1 . During his youth, Albrecht Durer apprenticed with his father, who was a goldsmith, and also with a local painter. But he showed a remarkable talent for printmaking, which at the same time was the main method of illustrating books. This art form involved carving an image into a block of wood, inking the wood and then pressing it against paper or cloth. Durer’s skillful carving and printing resulted in beautiful prints. His decision to become a print-maker rather than a goldsmith disappointed his father but benefited Durer throughout his adult life.
From time to time, deadly diseases broke out in Durer’s hometown of Nuremburg, Germany. This danger was one reason why Durer decided to leave Nuremberg twice to visit Italy. He was also fascinated by Italy’s Renaissance culture. While there, he absorbed Italian philosophy, science and artistic techniques. He also served as official court artist to two Holy Roman Emperors.
Durer was extremely diligent regarding the details of his artwork as evidenced in his nature pieces. These include Young Hare, which correctly captures the energy of a hare even while it is sitting still, and Rhinoceros which was so correct that it was included in scientific documents for years.
The same attention to details can be seen in Durer’s early self-portrait. The first one that he made at age 13 shows a young boy with childish features. A second self-portrait that he made at age 22 displays a more mature individual who has a greater sense of himself. In a self-portrait done at age 26, he is a finely dressed gentleman, reflecting his rise in status within the printmaking community.
1. What saddened one of Durer’s parents?| A．Durer’s lack of concentration. | B．Durer’s pride in his wealth. |
| C．Durer’s choice of profession. | D．Durer’s absences from home. |
| A．He couldn’t find any work there. | B．He longed to live in the countryside. |
| C．He wasn’t able to settle his debt. | D．He wanted to protect his health. |
| A．His interest in technology. | B．His evolution as a person. |
| C．His strong love of travel. | D．His physical limitations. |
2 . It's hard to say goodbye to your favorite pair of jeans, even when they're way beyond wearable.
Netherton-born artist Ian Berry has made quite a name for himself after his unique art took the art world by storm. It's hard to believe the idea of using old denim (牛仔布) as medium for his art came after a call from his mother, Christine, asking him to clean out his room. “It was about six or seven years ago, my mum was clearing out my old room and she wanted me to go through my things. I found loads of old jeans and denims and I noticed the different colors and shades. I kept hold of them but it was only about 18 months later that I began to do something with them.”
Ian Berry quit his full-time job in advertising to focus all his attention on art.
Iain Barratt, director of the Catto Gallery, told the Examiner, “what Ian Berry does is extraordinary.
| A．So many people would rather put their jeans away than throw them away. |
| B．He didn't know his experiment would soon make him and his denim art famous all over the world. |
| C．It was a risky move. |
| D．He thought he would earn a lot of money in his new career. |
| E．But English artist Ian Berry has found a way to use denim to create beautiful works of art. |
| F．Denim art is as simple as it is beautiful. |
| G．People can't see how he's created these wonderful scenes until they see it close up and touch it. |
3 . As pianist Mahani Teave was ready to begin her international career, she remembered the moment when the first piano arrived on her remote island, Rapa Nui.
“I had to go, break all the rules, and just go straight to see this piano,” Teave took her first lessons on that piano. They strengthened her love for the instrument and inspired her to eventually leave her island home for dreams of becoming a star soloist (独奏者). Teave’s departure for the mainland, just a few months after those lessons, came at the suggestion of Roberto Bravo, a well-known pianist from Chile who visited the island and heard her play.
As a teenager, awards began to roll in, including a first place finish at the Claudio Arrau Piano Competition. After nine years, Teave left Chile and became a pupil of pianist Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music and then went to Berlin to learn from Fabio Bidini. “The future of Mahani is only in her hands,” Bidini says in the documentary.
But after four years in Berlin, Teave began to feel the island strongly pulling on her heart and her head. She began to think of giving up a promising career that was hardly off the ground. “I could have stayed there perfectly and would have also been very happy,” Teave says. "But there was a saying in my mind, ‘Mahani, you had all these opportunities. There are lots of other children who are waiting to have them too, and you only can do this.’”
So she moved back to Chile. In 2016, along with her partner Enrique Icka, Teave officially opened their Toki School of Music.
Teave, at age 37, may have given up a successful career as a concert pianist, but through her ambition she gained something more — the satisfaction of supporting the dreams of children, hungry to learn music.
1. What inspired Teave to leave her island home?| A．Her inborn soloist dream. | B．Her first lessons on the piano. |
| C．Her bad living conditions. | D．The help from Roberto Bravo. |
| A．Her unique personality. | B．Her talent for music. |
| C．Her learning experience. | D．Her musical career. |
| A．The desire to help kids in her island home. | B．The tiredness of traveling off the ground. |
| C．The lack of talent to be a successful soloist. | D．The calling of her partner Enrique Icka. |
| A．Selfless. | B．Stubborn. | C．Competitive. | D．Cautious |
4 . It has been more than 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci died. He was so ahead of his time that people are still talking about how smart he was.
