1 . “When I was young, I had so much energy and I loved building stuff. If I had an idea, I had to build it right away using whatever I could find around me.” says Danish recycle artist Thomas Dambo. When Dambo was just seven years old, he bought some materials from the local market to construct a game room in his parents’ basement. As a teenager, he built a “crazy” castle in his backyard.
Decades later, 42-year-old Dambo is proudly surveying his latest creation: a troll (巨人) called Little Lui. Towering at five meters tall, Little Lui is one of the six trolls hidden in secret corners of the Peel Region of Western Australia as part of Thomas Dambo Giants of Mandurah, an Australian-first exhibition, which will be on show for at least a year. Dambo has made many impressive trolls, which have found homes in the United States, Belgium, China, Denmark, South Korea and so on.
“For me, trolls represent the voice of nature,” Dambo says. This deep respect for the natural world is a central message of Dambo’s practice. Dambo’s troll are made almost entirely from locally sourced recycled wood: their faces from secondhand furniture and their hair from branches and leaves. Taking about 750 hours to complete, each troll is constructed out in nature.
“We are slowly turning the world into a landfill. I hope that by visiting the trolls, people will think of rubbish as a resource. I think it’s really important that the next generation is connected to nature.” Dambo says. “That’s why I tried to design the trolls to appeal to younger people. I want people to be inspired to play and experiment, and to realize they don’t need a lot to create something big and beautiful. Go out, go around the corner and take advantage of whatever is there — you will find a lot of adventure in your own backyard.”
1. Which of the following can best describe young Dambo?| A．Creative. | B．Generous. | C．Independent. | D．Courageous. |
| A．It is kept underground. | B．It is Dambo’s first creation. |
| C．It will be shown to the public. | D．It will be sent to foreign countries. |
| A．Their basic theme. | B．Their artistic value. |
| C．Their expensive materials. | D．Their building procedures. |
| A．Inspire more people to take adventures. |
| B．Encourage the young to approach nature. |
| C．Help people spend less time playing games. |
| D．Call on the young to save natural resources. |
2 . Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to EGOT: to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. But come a little closer, and Moreno’s is another kind of immigrant (移民的) story.
She was a teen when MGM (米高梅电影公司) signed her in the 1950s. Major studios were still dominated by the men who’d run them for decades. They had her change her name. While recognizing her talent, they didn’t know what to do with a Latin girl. Moreno played small parts, including a girl from India and a Burmese (缅甸的) woman. What should have been her big break came when she was cast as Anita in West Side Story. She’d remember Anita as “the very first Hispanic (西班牙的) character I had ever played who had dignity, a sense of self-respect. She became my role model. ” The night Moreno won the Oscar, the Hispanic community across the USA broke out into cheers.
But that career turn didn’t happen. Instead, she received more offers to play what she described as “dusky servants”. The racial and ethnic prejudice was still at play. “It broke my heart, ”she says. Rita Moreno didn’t make another movie for seven years.
Then began her new act. Holding to her mother’s philosophy — Never give in, never quit, keep on moving — she survived professionally during those years with work on the London stage and in nightclubs, slowly reemerging on film and television, and eventually she earned herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Peabody Career Achievement Award.
But even as she continues to perform, her work continues off the screen, speaking out for and representing the Latin community. “I’m now known as la pionera, or the pioneer,” Moreno says. “I really don’t think of myself as a role model. But it turns out that I am, to a lot of the Hispanic community. Not just in show business, but in life. But that’s what happens when you’re first, right?”
1. What do we know about Moreno in Paragraph 2?| A．She was an actress contracted with MGM. |
| B．She had her future well-planned for her talent. |
| C．She was treated as a Hispanic girl with dignity. |
| D．She won the Oscar for acting a Burmese woman. |
| A．She did not receive any film offers. |
| B．She rejected roles of racial prejudice. |
| C．She was tired of performing on the stage. |
| D．She focused on her stage career in nightclubs. |
| A．Generous and brave. | B．Kind and grateful. |
| C．Honest and trustworthy. | D．Tough and determined. |
| A．She prefers to be a role model in show business. |
| B．She is unhappy with what happened to an actress. |
| C．She makes a difference to the Hispanic community. |
| D．She feels pressured about being a Hispanic pioneer. |
3 . Charlie Watts of the British music group the Rolling Stones died on Tuesday at a hospital in London. Watts played the drums for the very successful band for almost sixty years. His publicist, Bernard Doherty, said the musician “passed away peacefully” surrounded by his family.
