1 . Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in Zundert in the south of the Netherlands. He was unlucky to live only for 37 years and to discover his love for art at the age of 27. Therefore, he worked as an artist for only 10 years of his life.

During the Enlightenment Age, emphasis on literature, philosophy, science, fine arts and music became more widespread especially with the growing middle class. This means that Vincent van Gogh had lived in a flourishing artistic movement, which was supposed to help him succeed as an artist and become rich. On the contrary, he did not win fame as an artist. Although Vincent painted 900 paintings and more than 1,100 drawings, his works remained unknown and unsold and his brother Theo supported him financially during his lifetime.

Perhaps one of the reasons for his failure as an artist is his clumsy behavior when he suffered from mental illness. Another reason is his short-tempered nature and rudeness which most of the time brought him bloody fights with his fellow Gauguin that ended up with cutting off Vincent's ears. Moreover, he was always dirty and not well-dressed, which made people avoid dealing with him and buying his artistic works. Furthermore, his poor health gave more blows to his life and caused an early death to such a great artist. But now in our age, his magnificent painting (Portrait of Dr: Gachet) is sold around 150 million dollars at auction.

Vincent van Gogh is just an example of the talented people who failed in their pursuit of glory.

1. What can we learn about Vincent before he was 27?

A．He showed no love for art.	B．He enjoyed staying alone.
C．He had a great interest in art.	D．He spent much time painting.

2. How many reasons are given to present Vincent's failure as an artist?

A．Two.

B．Three.

C．Four.

D．Five.

3. Why didn't people like to trade with Vincent?

A．He was in a mess.	B．He became angry easily.
C．He didn't have fine works	D．He often fought with others.

4. What does the story mainly tell us?

A．Good manners are more important than talents.	B．A seed planted in darkness may bloom later.
C．Failure is the mother of success.	D．One is never too old to learn.

2 . 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.

2. What did Picasso's father do when he found Picasso's gift?

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.

3. What was Picasso's attitude towards the special techniques at that time?

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.

4. What does the author tell us in the last two paragraphs?

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.