1 . You may have heard of Dude Perfect. They are 5 guys who make crazy trick (技巧) shots and have fun for a living! They are so good at what they do. They have one of the top 10 channels (频道) on YouTube. It all sounds good. But their real story is much deeper and better. It is a story of trust, friendship, hard work, passion and giving back.
Dude Perfect is made up of 5 best friends who met while at college at Texas A&M University. Their names are Coby, Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Tyler Toney. At college, they became friends through their love of sports. They enjoyed spending time with each other so much that they all became roommates.
One day, in their backyard, they said they could make a trick basketball shot. They started to take video of their crazy shots. Within one week, the video received over 200,000 views! Soon, they received a call from the TV show Good Morning America who wanted to interview them. That was their first interview, the one that started everything! As Dude Perfect started to catch on, they started to attract star athletes to shoot videos with them.
Despite all their success, they have never taken their eyes off their bigger goal to spread good worldwide. Their message of the power of faith and friendship is at the heart of what they do.
Their videos show the history of Dude Perfect and the values that drive them. There is a great example of how they use their fame (名声) to spread good. They also show how they invite children from the Make a Wish Foundation to be a “Dude for a Day”!
Dude Perfects tricks are so good that some people question whether they are real. Well, they are. The secret is simply hard work and persistence (坚持). Their videos show how they do what they do!
1. What is the key to setting up Dude Perfect?| A．The star athletes’ love for it, |
| B．The members’ common interest. |
| C．The popularity of social media. |
| D．The trust between different people. |
| A．Strong but shy. | B．Humorous but crazy. |
| C．Kind and hard-working. | D．Handsome and easy-going. |
| A．It is never too old to learn. | B．Never forget why you started. |
| C．You can’t judge a book by its cover. | D．Be prepared for danger in times of peace. |
| A．Dude Perfect, an amazing team | B．Dude Perfect’s tricks are real |
| C．Dude Perfect built on friendship | D．Dude Perfect achieved their goal |
2 . Pop stars have traditionally not come from the upper classes of society. Eminem grew up on a trailer (活动住屋) park. 50 Cent is from the dangerous shelters of New York. The Beatles grew up in the poor city of Liverpool.
However, some musicians have come from the army. Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, served with the American Army in Germany while Jimi Hendrix was in the parachute regiment (伞兵团). Following in that tradition comes a British hit, James Blunt. His single, You re Beautiful, was a huge success, and his concerts have sold out all over the country.
James Blunt, born on February 22, 1977, comes from a family with a long tradition of military service. His early life was not filled with music. His army officer father thought all music, even classical, was unnecessary noise. His life seemed certain to follow that of his father's before him—private schools, a good university and a career as an officer in the British Army. The thought of pursuing a career in music had never occurred to him until he witnessed an older boy playing an electric guitar at age 14. When he was sent to Kosovo in 1999, he didn't just take his gun he also took his guitar, attached to the side of his tank. As he drove through villages damaged by the war, he used to sing the John Lennon song Give Peace a Chance. “Well,” he later said, “we were peacekeepers.”
In 2003 he left the army and went to Los Angeles to make a record. In 2004, his first album Back to Bedlam was released, and the singles High, Wise Men and You're Beautiful have been great successes. For the singing soldier, putting down a gun for a guitar has been a good choice.
1. What do Elvis Presley and James Blunt have in common?| A．They were from lower social classes. |
| B．They were kings of Rockand Roll. |
| C．They rose to fame in Britain. |
| D．They used to serve in the army. |
| A．His father's support. |
| B．The Beatles' influence. |
| C．A guitar performance. |
| D．Family tradition of music. |
| A．Blunt's journey to the US. |
| B．Blunt's success as a singer. |
| C．Blunt's devotion to singing. |
| D．Blunt's best-selling records. |
| A．Positive. | B．Critical. |
| C．Grateful. | D．Cautious. |
3 . Distinguished Baltimore artist John D. Ferguson died Sept 16. The Catonsville resident was 81.
