1 . The Artistic Marvel: Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, a troubled but immensely talented Dutch painter, left a profound mark on the world of art with his iconic work “Starry Night.” Painted in 1889, during a period of emotional turmoil and personal struggle, this masterpiece reflects both the artist’s inner turmoil and his deep connection to nature.
“Starry Night” is an oil painting that measures 73.7 cm × 92.1 cm and is currently housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The painting features a small village with steeples and houses nestled beneath a sweeping, swirling night sky filled with stars. The sky itself seems to come alive, as the stars twinkle and the crescent moon shines brightly. Van Gogh’s use of bold, swirling brushstrokes creates a sense of movement and turbulence in the sky, as if it is in constant motion.
The village below is bathed in a peaceful, calming light, in stark contrast to the dynamic sky above. The cypress tree in the foreground reaches up towards the heavens, almost as if it is trying to touch the stars. This painting is a testament to van Gogh’s ability to convey emotion through color and form. It is said that he painted “Starry Night” from his room in the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where he sought treatment for his mental health issues.
What makes “Starry Night” truly remarkable is the emotional depth it carries. Van Gogh’s use of vibrant blues and yellows, combined with the swirling patterns of the sky, evoke a sense of both wonder and melancholy. It is as if the painting captures the artist’s inner turmoil and his profound connection to the universe.
1. What is the medium used in the creation of “Starry Night”?| A．Watercolor | B．Acrylic |
| C．Oil painting | D．Pencil sketch |
| A．The Louvre Museum, Paris |
| B．The Tate Modern, London |
| C．The Museum of Modern Art, New York City |
| D．The Vatican Museums, Rome |
| A．Tranquility | B．Melancholy |
| C．Joy | D．Fear |
| A．A sense of calm |
| B．A sense of movement and turbulence |
| C．A realistic landscape |
| D．A static, unchanging scene |
2 . Elvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8,1935. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing.
After high school, Elvis had several jobs, including driving a truck. In 1953, he made his first recording of this song “My Happiness”. His first album was released (发行) on July 19, 1954. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”. The album sold well in Memphis,and was played a lot on local radio stations. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many performances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”.
By the middle of the 1950s, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips (臀部) as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. But young women loved him and huge crowds attended his performances.
He made his first movie in 1956. It was Love Me Tender. Elvis Presley was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the 1950s. He acted in thirty-one movies.
Elvis Presley won three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in 1967. It was for “How Great Thou Art”, an album of religious music.
Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the 1970s. His last record album was called “Moody Blue”. He also enjoyed great success on television. His 1973 television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one thousand million people.
Elvis Presley died on August 16,1977. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the King of Rock and Roll.
1. From the first paragraph we can know .| A．Elvis Aaron Presley was born into a very poor family |
| B．Elvis Aaron Presley was famous when he was a child |
| C．Elvis Aaron Presley taught himself music |
| D．Elvis Aaron Presley had no chance to listen to music during his childhood |
| A．a strong attack |
| B．a great pity |
| C．something that is very popular |
| D．something that is very strange |
a. How Great Thou Art
b. Moody Blue
c. My Happiness
d. That’s All Right
| A．d,c,a,b | B．b,a,d,c | C．c,d,a,b | D．c,a,d,b |
| A．Elvis Presley—the highest-paid singer |
| B．Elvis Presley—the King of Rock and Roll |
| C．Elvis Presley—a successful actor in Hollywood |
| D．Elvis Presley—an excellent example to singers |
3 . For more than 40 years, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has annually selected a group of Jazz Masters. Here are the NEA Jazz Masters selected for 2024.
Amina Claudine Myers
Amina Claudine Myers grew up in Dallas, Texas. She moved to New York City in the 1970s. The former elementary school teacher also worked in theaters and cooperated with musicians around the world.
Willard Jenkins
Willard Jenkins is familiar to jazz fans in New Orleans and Washington, D. C., where he’s hosted radio programs on stations such as WWOZ and WPFW. The Pittsburgh native first started writing about jazz for the Black student newspaper as an undergraduate at Kent State University. He also taught at various universities and contributed to leading jazz publications.
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz has played with generations of jazz stars. In the 1960s, after graduating from Juilliard, he joined the Max Roach/ Abbey Lincoln Group and the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop. In the 1970s, he played with Miles Davis and founded the Ntu Troop, which united jazz with African folk and other kinds of music. He has published more than 40 personal albums.
Terence Blanchard
It’s almost amazing that Terence Blanchard was named the NEA Jazz Master. He is only 61. It’s relatively young for the recognition.
