1 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. Why was Stan Laurel chosen to act together with Oliver Hardy?

A．He had a funny look.

B．He was thinner than Hardy.

C．He was a very famous writer.

2. When did Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy gain the Academy Award?

A．In 1920.

B．In 1926.

C．In 1932.

3. What did Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel have in common?

A．They were Americans.

B．They worked at the Hal Roach studios.

C．They once worked with Charlie Chaplin.

2 . Pablo Ruiz Picasso’s family moved to Barcelona in the autumn of 1895, and Pablo entered the local art academy, where his father had assumed his last post as professor of drawing. The family hoped that their son would achieve success as an academic _____ , and in 1897 his eventual _____ in Spain seemed assured; in that year his painting Science and Charity, for which his father modelled for the doctor, was _____ an honourable mention in Madrid at the Fine Arts Exhibition.

The Spanish capital was the _____ next stop for the young artist intent on gaining recognition and _____ family expectations. Pablo duly set off for Madrid in the autumn of 1897 and entered the Royal Academy of San Fernando. But finding the teaching there _____ , he increasingly spent his time recording life around him, in the cafes, on the streets, and in the Prado, where he discovered Spanish painting. Works by those and other _____ would capture Picasso’s imagination at different times during his long career.

Picasso fell _____ in the spring of 1898 and spent most of the _____ year convalescing(逐步康复) in the Catalan village of Horta de Ebro in the company of his Barcelona friend Manuel Pallares. When Picasso ______ Barcelona in early 1899, he was a changed man: he had put on weight; he had learned to live on his own in the open countryside; he spoke ______ ; and, most importantly, he had made the decision to break with his art-school training and to reject his family’s plans for his future. He even began to show a ______ preference for his mother’s surname, and more often than not he signed his works P. R. Picasso; by late 1901 he had dropped the Ruiz altogether.

In Barcelona Picasso moved among a circle of Catalan artists and writers whose eyes were turned ______ Paris. Those were his friends at the café Els Quatre Gats (“The Four Cats”, styled after the Chat Noir (“Black Cat”) in Paris), where Picasso had his first Barcelona exhibition in February 1900, and they were the ______ of more than 50 portraits in the show. In addition, there was a dark, moody “modernista” painting, Last Moments (later painted over), showing the visit of a ______ to the bedside of a dying woman, a work that was accepted for the Spanish section of the Exposition Universelle in Paris in that year. Eager to see his own work in place and to experience Paris firsthand, Picasso set off in the company of his studio mate Carles Casagemas (Portrait of Carles Casagemas, 1899) to conquer, if not Paris, at least a corner of Montmartre.

1.

A．painter

B．writer

C．professor

D．critic

2.

A．works

B．success

C．power

D．fame

3.

A．offered

B．sold

C．awarded

D．presented

4.

A．necessary

B．obvious

C．favourite

D．interesting

5.

A．achieving

B．obeying

C．seeking

D．fulfilling

6.

A．academic

B．stupid

C．indifferent

D．satisfying

7.

A．travellers

B．teachers

C．artists

D．archaeologists

8.

A．ill

B．upset

C．down

D．asleep

9.

A．permitting

B．recovering

C．remaining

D．struggling

10.

A．moved to

B．settled in

C．lived in

D．returned to

11.

A．Barcelona

B．Catalan

C．French

D．British

12.

A．welcomed

B．planned

C．decided

D．covered

13.

A．on

B．over

C．up

D．toward

14.

A．subjects

B．characters

C．spectators

D．painting

15.