The inventor, painter, scientist, mathematician, musician, writer and thinker painted the most famous artworks in the world, including Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He also invented a robot, a helicopter and a diving suit and thought about catching solar energy, besides, he planned a clean, healthy and modern city and made dozens of important discoveries about the human body.
Leonardo lived from 1452 to 1519. He was Italian, born in a village near Vinci. From the age of 14 he was a trainee to a painter and goldsmith. This studio in Florence, Italy, was a busy place with lots of thinkers, artists and skilled businessmen working around him. Though he spent years doing jobs such as tidying up and mixing paints, he could listen to all the things everyone discussed and start forming his own ideas about drawing.
Leonardo’s earliest surviving drawing is a pen and ink sketch of the nearby Amo River. And though this wasn’t drawn until 1473, when he was about 21, he probably he probably sketched scenes and ideas long before this.
Mona Lisa is one of the world’s most famous paintings. It is regarded as the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. People have always been attracted by how Leonardo made his subject’s face so interesting: Is she smiling or smirking; happy or sad? Like humans in real life, no one really knows how she was feeling.
Leonardo had permission from hospitals to study the bodies of people who had recently died. He made more than 240 detailed drawings of the human bodies. He wrote more than 13, 000 words on the subject. Unfortunately, Leonardo didn’t publish this work and took many years for the rest of the world to discover what Leonardo knew.
1. What can we infer about Leonardo da Vinci from Paragraph 2?| A．He caught solar energy. |
| B．He created a modern city. |
| C．He was the most famous artist. |
| D．He was a man with many talents. |
| A．When running his own studio. |
| B．When working as a trainee |
| C．After inventing a robot. |
| D．After discussing with businessmen. |
| A．Leonardo da Vinci’s early drawing life. |
| B．Lisa Gherardini, a mysterious woman. |
| C．Leonardo da Vinci, a man ahead of his time. |
| D．Mona Lisa, one of the world’s most famous painting. |
5 . With smiling eyes, a quick wit and a good sense of humor, Jia Ling has long been a well-known female comedian.
Jia, 39, starred in and directed the film, Hi, Mom, which by Feb 23rd has earned more than 4 billion yuan. Jia became the top box office grossing female director in China and is on the path to becoming an international name in the filmmaking industry.
One factor may be her passion for comedy. Jia graduated from Beijing's Central Academy of Drama in 2003. In the last 18 years she has performed crosstalk in various competitions and shows. She has also played comedic roles in many comedies on the big screen,
| A．So what is the secret behind Jia's success? |
| B．Another factor is that the approach to the film also makes Jia's works stand out. |
| C．which ultimately led to the connection between the stage and film. |
| D．making her an outstanding comedian welcomed by many viewers. |
| E．This film truly breaks the happy atmosphere with its sentimentality. |
| F．But recently, she has gained another title. |
| G．Hi, Mom appears to have hit all the right notes. |
6 . Born in 1921, Paul Smith was diagnosed with a severe disease that affects motor abilities and strength. Since he could not grasp the artist’s tools, his creations turned to the typewriter.
His works include his childhood fascination with trains, spiritual leaders, war scenes and country heroes. It’s not so much the subject that is remarkable about Paul’s work, it’s the painstaking skill of using symbols on a typewriter to form perfect copy of existing work, and creative representations of his surroundings.
Paul’s images employed only a handful of symbol keys - !, @, ≠≠, ％, ∧, (, &, ) — which were accessible along the top row of his typewriter keyboard. Remarkable, when a person considers that hand typewriters required the ribbons to be positioned, the roller to be adjusted, and the paper to be secured. Typewriters, of that time, left no room for error since erasing mistaken keystrokes was not a clean option.
As he typed, he would lock the shift key in a safe position not to type numbers. He used his left hand to steady his right. Different symbols created the look of varied textures (神韵), and depending on the look to achieve, he would adjust the spacing to type the symbols near or far. And, he adjusted the roller to perfect spaces between lines.
Depending on its size and complexity, it could take anywhere from two weeks to three months to complete one piece. He worked, on average, a couple of hours every day on his art. After all of that work, one wouldn’t blame Paul if he sought to sell his work, but by all accounts, he would give away his pieces. As his distinctive art form gained interest from others, the number of orders for his artwork increased.
In 2007 the world lost Paul Smith at the age of 85. For this American, creating art was a leisurely pursuit and a form of expression. To the art world, he set a high bar for typewriter artists that many have tried to match, but few are able to repeat it.
