1 . Workers at the National Galleries of Scotland recently experienced quite a surprise after they X-rayed a painting by Vincent van Gogh. Hidden on the back of the painting Head of a Peasant Woman, which Van Gogh completed in 1885, was a self-portrait (自画像) of the Dutch painter. No one had ever found it.

The hidden self-portrait had been covered by glue and cardboard that had been attached to the back of the painting. “It was absolutely exciting,” Lesley Stevenson, the museum’s worker, said about the discovery. “We weren’t expecting much of the little painting when we performed the scans,” she said. But museum experts quickly changed their expectations when they looked at the X-rays. “We didn’t see much of the peasant woman, but we saw the lead white that Van Gogh used for his face showing up after the X-ray went through the cardboard,” she added.

Van Gogh painted Head of a Peasant Woman as part of a series of works focused on the working-class residents of Nuenen, a small farming community in the southern part of the Netherlands where he lived briefly in the 1880s. The woman in the painting is Gordina de Groot, a farm worker. She wears a white headpiece. In a letter that Van Gogh penned about the series in 1885 to Anton Kerssemakers, a friend, he described his excitement at his working-class subjects. “I’m working with great pleasure these days, for I would rather paint people than paint anything else,” he wrote.

Van Gogh also loved creating self-portraits, producing about 20 paintings of himself by the end of his life while he was living in Paris. Recreating his own image was a cheap way for him to practice portraiture as he didn’t have to spend money hiring models, according to a report.

Art historians at the National Galleries hope that the hidden self-portrait may help us understand the life of the artist. The museum is currently considering how to best remove the unwanted protective materials without harming the painting.

1. What can be learned about the self-portrait on the back of the painting?

A．It isn’t in very good condition.	B．It describes a well-known woman.
C．It wasn’t known to exist for a long time.	D．It was sold to another artist by Van Gogh.

2. What do Stevenson’s words mainly show about the discovery?

A．It was a wonderful surprise.	B．It failed to meet her expectations.
C．It was the result of her great efforts.	D．It deepened her understanding of Van Gogh’s life.

3. What did Van Gogh tell his friend in the letter?

A．He was encouraged to try different subjects.

B．He was glad to find his love for figure paintings.

C．He was attracted by the lifestyle of people in Nuenen.

D．He wanted to improve the living conditions of the farmers.

4. What would be the best title for the text?

A．X-rays can do harm to artworks

B．Van Gogh sent a secret message to his friend

C．Modern technology has a great influence on art

D．Van Gogh’s hidden self-portrait draws public attention

2 . Norman Rockwell didn’t create his celebrated images using only brush and paint. They often took shape first as scenes that Rockwell literally acted out, not only for his editors at the Saturday Evening Post, but for his real-life models, too. “It was difficult,” he once explained, “but I felt it was the best way to get across my meaning.” And so he would enthusiastically play out his visions and ideas, a one-man show packed with just the right expressions, giving enough details of each character in the scene to inspire his models and more importantly, get his editors to buy his ideas.

Now, more than 30 years after his death, Rockwell is still acknowledged for skillfully documenting the best of 20th century American life with drawings of simple emotions inspired by everyday people. To create his detailed recollections of everyday American life, Rockwell worked much like a film director, not just acting out the scenes in his imagination, but looking for locations, casting everyday people from his town for particular parts.

The recognition he received strongly proves Rockwell’s superior skills as a storyteller and is the subject of another kind of one-man show: the upcoming exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., titled Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell from the Collections of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The exhibit, gathered together from the private collections of these two popular film directors, will feature rarely viewed pieces of Rockwell’s artworks.

That concentration of information as well as emotion is something essential in Rockwell’s art. Emotion certainly spoke to Steven Spielberg when he first saw one of his favorite Rockwell paintings, High Dive, the August 16, 1947 Post cover that describes a boy at the top of what must be a towering diving board. He crouches (蹲伏) high above a swimming pool, too afraid to either jump or climb back down. The painting hangs in Spielberg’s office at Amblin Entertainment because it holds a great deal of meaning for the filmmaker.