A．doctor

B．priest

C．policyholder

D．policeman

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. inspired            B. detail          C. art          D. marker          E. sculptor        F. stared G. considerably     H. approach       I. worthy     J. gradually       K. widened

Tom Friedman

Those who believe that art is simply handicraft taken to the extreme might find confirmation upon a first glance at     1     and installation artist Tom Friedman’s work. He creates sculptures and drawings with obsessive attention to     2     and handiwork, and then combines them to make installations. His materials can be picked up at any supermarket: paper, wire, cardboard, foam, foil and     3     pens. Friedman is influenced by 1960s conceptual art and minimalism. The Fluxus movement is     4     of special mention here, as its humorous, art-conscious work    5     him for pieces such as 1000 Hours of Staring (1992-1997). an empty sheet of paper that — as the title suggests — the artist     6     at for 1000 hours. In his new collages and sculptures (see his 2008 Monsters and Stuff exhibition), Friedman has stayed true to his choice of materials and painstakingly elaborate production process, but the gulf between the banality of the material and the spectacular forms that emerge from it has    7     , for example in the sculpture Green Demon (2008). The field of reference is also     8     broader here, with Frankenstein and voodoo associations slotting in easily next to African sculpture, Miro and Picasso. However, the question remains as to whether the harmless material removes the horror aspect or whether the artist has drawn hidden horror out of the material. And thus the question of art as handicraft comes full circle. As soon as handicraft is supported by a conceptual    9     and — in the true spirit of the surrealist idea of the miraculous-mundane everyday material is transformed to something astounding, then you have     10     .

4 . How Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die?

On November 20th, 1791, Mozart suddenly came down with fever and was wracked with pain. His arms and legs were severely swollen. In the following days his health significantly deteriorated. He died on December 5 after lapsing into a coma. The death certificate states he died of “severe miliary fever”. Exactly which disease led to Mozart’s death has been a mystery for the last 200 years.

Speculations

Many myths —some more plausible than others — entwine (缠绕) Mozart’s early demise. One of the most popular myths — that Mozart was poisoned by his rival Antonio Salieri — rose to prominence due to the popularity of the film Amadeus. This theory is supported by the fact that Mozart had been living through a phase of depression before his death, suffering from paranoia and existential fear. Mozart himself suspected that the cause of his deteriorating health was being poisoned over a long time. However, it is highly likely that this was just his subjective view of reality.

Many other speculations circulate. Syphilis and trichinellosis are frequently mentioned. In 1905, a French physician assumed uric acid poisoning due to a never fully healed nephritis. In 1961, lead poisoning was suggested as a possible cause of death.

Scientific attempts to explain Mozart’s death

In 2000, a group of American scientists proposed rheumatic fever caused by a strep infection after conducting meticulous detective work. The symptoms stated in literature and the reports of Mozart’s contemporaries yielded the clues. Without antibiotics, such an infection would inevitably lead to death. Rheumatic fever causes a weakening of the heart, which could explain Mozart’s swollen limbs.

In 2009, the Dutch scientist Richard Zegers extensively studied surviving documents and concluded that Mozart had been suffering from pharyngitis, a throat infection with symptoms including cramps, fever, rashes and a swollen neck. Mozart’s sister-in-law Sophie Haibel had described these symptoms. The death registry of Vienna for winter 1791 lists several deaths caused by this disease.

Whatever the cause of Mozart’s death, it came far too early. Let us thank him for his manic urge to create art and remember him on December 5th!

1. Which of the following is similar in meaning to the underlined word “deteriorate” (Paragraph 1)?

A．To become worse.	B．To change greatly.
C．To recover quickly.	D．To be harmed rapidly.

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．It is generally believed that Mozart was poisoned by his friend.

B．Mozart’s depression paranoia and existential fear led to his death.

C．Mozart had been poisoned sustainably for a long time before he died.

D．Mozart once got a nephritis and it was never healed.

3. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?

A．Mozart’s disease was recorded in contemporary literature and reports.

B．Antibiotics were not discovered at that time.

C．Rheumatic fever can only be caused by strep infection.

D．Mozart’s illness cannot be cured even today.

4. What is the author’s purpose mentioning Mozart’s sister-in-law’s words?

A．To back up the Dutchman’s study.

B．To prove they were common symptoms causing death in 1791.

C．To prove Mozart did have such symptoms before his death.

D．To emphasize her special identify as a witness to Mozart’s death.

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.