Watts was respected worldwide for his muscular style of drumming, which he combined with elements of jazz, a favorite music of the artist. He joined the band early in 1963, just a few months following its first public performance.
To the world, he was a rock star. But Watts often said that the experience was tiring, unpleasant, and even frightening. “Girls chasing you down the street, screaming... horrible!... I hated it,” he told The Guardian newspaper. In another media report, he described the drumming life as a “cross between being an athlete and a total nervous wreck (神经兮兮的人)”.
Charlie Watts was born in London on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was crazy about music-jazz, especially. He fell in love with the drums after hearing the music of Chico Hamilton. Watts was not a rock music fan at first. He shared a home with the Stones’ leaders Mick Jagger and Keith Richards because he did not have to pay for the housing. “Keith Richards taught me rock and roll,” Watts said. “We’d have nothing to do all day, and we’d play these records over and over again.”
The Stones had searched for months to find a permanent drummer. Richards has spoken about how much the band wanted Watts to join. The guitar player said the band members cut down on expenses so they could pay Watts a good wage. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year. “Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”
1. What does the underlined word “muscular” mean in Paragraph 2?| A．Aggressive. | B．Complex. | C．Fashionable. | D．Powerful. |
| A．He enjoyed the fame and attention. |
| B．He had a strong dislike for fans and music. |
| C．He found the experience exhausting and intolerable. |
| D．He considered himself lucky to be a part of the band. |
| A．To save accommodation costs. |
| B．To practice playing the guitar. |
| C．To learn rock and composition. |
| D．To be the drummer of the band. |
| A．Watts was unwilling to join the band for low wages. |
| B．The band’s success depended on a talented drummer. |
| C．A band usually lasted for a few months in those days. |
| D．The band’s popularity was beyond Watts’ expectations. |
4 . Born in 1887 in a Russian-Jewish town, Chagall started painting at the age of 19. Disappointed with the colors of traditional Russian art, he loved to paint with strong blues, reds and yellows.
So in 1911, he moved to Paris, France, where artists from around the world were creating novel art forms and he acquired fresh ways of painting eagerly. He stayed true to his childhood memories. While others chose modern subjects, he painted scenes of fantasy based on an older, farmer-like way of life. Blue dogs, yellow skies and red trees were all creations of his imagination.
Chagall went through two world wars and personal sufferings. In 1941, because his family were Jewish, the Chagalls had to leave France to escape the Nazis during World War Ⅱ. In 1944 came another blow. Chagall’s beloved wife Bella died of an illness. Despite the hardships, his passion for painting never faded. In the 1950s, he returned to France and continued to make his dreamlike paintings.
One day, during a walk in a village, he discovered a 700-year-old church (教堂), where he saw a stained-glass (彩色玻璃) window that contained a green horse. It looked as if Chagall might have created it himself. Here was a sure sign, he thought, that he should create his own stained-glass windows.
Then Chagall devoted all his energy and time to the work. As we know, many stained-glass windows are made of flat colors, but Chagall used various techniques to create the effects he wanted. He made flexible use of bright colors, putting light into the works. He painted images on glass, then had them fired to high temperatures, making the lines and colors part of the glass.
Chagall created the stained-glass windows for churches and other buildings around the world until his death in 1985. He gave them as gifts to the world and often refused payment. Today, people are still amazed at how his stained-glass creations shine and change with the sun.
1. Why did Chagall choose to go to Paris?| A．To learn new painting skills. | B．To publicize his new ideas about art. |
| C．To experience the colorful local life. | D．To participate in modern art exhibitions. |
| A．Desire to let in more sunlight. | B．Intention to improve the quality of glass. |
| C．Encouragement from some famous artists. | D．Inspiration from an ancient church window. |
| A．Chagall’s working attitude. | B．The images Chagall created. |
| C．Chagall’s artistic experiences. | D．The features of Chagall’s works. |
| A．Imaginative and honest. | B．Generous and easy-going. |
| C．Creative and strong-willed. | D．Energetic and traditional. |
5 . The story of how Pretty Yende, a black opera singer, reached the peak of her career is an inspirational one. Born in a tiny rural town, South Africa, she had a traditional upbringing. Her most direct link to music was church hymns (圣歌).
Yende says that as a shy child, she never considered a career in music. When her grandmother first invited her to sing in church, she knew how uncomfortable it would be to stand in front of people, but she didn’t want to disappoint her. She overcame her shyness, and it became her first experience of performing in front of massive audiences.