1. How did Norman Rockwell successfully influence his editors?

A．By performing his ideas.	B．By hiring more models.
C．By donating his paintings.	D．By drawing actual events.

2. What were the subjects of Rockwell’s works?

A．Film directors.	B．Folk storytellers.
C．Natural landscapes.	D．Ordinary citizens.

3. What may the boy in the painting High Dive inspire the viewers to do?

A．Develop artistic skills.	B．Learn how to act out.
C．Appreciate nature.	D．learn to swim.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To introduce an exhibit.	B．To recommend a painting.
C．To remember an artist.	D．To explain a cultural phenomenon.

3 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What is the talk mainly about?

A．Making money.

B．Becoming successful.

C．Choosing a good job.

2. How old was Albert Einstein when he learned how to read?

A．Four years old.

B．Five years old.

C．Seven years old.

3. Who was told that he had no good ideas?

A．Walt Disney.

B．Thomas Edison.

C．Vincent van Gogh.

4. What difficulty did Michael Jordan have to overcome?

A．He did not get paid for his work.

B．He could not speak until he was four.

C．He was not good enough to play basketball in high school.

4 . Frederick Phiri, known as the junk-art king of Zambia, set out on a remarkable journey at the age of 22 when he began earning an international reputation for being able to make complex and elegant sculptures from deserted metal found in his community.

Phiri’s path to artistic recognition was filled with challenges. His childhood was marked by the loss of his father and his mother leaving him behind, making him under the care of his grandfather. While his grandfather provided for his basic education, Phiri faced financial struggles when he entered secondary school, forcing him to take on various jobs to fund his studies. Yet, despite these obstacles, his passion for art remained growing, and he dedicated his free time to drawing and crafting in the classroom.

Upon completing his education, Phiri sought to support himself by creating wire animal sculptures (雕塑品), which he sold to tourists. It was during this period that his exceptional talent caught the attention of Karen Beattie, the director of Project Luangwa, a nonprofit organization committed to education and economic development in central Africa.

Teaming up with local welder (焊接工) Moses Mbewe in 2017, Phiri contributed to the creation of a complex set of doors for Project Luangwa during the rainy season. Impressed by his work, Beattie presented Phiri with a challenge: to create art from abandoned waste metal. Undiscouraged, Phiri embraced the opportunity, transforming forgotten keys, broken bike chains, and old metal bottles into attracting abstract animal sculptures, including elephants, cranes, giraffes, and monkeys.

Today, Phiri’s artistic pursuits continue to flourish as he transforms deserted junk into striking sculptures showcased at the Project Luangwa headquarters. His talent has earned recognition and admiration from the community, fueling his dreams of pursuing formal art education at the Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka and creating even more magnificent sculptures in the future. Through creativity and determination, Phiri has turned adversity (逆境) into artistic success, leaving a lasting impact on Zambia’s art scene.

1. What is Phiri distinguished for?

A．Serving his community.	B．Collecting works of art.
C．Being the king of Zambia.	D．Turning trash into treasure.

2. What aspect of Phiri’s childhood shaped his early life?

A．His struggle to pay for primary schooling by himself.

B．The loss of his father and abandonment by his mother.

C．His dedication to part-time jobs while attending school.

D．His responsibility to support his grandfather financially.

3. What challenge did Karen Beattie present to Phiri?

A．To create sculptures from wire.

B．To sell his sculptures internationally.

C．To create art from deserted waste metal.

D．To design a complex set of doors for Project Luangwa.

4. What attitude does Phiri exhibit towards his future?

A．Uncertain.

B．Confident.

C．Depressed.

D．Confused.

5 . 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.

6 . 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。

Mi Fu, also known as Mi Fei, was a Chinese painter, poet, and calligrapher born in Taiyuan, Shanxi during the Song dynasty. In painting he gained     1     (recognize) for his style of painting misty landscapes. This style was considered as the “Mi Fu” style and involved the use of large wet dots of ink     2     (apply) with a flat brush. His poetry followed the style of Li Bai and his calligraphy that of Wang Xizhi.

