1 .
“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. |
2 . For Vishwanath Mallabadi from Bangalore, India, there is no such thing as a useless object or “waste”. Give him anything—abandoned metal or plastic items, old devices, dysfunctional printed circuit boards — and he’ll create art out of it.
Vishwanath’s passion is particularly relevant in the current age, where India generates more e-waste than it can recycle. From 2019 to 2020, the country generated a total of more than 1 million tonnes of e waste. Of this, only 22.7 percent was collected, taken apart and recycled. The eco-artist has upcycled and transformed nearly 200 kg of e-waste into usable products and proposes eco-art as a means to deal with waste management.
Vishwanath’s father, D M Shambhu, was a famous sculptor and painter, but he wanted his son to choose medicine and become a doctor. However, Vishwanath, who was interested in upcycling second-hand objects right from childhood, decided to pursue a BFA in Applied Art. He later went on to work in a company as a high-level administrator and retired two years ago. “In my free time and during the weekends. I used to conduct experiments in e-waste and try to develop something unique,” he recalled.
So far, the eco-artist has created more than 500 objects. These include a six-foot tall sculpture made from upcycled computer keyboard keys, and a painting inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, using upcycled resistors (电阻器) on wood. Among his other artworks are a 42×38 inch figure statue created from upcycled keyboard keys on a sun board finished with plastics, a deer made of colorful used wires, plants and flowers from computer parts, and eco jewellery from upcycled digital wrist watch parts.
“The work involves selecting the e-waste objects—the texture, shape, and colour etc, and visualising and conceptualising the final product. It might take weeks and months for sculptures. However, sustainable initiatives and upcycled art are nowadays in demand in multinational companies opting for a sustainable culture,” he said.
1. What does the author try to convey in paragraph 2?| A．The seriousness of e-waste in India. |
| B．Vishwanath’s passion for environment protection. |
| C．The achievements of waste management in India. |
| D．Vishwanath’s attitude towards dealing with e-waste. |
| A．A passionate eco-artist. | B．A private doctor. |
| C．A famous sculptor. | D．A senior manager. |
| A．The deer and the plants. | B．The sculpture and the figure statue. |
| C．The painting and the flowers. | D．The deer and the eco jewellery. |
| A．Exciting but unprofitable. | B．Creative but useless. |
| C．Demanding but worthwhile. | D．Efficient but costly. |
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 . 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. |
