1 . Cayce Zavaglia is an artist with a unique transformation to her work.
Cayce starts with the hair and forehead, then moves on to the shoulders and clothing, and finally the face. The human face is what she most enjoys creating in her art.
Cayce believes her success depends on three things: her choice of colors, the length and direction of the stitches, and her ability to make the portrait look true. She loves the surprise when people view her art. From a distance, people believe the portraits are painted.
| A．She makes sure the person looks straight into her. |
| B．The biggest challenge is making the skin look real. |
| C．Instead of painting with a brush,she sews with a needle. |
| D．Cayce's first step is deciding who will be in the portrait. |
| E．She loves creating portraits of her family and close friends. |
| F．It requires a lot of patience, for you often have to rethread your needle. |
| G．But when they take a closer look, they see the portrait has been embroidered. |
2 . How can having a childlike view of the world help the environment? Danish eco-artist Thomas Dambo combines a talent for recycling with a fairy-tale imagination to bring people worldwide closer to nature.
For the “Guardians of the Seeds” exhibition, Danish eco-artist Thomas Dambo built five trolls from discarded wood materials, which were appointed by Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (CMBG) for its splendid riverside woodland.
The exhibition composed of the five trolls aims to give visitors an emotional connection with nature that will encourage them to become keepers of it. For the exhibition, Thomas came up with a story that a family of trolls hid 10 golden seeds to protect the old forest. Using a map that's provided, visitors follow clues to find where the seeds are hidden.
Besides using carefully selected recycling materials to produce his works, to challenge himself creatively, the artist allowed for a degree of production on-site. He gave a skinny troll named Birk a beard made from the roots of fallen trees. The fur of another troll Roskva is made from bark. Also, Gro, sitting with her eyes closed in a yoga pose, has a tongue made out of a nearby deserted planter.
“Thomas wants people to interact with them,” says Gretchen, president of CMBG. “He wants it to be a journey of discovery where you're walking along and all of a sudden this big magical being appears in front of you. These are friendly, happy trolls. They're not scary, mean trolls.”
Thomas hopes that “Guardians of the Seeds” gives viewers the same joy he gets from an occupation that he compares to a hobby. He says too many people lose their playfulness in their adult life. The key quality of his work is just its playfulness. One of his trolls sits on a real car on a hillside, appearing to cheerfully ride it. He wants to reactivate a childlike imagination in adults so they begin to see trash as objects that can be repurposed in practical and even picturesque ways. And he loves to entertain kids, too.
Nowadays, Mr. Dambo gets a kick out of seeking waste everywhere, hoping to find more stuff he could refashion into something amazing.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Given-out. | B．Thrown-away. | C．High-priced. | D．Randomly-chosen. |
| A．To set off visitors' curiosity. | B．To get back the 10 golden seeds. |
| C．To promote the popularity of CMBG. | D．To boost the bond between visitors and nature. |
| A．His environmental awareness. | B．His creativity and artistic gift. |
| C．His working efficiency and skill. | D．His sense of social responsibility. |
| A．Thomas' Massive Troll Sculptures |
| B．Let Us Turn Trashed Wood into Elegant Art |
| C．Artist Preserves Imagination and Nature with Huge Trolls |
| D．Welcome to the Magic “Guardians of the Seeds” Exhibition |
3 . Hungarian artist Zoltan Viczan has revealed his love and memories of his homeland in a series of new glass artworks at the exhibition, Layers of Hungary, which is taking place at Picnic Gallery in downtown Shanghai from Oct 13 to Nov 15.
Born in Hungary in 1979, Viczan began his studies in glass art at an early age in Budapest.
Traditional glassmaking in the West originated in Italy, where the royal court forced master crafts people to live on an island and create fine goods, Viczan says.
Viczan came to Asia 10 years ago, spending four years in Japan and two years in Hong Kong before moving to Shanghai in 2016. Generally many expatriates socialized with people from their countries to overcome homesickness.
In the exhibition, visitors will see a map of Hungary sculpted in cast glass and decorated with traditional Hungarian glass patterns, and works describing the city of Budapest and Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe.
| A．He has practiced the art form for nearly 30 years. |
| B．This is the first time he has presented his creations. |
| C．The works on show reflect Viczan’s unique methods. |
| D．Some managed to escape despite of the risks of death. |
| E．Viczan chose to represent memories of his homeland through his art. |
| F．The artist believes this is a good way to show idea about people’s viewpoints of reality. |
| G．It recalled the beauty of the calm, flat water which starts rippling after throwing a pebble in it. |
4 . Born in 1921, Paul Smith was diagnosed with a severe disease that affects motor abilities and strength. Since he could not grasp the artist’s tools, his creations turned to the typewriter.