1. What do we know about the tool Paul Smith worked with?| A．It has only symbol keys. | B．It requires ribbons and a roller. |
| C．It is specially made for him. | D．The spacing is not adjustable. |
| A．Lock the shift key. | B．Erase mistakes neatly. |
| C．Steady all the symbols. | D．Adjust the keys precisely. |
| A．Primitive. | B．Sensitive. |
| C．Innovative. | D．Time efficient. |
| A．Art comes from life. | B．Efforts work wonders. |
| C．Patience is a virtue. | D．Technique does count. |
7 . In real life Joanna Garcia Swisher, 41, is happily married to former Major League Baseball player Nick Swisher, 40, and raising daughters Sailor, 4, and Emerson, 7. On TV she needs the help of a matchmaker to find love in the new Hallmark Channel romance As Luck Would Have It. She opens up about raising strong girls, how her parents’ recent deaths affected her and which roles fans recognize her for the most.
You haven’t needed a matchmaker — but if life had turned out differently, would you use one?
I would totally have been game for it. I was set up by a friend of ours to meet my husband, but I think it sounds so fun.
You star opposite Allen Leech — were you a Downton Abbey fan?
I’m a huge Downton fan, but I know Allen personally very well. He happened to marry my best friend’s little sister. His mom actually cooked me dinner a couple of times while I was shooting!
You’ve been on TV since you were a teen. Which role gets you recognized most?
Sweet Magnolias now. But overall I would say Reba. I also get recognized for being Amy Adams more than I get recognized for being myself.
You lost your mother, father and grandmother in the past year and a half. How are you and your family doing?
My daughters have watched me go through so much in the last year, from the highs of the success of Sweet Magnolias to the lowest of lows, losing my parents and my grandmother. I really believe that it’s not what happens to you, it’s what happens for you. Even in their passing, as tragic as it was ... I know that it’s not for nothing. My mom was such a strong, capable, amazing woman; my father was the ultimate father and feminist and just huge source of support — and I think that solidified my strength. So I only hope that I’m modeling that same strength for my girls.
1. How does the text develop?| A．By questions and answers. | B．By listing examples. |
| C．By narrating life stories. | D．By comparison and contrast. |
| A．It’s strange. | B．It’s acceptable. | C．It’s terrible. | D．It’s necessary. |
| A．Joanna was just playing on words. | B．Joanna missed her parents much. |
| C．Joanna submitted herself to her fate. | D．Joanna faced the tragedy positively. |
| A．Simple and talkative. | B．Stubborn and influential. |
| C．Strong and easy-going. | D．Negative and sensitive. |
8 . Christo Javacheff the artist who worked to turn landscapes and buildings into massive, temporary works of art, died on March 2021 at age 84. Christo surprised the world again and again with the imagination and size of the artworks he created.
Christo, born in Bulgaria in 1935, met his wife Jeanne-Claude in Paris in 1959. Together, the two formed a strong partnership that lasted the rest of their lives. They worked as a team to create huge works of art called installations. In these installations, Christo and Jeanne often changed the way buildings or large areas of land looked — a kind of art known as "land art”.
The two were most noted for “wrapping” things so large that most people would never think to wrap them. Many of their projects used huge pieces of cloth or plastic. For example, in 1969, they wrapped 1.6 miles of rocky coastline near Sydney, Australia and it was the largest artwork ever made. In 1995, they used cloth to wrap up the Reichstag, a famous and historic building in Berlin, Germany.
Being extremely large, their art works cost a fortune to create. The artists paid for the projects themselves by selling the plans, drawings, and models they made for each installation. Many projects seemed so unusual that the couple had to work very hard to get permission to create them.
But, like almost all of the artist's work, it was only meant to last a short time. Most of the installations only stayed up for a few weeks or months before being taken down.
“I am an artist, and I have to have courage," Christo said. "Do you know I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished." Christo himself has gone away, leaving behind an art world forever changed by the memory of his huge and daring artworks.
1. For what were the couple best known?| A．Overcoming financial problems. |
| B．Tearing down old-fashioned buildings. |
| C．Inventing innovative building materials. |
| D．Packaging huge landscapes and buildings. |
| A．Considerate and humble. | B．Creative and courageous. |
| C．Enthusiastic and careful. | D．Demanding and generous. |
| A．His artworks were temporary. |
| B．His hard work didn't pay off at last. |
| C．He regretted exhibiting his artworks. |
| D．He didn't expect his works to last long. |
| A．Christo's Collection of Massive Artworks |
| B．Christo's Enormous Influence on Architecture |
| C．Christo: an Artist Who Dreamed and Built Big |
| D．Christo and Jeanne: a Couple Who Warmed the World |
9 . In the 17th century, the Netherlands experienced a period of artistic prosperity known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this era, enlightened artists found inspiration in Northern Renaissance painting techniques, resulting in masterpieces like Girl With a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer(约翰内斯·维米尔).
