1 . Celebrating Beethoven: The Genius of Symphony Exhibition
To commemorate the 254th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the Vienna Philharmonic, renowned for its exceptional collection of classical music instruments, is presenting a special exhibition titled Beethoven: The Genius of Symphony, running from February 1 to June 30.
More than two centuries ago, on December 16, 1820, in the heart of Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven, a musical legend, composed his Symphony No. 9 in D minor, a masterpiece that marked a milestone in the history of classical music.
The exhibition will transport visitors back to the era of Beethoven’s genius. Through a series of interactive displays and multimedia presentations, visitors will have a chance to explore Beethoven’s creative process and dive into the inspiration behind his most famous works. The highlight of the exhibition will be a copy of Beethoven’s piano, on which he composed many of his masterpieces.
“This exhibition offers a unique and immersive experience, allowing visitors to step into Beethoven’s world and appreciate the depth and breadth of his musical genius,” said Dr. Schmidt, head of the Vienna Philharmonic. “We aim to recreate the magic of Beethoven’s music and inspire a new generation of music lovers.”
Please note the following guidelines for the exhibition:
* Children under 6 years old are not recommended due to the complexity of the content.
* We advise caution for visitors with hearing impairments as some sections of the exhibition involve audio components.
* For safety reasons, large bags and photographic equipment are not permitted inside the exhibition hall. Hand-held cameras are allowed for personal use.
1. What is the central theme of the exhibition?A.Exhibiting the changes of western musical instruments. |
B.Exploring the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven. |
C.Showcasing the history of classical music in Vienna. |
D.Highlighting the influence of Beethoven on music. |
A.Magic shows of Beethoven’s music. |
B.A reproduced piano of Beethoven. |
C.Hands-on experience of composition. |
D.Digital presentation of musical works. |
A.A journalist carrying mobile phones. |
B.A senior citizen with poor eyesight. |
C.A historian with a passion for music. |
D.A preschooler fascinated by pianos. |
2 .
“By removing needless details in pursuit of perfection, Van Den followed in the footsteps of many great artists, writers, composers, and painters.”
Juhani Murros made an unexpected discovery during his visits to art galleries when he worked for an organization in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990. A small still life in an unnoticeable gallery commanded the Finnish physician’s attention. “It was not an eye-catching oil painting, yet its dark, mysterious colors and the emotional tension of its disciplined composition set it apart.” Thus began a long journey of discovering the art and life of Van Den, a Buddhist of mixed Chinese and Vietnamese ancestry who studied in Paris for less than two years during the first French Indochina War.
Murros’ biography is, by necessity, brief because there is limited knowledge of the artist, mostly in oral way by family and friends. Many of his paintings did not survive the damp Southeast Asian climate nor the political chaos of his lifetime. However, the author’s research appears to be extensive, as much a years-long spiritual examination of Van Den as a historical one. The artist’s love for country life is apparent in his work, and it is said by those who knew him that he preferred to paint countryside scenes close to his heart and worked as an outsider. He is uninterested in the more elegant work of academically recognized painters. Despite these limitations, Van Den won Vietnam’s most honorable art award in 1960.
Murros gives an in-depth look into the life of this little-known unsung master. The book introduces the readers to Van Den’s art with photographs of his paintings, accompanied by short stories behind them. The book is as quiet as the artist’s work, but it is a satisfying read. Each stroke of words in the book connects to the readers; the narrative awakens the artistic spirit in each one of us, encouraging us to follow our heart.
1. What of Van Den first impressed Juhani Murros?A.His life story. | B.His painting style. |
C.His birth place. | D.His emotional stale. |
A.His works are rarely available today. | B.He showed great love for his country. |
C.He works were of mysterious themes. | D.He ever travelled in China and Vietnam. |
A.Van Den’s art wasn’t well accepted. | B.Murros had limited knowledge of art. |
C.Murros had gained little primary data. | D.Van Den’s family kept everything back. |
A.Amusing. | B.Detailed. | C.Objective. | D.Inspirational. |
3 . For more than 50 years, Sesame Street has been introducing children to a diverse group of characters, cast members and puppeteers (木偶师). Megan Piphus Peace is one of them: In late 2021, she became the show’s first full-time black woman puppeteer, playing a 6-year-old black girl named Gabrielle. Last month, she officially left her real estate career. “I always dreamed of working in television, but I never imagined myself being on Sesame Street,” she says.
Piphus Peace, now 29, grew up watching Sesame Street. As a young child, she considered the puppets to be her companions, not realizing until she was older that they weren’t real. She has been pursuing puppeteering since then. At Vanderbilt University, where she studied economics, she was known as the “Vanderbilt Ventriloquist (腹语表演者).” She even appeared on The Tonight Show in 2012 and America’s Got Talent in 2013.
