1 . 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. |
2 . Many visual artists have a signature style, as unique and identifiable as a fingerprint. For Amoako Boafo, who often paints with his fingers, this seems doubly true. His distinctive paint strokes (笔画) combine the complex skin tones of his chosen subjects, many of whom are, like himself, Africans with global life experiences.
Boafo, whose first solo museum exhibition runs at the Seattle Art Museum, was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, and moved to Vienna, Austria, in 2014, where he ran into difficulties, with gallerists unwilling to show his works due to his focus on Black figures. He continued making an effort to create self-portraits (自画像) and people he knew or admired-African people and Black people who have African ancestry, painting a community of sorts during a time of hardship. He also developed his standout approach to figurative painting, which combines areas of bright and noticeable color with his soft and deep fingerpainting.
He began posting his art online and caught the attention of artists like Kehinde Wiley, the celebrated American artist. The word started to spread.
Boafo is now a global art star, with numerous shows at galleries and art fairs, working with fashion house Dior, and several paintings selling for over a million dollars. In 2021, with three of his paintings being launched into space by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ Kent-based spaceflight company, you might even say Boafo has rocketed to success.
And yet a recent phone conversation with the artist from his studio in Accra, which is once again his home base, revealed a well-mannered person who appreciated his success while pointing out all of the luck and preparation that led to it. Seeing so many of his paintings -created from 2016 to 2022-gathered together in an exhibition has helped him remember that “I did not ‘just happen. ‘I did not expect this success but I was hopeful and ready for it.”
1. What makes Boafo’s paintings different from other artists’ works?| A．His finger strokes. | B．His home country. ss-ess |
| C．His life experiences. | D．His traditional style. |
| A．By turning to celebrated artists for help. | B．By developing a unique painting style. |
| C．By running his art exhibition at home. | D．By working with local art galleries. |
| A．To indicate the price of space travel. | B．To show the value of Boafo’s works. |
| C．To introduce an international brand. | D．To tell us the advances in technology. |
| A．He is talkative. | B．He is patient. | C．He is determined. | D．He is humorous. |
3 . To create “Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape”. Alejandro Duran gathers plastic trash that is washed up on the beaches of Sian Karan, Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve. The site is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Yet every day, plastic pollution from around the world is washed up onto its shores. These materials inspired Duran to create a series of environmental art pieces, which he re-cords with photos and videos.
Duran was born in Mexico City and is now based in Brooklyn. He said that he had been collecting materials and creating photographs for the past five years, and the work was ongoing. “The project will tell me when to stop.”
Each piece can convey a vastly different mood, from the calm greens of soda bottles to the playful rainbows of toothbrushes. “I’m making art,” said Duran. “It comes from the context and my moods. You can’t say only something dark.” The work reflects and plays with natural forms, exploring how humans influence the environment. The colorful and playful images can be much attention-grabbing. “Beauty is a hook (钩子) to attract people’s attention,” said Duran.
In addition to promoting awareness of the plastic pollution problem, Duran is also involved in educational programs and helps to organize beach clean-ups. He has also made a study of the types of products that are washed ashore in Sian Ka’an, and has identified objects from 50 different countries. Although there’s no way to know where or how these objects were dropped into the sea, their labels show the global nature of the problem.
1. What does Alejandro Duran do with the trash?| A．He moves it away. | B．He collects and burns it. |
| C．He turns it into a form of art. | D．He puts it together for people to see. |
| A．He will stop the project soon. | B．It’s hard to carry on the project. |
| C．He will go on with the project. | D．The project is important to him. |
| A．recycle the trash | B．change his career |
| C．clean up the beach | D．raise public awareness of pollution |
| A．Plastic pollution in the ocean. |
| B．An artist creating environmental art. |
| C．The global nature of the pollution problem. |
| D．Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve. |
4 . For those who are deaf or have hearing loss, making and enjoying music can be a challenge. However, that hasn’t stopped Dame Evelyn Glennie from achieving success.
Scottish-born Dame Evelyn Glennie is one of the world’s most recognized percussionists (打击乐器乐手). However, she started going deaf at the age of eight due to a nerve disease. At 12, she totally lost her hearing.
At first, Glennie was desperate. But her percussion teacher at school taught her to feel particular notes. For example, she had to place her hands on a wall, and he would play two notes on two timpani. He would then ask her which was the higher note and where she felt the vibration. Through trials and errors, she managed to distinguish the pitch of notes by associating where on her body she feels the sound. Thanks to her perfect pitch and the fact that she performs barefoot, Evelyn “hears” the sound. Together with her lip-reading skills, and amazing musicianship, she has conquered any troubles and inconvenience caused by her impairment.
