of the most influential Latin American figures of the 20th century. As the daughter of a German father and a Mexican mother, she was born on July 6, 1907. She grew up in Coyoacan, on the outskirts of Mexico City.

When she was seven, a viral disease called polio made her very sick, weakening the muscles in her right leg. While in school, Kahlo witnessed a number of bloody struggles between armed groups in Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution. It was essentially a fight for better living conditions for the disadvantaged. Because of her experiences in Mexico City, Kahlo became a strong supporter of peasants' rights. Later, in 1925, she was in a bus accident that broke her backbone, dislocated her shoulder, and caused other terrible injuries.

To relieve the boredom of recovery and to help deal with the pain and sadness of the accident, she began to paint. In her paintings, Kahlo really explored her identity. Her Work deals wither status as a woman, her mixed ancestry, her turbulent marriage to Mexican communist painter Diego Rivera, the pain of her injuries, and her commitment to revolutionary politics. Many people consider her paintings examples of surrealism, since much of what she painted was fantastical, but Kahlo never considered herself a surrealist. Kahlo's work is unique because she took the bright colors and dramatic symbolism of Mexican culture and combined them with traditions from European art.

In the most famous painting called "Two Fridas," she paints two versions of herself, one in traditional Mexican clothes and another in European clothes of an earlier century. A vein (静脉) connects the hearts of the two women, and blood is dripping out from one end. This was painted just after she and Rivera got divorced. If you look closely. you can see that the Mexican Kahlo holds a portrait of Rivera. Symbols such as the exposed hearts and stormy sky suggest the pain that Kahlo felt. Check out how one of the hearts is broken. and the other one's whole. She seems to be suggesting that Rivera only loved the Mexican part of hers.

In a lot of ways, Kahlo had an unhappy life. She died when she was only 47 years old. Her art is filled with sadness, but it also expresses pride in her Mexican heritage and the joy of being a woman.

1. What led Kahlo to support the rights of poor laborers?

A．The fact that her father was a German migrant laborer.

B．The time she spent working as a laborer during the 1920s.

C．Her marriage to the Mexican nationalist painter Diego Rivera.

D．Her experiences in Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution.

2. Place the following events in time order: ①Kahlo was hurt in a bus accident; ②Kahlo witnessed the Mexican Revolution; ③Kahlo began painting.

A．①②③

B．②①③

C．②③①

D．③①②

3. The underlined word "turbulent" in Paragraph 3 most probably means________.

A．artistically well-matched	B．fantastic and extremely loving
C．filled with dramatic ups and downs	D．very politically conscious

4. How were Frida Kahlo's paintings similar to those of the surrealists?

A．They both focused on gender identity.	B．They both promoted socialist politics.
C．They both contained dreamlike imagery	D．They both combined Mexican and European art.

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. healing       B. prioritize       C. assigned       D. symbolizing E. secondary       F. peculiar G. featuring       H. engaged       I. patterned       J. followed K. embracing

The Healing Power of Art

Dreams have no age limit. A 79 year old lady who restarts her life by painting proves that it is never too late to     1     oneself.

Meeting the 77-year-old Li Yufeng at her workshop in the Lingang Special Area, I am soon infected by her energy and passion.     2     pumpkins, Hami melons, pebbles and playing cards, a number of her paintings hang on the walls. All her works are inspired by the everyday things in her life. As the Mid-Autumn Festival has just passed when we meet, Li's latest works portrays a moon-cake     3     with a dragon and phoenix.

Natural and peaceful, her paintings have     4     power.   They   enable   viewers to   feel the   beauty of small things, which we easily ignore in our daily lives. Last year, she was invited to hold a painting exhibition at the Xuhui Art Museum. To many people's surprise, Li     5     with art just three years ago.

Li spent her childhood in   the   confusion   of   civil   war.   Her father was     6     to Xinjiang   Uygur Autonomous Region as a teacher in a middle school, and Li and her mother     7     him to   the land of rugged mountains and vast desert basins.

"The green lawn and the camphor tree in front of our house in Human have always been impressed in my childhood memories," said Yin.

    8     prosperity and freshness, green is Li's favorite color, which she frequently uses in her paintings. She recalls that she wore a green tweed coat on her wedding day in 1963.

Li used to work as an electric welde（r   电焊工）. Lacking proper eye protection, the flash from the   welding equipment   eventually   damaged   her vision. However,   that   hasn't   stopped   her from     9     colors.

Li became fully engaged in painting after her husband's passing away in 2017. Painting brought her into the present moment and let her forget the pain of losing her husband and her diseases. In the flow of painting, it is hard to dwell on so many troubles. For Li, her improved painting skills are     10     to the joy that art brings her.