He is best known for his calligraphy,     3     he is regarded as one of the four     4     (great) calligraphers in the Song dynasty. His style arises from that of calligraphers in earlier dynasties, but with a unique mark     5     his own.

As     6     famous calligrapher, Mi Fu was also noted as an eccentric (怪人). At times he    7     (call) “Madman Mi” because he was     8     (true) crazy about collecting stones. He even declared one stone to be his brother. He would bow to his “brother” rock     9     (show) the devotion given to older brothers. His son, Mi Youren, was also a famous painter in his father’s artistic style. Unlike his father, Mi Youren lived to be quite elderly,     10     (die) at the age of 79.

7 . A pencil drawing of a broken old man, head in hands, looking extremely exhausted, has been identified as a newly-discovered work by Vincent Van Gogh.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said yesterday that it had _______ the authenticity (真实性) of the drawing. Senior researcher Teio Meedendorp described it as a(an) “_______” discovery, shining light on van Gogh’s early career as an artist in the Hague, a time less well-known than his years in Paris or the south of France.

The drawing has been titled Study for _______. It was drawn in late 1882s when the 29-year-old van Gogh was two years into his career as an artist. He was drawing as many studies of _______ as he could. He often recruited models from an almshouse for the elderly run by the Dutch Reformed church, _______ them a modest fee and gave them coffee.

He called these models his “orphan men” and “orphan women”. A favourite was the man in the newly discovered drawing, Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland, the only one of these models whose name is known.

Van Gogh used a thick carpenter’s pencil on rough watercolour paper. The sheet _______ 48.8 cm by 30 cm.

Experts have _______ the drawing back to the end of November 1882, linking it to several other works made at the time.

Van Gogh talked about the two drawings in a letter to his brother, Theo. “Today and yesterday I drew two _______ of an old man with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.... Perhaps I’ll do a lithograph (平版印刷画) of it. What a fine _______ an old working man makes, in his patched bombazine (斜纹布) suit with his bald head.”

At the time Van Gogh was ________ to work as a magazine illustrator, so he could earn money in his own right and be less dependent on his brother.

The drawing, which has been in a ________ collection in the Netherlands since about 1910, goes on display at the Amsterdam museum from 17 September, 2021, until 2 January, 2022, after which it will be returned to the owner.

Meedendorp recalled his ________ on making the discovery: “I’ve worked with Van Gogh for a substantial part of my life, especially the drawings, and it is always a delight to have them in your hand and looking at them up close. These drawings from the Hague are ________ delightful to look at — you can follow the working process of Vincent so well... the way he ________ the pencil.”

“Whenever you have a ________ at drawings like this, you want to pick up a pencil yourself and start drawing.”

1.

A．denied

B．doubted

C．recognized

D．concealed

2.

A．expensive

B．extraordinary

C．impossible

D．useless

3.

A．Worn Out

B．Reach Out

C．Hands Up

D．On the Way

4.

A．animals

B．people

C．buildings

D．nature

5.

A．lent

B．protected

C．showed

D．paid

6.

A．costs

B．values

C．measures

D．weighs

7.

A．traced

B．favoured

C．displayed

D．withdrew

8.

A．squares

B．figures

C．triangles

D．servants

9.

A．design

B．scenery

C．sight

D．drawing

10.

A．talented

B．ambitious

C．modest

D．pessimistic

11.

A．fine

B．new

C．private

D．public

12.

A．annoyance

B．disappointment

C．excitement

D．indifference

13.

A．absolutely

B．barely

C．hardly

D．instantly

14.

A．ruins

B．classifies

C．handles

D．accompanies

15.

A．purchase

B．laugh

C．scream

D．peer

8 . That day when Ludwig van Beethoven died was one of the saddest of my life. I had stayed with him for more than twenty years and lived through many of his happiest moments and his triumphs as well as his most unhappy times.

He wasn’t, however, the easiest of men to work for. His moods were changeable so that he could be reasonable at one moment but most impatient and intolerant at the next. All these problems began in 1802 when he discovered his loss of hearing was not temporary.