One of Piphus Peace’s teachers, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, who played the Sesame Street character Abby Cadabby in 2006, says that Piphus Peace is a gifted storyteller and natural leader. “To say that I was amazed by Megan would be an understatement,” Carrara-Rudolph says. “I was inspired by her loving heart, strength of character, humor, humanity and what an energetic creative force she is.”
Although Piphus Peace submitted her first video audition (试演) to Sesame Street in 2017, she didn’t hear back until 2020, when Matt Vogel, the puppet captain of the show, reached out to her. “She comes from a different kind of puppetry background than most of other Sesame Street puppet performers,” Vogel says. “We went to college to learn puppetry, or acting schools, etc., but Megan learned the art of ventriloquism by herself.”
1. What do we know about Piphus Peace?A.She used to work in television. | B.She is now part of Sesame Street. |
C.She was called Gabrielle at a young age. | D.She has been a puppeteer for over 50 years. |
A.She thought they were unreal. | B.She considered them to be humorous. |
C.She found it hard to distinguish them. | D.She regarded them as her friends. |
A.Carrara-Rudolph’s impact on Piphus Peace |
B.The striking characteristics of Sesame Street |
C.Carrara-Rudolph’s opinion of Piphus Peace |
D.The character Abby Cadabby in Sesame Street |
A.She is a self-trained ventriloquist. | B.She is the most popular performer. |
C.She has played many different characters. | D.She is the only female actress in the show. |
4 . Joao Carlos Martins is a famous pianist and conductor. However, his career has been
As a teenager Martins began to perform in concerts. But in his late twenties, he had to
Martins, in his forties, became a politician. However, he couldn’t stand this
A.smooth | B.tough | C.flexible | D.interesting |
A.cultures | B.forms | C.directions | D.levels |
A.give up | B.set out | C.turn up | D.hold out |
A.still | B.just | C.ever | D.even |
A.Generally | B.Ultimately | C.Occasionally | D.Naturally |
A.forced | B.promised | C.motivated | D.forbade |
A.realistic | B.emotiona1 | C.struggling | D.striking |
A.pain | B.cuts | C.tension | D.sensitivities |
A.conducting | B.playing | C.instruction | D.competition |
A.career | B.popularity | C.condition | D.behavior |
A.existed | B.remained | C.occurred | D.continued |
A.found | B.suffered | C.cured | D.nursed |
A.patience | B.care | C.pleasure | D.determination |
A.fancied | B.considered | C.made | D.chose |
A.measures | B.chances | C.courage | D.trouble |
One Hundred Horses is a famous artwork by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766),
Castiglione completed his One Hundred Horses
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary,” said Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Wu Liren has been maintaining such a “diary” of the Grand Canal
The 65-year-old painter from Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, has been using ink and brush for more than 40 years
Wu says memories and emotions run deep in his paintings, and these are far
Wu believes the Grand Canal is often compared with the West Lake, one of the most famous scenic
Recently, Wu completed a 100-meter-long scroll(卷轴)painting of the canal’s Tangxi-Xixing stretch in Hangzhou. “I have actually painted the entire Grand Canal in Hangzhou,
7 . Mariah Reading is an environmentalist, who grew up with an early appreciation for nature. While studying art at Bowdoin College, she saw the vast amounts of
After graduation, Mariah travelled throughout the country,
Over the years, she has painted more than 100 pieces of rubbish and photographed her transformations
Mariah hopes people see themselves and their own habits
A.paper | B.waste | C.power | D.work |
A.artist | B.cleaner | C.journalist | D.mechanic |
A.exploring | B.forgetting | C.harming | D.shaping |
A.taking out | B.learning about | C.complaining of | D.picking up |
A.broken | B.lost | C.new | D.hidden |
A.medium | B.idea | C.reason | D.life |
A.damage | B.connect | C.form | D.cross |
A.protected | B.enjoyed | C.changed | D.painted |
A.car | B.range | C.picture | D.road |
A.ongoing | B.outdated | C.energy-consuming | D.self-centered |
A.from | B.without | C.against | D.as |
A.forcing | B.turning | C.attracting | D.breathing |
A.highlights | B.replaces | C.compromises | D.ignores |
A.surrounding | B.filling | C.combining | D.comparing |
A.trapped | B.reflected | C.added | D.admitted |
8 . According to Gelb, although not everyone is born with the gifts and the capacities of Leonardo Da Vinci, it is possible for any person to use the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning to guide us toward the realization of our inner Da Vinci. One typical fundamental is curiosity. Curiosity is “The desire to know is natural to good men.” — Leonardo Da Vinci
The young Leonardo loved being in nature, showed an early gift for drawing and was fascinated by mathematics. Young Leonardo’s Curiosity regarding education and mathematics especially often raised constant unsureness and difficulties for the teachers who taught him and continuously proved them to be wrong. Most children have in them endless amounts of curiosity and sense of wonder. Unfortunately for multiple reasons these qualities are lost as children reach adulthood, not Leonardo though. Perhaps one of his greatest characteristics was his willingness to question accepted knowledge. Leonardo’s Curiosity never faded and fueled the lake of his genius for his entire life. Leonardo’s motives were not money, women or loyalty to any church or person. His pursuits were pure: the long search for beauty and above all: truth.