Born in New Orleans to an opera-loving father, Blanchard started playing the trumpet (小号) as a child. Over the years, he has won multiple Grammys and a Peabody Medal. He made history in 2021 when his opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones became the first by a Black composer to be staged by the Metropolitan Opera.
1. Who was born in Pittsburgh?| A．Gary Bartz. | B．Terence Blanchard. |
| C．Willard Jenkins. | D．Amina Claudine Myers. |
| A．In the 1950s. | B．In the 1960s. | C．In the 1970s. | D．In the 1980s. |
| A．He is the first Black composer to be the NEA Jazz Master. |
| B．He is the youngest to be selected as the NEA Jazz Master. |
| C．He won a Grammy and a Peabody Medal in the same year. |
| D．One of his works was performed by the Metropolitan Opera. |
4 . For many people, music helps them escape reality. The musician Carter Hulsey is taking a different approach. He’s using his stage to help people face reality. He performed a selection of songs and then talked about some valuable financial (财务的) knowledge at Burkley Fine Arts Center recently. The rock artist gave a presentation (演讲) covering topics such as balancing a budget, making buying decisions, and how to spend money and save for the future.
“The message from Hulsey would be important for our students to hear,” the teacher Mrs. Dux said. “I believed listening to the band would be an interesting way to communicate that message. As I found out more information, I couldn’t pass up the chance our students to have this experience.”
Hulsey managed the budget for his band when they went on a tour years ago. But at that time, he didn’t know much about being smart with money. He shared his own experience with money management and the troubles that came with it.“When I was your age, we didn’t talk about money in school. We didn’t talk about it at home. I didn’t think about it,” Hulsey told students.“I just started heading around the country and learned all these things the hard way.” He hopes by showing students that even those who live the rock-star life need to understand financial wellness, he can help students to form good spending habits.
Terron Johnson, a teacher at Shiloh High School, is making sure students learn the lesson before they may go into debt. “It’s a real-world thing. A lot of times students will say, ‘Why do I need to know this math? How am I going to use this in real life?’ Well, you will use financial knowledge down the line,” Johnson said. If students understand how to effectively use their money to achieve their goals, they can make their dreams come true.
1. What can be learned about the musician Carter Hulsey?| A．He encourages people to enjoy life. |
| B．He shares financial knowledge with the audience. |
| C．His focus has moved from music to financial work. |
| D．His music is inspired by the life of young people. |
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Negative. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．To prove the success of his band. |
| B．To tell students how to find a hobby at a young age. |
| C．To explain the influence of artistic taste on students. |
| D．To show the necessity of learning money management early. |
| A．A musician becomes popular with students |
| B．Young students talk with a great musician |
| C．A concert brings more than music to students |
| D．Teachers advise students to be smarter with money |
5 . “Do what you love, not what others tell you is right,” says Georgia Lines of New Zealand.
I spoke with the 24-year-old singer-songwriter earlier this month about her rise to fame. In 2022, Lines was named breakthrough artist of the year at the annual Aotearoa music awards ceremony. Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, an island country in the Pacific Ocean that is home to more than 5.1 million people.
Lines makes success look easy, but she has worked hard to perfect her skills. “I love what I do,” she told me. “I love it when I get lost in music, and everything works together.”
Already, Lines has opened for pop singer George Ezra. She hopes “to open for Harry Styles one day,” she added.
Lines has written more than 20 songs and worked together with several top artists, including Jack Burton, Alex James and Cassie Henderson. “I love working with other people and cooperating,” Lines said. “I find I work better when I’m with others, because we can exchange ideas with each other.”
When asked about her musical ambition growing up, Lines smiled. “I was never a musical genius as a child,”she said. “But I always loved singing and music.”
In recent years, Lines has drawn enthusiastic crowds for her concerts. The video for her hit song, “No One Knows”, won best music video of the year in New Zealand in 2021.
As for her future goals, Lines said that she wants “to have a promising career and to keep doing what I love.” That means focusing on her own career and artistic achievements. “Comparison is the robber of success, “she said. “If I had stopped to compare myself with others, I wouldn’t have made it as far as I have.”
1. What is the main topic of the author’s conversation with Lines?| A．Her childhood. | B．Her family. |
| C．Her style of music. | D．Her way to success. |
| A．She likes teamwork. | B．She respects top artists most. |
| C．She has a gift for music. | D．She always loves music. |
| A．Valuing money too much. | B．Ignoring her future career. |
| C．Comparing herself with others. | D．Taking others’ suggestions. |
| A．Honest. | B．Knowledgeable. | C．Hard-working. | D．Kind-hearted. |
What inspires you?