China’s Explosive Artist

Cai Guoqing’s practice spans from gunpowder drawings to ephemeral sculptures and monumental installations, all of     1     are rich with references to Chinese history, Taoist cosmology and current political events. Cai deals with the latter in a spectacular installation for I Want to Believe, his 2008 retrospective in New York, from the centre of the Guggenheim rotunda the artist —a     2    (train) set designer, by the way —suspended Inopportune: Stage One (2004), consisting of a series of nine cars     3     (hover) in mid air to represent in cinematic progression the effect of a car bomb.

Since the 1980s, Cai has been working on drawings realized by     4     (ignite)explosive powder on large sheets of paper. These works possess an aura     5     evokes both the vivid gestures of abstract expressionism and the quieter surfaces of Chinese traditional painting. Gunpowder is also at the centre of a series of environmental works, begun in 1989,     6     combine the tradition of Land Art with     7     of Chinese fireworks. For his explosion events, Cai stages pyrotechnical choreographies that sketch temporary drawing space.

Cai’s     8    (participate) in many international events, imposes himself as one of the strongest in the sky. These events are also meant to act as social, festive collective experiences that the artist— not without irony— believes could be perceived even from outer artists to emerge from China. At the Venice Biennale 1999 he     9    (award) the Golden Lion for Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard (1999), a series of unfired clay sculptures    10    (depict)heroes in history. Cai also organized the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

6 . 语法填空

Since the     1    (emerge) of the Italian Renaissance, the history of Western art began a fascinating course through different     2    (style) genres. While 15th-century painting focused on portraying     3     ideal, the subsequent movements explored many other aesthetics and ideas, often in reaction to their historical predecessor. Although there are many remarkable paintings to study from these different art movements, we     4    (narrow) down the expansive list to 30 iconic     5    (work) that span from the end of the 15th century all the way to the first half of the 1900s.

Among this list of masterpieces are some that are so well known that they’ve become a part of popular culture, as well as others that,     6     famous in art circles, may not be as familiar. For instance, René Magritte’s Surrealist painting Treachery of Images, which features a rendering of a brown pipe     7    (accompany) by the recognizable phrase “This is not a pipe,” has been referenced in film as well as video games.     8    (similar), Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa continues to inspire authors and filmmakers from around the world. On the other hand, some paintings that have eluded the same attention     9    (inclusion) Pierre Auguste Renoir’s Impressionist gem, Bal du Moulin de la Galette,     10     Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase.

7 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. When did Van Gogh decide to become an artist?

A．In 1853.

B．In 1880.

C．In 1886.

2. How were Van Gogh’s paintings in his early period?

A．Meaningful and exciting.

B．Colorful and happy.

C．Serious and sad.

3. Why was it hard for Van Gogh’s friends to stay with him?

A．He was easy to get angry.

B．He always behaved nervously.

C．He was too dependent on them.

4. What do we know about Van Gogh?

A．He began to use light colors when he was in Holland.

B．He cut off his ear at the end.

C．He shot himself in May 1890.

8 . About 20 years ago, Daniel Hoffman, a classically trained violinist met a young musician playing in the town square in Marrakech, an ancient city in Morocco. They communicated in the little French they both knew, but their main common language was music. On the back of a motorbike of the fellow violinist, Hoffman weaved through the back streets of the city and then learned his first lessons in Andalusian music, the classical music of North Africa.

That experience gave birth to an idea: What would it be like to try to learn how to play different violin styles around the world in just one week? Oh. yes, and at the end of that week, play a concert. He even got a name for the concept “musical extreme sports”.

It took him almost two decades to launch that dream with a friend, who introduced him to the wonders of Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects. Up to now, the dream has taken the form of a new documentary currently airing on American public television stations called “Otherwise, It’s Just Firewood.”

In the documentary, Hoffman travels to County Clare, Ireland, where he takes lessons with James Kelly, a master Irish violin player, for less than a week and then performs together with him in front of an audience, many of whom are star Irish musicians.

The film is what Hoffman hopes will be the first of an eventual series of short documentaries, showing him learning to play the violin in a variety of styles, including the folk music of south India, Sweden, Greece, Romania, and West Virginia.