Then one day she saw opera for the first time on TV at the age of 16. “Hearing this music and the power of it sounded like something supernatural.” she recalled. “I remember recording it and imitating it,” she said. “I would play the recording the whole day. My gosh, my family were in trouble, because I wouldn’t stop practicing and shouting. ”
She started to gain popularity in South Africa while still a student at the University of Cape Town, and in 2011, Yende began entering opera competitions. “The very first opera competition that I did was in Vienna, Austria, where I won everything possible,” she remembered. Her career took off internationally in 2013 with public performances across the world.
It has not been all without trouble. She continues to address the question of opera’s white domination, and believes that she can use her fame and talent as an opportunity to break prejudice. “The biggest challenge has always been being the different one in the room,” She remembered. “Sometimes I would enter the rehearsal (排练) room, and what I could see in the room looks like, ‘Why are you here?’ And I would just smile. But once I start making music, all of us in that room agreed that I’m not there by mistake.”
1. What can be learnt from Yende’s church performing experience?| A．She loved performing on her first try. |
| B．She always wanted to please her family. |
| C．It was her dream to pursue a singing career. |
| D．She was initially not keen on public singing. |
| A．Her grandma’s encouragement. | B．An exposure to opera on TV. |
| C．Her success in opera competitions. | D．An experience of singing hymns. |
| A．She felt helpless. | B．She behaved confidently. |
| C．She laughed about it. | D．She demanded a thorough change. |
| A．Capable and cooperative. | B．Humble and sensitive. |
| C．Talented and devoted. | D．Knowledgeable and ambitious. |
6 . At the age of 70, the famous painter Marc Chagall discovered that by designing stained-glass windows, he could breathe bright color and light into his artwork.
Born in 1887 in a Russian town, Chagall started painting when he was 19. He was tired of the dull colors of traditional Russian art. Thus in 1911, he moved to Paris. There, actors, writers, musicians and artists from around the world were creating new art forms. In France, Chagall learned new ways of painting, but stayed true to his childhood memories. While others chose modern subjects, he painted scenes of fantasy and fairy tales in an older, farmer-like way of life.
One day, during a walk through the French countryside, he discovered a picturesque church He imagined replacing its walls with stained-glass windows. Then, in another 700-year-old church, he saw a stained-glass window containing a green donkey. It dawned on him that he could create his own.
He began to co-work with master glassworker Charles Marq. Many stained-glass windows: were made of flat colors, but Chagall used various techniques to create the effects he wanted. He painted images on glass, then had it fired to high temperatures, making the lines and colors part of the glass. Marq admired Chagall’s determination. He also said Chagall worked with the carefulness of those rope walkers he admires, without which they couldn’t fly in their weightlessness up there.
In 1964, Chagall designed a stained-glass window for the United Nations building in New York. The UN works for international peace. Using a blue background as the symbol of peace and life, Chagall designed the window with angels floating in the sky, and mothers holding their children.
Chagall lived through two world wars and the loss of loved ones. He often refused payment for his stained-glass windows, especially those he made for churches. He created them as gifts for the world, gifts that catch the sun. Today, people are still amazed about how his stained-glass creations shine and change with the sun.
1. Why did Chagall move to France?| A．To try to escape the war. | B．To learn how to paint. |
| C．To look for true freedom. | D．To get new inspiration. |
| A．His dislike of flat colors. |
| B．His childhood memories. |
| C．His encounters during a walk. |
| D．His efforts together with Marq. |
| A．Tough and unbeatable. | B．Cautious and determined. |
| C．Selfless and confident. | D．Generous and easy-going. |
| A．Chagall fought for world peace and life. |
| B．Chagall used to work in the United Nations. |
| C．All Chagall’s designs contained loving scenes. |
| D．Despite the hardships, Chagall remained kind. |
7 . In 2018, a major new exhibition opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The show brought together more than a hundred works by a single Brazilian artist: Tarsila do Amaral. Although widely celebrated in her native country, the artist was relatively unknown outside Brazil. So who was Tarsila?
Born in 1886, Tarsila do Amaral is considered the mother of modern art in Brazil. She first developed a love for art after her parents sent her to study in Spain. She returned to Europe a few years later, and settled in Paris. Several artists there, including Picasso, were beginning to experiment with new forms — less realistic and more abstract. The new approaches continued to influence Tarsila after she returned to Brazil.