Till now, Glennie has performed with almost all the major orchestras (管弦乐队) globally. Besides classical music, she is famous for partnerships with pop and rock artists like Sting and Bjork. Glennie’s works has earned her over 100 music awards, including two Grammys. She even led 1,000 drummers in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
At the age of 58 this year, Glennie’s mission now is to “teach the world to listen” to improve communication by encouraging everyone to discover a new way of listening. “It’s important to grab on to any opportunity that comes your way, but you also need to create your own opportunities,” says Evelyn. “It’s a personal time to reflect on the impact you might have on other people as well. I don’t know if age plays a part in it, because I feel as though I haven’t really achieved very much and there’s still so much to do!”
1. How could Glennie identify different notes as a deaf person?| A．By reading her teacher’s lips. | B．By putting her hands on a wall. |
| C．By applying her amazing musicianship. | D．By feeling the vibration through her body. |
| A．Sorrow. | B．Mismatch. | C．Abnormality. | D．Fear. |
| A．faithful and tolerant | B．cheerful and practical |
| C．determined and kind | D．considerate and dutiful |
| A．A Dream Pursued by Evelyn Glennie | B．A Deaf Musician Heard by the World |
| C．Evelyn Glennie: Teach the World to Listen | D．Talented Percussionist: Say “No” to Age |
5 . Here is a brief introduction to the “three masters of art” of the Renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519)
He was the most famous artist, sculptor and inventor of the Italian Renaissance. He was also known as “the most perfect representative of the Renaissance”. He was born in the town of Vinci, on the outskirts of Florence, and died in France. The fresco The Last Supper, the altarpiece Our Lady of the Rock and the wall painting Mona Lisa are the three masterpieces of his life.
Raphael(1483-1520)
He was an Italian painter and sculptor. His series of wall paintings of the Virgin reflected a humanism with maternal warmth, which were different from the medieval painters. Our Lady of Frio, Our Lady in the Chair and Our Lady of Alba are all his perfect works. After 1509, he was invited by Pope Julier II to paint wall paintings in the Vatican Palace. He died in Rome on April 6, 1520.
Michelangelo(1475-1564)
He was a great painter, sculptor and architect of the Italian Renaissance and a representative of the highest peak of Renaissance sculpture. From 1501 to 1504, he completed the world-famous David. From 1508, he spent more than four years completing the famous wall painting in the Sistine Chapel. He devoted his whole life to great art until his death in his studio on February 18, 1564.
1. From this passage. what is the name of the wall painting created by Leonardo da Vinci?| A．The Last Supper. | B．Our Lady of the Rock. |
| C．Mona Lisa. | D．The Battle of Angeli. |
| A．His works reflected a humanism with maternal warmth. |
| B．His works had extremely strong religious overtones. |
| C．His works emphasized the aesthetic function of painting. |
| D．His works emphasized the performance of subjective spirit. |
| A．They all painted wall paintings. | B．They were Italian. |
| C．They were born in early 15th century. | D．They were sculptors. |
6 . Four People Pushing Anamorphic (变形) Art to New Limits
Adry del Rocio
Mexican street artist Adry del Rocio creates 3D murals (壁画). In a piece for Den Helder City in the Netherlands, a playful seal intertwines (缠绕) between impossible column structures that reminds people of the mind-bending imaginings of the classic modernist artist MC Escher. In 2019, she created the award-winning “Swimming in red” for the International Street Art Festival in Brande, Denmark. The killing of whales in the Faroe Islands is marked by her work, where these beautiful mammals jump and play out of a sea of crimson, their tails changing into flowers.
Jonty Hurwitz
Using a variety of materials, the London artist/scientist performs a number of computer calculations, enabling him to warp (扭曲), say, an endangered frog or horse or even, basketball players into unrecognizable objects.
James Nizam
James Nizam works with light to transform a space. In 2016’s “Frieze”, a single beam of sunlight enters a common room through a carefully made hole. The resulting flood of light into the space creates an almost dreamlike feel, with the shining beams creating captivating lines and divisions in what cannot now be described as an empty room. Nizam is also known for transforming rooms by removing walls and floorboards to create anamorphic effects like in “Orthodrome”.
John Pugh
In a career extending over 30 years, world-famous American artist John Pugh has been creating show-stopping trompe L’oeil murals ( French for “deceiving the eye”) on a grand scale, whether it be giant snakes crashing through solid walls or revealing hidden temples and buildings by “peeling away” completely flat surfaces.