That would add to his extensive repertoire (全部曲目), which already includes Balkan, Middle Eastern, and Turkish styles. “The big joke is what’s the difference between the fiddle and the violin? It’s the person who plays it,” says Niall Keegan, a traditional flute player. “It’s the music you make on it that makes it Irish or English or French or classical or jazz or whatever else. It’s how we imagine it and how we create through it that make it and give it character.”

“Otherwise, it’s just firewood,” he says, words that became the film’s title.

1. Where does Hoffman’s idea of musical extreme sports come from?

A．His exploration of the local music.

B．His cooperation with the young violinist.

C．His sightseeing tour on a motorbike seat.

D．His constantly changing taste in violin styles.

2. According to the passage, the series of documentaries ________.

A．help Hoffman to become a master violin player

B．are funded by American public television stations

C．introduce different styles of musicians around the world

D．record Hoffman’s experience in learning various violin styles

3. The title of the documentary “Otherwise, It’s Just Firewood” is used to emphasize ________.

A．the power of diversified artistic expression

B．the pleasure in learning traditional music

C．the technique of instrument playing

D．the importance of famous artists

9 . The exact location in France where Dutch master Vincent van Gogh painted his last work of art has been discovered.

A Dutch researcher figured out that a scene described in the artist’s last work, Tee Root, was visible on a postcard showing a man standing next to a bicycle on a back street of the village Auvers-sur-Oise. Van Gogh spent the last weeks of his life in the village. Helpfully, the card even included the name of the street.

Researchers were given a unique glimpse (体验) into the famous painter’s final hours. He was at work right up to the end.

Wouter van der Veen, scientific director of the Van Gogh Institute in France, made the discovery. While stuck at home, van de Veen used the extra time to organize the numerous files and documents on van Gogh, including images such as the old postcard from Auvers-sur-Oise. One day in late April, he saw the card on his computer screen and it suddenly struck him that he was looking at the location of Tree Roots. Next to the man and his bicycle, roots and trees are clearly visible. He took a virtual trip down the site using Google’s Street View.

“Villagers know the spot and the main tree root well, even giving it the name ‘the elephant’ because of its shapes,” van der Veen said. “It was really hiding in overt sight.”

The discovery provides tourists with an extra reason to visit Auvers-sur-Oise. “They travel a lot just for one reason — to walk in the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh. Now they can stand at the very place where he painted his last painting,” van der Veen said. “And that’s a very moving thing for a lot of people. So I’m very happy to be able to share that with all those who love van Gogh.”

1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．What the postcard revealed.	B．How Tree Roots was discovered.
C．Why Auvers-sur-Oise became known.	D．Where van Gogh painted his works.

2. How did van der Veen confirm his discovery?

A．He studied a picture of Auvers-sur-Oise.

B．He organized his data on van Gogh.

C．He traveled to France to see for himself.

D．He paid a visit to the spot online.

3. What does the underlined word “overt” in paragraph 5 mean?

A．Mixed.

B．Obvious.

C．Lovely.

D．Strange.

4. What can we infer about tourists to Auvers-sur-Oise?

A．They enjoy exploring how to paint.	B．They share their love for van Gogh.
C．They admire van Gogh very much.	D．They want to experience the life there.

10 . 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。

Toby Mott was just an ordinary person working as an artist. But then, at the age of 36, he had an idea that made him famous. It started when he wanted     1     (earn) some money for the holidays one year. His product was simple­­­ a short message of five words     2     a T­shirt.

He took the T­shirts   to a clothing store and they sold 40 in a week.     3     (immediate), he decided to start     4     (he) own business. The product was good. In the past 12 months, he has sold 60,000 T­shirts worldwide.

The     5     (phrase) for the T­shirts come from things he thinks of during the day and from conversations with friends at dinner. His customers,     6     (include) the rich and the famous, enjoy his imaginative phrases. They include things like I will spend your money, and I do things I shouldn’t.Mott says, “I’m successful,     7     it hasn’t changed my     8     (person) life. I still     work at home on the same small desk. My friends, whom I     9     (know) for more than 20 years, are still my friends. In fact, they’re as     10     (surprise) about my success as I am.”