Approaches to art in Brazil at that time were relatively conservative (保守的). Traditional European styles dominated, with works mainly featuring natural, religious, or historical scenes in soft colors. Tarsila decided to take a different direction: “I want to be the painter of my country,” she wrote. Her images began to reflect Brazil’s diverse identity — a mix of native, African, and European peoples. She used strong, vivid colors to paint real-life scenes of the nation’s farmers, countryside, and wildlife. This had never been done before in Brazilian art.
One of Tarsila’s most famous works is Abaporu (1928), which means “Man Who Eats People.” The painting has a playful quality, but its look and feel are distinctly Brazilian. The work later inspired a Brazilian art movement called antropofagia. Brazilian artists began to take in styles from other cultures and mix them with local influences. The result was something uniquely Brazilian.
Tarsila do Amaral died in Sao Paulo in 1973, age 86. But her artwork and legacy live on in her native Brazil. “For Brazilians, her recognition is off the charts,” says James Rondeau, director of the Art Institute of Chicago. “She is the Picasso of Brazil.” Now, with the MoMA exhibition, Tarsila’s art is being appreciated by a new audience of admirers around the world.
1. What can we learn about Tarsila’s experiences?| A．She was born in Brazil. |
| B．She did experiments in Paris. |
| C．She was taught by Picasso in Spain. |
| D．She worked for New York’s MoMA. |
| A．High quality and European styles. |
| B．Strong colors and real-life scenes. |
| C．Conservative style and natural scenes. |
| D．Religious background and historical topics. |
| A．Original. | B．Outdated. | C．Unbeatable. | D．Dynamic. |
| A．Tarsila do Amaral, the Picasso of Brazil |
| B．Antropofagia, a Brazilian art movement |
| C．The development of Brazil’s Modern Art |
| D．The MoMA exhibition of a Brazilian artist |
8 . Washington, DC—In a press conference today, the National Gallery of Art will share groundbreaking new findings about Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) to be explored in the exhibition of Vermeer’s Secrets, opening on October 8, 2022.
These findings led a team of professors and scientists working together to determine that the painting Girl with a Flute was made by a partner of Vermeer-not by the Dutch artist himself, as was previously believed.
This challenges the long-held belief that he was alone genius and, instead, assumes him as an instructor to the next generation of artists. In part because Vermeer’s collection of works contains only about 35 accepted paintings, professors have generally considered it unlikely that he had students or partners. With no surviving documents to provide evidence of a workshop, it was believed that he must have worked alone.
The existence of other artists working with Johannes Vermeer is perhaps one of the most significant new findings about the artist to be discovered in decades. It changes thoroughly the popular understanding of Vermeer, building on decades of research and using advanced scientific technology to expose exciting discoveries that add new knowledge to the secret artist. “I am unbelievably proud of the team of National Gallery staff who worked together to study these paintings,” said Kay win Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art.
On view through January 8, 2023, Vermeer’s Secrets offers audiences a behind-the-scenes look at how National Gallery professors and scientists studied the museum’s four treasured paintings—as well as two 20th-century fake(假的) copies—to understand “what makes a Vermeer a Vermeer”.
Research also led scientists to determine that Vermeer’s Girl with the Red Hat was made at a turning point in the artist’s career. They recognized Girl with the Red Hat as a key work that points to Vermeer’s late style.
1. What does the underlined word “This” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．That a workmate of Vermeer worked on Girl with a Flute. |
| B．That a team of devoted professors and scientists worked together. |
| C．That Vermeer was alone instructor to the next generation of artists. |
| D．That there is no surviving evidence of Vermeer owning a workshop. |
| A．The property of the research. |
| B．The process of the new research. |
| C．The praise from Kay win Feldman. |
| D．The significance of the new finding. |
| A．To guide us to enjoy Vermeer’s paintings. |
| B．To offer us a better understanding of Vermeer. |
| C．To show us alone and familiar painting genius. |
| D．To give us an insight into Dutch art of painting. |
| A．What effects the new findings have on the previous views. |
| B．Whether Girl with the Red Hat was created by Vermeer alone. |
| C．How Girl with the Red Hat is different from Girl with a Flute. |
| D．Why Girl with the Red Hat marked a turning point in Vermeer’s career. |
9 . Since Neolithic (新石器时代的) times, sculpture has been considered the privilege of men as it was assumed that women were not suited for the hard manual labor required in sculpting stone, carving wood, or working in metal. It has been only during the twentieth-century that women sculptors have been recognized as major artists, and it has been in the United States that women sculptors have shown the greatest originality and creative power. By far the most outstanding of these women is Louis Nevelson, who in the eyes of many critics is the most original female artist alive today. One famous and influential critic Hilton Kramer, said of her work, “For myself, I think Ms. Nevelson succeeds where the painters often fail.”