“His artist eye was in everything he did. His life was art and his family,” said Jennifer C. Jackson, who was Mr. Ferguson's friend for nearly three decades.” He was a lovable man who was always willing to talk about any topic he was interested in. At shows, people would go crazy for his work,” Ms. Jackson said. “He was also an enthusiastic sailor who loved nothing more than being on the water.” “His sculptures were just memorable,” said Mr. Lund, a Washingtonian. “I used to say, ‘Ferguson, I don't think you know how to do anything that is less than monumental.’”
Mr. Ferguson earned a bachelor's degree in 1961 at Holy Cross University, where he developed an interest in painting. He served in the Army for two years until being discharged in 1963, and after studying briefly at the Boston Museum School, registered at the Chicago Art Institute, where he studied until 1966, when he entered the University of Illinois Chicago, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1966 in fine arts. Mr. Ferguson developed his interest and skills as a sculptor after moving to Baltimore to do further studies at the Maryland Institute College of Art's Rinehart School of Sculpture, from which he graduated in 1971 with a master's degree in fine arts.
“Over the years my work has moved gradually in the direction of elegance and simplicity,” Mr. Ferguson wrote in his artist statement. “Heavy, bulbous forms have been replaced by dancing, winglike forms. The welding process and respect for the qualities of the materials are interrelated and affect the final piece. “Most of the sculptures that are pictured in my works are made from steel, silicon bronze, and to Cor-Ten steel; shaped to create these beautiful and unique pieces of art. As you can see, my sculptures range in size anywhere from 12 inches to 30 feet or larger.”
Through the years, his work found its way into such major public and private collections. “They encourage optimism, for they show strength and affirmation; there's nothing negative, depressing or anxiety-ridden about them”, wrote the late art critic John Dorsey in a 1997 exhibition review.
1. What did Mr. Lund think of Ferguson?| A．Likeable. | B．Ordinary. | C．Unwelcome. | D．Interesting. |
| A．He studied at the Boston Museum School. |
| B．He got a bachelor's degree in fine arts. |
| C．He entered the University of Illinois Chicago. |
| D．He continued his studies at the Maryland Institute College. |
| A．An even larger scale than before. | B．The material comprised of metals |
| C．The shape of elegance and simplicity. | D．Welding process as well as material quality. |
| A．A stylish, stubborn old man | B．Sculptures towering into the clouds |
| C．John D. Ferguson—a famous sculpturer | D．The evolution of the sculptural style |
4 . 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. |
5 . There have been many great painters in the rich history of Chinese art. Here are four of the greatest painters from China.
Li Cheng (919-967, Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty)
Li Cheng contributed greatly to one of the golden ages of landscape paintings in world history. During his time, he was considered the best landscape painter ever. He is remembered especially for the winter landscapes he created and for simple compositions of tall, old evergreens set against a dry landscape. Several of his paintings are in thin ink which gives them a foggy appearance.
Fan Kuan (990-1020 , Song Dynasty)
Fan Kuan began his career by modeling Li Cheng's work but later created his own style, claiming that the only true teacher was nature. His finest work Travelers among Mountains and Streams is a masterpiece of landscape painting and many future artists turned to it for inspiration.
Qi Baishi (1864-1957)
One of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters, Qi Baishi is known for not being influenced by Western styles like most painters of his time. He can be considered as the last great traditional painter of China. He painted almost everything from insects to landscapes. He is regarded highly in Chinese art for the freshness that he brought to the familiar types of birds and flowers, insects and grass.
Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010)
Widely considered as the founder of modern Chinese painting , Wu Guanzhong has painted various aspects of China, like its architecture, plants, animals, people and landscapes. Wu went on to combine Western and Chinese styles to create a unique form of modern art. In 1992, he became the first living Chinese artist whose work was exhibited at the British Museum.