Every artist’s wish is to create something that expresses an idea. But where do artists get their ideas from?Who or what inspires them? Here we find out more about the influences behind the successes of three very different artists.
Florentijn Hofman, visual artist
Florentijn Hofman is a Dutch artist，whose large sculptures are on display all over the world. One way for him to find inspiration is turning to his children’s toys. These objects have given him ideas for his animal sculptures，such as the famous Rubber Duck. A more recent work of his is the huge Floating Fish, which was set among the beautiful landscape of Wuzhen West Scenic Zone.
Hofman’s inspiration for Floating Fish came from Chinese folk tales passed down through the generations. He was particularly interested in the old story about a fish jumping through the “Dragon Gate”. This story came to life for Hofman when he visited Wuzhen and saw how people lived there.
“During the walk and my stay here in the town, I saw the fish being fed by people. You see also some fish sculpted on the wall.” These sights set Hofman’s idea for Floating Fish in motion.
Tan Dun，composer
“There is no territory in the world of music.” These are the words of Chinese composer Tan Dun. He is most widely known for composing music for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
To listen to Tan’s music is to experience a mix of Chinese musical traditions and Western influences. Since his first opera, Nine Songs, Tan Dun has been using a combination of Chinese music and sounds from all over the world to tell stories. As Tan once said, Chinese music should carry “universal expression” of the human spirit so as to be recognised by the whole world.
Yang Liping, dancer
Yang Liping’s passion is dancing. After winning a national competition in 1986 with her Spirit of the Peacock dance, she has been known as the “Peacock Princess”. The inspiration for her famous dances has come from the time she spent in Xishuangbanna，Yunnan Province.
“I feel very grateful for the years in Xishuangbanna,” says Yang. “It gave me a chance to go deeper into the lives of various ethnic groups...Our ethnic groups, especially the Dai people, admire the peacock. They think the peacock represents the beauty of nature. I especially like the dance style of the Dai people and it gives me lots of inspiration. My dance comes from their traditional belief and aims to bring out the Dai women’s beauty.”
1. What is the theme of the text?| A．Three artists and their famous works. |
| B．Three artists and their great achievements. |
| C．Three artists and their sources of inspiration. |
| D．Three artists and their own different jobs. |
| A．A fish toy. |
| B．The wish to hold an exhibition. |
| C．A duck floating on the water. |
| D．His experience in Wuzhen. |
| A．He is the director of Crouching Tiger，Hidden Dragon. |
| B．He is the director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. |
| C．He is the composer of Nine Songs. |
| D．He gets inspiration only from Chinese music. |
| A．Yang Liping won an international competition in 1986. |
| B．Yang Liping was born in Yunnan Province. |
| C．Yang Liping thinks the peacock represents the beauty of nature. |
| D．Yang Liping gets lots of inspiration from the dance style of the Dai people. |
| A．An art magazine. |
| B．An artist biography. |
| C．An online art forum. |
| D．A poster for an art festival. |
(1)
(2)
7. 细读短文并找出人物描写的句子
(1)
(3)
7 . Four Things You May Not Know About Picasso
1. Picasso was considered a child genius.
Born in Malaga on the southern coast of Spain in 1881, Pablo Picasso could actually draw before he could talk. By age 13 he was said to have drawn better than his father, an art teacher. As a result, his father handed over his brushes to Picasso and claimed that he would never paint again. Soon after, Picasso was admitted to an art school in Barcelona. Although a month was normally allowed to complete the entrance examination, he finished his in a single day. Much later, he stated that he could draw “like Raphael” when he was young. “But it has taken me my whole life to learn to draw like a child,” he added.
2. Picasso constantly changed his painting style.
As a teenager, Picasso painted fairly realistic portraits and landscapes. He then went through his so-called blue and rose periods from 1901 to 1906, in which he painted such things as poverty-stricken children and circus scenes. He created Cubism(立体派), an abstract style that reduced subjects to geometric(几何) forms. By 1912 Picasso had invented collage(抽象拼贴画) by attaching oilcloth, newspaper clippings and other materials to the surface of his paintings.
3. Picasso helped with the creation of Cubism.
Picasso co-founded Cubism with Georges Braque around 1909. The pair regularly visited each other’s studios and exchanged ideas. In Braque’s words, it was rather “like two mountaineers roped together”. Their working relationship, which produced an increasingly abstract common technique, lasted until 1914, when Braque joined in the French army at the beginning of World War Ⅰ.
