1 . 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.”

2 . Talking about Beijing Opera, we cannot forget to mention one of its greatest performers: Mei Lanfang, a brilliant artist who played an important role in bringing Beijing Opera to the world. Mei Lanfang was born in Beijing in 1894. He started to learn the ______ of Beijing Opera at the age of eight and made his on-stage debut (首次登台) at age eleven. Mei Lanfang worked hard to learn as much as possible from the great artists and______ of Beijing Opera, and by the age of 20, he had become a(n)______ actor in Beijing Opera’s dan role (角).

Mei Lanfang quickly became well-known among Chinese audiences ______ his acting skill. Mei Lanfang’s skill opened doors for him to become friends with people from all over the world, as he often ______ guests from other countries who wanted to meet the young actor. As Mei Lanfang ______ to know ambassadors (大使), European royal families, and celebrities from ______, he ______ bring his beloved Beijing Opera to the rest of the world, so that even more people from other countries might understand and ______ the beauty of Chinese culture and art.

And so, in 1919, Mei Lanfang began to travel abroad, ______ performances in Japan and the Soviet Union (苏联). His ______ were a great success; audiences were fascinated by this ______ opera from the Orient (东方). One of Mei Lanfang’s greatest ______ was to visit the United States, and after cight years of ______, he and his opera group finally brought Beijing Opera to the USA.

Mei Lanfang ______ his whole life to the art of Beijing Opera. He ______ sought to improve his own artistry, creating many unforgettable and beautiful ______ for the stage. His style became known as the “Mei Lanfang school (梅派)”, a(n) ______ graceful style, and is still one of the most popular styles of Beijing Opera today.

Mei Lanfang died in 1961 of heart disease. During his more than 50 years on the stage, Mei Lanfang took traditions from the past and ______ the best parts to create new and enrich old forms of Beijing Opera. Although this great opera master has now joined the heroes of history, he ______ a legacy of cultural wealth for his people and for all future generations.

3 . Most artists have to wait decades for their talents to be recognized. Some, like Dutch painter Van Gogh, only achieve _______ after they die. But this is not the _______ for Andres Valencia. The 11-year-old boy has already _______ millions selling his contemporary paintings to art collectors.

Andres’ parents are art lovers and collectors. They began _______ Andres to modern paintings when he was just a kid. The young boy soon began _______ famous artworks with great accuracy. His father, Lupe, says, “When he was 4 or 5, my wife and I would _______ him paint and do sketches(素描), and we were really surprised at what he would do.”

By age six, the _______ artist was selling his watercolor paintings to family and friends for $20 a piece. Over time. Andres began creating large-scale paintings with a _______ of oil stick and oil and acrylic paints. His masterpieces were all _______ contemporary artists like Picasso.

Bernie Chase, a family friend and owner of an art gallery, recognized Andres’ __________ from the start. He bought the young boy’s artwork every time he __________ and even paid $5,000 for one. In 2022, the young boy held his first __________ at Chase’s gallery. The 35 paintings __________ were sold for between $50,000 and $125,000 each.

When not painting, Andres is a __________ fifth-grader with math homework. “My son is an artist, but he is a __________ first.” His mother said. “He is a child, not a celebrity.”

4 . Najma Hashi (also named Nujuum) is a respected female artist, whose paintings are winning a global following. But Nujuum is not your _________ next-generation rising star. Nujuum, 26, grew up in Somalia, where new artists, especially female ones, are _________ from pursuing art.

This young artist grew up in a _________ living environment, which she has _________ to watching a horror movie: war, drought, poverty and hunger. Since Nujuum was seven, _________ Nujuum went, she felt moved to paint. As a child, on her way home from school, she would sit by the _________ and draw pictures in the sand. “I was thinking of creating my own little world, getting away from the _________. Art has always been a form of _________ for me.” As she went through school, she drew a whole city on her bedroom wall using her school pencils.

However, Nujuum was _________ that art isn’t a respected profession in her country. “Art, __________, in the Somalian community is not a good thing to do,” she says. Her mother did not share her dreams, nor did her neighbors who considered them __________.

This __________ made her give up art for a while. However, she realized that she had a __________: “Either I continue drawing and painting and create a beautiful life or I stay unhappy for the rest of my life.” Finally, Nujuum turned her __________ in art into something she could make a living from.

She __________ opening a school one day for other talented local artists, enabling them to choose art as a career too.

5 . Beethoven was a great musician. One evening, young Beethoven was out for a walk. As he was passing a wooden house, he ________ someone inside practicing one piece of his music. He stopped to listen, and a girl said that she wished she could hear a real ________ play it.

Beethoven went into the house, ________ the young lady at the piano was blind. A young man stood beside her. Beethoven asked ________, “Would you mind me playing for you?” ________ they didn’t know who the stranger was, the lady and the man said yes happily. Beethoven sat at the piano and began to play. He played so well that all of them lost themselves in the beautiful music. Even when the lonely candle in the room ________ and the moon shone brightly through the window, he was ________ playing!

When Beethoven left the house, the moon seemed even ________ in the night sky. He was deeply ________ by the young lady’s love for his music and was greatly encouraged by the beautiful night. He rushed back home ________ and spent the whole night writing down the music that he had played at the blind girl’s house.

This is a story of “Moonlight Sonata”, one of the classics in the history of music.

6 . About the year 1900, a small, dark-haired boy was often seen waiting outside the back entrances of theatres in London. His name was Charlie Chaplin. He looked thin and hungry but his blue eyes were determined. He was hoping to get work in show business(娱乐界).

When Chaplin couldn’t get_________, he wandered about the city_________. He found food and shelter(栖身之处)_________he could. Sometimes he was sent away to a home for children who had no parents. He was cold and miserable there and the children were beaten for the_________fault.