1. What do we know about Li Cheng?| A．He loved landscape paintings. |
| B．He copied many artists' work. |
| C．His work gained worldwide recognition. |
| D．He was considered as Fan Kuan's teacher. |
| A．They have foggy appearances. |
| B．They lack diversity in the theme. |
| C．They come under Western influence. |
| D．They show advanced traditional painting skills. |
| A．They were all modern painters. |
| B．They all created landscape paintings. |
| C．They were all impacted by Western art. |
| D．They were all pioneers in traditional art history. |
6 . Classical musician Titcomb feels strongly about Symphony No. 2 and its composer, Mahler. “Mahler is just... It’s so remindful. It’s so emotional and maybe it is a cheap thrill, but to me it is a deep emotional work.”
Titcomb played the trombone (长号) professionally for more than thirty years. He says it was a difficult decision to stop playing and to do something else. “When I had to decide to stop my career as a player and move on to just the organizing of an orchestra, it was my heart and soul to play in orchestras and after a 30-year career I think I have done my part and wanted to move aside. Now I’m semi-retired. I only play the trombone in my wife’s rock and roll band, but for 30 years I was a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra and I also played very often with the Metropolitan Opera and various other organizations and the New York City Ballet as well.”
Now Titcomb is the Managing Director for PONY, which hopes to bring new audiences to classical music and aims to make performances higher-tech and more affordable. PONY is composed of many New York’s finest musicians and many of them continue to work in the major companies at Lincoln Center including Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic. And musicians come together shortly after some big events, such as natural disasters.
Mahler Symphony No. 2 music is reflective of a project dear to Titcomb’s heart. Titcomb has worked effortlessly on bringing the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York, which aims to use performances to support disaster relief, and to give people in disaster some inspiration to continue to deal with their troubles. Seeing an orchestra of 90 players on the stage and making music together with a chorus of 200 made him smile.
Titcomb’s devotion to music is wonderfully inspiring. He built a hugely successful career with little more than plain hard work and determination.
1. What does the author want to tell us in paragraph 1?| A．Titcomb is very emotional. | B．Mahler is good at cheap thrills. |
| C．A music masterpiece must be strong. | D．Symphony No. 2 impresses Titcomb. |
| A．He was eager to earn money. | B．He avoided taking up challenges. |
| C．He focused on playing the trombone. | D．He organized a high - quality orchestra. |
| A．Boring. | B．Confusing. | C．Demanding. | D．Encouraging. |
| A．Well begun, half done. | B．Devotion requires enthusiasm. |
| C．He who laughs last laughs best. | D．A change of work is as good as a rest. |
7 . Pablo Picasso was born on October 25 in Malaga. Spain in 1881. Taking after his father, Picasso shared a passion （热爱）for painting and art. Even though he wasn't the best student in school, Picasso excelled at drawing. Noticing his amazing talent, Picasso's father, an artist, taught him everything he knew. Before long, Picasso could paint and draw much better than his father. With this rich talent, Picasso paid less and less attention to his schoolwork and spent the majority of his day sketching and drawing in notepads and sketchbooks.
When he was a little bit older, Picasso moved twice and was accepted into two fine art programs. However, he didn't care very much for the special techniques they taught and often wandered the streets by himself drawing the scenes around him. After moving to these two places, Picasso moved back home to Barcelona and decided that he would develop new techniques of art and painting based on what he saw.
Later, Picasso decided to move to Paris, France, where he began perfecting his own techniques of painting, drawing and other forms of art. His drawings. paintings, and an included pieces about sadness, poverty, classics and self-portraits. One of his major types of work is called cubism （立体 派），which includes art with all sizes of geometric shapes together on the piece of an. This type of art is very important because no other artists had come up with the idea before. Picasso decided to try something new, and as a result, cubism is widely accepted today as a classic style of art.
Picasso inspires us to always be thinking. He tells us to think outside the box and come up with fresh new ideas that can change the world. He surely plays a significant role in the art field.