1. Who created the work “Frieze”?| A．Adry del Rocio. | B．Jonty Hurwitz. | C．James Nizam. | D．John Pugh. |
| A．He is French. | B．He is American. | C．He is Mexican. | D．He is British. |
| A．Their works won many awards. | B．They are fond of creating 3D murals. |
| C．Their works have reached a new height. | D．They are famous for transforming rooms. |
7 . If you have ever seen the art of Jonathan Green, it is not likely that you will soon forget it. His paintings are bold and colorful, lively and cheerful. Green depicts a way of life that is rapidly disappearing. It is a way of life that he remembers with fondness from his childhood in the South Carolina Sea Islands.
Jonathan Green was born in 1955 in Gardens Corner, South Carolina, a region of the state known as the Low Country. The second of seven children, Green was raised by his maternal grandmother, Eloise Stewart Johnson. As he grew up, he was immersed in Gullah culture-a culture that placed great value on tradition, family, and community. Although Green had to travel to other parts of the world before he could fully appreciate his rich heritage, the basic elements of his culture eventually found their way into his unique form of artistic expression.
After Green graduated from high school, he joined the military. It seemed like a good opportunity for him to see the world and to receive an education. When he completed his military service, Green attended the Art Institute of Chicago. While he was in school, he worked part-time as a security guard at an art museum. This allowed him to study the work of the masters. He imitated their work at first, learning what made them so well respected. Then, Green found his own style and direction and began painting South Carolina’s Gullah Islands, the world he knew best.
Jonathan Green’s artwork is filled with everyday images of Gullah life as he remembered it growing up. His paintings show people hanging laundry out to dry, picking oysters, telling stories, and attending weddings and funerals. Water is found in many of his paintings because it plays an important role in the lives of people who live along the coast and on the islands.
Human beings are also found in nearly all of Green’s work, indicating the importance of family and community to the culture. The faces of the people in his paintings are usually without features. This can be interpreted as Green’s way of showing how the everyday lives and experiences of people are universal.The Gullah way of life is changing as children grow up and move away to larger towns and cities. Jonathan Green knows that his artwork cannot change what is happening to the area where he grew up. But his paintings can raise awareness of what is in danger of being lost and preserve the memories of a rich and colorful way of life.
1. What can we learn from the passage?| A．Green’s way of depicting is rapidly disappearing. |
| B．Joining the army broadened Green’s horizons. |
| C．Green’s artwork raised the awareness of changing the area . |
| D．Green imitated the masterpiece to show respect for the masters. |
| A．A landscape of a beautiful village. |
| B．A realistic portrait of a mother telling story. |
| C．A fisherman casting a net. |
| D．A cute dog biting a bone. |
| A．Participate. | B．Devote. | C．Contribute. | D．Expose. |
| A．a profile | B．an auto-biography | C．a review | D．an initiative |
8 . Throughout history, many of the world’s greatest artists never achieved tremendous fame until after their death. That’s the case of Vivian Maier, who’s now considered to be one of the most important American street photographers of the last century, alongside famous names like Diane Arbus and Henri Cartier-Bresson. But she remained unknown for much of her life, and it was only a chance encounter with a box of negatives that put her in the spotlight.
Details of her life are unclear, but she was born in New York City in the 1920s to European parents. Maier grew up in France before returning to the U. S., where she spent several decades working as a nanny in Chicago to wealthy families. During her days off Maier is thought to have taken more than 100, 000 photographs of people and city scenes in Chicago, yet she kept the photos to herself-many of them never developed.
Skip ahead to 2007, a Chicago historian and collector, John Maloof, came across Maier’s work by accident after purchasing a box of tens of thousands of undeveloped negatives for $380 Sat an auction (拍卖) . As he developed them, Maloof realized they were more than just photos. He was looking at evocative (唤起) art illustrating a Chicago of the mid-20-century that nobody had never seen. Maloof worked to uncover who the photographer was, acquiring more and more of her work. But before he could locate her, Maier had already passed away in 2009, having slipped on ice and never recovering from her head injury.
While Maloof researched Maier’s work, more details emerged. She kept to herself, her employers said, and she would spend her free days taking photos on the streets of Chicago with a Rolleiflex camera. According to Maloof, the children Maier took care of knew she was constantly taking photos, yet she never showed her photos to anyone. Maier also traveled around the world, as indicated by some of her photos.