Known as the “Mona Lisa of the North,” this painting represents the best of Dutch art. Though Girl With a Pearl Earring is covered in mystery, it has become one of art history's most beloved paintings.
Specializing in genre painting - a type of art that employs scenes of everyday life as its subject - Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer is famous for his depictions(描绘 )of contemporary Delft, a city in Holland where the artist was born, lived, and died. Specifically, he is known for his depictions of domestic interiors and portraits of women, like the figure featured in Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Vermeer painted Girl with a Pearl Earring around 1665, which is Vermeer’s most well-known work of art. However, it did not attain international fame at its time of completion. That came about at the end of the 20th century, when it was featured in a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.
Girl with a Pearl Earring shows a young woman sitting before a dark backdrop. This stark and shallow background beautifully contrasts the figure's cream-colored skin and half crystal eyes, which are fixed on the viewer. In addition to an elegant blue and yellow turban (女用头巾 ), she wears a large, tear-shaped pearl earring. On the surface, this depictions seems to have the classic characteristics of a portrait, but it is actually known as a tronie(十七世纪荷兰的一种风俗肖像画) and does not refer to a specific person or place.
Today, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains one of the most famous paintings in the world. “When you think about the Mona Lisa, she is also looking at us, but she isn't engaging -she is sitting back in the painting, self-contained,” Tracy Chevalier, the author of the New York Times bestselling historical novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, points out. “Whereas Girl with a Pearl Earring is right there-there is nothing between her and us. She has this magical quality of being remarkably open and yet mysterious at the same time - and that is what makes her so appealing.”
1. What can we learn about Vermeer from the text?| A．Vermeer attained international fame exactly in I665. |
| B．Vermeer learned a lot from the painting Mona Lisa. |
| C．Vermeer showed his works at the end of the 20th century. |
| D．Vermeer painted Girl with a Pearl Earring around I665. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Objective. | D．Conservative. |
| A．He found inspiration in Northern Renaissance painting techniques. |
| B．He studied the advanced painting techniques in his childhood. |
| C．He was really famous for the vivid depictions of his hometown. |
| D．He had an efficient communication with the people in his hometown. |
| A．Basic background. |
| B．Subject matter. |
| C．Magical quality. |
| D．Painting techniques. |
10 . London-based artist Sarah Ezekiel has won international recognition for her vivid, life-filling images. But her work is more remarkable for the fact that she has a medical condition that has left her unable to move her arms.
Ezekiel’s pictures are painstakingly produced, using the movement of her eyes and specialized technology that relays those movements to a computer. The eye-tracking technology gives Ezekiel a platform for artistic expression, otherwise denied by her disease—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS).
Ezekiel showed no signs of the condition until 2000, when she was aged 34. Pregnant with her second child, she noticed some weakness in her left arm and that she was unable to produce each word clearly. Within months, she was diagnosed with incurable ALS.
Ezekiel describes her first five years living with ALS as “very lonely”. Today, she can neither speak nor move but says “technology has made my life worth living”. She uses a system made by Tobii Dynavox, a company specializing in “Eye Gaze” devices that help people with medical conditions communicate. Its technology adopts projectors, cameras and algorithms to track the tiny movements of the user’s pupils and control a cursor on a screen.
To interview Ezekiel, CNN sent her questions and she prepared her answers letter by letter, using predictive text. The technology also lets her surf the net, shop online and use social media.
Ezekiel, who studied art when she was younger, began painting using the Eye Gaze device in 2012. Her first artwork. Peaceful Warrior, took its title from a book by Dan Millman. “It was originally supposed to illustrate despair, but the finished result had a totally different feel,” she recalls.
“Being an artist because of technology has totally improved my general attitude towards life and opened up many other possibilities for me,” says Ezekiel. I couldn’t create pictures for years and it’s fantastic that technology has made it possible again.
1. What can we know about Ezekiel’s disease?| A．It inspired her to be a devoted artist. | B．It was totally cured when she was 46. |
| C．It draws more attention to her works. | D．It stops her from thinking independently. |
| A．Enjoy her basic online life. | B．Move her body at her own will. |
| C．Suffer less pain from her disease. | D．Write letters to her baby by hand. |
| A．Drawing pictures. | B．Staying positive. |
| C．Using technology. | D．Being a special artist. |
| A．A Platform Brings Fame | B．An Artist Paints With Eyes |
| C．Art Makes Life Meaningful | D．A System Wins Much Favor |