Leonardo would wonder around asking questions he did not himself yet understand. He always carried a notebook with himself so that he could quickly write down hundreds of questions, ideas, thoughts, impressions and observations as they occurred. He was expectant and reliant only upon himself to answer his own questions. Being modest, he was not afraid to make mistakes and appear foolish. Leonardo accepted the feelings of unfamiliarity and foolishness.
His questions led him to designing a snorkel (水下呼吸器) as well as diving equipment and even a submarine and also inventing flying machines and a parachute. His curiosity took him under the water and into the sky.
1. What does the underlined words “Da Vinci” refer to?A.Potential. | B.Curiosity. |
C.Honesty. | D.Motive. |
A.Educating kids. | B.Seeking for love. |
C.Appreciating nature. | D.Questioning his teachers. |
A.It fooled himself. |
B.It made him independent. |
C.It inspired his whole life. |
D.It disappeared in his adulthood. |
A.An idle youth, a needy age. |
B.First come, first served. |
C.Stay hungry, stay foolish. |
D.Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
9 . Gorman is the youngest poet in U. S. history. She became the youth poet laureate (获奖者) of Los Angeles at age 16 in 2014 and the first national youth poet laureate three years later. She has recently completed her studies at Harvard University.
Her mother, Joan Wicks, teaches middle school in Watts. Shuttling among the neighborhoods gave Gorman a window to the world. Her like for poetry dates at least back to the third grade when her teacher read Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine to the class.
Gorman is a lot better at it now, but still working on her confidence as a public speaker. “Until two or maybe three years ago, I couldn’t say the letter ‘r’. Even to this day sometimes I struggle with it. I’d want to say ‘girls can change the world’, but I can not say so many letters in that statement, so I’d say things like ‘young women can shape the globe’.”
For Gorman, writing became a cure. “I used writing as a form of self expression to get my word on the page. So the more I recited out loud, the more I was able to teach myself how to pronounce these letters which for so long had been my greatest impediment.” Gorman said she also used a song from Miranda’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Hamilton to help with her speaking. “But I don’t look at my disability as a weakness,” said Gorman. “It’s made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be.”
In September, Gorman will release Change Sings, the first of two children’s books. The poet says she desires to publish a book “in which kids could see themselves as change-makers in history, rather than just observers”.
1. What happened to Gorman in 2017?A.Winning the U. S. first youth poet laureate. |
B.Graduating from Harvard University. |
C.Becoming the youth poet laureate. |
D.Turning into a public speaker. |
A.Her mother’s encouragement. | B.Ray Bradbury’s works. |
C.Her teacher’s effort. | D.Miranda’s inspiration. |
A.Barrier. | B.Regret. | C.Motivation. | D.Achievement. |
A.Modest and fortunate. | B.Wise and hardworking. |
C.Determined and optimistic. | D.Thoughtful and ambitious. |
10 . Yao Ming is China’s most famous basketball player. He may have retired from the
Yao Was born in a family of basketball player,
In his commencement(毕业典礼) speech, Yao said, “If not for that promise to my father and mother, I might have
A.army | B.sport | C.factory | D.office |
A.encourage | B.interest | C.require | D.order |
A.to | B.above | C.in | D.along |
A.entered | B.reached | C.knew | D.visited |
A.for | B.or | C.so | D.but |
A.longer | B.wider | C.higher | D.poorer |
A.cinema | B.station | C.airport | D.college |
A.singing | B.waiting | C.reading | D.dancing |
A.postcards | B.paintings | C.photos | D.presents |
A.fit | B.cover | C.protect | D.accept |
A.looked up | B.given up | C.grown up | D.broken up |
A.I | B.you | C.she | D.he |
A.funny | B.reasonable | C.popular | D.important |
A.after | B.while | C.because | D.although |
A.volleyball | B.football | C.basketball | D.baseball |