Other collectors began to acquire Maier’s photos, but Maloof owns much of her work. He released a book, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer, in 2011, and his documentary, Finding Vivian Maier, came out in 2013.
1. Which word can be used to describe Vivian’s life?| A．Risky. | B．Wealthy. | C．Mysterious. | D．Miserable. |
| A．She was born in France. |
| B．She never developed her photos. |
| C．She enjoyed great fame in her life. |
| D．She took photos of Chicago and other cities. |
| A．He approached Maier’s former employers. |
| B．He managed to meet the artist in the flesh. |
| C．He released a collection of Maier’s work. |
| D．He purchased more developed negatives. |
| A．They were presented to her employers. |
| B．They were meant to earn her a fortune. |
| C．They were taken by a professional artist. |
| D．They were of artistic and historical value. |
9 . This painting Spring Bouquet has a precise structure. The flowers spill over into the lower left-hand corner, with an imbalance as free and as wild as nature. But at once the artist responds to this unbalance. To the right of the vase, Renoir has developed a heavy shadow area, rich in purples and sharply contrasted with the light below it. The placing of the straight line in the lower right side is necessary. If the reader covers this line, he will see that the composition becomes unbalanced.
The Impressionist technique had not yet developed when Renoir painted this picture. Yet the painting with light and color indicates Impressionism is around the corner; there is something of that school in the feeling of the out-of-doors that Renoir has acquired. The texture (纹理) of the flowers is described. Above all, one can’t help saying the very nice smell of the flowers is there, too.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841. He began working as a young painter of porcelain and textiles. At age 21, Renoir entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and went on to study under the instructions of painter Charles Gleyre’s. Even though his paintings had been initially rejected by the Academy and the public, with time he became one of the most admired artists of his generation.
Unfortunately, in 1899, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (风湿性关节炎). It is a disease that causes a lot of pain. In addition, the person affected by it may also have deformities (畸形). Consequently, his movements became very limited and each movement was a big and certainly painful effort.
His son, Jean Renoir, writes in the book Renoir, My Father after his father passed away, the reaction of the people to the painting of the father, after seeing his hands:
Visitors who were unprepared for this could not take their eyes off his deformity. Though they did not dare to mention it, their reaction would be expressed by some such phrase as “It isn’t possible!” With hands like that, how can he paint those pictures? There’s some mystery somewhere.
1. What can readers see in the painting?| A．A vase in the left corner. | B．A shadow to the vase’s right. |
| C．A straight line at the bottom. | D．A natural light in the middle. |
| A．The painting material. | B．The color choice. |
| C．The smelly flower taste. | D．The impressive feeling. |
| A．Renoir, My Father. | B．Spring Bouquet. |
| C．Rheumatoid arthritis. | D．Renoir’s bravery. |
| A．Patience Is a Lifetime Practice | B．Pain Passes, but Beauty Remains |
| C．Impressionism Is a Unique Technique | D．Work hard, and You Will Catch Up |
10 . According to Michael Gelb, the author of ‘Think Like Da Vinci’, any living person can bring out their inner Da Vinci by committing themselves to several ‘Da Vincian’ principles.
According to Gelb, although not everyone is born with the gifts and the abilities of Leonardo Da Vinci, it is possible for any person to use the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning to guide us to toward the realization of our own full potential.
Leonardo possessed an intense curiosity about the world around him. It was this undiscouraged curiosity that began in childhood and continued throughout his life that drove Leonardo into becoming one of the greatest thinker’s humanity.
The young Leonardo loved nature. Leonardo would wonder around the Tuscany countryside asking questions he did not himself yet understand. Questions such as: Why shells exist on the tops of mountains alongside seaweed usually found in the sea. Why lightning is visible whereas thunder is not and takes a longer time to travel.
Keeping a journal or notebook – Leonardo always carried a notebook with him so that he could jot down ideas, thoughts, impressions and observations as they occurred.
Asking questions - Making a list of a hundred questions in your notebook on any given topic that comes into your head.
Be willing to make lots of mistakes – Leonardo was not afraid to make mistakes and appear foolish.
| A．Curiosity can be developed. |
| B．Why so many important families live in Tuscany. |
| C．But don’t think Leonardo was a man of thought alone. |
| D．Here, we are going to look at one key principle: curiosity. |
| E．Leonardo relied only on himself to answer his own questions. |
| F．Actually, Leonardo embraced the feelings of unfamiliarity and foolishness. |
| G．But do not be fooled into thinking that Leonardo did not make any mistakes. |