The loss of hearing brought him to a crossroads in his life. It was then that he realized that his future lay in composing music. Luckily, although his deafness brought him fear and anxiety, he was able to use these emotions to inspire his work.

Dealing with his inner problems and worries, his music was obviously subjective, which was not the most popular type of its time. But people recognized his greatness. They did so even when they knew he could not acknowledge it. When he was conducting his ninth and last symphony on its first performance he was totally deaf. So he just didn’t realize that the music had finished and continued to conduct the orchestra. One of the singers had to turn him round so he could receive the cheers of the audience. From one angle it was a sad moment but from another it was an even greater triumph. That a man with such a condition could have written such dynamic music was overwhelming! It brought tears to my eyes to think that I had contributed in some small way by looking after him.

He dressed rather like a wild man himself. His hair was always untidy, his skin marked with spots and his mouth set in a downward curve. He took no care of his appearance and walked around our city with his clothes carelessly arranged. This was because he was concentrating on his next composition.

Helping him move house many times, preparing his meals and looking after his everyday comforts were my reward for a life living so close to such a musical genius. I consider myself a lucky man!

1. The author was most likely to be Beethoven’s _______.

A．student

B．doctor

C．servant

D．relative

2. What can be learned from this passage?

A．Beethoven’s music was underestimated at that time.

B．Beethoven’s work was inspired by his fear and anger.

C．Beethoven’s music stayed in step with the mainstream music of the time.

D．Beethoven lost his ability to hear when first conducting his ninth symphony.

3. Why did the author tear in Paragraph 4?

A．Because the performance was a complete success.

B．Because he played a part in Beethoven’s success.

C．Because Beethoven was completely deaf then.

D．Because the audience cheered for Beethoven.

4. According to the author, Beethoven could be described as ________.

A．intolerant but cheerful

B．stubborn but reasonable

C．changeable but dedicated

D．unsociable but easy-going

9 . 语义匹配

Tobias Le Compte, a 35-year-old Belgian musician, has become a _________sensation on social media for his excellent grasp of the main Shanghai dialect. In 2008, Le Compte, visited Shanghai for the first time in an arts festival. He _________was enchanted by the city right away, and returned the next year and enrolled as an undergraduate student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Like most _________expats in China, Le Compte first studied Mandarin and spent about half a year teaching himself the language. It was not until 2021, when Le Compte was back in Belgium and _________confined to his home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that he started learning Shanghainese. He was also _________motivated by the 2021 hit movie B for Busy, a tale set in Shanghai starring local stars who speak their lines in the city’s dialect.

1.

A．wrestler

B．influencer

C．actor

D．conductor

2.

A．was capable of

B．was moved by

C．was impressed by

D．was eager for

3.

A．local people

B．native speakers

C．descendants

D．foreign residents

4.

A．joined to

B．limited to

C．addicted to

D．devoted to

5.

A．inspired

B．scared

C．discouraged

D．awarded

10 . 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。

Recently, Ma Xiaohui, a famous Chinese erhu     1     (perform) and composer with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, held     2     erhu concert with the theme of “Erhu Holding Hands with the World, New Music Trend, New Cultural Tour” in the Delegates’ Room at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Attendees from different backgrounds and participants in the World Madam Global Awards Ceremony were     3     (deep) moved by the unique charm of traditional Chinese musical instruments     4     (display) during the concert.

The concert began     5     the song “Woman Flower”. In the first movement, “Seven Colors of Erhu, Walking with Beauty, Colorful Silk Road,” melodies from Chinese and Western songs created an “ink painting” of the Silk Road.

In the next three     6     (movement), a classical repertoire (曲目) including “Butterfly Lovers”, “Thoughts on a Silent Night”     7     “The Spirit of My Erhu” attracted the audience. Next     8     (come) the theme song from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”,     9     beautifully celebrated the classic dialogue between erhu and cello (大提琴).

“This beautiful and     10     (inspire) concert wonderfully mixed classical, Chinese, and cross-cultural themes. It was a feast (盛宴) for the ears and souls,” multimedia artist Ranjit Bhatnagar said.