4. Picasso was not just a painter.
Though best known for his painting, Picasso experimented with a number of different mediums, including sculpture, ceramics(陶瓷), drawing and printmaking(版画). From 1917 to 1924, he even designed the curtain, sets and costumes for some ballets. The earliest of those, Parade, featured a dancer who would become his first wife and the mother of his first child. Picasso started writing poetry in 1935, and he also wrote two plays in the 1940s.
1. Picasso was a child genius, as can best be supported by the fact that ________.| A．he finished his painting for the entrance examination in one day |
| B．he could draw better than his parents when he was a little boy |
| C．he spent many years learning to draw like a child |
| D．he got admission to a famous art school in Barcelona |
| A．Curtain. | B．Costume. | C．Poetry. | D．Mask. |
| A．Picasso’s painting style was always changing. |
| B．Picasso made his creations in various fields of arts. |
| C．Picasso and Georges Braque worked together to develop Cubism. |
| D．Picasso didn’t show talent for painting until his youth. |
8 . Becoming Van Gogh: the Paris Years
Vincent van Gogh is considered among the greatest painters of all time. However, he remained needy and unknown throughout his life. In February 1886, Van Gogh was so poor that he could not pay his rent in Belgium. He hastened(赶往)to Paris and moved in with his brother, Theo.
The sudden move ended up being particularly influential to Van Gogh. The Dutch painter was immediately introduced to a community of young avant-garde(前卫派的)artists experimenting with new styles. It was the beginning of a two-year period that resulted in a remarkable shift in his work, from the dark hues(色调)of his early realist paintings to the colorful flowers and portraits that most people associate with Van Gogh today.
At the time, the Impressionists(印象派画家), who were already the dominant force on the French capital’s cultural scene, were busy with their explorations of light and shadow. The Pointillists(点彩派画家)were separating out colors into individual dots to form figures. The Cloisonnists(分隔派画家), meanwhile, were painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark outlines. Van Gogh became exposed to all these styles and many more, and he tried his hand at all of them.
Van Gogh was particularly inspired by the work of Adolphe Monticelli, a painter from Provence who was known for his thickly-painted and colorful flowers. Monticelli’s work was what later drew Van Gogh to the French city of Arles(阿尔勒).
“It was during that period that Van Gogh really became the artist we know today,” said Nicholas Maclean, co-director of the Eykyn Maclean Gallery in London. “He was soaking up all the influences around him. He used their techniques and developed his own style.”
However, it wasn’t only the art Van Gogh saw that influenced his style and choice of subjects. “One of the things that is probably the best-known aspect about Van Gogh is that he had little money, so he was relying on his brother all the time,” Maclean added. “He ended up focusing on flowers because they were available and cheap, but that was also the main factor that led him towards the study of color.”
1. Which one is NOT TRUE about Vincent van Gogh?| A．His poverty contributed to the formation of his style of painting. |
| B．His painting was greatly influenced by avant-garde artists. |
| C．He ended up studying colors only because of the cheap and available flowers. |
| D．He tried many painting styles and formed his own style finally. |
| A．learn from | B．be absorbed in | C．change | D．pay no attention to |
| A．His move to Paris. |
| B．Various styles of painting styles. |
| C．The work of Adolphe Monticelli. |
| D．His poverty. |
| A．His brother, Theo influenced his study of color most. |
| B．The impressionists enjoyed a great reputation in Holland. |
| C．It is the poverty of Van Gogh that stimulates his study of hues(色调，颜色). |
| D．Van Gogh learned and liked all the types of styles. |
9 . Cubism of Pablo Picasso
Picasso and Braque worked together closely during the next few years(1909-1912)—the only time Picasso ever worked with another painter in this way—and they developed what came to be known as Analytical Cubism. Early Cubist paintings were often misunderstood by critics and viewers because they were thought to be merely geometric art. Yet the painters themselves believed they were presenting a new kind of reality that broke away from Renaissance tradition, especially from the use of perspective and illusion. For example, they showed multiple views of an object on the same canvas to convey more information than could be contained in a single limited illusionistic view.
As Kahnweiler saw it, Cubism signified the opening up of closed form by the “re-presentation” of the form of objects and their position in space instead of their imitation through illusionistic means; and the analytic process of fracturing objects and space, light and shadow, and even colour was likened by Apollinaire to the way in which the surgeon dissects a cadaver. That type of analysis is characteristic of Picasso’s work beginning in 1909, especially in the landscapes he made on a trip to Spain that summer (Factory at Horta de Ebro). Those were followed in 1910 with a series of hermetic portraits (Ambroise Vollard; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler); and in his 1911-1912 paintings of seated figures, often playing musical instruments (The Accordionist, 1911), Picasso merged figures, objects, and space on a kind of grid. The palette was once again limited to monochromatic ochres, browns, and grays.