His works include his childhood fascination with trains, spiritual leaders, war scenes and country heroes. It’s not so much the subject that is remarkable about Paul’s work, it’s the painstaking skill of using symbols on a typewriter to form perfect copy of existing work, and creative representations of his surroundings.
Paul’s images employed only a handful of symbol keys - !, @, ≠≠, ％, ∧, (, &, ) — which were accessible along the top row of his typewriter keyboard. Remarkable, when a person considers that hand typewriters required the ribbons to be positioned, the roller to be adjusted, and the paper to be secured. Typewriters, of that time, left no room for error since erasing mistaken keystrokes was not a clean option.
As he typed, he would lock the shift key in a safe position not to type numbers. He used his left hand to steady his right. Different symbols created the look of varied textures (神韵), and depending on the look to achieve, he would adjust the spacing to type the symbols near or far. And, he adjusted the roller to perfect spaces between lines.
Depending on its size and complexity, it could take anywhere from two weeks to three months to complete one piece. He worked, on average, a couple of hours every day on his art. After all of that work, one wouldn’t blame Paul if he sought to sell his work, but by all accounts, he would give away his pieces. As his distinctive art form gained interest from others, the number of orders for his artwork increased.
In 2007 the world lost Paul Smith at the age of 85. For this American, creating art was a leisurely pursuit and a form of expression. To the art world, he set a high bar for typewriter artists that many have tried to match, but few are able to repeat it.
1. What do we know about the tool Paul Smith worked with?| A．It has only symbol keys. | B．It requires ribbons and a roller. |
| C．It is specially made for him. | D．The spacing is not adjustable. |
| A．Lock the shift key. | B．Erase mistakes neatly. |
| C．Steady all the symbols. | D．Adjust the keys precisely. |
| A．Primitive. | B．Sensitive. |
| C．Innovative. | D．Time efficient. |
| A．Art comes from life. | B．Efforts work wonders. |
| C．Patience is a virtue. | D．Technique does count. |
5 . The British Museum's rich collection of ancient Chinese paintings has attracted many visitors. At the heart of this preservation and revival of Chinese art history is senior conservator (文物修复员) Qiu Jinxian.
Joanna Kosek, head of Pictorial Art Conservation at the British Museum, told the Times Publications that Qiu is considered one of the museum's most priceless treasures. "We let the treasure treat the treasure," Kosek said.
In 1987, Qiu was introduced to Mrs. Jessica Rawson, director of the British Museum. At the time there were no conservators specializing in ancient Chinese art at the British Museum. The large collection of Chinese ancient paintings and cultural relics in the museum was mainly repaired by Japanese and British methods and materials. As these methods were not suitable for Chinese paintings, the art collection was kept in storage for a long time instead of on pubic display.
Just before Christmas in 1987, Qiu Jinxian had her first appointment at the British Museum. She was asked to repair an ancient scroll (卷轴) by Fu Baoshi, which had been badly damaged by fire. Qiu's methods, which included washing with warm water to separate the glue in order to repair the paper, stunned people on the spot. Some of them even got out the camera to record her methods as they'd never seen this way of restoring ancient art. Mrs. Rawson was completely amazed by Qiu Jinxian's incredible skills. She immediately invited Qiu to join the British Museum.
Chinese ancient paintings are notoriously difficult to repair because of their large size, complex materials, diverse colors, and rich composition. The most important thing is to understand the long history, meaning and culture behind the painting. Repair is an extremely time-and-energy intensive process.Each painting normally takes several months from cleaning to restoration and drying. Since 1987, Qiu has repaired more than 400 artworks.
Oiu told the media that she is very proud of her work. She wants more people to understand and appreciate Chinese history and culture through art. Although the artworks originated from China, they now belong to the people of the world.
1. Why is Qiu considered a treasure at the British Museum?| A．She understands Chinese history well. |
| B．She is the only Chinese conservator there. |
| C．She repaired the Chinese scroll successfully. |
| D．She has special skills to repair the treasures. |
| A．Panicked. | B．Inspired. | C．Shocked. | D．Influenced. |
| A．A deep understanding of the objects. | B．Incredible painting skills. |
| C．Strong determination. | D．A sound knowledge of Chinese history. |
| A．The Well-known Chinese Conservator |
| B．The Protector of Chinese Treasures at the British Museum |
| C．The Chinese Treasures Repaired at the British Museum |
| D．The Ancient Chinese Artworks Exhibited at the British Museum |
6 . After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.
Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.
“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”
The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.
Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Written art. | B．A tough battle. | C．Social media. | D．A group of writers. |
| A．To earn a living. | B．To draw readers’ attention. |
| C．To protect his personal life. | D．To show emotional depth. |
| A．Works with emotional depth are widely accepted on social media. |
| B．People with perfect lives like social media better. |
| C．Art galleries and bookstores will soon disappear. |
| D．Arts of emotion depth still hold value on social media. |
| A．Positive. | B．Carefree. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
