1 . Cimabue, the greatest painter in medieval(中世纪的)Italy, was surprised one day when he came back from his lunch break and discovered a fly was under the nose of a character he had been working on. So he reached out to touch the insect. To his surprise, he found only wet paint. Turning around, he saw that his apprentice(学徒), Giotto di Bondone, was doing everything he could to keep from laughing. Giotto had painted the fly when Cimabue was away, and it looked so real that Cimabue had been completely fooled.
Giotto was born into a poor farming family. Legend has it that one day when Cimabue was walking around the countryside, he spotted a young shepherd(牧羊人)boy. The boy was not tending his sheep. Instead, he was drawing pictures of them, and the sheep he drew were so lifelike that Cimabue stopped to ask the boy his name. The boy replied that it was Giotto, and Cimabue immediately asked him to come to Florence so that the young shepherd could learn how to paint.
In the Middle Ages, an artist not only had to concern himself with things like design and technique, but he also had to learn how to make paints. Almost all artists were men, and they began their apprenticeships at an early age. An apprentice’s job was to copy his master as exactly as he could. The unfortunate result of this imitation(模仿)was a lack of new ideas.
In fact, art in the Middle Ages remained the same for hundreds of years. The people in paintings didn’t look like real people, and the symbolism of art was often so remote that it must have been difficult for viewers to connect with it on a personal level. Giotto used many techniques that were uncommon at the time to bring the paintings to life for viewers. He painted people the way he saw them, instead of the overly tall people that other artists painted. He created three-dimensional space by using perspective, something that had not been done since Roman times. Finally, he threw out parts of the symbolism associated with medieval painting.
1. Why does the author mention the fly event in paragraph 1?| A．To indicate Giotto drew better than Cimabue. |
| B．To indicate Giotto liked making fun of others |
| C．To show the fly painted by Giotto looked real. |
| D．To show Cimabue disliked painting flies very much. |
| A．He was taking a walk. | B．He was feeding sheep. |
| C．He was playing with a shepherd boy. | D．He was drawing pictures. |
| A．Lacking creativity. |
| B．Having an unhappy childhood. |
| C．Having a short period of apprenticeship. |
| D．Supporting themselves by making paints. |
| A．Giotto’s study on medieval painting. |
| B．The competition between medieval artists. |
| C．Giotto’s efforts to change art in the Middle Ages. |
| D．The most popular forms of painting in the Middle Ages. |