Neither Braque nor Picasso desired to move into the realm of total abstraction in their Cubist works, although they implicitly accepted inconsistencies such as different points of view, different axes, and different light sources in the same picture. Furthermore, the inclusion of abstract and representational elements on the same picture plane led both artists to reexamine what two-dimensional elements, such as newspaper lettering, signified. The inclusion of lettering also produced the powerful suggestion that Cubist pictures could be read coming forward from the picture plane rather than receding (in traditional perspective) into it. And the Cubists’ manipulation of the picture shape— their use of the oval, for example— redefined the edge of the work in a way that underlined the fact that in a Cubist picture the canvas provides the real space.
1. Why was Analytical Cubism regarded as a normal geometric art at first?| A．Because critics and viewers were not qualified. |
| B．Because Analytical Cubism artists themselves thought their arts were geometric art. |
| C．Because Analytical Cubism was just a new form breaking away from Renaissance tradition. |
| D．Because they both have some similarities on showing their art involved. |
| A．Factory at Horta de Ebro. | B．Ambroise Vollard. |
| C．The Accordionist. | D．The Dream. |
| A．Braque and Picasso were willing to move into the realm of total abstraction. |
| B．Braque and Picasso used to frankly hold inconsistent opinions in the same picture. |
| C．Two-dimensional elements can create a more powerful implication when the pictures are read. |
| D．The use of the picture shape underlined the fact that in a Cubist picture the canvas provides the real space. |
10 . How Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die?
On November 20th, 1791, Mozart suddenly came down with fever and was wracked with pain. His arms and legs were severely swollen. In the following days his health significantly deteriorated. He died on December 5 after lapsing into a coma. The death certificate states he died of “severe miliary fever”. Exactly which disease led to Mozart’s death has been a mystery for the last 200 years.
SpeculationsMany myths —some more plausible than others — entwine (缠绕) Mozart’s early demise. One of the most popular myths — that Mozart was poisoned by his rival Antonio Salieri — rose to prominence due to the popularity of the film Amadeus. This theory is supported by the fact that Mozart had been living through a phase of depression before his death, suffering from paranoia and existential fear. Mozart himself suspected that the cause of his deteriorating health was being poisoned over a long time. However, it is highly likely that this was just his subjective view of reality.
Many other speculations circulate. Syphilis and trichinellosis are frequently mentioned. In 1905, a French physician assumed uric acid poisoning due to a never fully healed nephritis. In 1961, lead poisoning was suggested as a possible cause of death.
Scientific attempts to explain Mozart’s deathIn 2000, a group of American scientists proposed rheumatic fever caused by a strep infection after conducting meticulous detective work. The symptoms stated in literature and the reports of Mozart’s contemporaries yielded the clues. Without antibiotics, such an infection would inevitably lead to death. Rheumatic fever causes a weakening of the heart, which could explain Mozart’s swollen limbs.
In 2009, the Dutch scientist Richard Zegers extensively studied surviving documents and concluded that Mozart had been suffering from pharyngitis, a throat infection with symptoms including cramps, fever, rashes and a swollen neck. Mozart’s sister-in-law Sophie Haibel had described these symptoms. The death registry of Vienna for winter 1791 lists several deaths caused by this disease.
Whatever the cause of Mozart’s death, it came far too early. Let us thank him for his manic urge to create art and remember him on December 5th!
1. Which of the following is similar in meaning to the underlined word “deteriorate” (Paragraph 1)?| A．To become worse. | B．To change greatly. |
| C．To recover quickly. | D．To be harmed rapidly. |
| A．It is generally believed that Mozart was poisoned by his friend. |
| B．Mozart’s depression paranoia and existential fear led to his death. |
| C．Mozart had been poisoned sustainably for a long time before he died. |
| D．Mozart once got a nephritis and it was never healed. |
| A．Mozart’s disease was recorded in contemporary literature and reports. |
| B．Antibiotics were not discovered at that time. |
| C．Rheumatic fever can only be caused by strep infection. |
| D．Mozart’s illness cannot be cured even today. |
| A．To back up the Dutchman’s study. |
| B．To prove they were common symptoms causing death in 1791. |
| C．To prove Mozart did have such symptoms before his death. |
| D．To emphasize her special identify as a witness to Mozart’s death. |