By the time he was thirty, Charlie had been the greatest, best-known and best-loved_________in the world. Chaplin’s films have_________a large audience in various countries. Anyone who visited the cinema_________must have seen some of Charlie Chaplin’s funny films. People everywhere who have seen them would_________until tears run down their faces. Even people who don’t understand English can enjoy Chaplin’s films because they are mostly_________. It isn’t what he says that makes people laugh. It depends upon little____________that mean the same thing to people all over the world.

Having lived in America for 40 years, Chaplin____________to Switzerland. There he died on Christmas Day of 1977. He once described himself____________a citizen of the world, rather than of any____________country.

He once wrote, “You have to believe in yourself. That’s the____________of success. Even when I was in the children’s home, when I was wandering about the streets trying to find enough food to____________to keep alive, I still thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world.”

7 . In 1988, Tracy Chapman fascinated(迷住)a crowd of 60, 000 with her performance of Fast Car at Wembley Stadium in London. It wasn’t until this performance that the ________became a huge hit. Here’s the amazing story behind this moment.

Stevie Wonder ________ England on the Saturday morning of the concert and went straight to Wembley Stadium, where a room was ________ for him and his team to ________ before the performance. He was organized to perform in the evening after UB40. But his ________ had not been announced.

UB40 were finishing their set on the main stage. Wonder’s equipment was set up, plugged in (插入)and________to be rolled on after a 10-minute act on a side stage. He was about to walk up the steps to the stage when it was________that his hard disk(硬盘), carrying all 25 minutes of synthesized(合成的)music for his act, was________. He said he could not play without it, turned round, walked down the steps ________, with his band and other ________ following him, and went out of the stadium.

The concert organizer was restless and ________. There was a great need to fill the ________ Stevie Wonder had left and at that moment, Tracy Chapman, who had already performed her act, ________ to appear again. Because the audience didn’t know Stevie Wonder would appear, the organizer ________. Tracy Chapman decided to play two new songs, Fast Car and Talkin. Before the concert, she had sold about 250, 000 albums. In the following weeks, she sold two million more.

Sometimes. an inadvertent(不经意的)action can lead to ________ results, and opportunities are always given to those who are prepared.

8 . Derek Paravicini is lucky to be alive. Born three and a half months early, he weighed only 0.6 kilograms and almost _______ three times while he was in hospital. _______, Derek’s early birth left him with some disabilities — he is blind; he can’t tell left from right; he can _______ count to ten.

Yet Derek is a _______ talent. The 41-year-old remembers every one of the thousands of pieces of music he has ever heard and can play them without _______ on the piano — even if he only heard the song once. years ago. Because he is blind, he cannot _______ music. All of the music he plays is in his _______. His brain has been described as a perfectly programmed musical _______. When he hears a chord with ten notes in it, he can even _______ all ten, while most professional musicians can only recognise about five.

Derek was two years old before his family discovered his ________. When he was given an old keyboard, he ________ his family by reproducing the songs he had heard outside. His family then arranged for him to go to a school for the ________ where he met a university professor who helped him to ________ his musical talent.

By the age of nine, Derek had ________ at a large concert hall in London with a famous orchestra, Since then, he has appeared on TV shows and travelled the world ________ performances. He has recorded his own CDs and there is even a book about his life.

9 . When Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s paintings were put on display in a gallery in London, it attracted much attention. A poet and essayist described her paintings as “a ribbon around a bomb”-a quote that went on to provide the title for a documentary about her life. Such a/an _________ comment about her work seems to _________ Kahlo had a big impact on the art world of her time. Sadly, this was not the _________.

Kahlo, born in 1907 in a suburb of Mexico City, was greatly affected by two terrible events early in her life. At the age of 7, she _________ polio. The disease _________ her foot so that it always pointed out, and caused her right leg to grow to a shorter length than her left leg._________, Kahlo’s spine and pelvis became twisted as she grew older. Then in 1925, she was riding in a school bus that was _________ in a traffic accident; her pelvis and back were broken in several places. Throughout the rest of her life, the artist underwent more than 30 _________, but nothing was able to cure the severe _________ in her back and leg. However, the accident did have an __________ side effect: it led Kahlo to begin painting. While lying in her bed recovering in her parents’ home, Kahlo taught herself to paint and created her first self-portrait.

Despite the tragic events in her life, Kahlo had a __________ for inspiring excitement, happiness, and drama wherever she went. She often wore elaborate native jewelry and bright clothing, making her a highly __________ student at school. She also __________ wore her hair tied up on top of her head with bright ribbons in the style of the native people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Her preferred fashion and hairstyle are __________ in the various self-portraits she painted.

Kahlo died in 1954 in her parents’ home. The final words in Kahlo’s diary were, “I hope the __________ is joyful-and I hope never to come back.”

10 . The widely admired Romanian pianist Radu Lupu died at the age of 76. Lupu was frequently _______ by fellow musicians as an inspiration and model of _______ expression. His music making became the stuff of deep _______ among them.

Lupu _______ piano lessons at six. When he was twelve, he gave his first public concert _______ featuring his own compositions. He went on to _______ at the Moscow Conservatory(莫斯科音乐学院)in l963. Later, he began recording for Decca, his _______ company for the next decades.

_______ the pianist in a single phrase. Rob Cowan said it would be “the Carlos Kleiber of the piano”, regarding him as a master _______ where the music was going. Lupu had been thinking of the music long before ________ it, so that every quaver(八分音符)has its place and ________ effect.

When the news of Lupu’s ________ came, fellow musicians poured out on social media. Steven Isserlis said. “I’m very ________ to hear that Radu Lupu has left us. He is not only one of the greatest and warmest ________ I’ve ever known, but also a deeply kind, modest and humorous friend. He was gone, but he will still be desperately ________ .”