Her works have been compared to the Cubist (立体主义的) constructions of Picasso, the surrealistic (超现实主义的) objects of Miro and the Merzhau of Schwitters. And she would be the first to admit that she has been influenced by all of these, as well as by African sculpture, and by Native American and pre-Columbian art. Nevelson says, “I have always wanted to show the world that art is everywhere, except that it has to pass through a creative mind.”
Using mostly thrown-away wooden objects like packing crates, broken pieces of furniture, and abandoned architectural ornaments, she makes architectural constructions of great beauty and power. Creating very freely, she glues and nails objects together, paints them black, or more rarely white or gold, and places them in boxes. These collections, walls, even entire environments create a mysterious, almost awe-inspiring atmosphere. Although she has refused to admit any symbolic or religious intention in her works, their three-dimensional grandeur (宏伟) and even their titles, such as Sky Cathedral and Night Cathedral, suggest such meanings.
1. The passage mainly focuses on ______.| A．a general tendency in twentieth-century art | B．the artistic influences on women sculptors |
| C．the work of a particular woman artist | D．critical responses to twentieth-century sculpture |
| A．She has the ability to combine sculpture and painting. |
| B．Her creativity and originality make her work unique. |
| C．Her work is so expressive that no painters can compete with her. |
| D．People turned their interest to sculpture instead of painting due to her talents. |
| A．they are uniquely American in style and sensibility |
| B．they show the influence of twentieth-century architecture |
| C．they do not have qualities characteristic of sculpture |
| D．they suggest religious and symbolic meanings |
| A．They are sometimes very large. | B．They are often painted in several colors. |
| C．They are meant for display outdoors. | D．They are built around a central wooden object. |
10 . Music streaming platforms (平台) such as Spotify and Apple Music have completely changed how people listen to music nowadays. By paying very affordable prices, people can access music very easily. However, while these platforms may provide benefits for some artists, up-and-coming artists are being left behind because they only focus on big names and creating profits.
Because of COVID-19, musicians have not been able to tour or perform live in many countries, which contributes to a large part of their income. In a YouTube interview, up-and-coming Texas artist Mobey mentioned that “The majority of my income comes from playing live shows. Usually that means around 50% — 70% of what we expect to make in a year”. With these factors, small artists are finding it increasingly difficult to make it in the industry due to the lack of investment (投资) into new talent.
Small artists on Spotify and Apple Music can expect to make little to nothing. An artist on Spotify can expect to earn an average of $0.003 per stream or around $3 per 1,000 streams for one of their songs. On Apple Music, artists can expect to make a little more with an average of $0.01 per stream, or around $10 with 1,000 streams. Even if they could hit around 1,000 streams, they have to pay music distribution (分发) platforms needed for their music to be shown on the streaming platforms such as DistroKid, whose cheapest plan is $20.
A new artist would find it very difficult to promote their music outside of their social media accounts which may not even have a large amount of followers. They probably cannot get large amounts of streams on their music since it is not being promoted due to the lack of exposure (宣传) they have on social media.
With the takeover of music streaming platforms, many artists are finding it increasingly difficult to make a sustainable (可持续的) living from their love for music. A simple way these platforms can enable new artists to keep making music is to increase their payouts per stream for their music. Hopefully the music streaming industry will make similar changes to improve the situation of their artists.
1. What is the problem with music streaming platforms?| A．They ignore small artists. | B．They are not user-friendly. |
| C．They are very difficult to manage. | D．They limit the number of small artists’ songs. |
| A．His lack of investment. | B．His total income in a year. |
| C．The main source of his income. | D．The reason for his fewer live shows. |
| A．How a music streaming platform works. |
| B．Small artists’ hope for music streaming platforms. |
| C．Small artists’ dislike for music streaming platforms. |
| D．Why small artists earn little on music streaming platforms. |
| A．Music streaming platforms: Do they really put profits first? |
| B．Music streaming platforms: Are they a chance or challenge to artists? |
| C．Music streaming platforms: Have they harmed the industry for artists? |
| D．Music streaming platforms: Could they offer music lovers better services? |