1. What do we know about Picasso as a student at school?| A．He hated doing his homework. |
| B．He was very proud of his talent. |
| C．He showed great talent for drawing. |
| D．He was often praised by his teacher. |
| A．He tried his best to help Picasso. |
| B．He blamed Picasso for his laziness. |
| C．He asked Picasso to finish his work on time. |
| D．He encouraged Picasso to do better at school. |
| A．He thought highly of them. |
| B．He took no interest in them. |
| C．He was confused about them. |
| D．He was concerned about them. |
| A．Picasso has great faith in art. |
| B．Picasso has changed the world a lot. |
| C．Picasso can do anything he wants to. |
| D．Picasso is a highly creative artist. |
8 . When storm clouds gather, and the wind howls in anger, the natural reaction for most people is to seek shelter. But some run toward the danger. Photographer Liu Yijing is one of that rare type as he captures nature’s violence.
For the past year, Liu, 21, has traveled about 24,000 kilometers across 11 provinces chasing and recording thunderstorms. From the first signs — a stronger breeze developing into a turbulent (汹涌的) sky and birds fleeing — he prepares for what appears to be a frightening task. In 2021, he took more than 48,000 photos, showing the most violence of Mother Nature.
Liu has received a great deal of recognition for his work. His photos captured a complete supercell (雷暴) structure that occurred in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region on Aug 22. This image has been picked as the cover photo for the Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, a key publication in its field.
“It is a typical supercell and I still have a vivid memory about how thrilled I felt the moment it formed. While recording, I couldn’t control myself and kept screaming,” he says, adding that the picture and video have spread rapidly on the Internet. The term supercell is even used by meteorologists (气象学家) to describe a type of a lasting thunderstorm that rotates and is usually accompanied by dangerous weather conditions including damaging winds and sometimes tornadoes.
Many social media users nicknamed him “storm chaser”. A Sina Weibo user named Guanwaidelin comments that Liu’s photos and videos show how amazing and powerful nature is and how insignificant humans are. Another called Lucia Wei says that before Liu, storm-chasing photographers were rarely heard of in China and that it is a career for those who are not only brave but also armed with sufficient meteorological knowledge.
1. How does Liu Yijing respond to the approaching storm?| A．He expresses anger. | B．He looks for shelter. |
| C．He takes photos of it. | D．He runs away from it. |
| A．He traveled across the world to record tornadoes. |
| B．He was acknowledged for an image of a supercell. |
| C．He felt thrilled when his works became a hit. |
| D．He described the supercell as a great discovery. |
| A．Boring. | B．Well-paid. | C．Adventurous. | D．Discouraging. |
| A．A supercell going around. | B．A storm showing power. |
| C．A career exploring space. | D．A cameraman chasing storm. |
9 . 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 |
10 . Xu Beihong was born in 1895 in Yixing, Jiangsu province. When he was only six, he began to learn the Chinese classic works and calligraphy under the direction of his father, who was a local portrait painter. At the age of nine, his father taught him art. His family was poor and at the age of eleven, young Xu had to leave home with his father and sell paintings to make a living. After several years, Xu achieved local success and recognition, but his father developed a serious illness and died shortly afterwards. Xu's early experiences of hardship and loss became the basis of the realism in his artistic creations.
In 1917, he went to Japan and studied art in Tokyo, and later, he was able to spend eight years studying art in Europe. He then returned to China to teach. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Xu became president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chairman of the Chinese Artists' Association.
Xu was primarily known for his Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds. However, his experiences in Europe drove his desire to create a new form of national art that combined the traditional Chinese paintings techniques with Western perspective and methods of composition to reflect a modern China. His talent and hard work led to the development of a new style of Chinese painting and an approach to art that is still taken by art institutions across China.
1. What has shaped Xu Beihong's realistic artistic creations?| A．His overseas study. | B．His talent in art. |
| C．His boyhood experiences. | D．His father's instructions. |
| A．The traditional Chinese style of painting. |
| B．Reflecting Chinese theme in traditonal national style. |
| C．Painting horses in the Western painting techniques. |
| D．Joining Chinese art techniques with Western skills. |
| A．Determined. | B．Creative. |
| C．Old-fashioned. | D．Imaginative. |
| A．A biography. | B．A news report. |
| C．A book review. | D．A short story. |
