1 . Adding to the achievements of a remarkable year, Taylor Swift has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023.
Already a superstar before 2023, Swift’s career has reached new heights thanks to the beginning of her Eras Tour that brought her 3.5-hour performance to 66 shows in 23 cities across North America, Argentina and Brazil. Promoted by her tour, Swift has been named the most-streamed female artist in the history of Spotify and Apple Music. According to Billboard, the tour made about $900 million (about 6.4 billion yuan) in 2023. In addition, the tour’s movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the biggest concert movie of all time, taking more than $250 million globally.
As she was declared (宣布) a billionaire by Bloomberg in November, a hidden “Taylor Swift economy” also promoted sales for business owners across the US. From soaps to a cruise inspired by her different “eras”, interest in Swift-related products went way up.
Apart from her financial contributions, Swift made a significant cultural impact by taking back control of her music. In 2019, her old record label, Big Machine, sold the master tapes of her first six albums (专辑) to Scooter Braun. The sale meant that she didn’t have the rights to the albums. In response to this, Swift began re-recording her first six albums, tagging (加标签于) them “Taylor’s Version”. This move stressed her belief that artists deserve to own their work. “It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she told Time. “I respond to extreme pain by resisting.”
Heading into 2024, Swift will start the Eras Tour again in Japan and Australia. As USA Today noted, “Her current top has been a long time coming, but it may also be just beginning.”
1. What do we know about Taylor Swift?| A．She broke a new record on her tour. |
| B．She toured South America before 2023. |
| C．Her achievements received great recognition. |
| D．Her performance began with the Apple Music. |
| A．She proved herself to be an artist. |
| B．She learned to make some products. |
| C．She got rich and regained album rights. |
| D．She sold her master tapes to a company. |
| A．She will end her music career. |
| B．She will continue her Eras Tour. |
| C．She will reach her top in Japan. |
| D．She will make a record in Australia. |
| A．Admirable. | B．Uncaring. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Critical. |
2 . Taylor Swift showed very early promise as a singer of country songs, performing from the age of nine. She learned the guitar and persuaded her family to move to Tennessee so she could further her career. She holds numerous records for achievements in music, has been named among the top 100 most influential people on more than one occasion and was named as Woman of the Decade and Artist of the Decade in the 2010s. Swift’s musical style has evolved from country to pop and her fans number in the millions.
Taylor Swift has a firm belief that we should all be ourselves. She tempers this by saying that we must be respectful of others, honest and strong-willed. Strength of purpose will carry a person through life and see them achieve great things. Do not, she says, be average. Stand out and be the best person that you can.
Her view of life is simple. We each have one life, and we must make sure we do not waste it. Life is there to be enjoyed and to be fulfilled. Only we can control what happens in our lives, and must not allow others to judge us or create false opinions of us.
To live a life that has meaning, we must be prepared to learn from mistakes and failures and deal with them without getting discouraged or distracted from our path. No one should tell you what you can’t do, and you must not let a mistake tell you that either. When someone tries to stop you from doing something, be eager to prove them wrong. Be keen, too, to show that your mistakes won’t hold you back.
Taylor Swift puts great store in happiness. Seeking happiness is a wonderful ambition, and everyone should see it as an aim. Success without happiness is a meaningless achievement. Aiming for happiness can go along with other goals too. Swift doesn’t rest when she has achieved one goal, but picks up another and pursues that with the same vigor and determination.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?| A．She moved to Tennessee to get a degree. |
| B．She has been named among the top 100 most influential people once. |
| C．Her musical style is single. |
| D．She has had a talent in music since childhood. |
| A．We should accept that we are only ordinary people. |
| B．We are masters of our life. |
| C．Never let mistakes block our moving-forward way. |
| D．Without happiness, success equals zero. |
| A．Patient and passionate | B．Positive and ambitious |
| C．Hard-working and optimistic | D．Intelligent and humorous |
| A．A brief introduction to Taylor Swift. | B．Taylor Swift’s autobiography. |
| C．Taylor Swift’s influence. | D．Taylor Swift’s childhood and dream. |
3 . He is a Chinese superstar, a piano genius who has sold millions of albums worldwide. Lang Lang has also used his fame and fortune to help state schools around the world that lack music, warning at a 2019 awards ceremony in London that such lessons had become “a real challenge” for children in the most disadvantaged communities.
Now he is bringing music to British state schools in an ambitious project that will set up modern “piano labs” in needy schools across the nation. Each lab will have 20 to 30 keyboards. The plan is inspired by his programmes in the US and China, in which he has invested tens of millions of pounds.
In the US, he has set up piano labs in 86 schools, giving 70,000 kids access to keyboards. In China, he has installed them in 104 schools, enabling 110,000 children to make music. This is primarily for pupils aged seven to 12.
The first UK school to benefit is the Winns primary school in Waltham Forest, London’s 12th poorest area. It will receive 30 keyboards within the next few weeks. Every lab is accompanied by a curriculum created by the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and Lang Lang, with ongoing teacher-training, financial support, and headphones, allowing group piano classes.
Asked what inspired him to support UK schools, Lang told the reporter: “We were able to identify many similarities between state schools in the UK and public schools in the US in terms of the way access to music and arts can be extremely limited when budgets are cut…I was so surprised by how music classes are never guaranteed. The schools and teachers are incredible, and are so dedicated to providing their students with everything they can. But it shocked me how access to music education can be so limited.”
His charity quotes the Greek philosopher Aristotle: “Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it.”
Lang Lang said: “When I visit our partner schools and see the joy on the students’ faces or hear from our teachers about the progress students are making, I’m reminded of why we created this programme—to give children an opportunity to discover what they’re capable of achieving and to find their voices through music.”
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To offer background information. | B．To introduce an argument. |
| C．To discuss Lang Lang’s plans. | D．To highlight Lang Lang’s reputation. |
| A．Private schools. | B．Ambitious schools. |
| C．Remote schools. | D．Disadvantaged schools. |
| A．The teachers are doing a good job. |
| B．Music classes aren’t always available. |
| C．The budgets are always being cut. |
| D．The schools are dedicated to helping students. |
| A．Lang Lang—a kind and caring pianist |
| B．Lang Lang teaches the world to play piano |
| C．Chinese superstar brings music to British kids |
| D．Chinese piano genius looks for future piano stars |
4 . Mary Shelley bends over her latest creation. Although the carving is only half complete, the image of a waitress holding a plate of eggs comes out from the board. Of Shelley’s nearly seven hundred carvings, many show scenes with cows on farms and people in restaurants.
From memories to carvings
“My work is a visual diary, ” Shelley says. “The carvings describe things I have experienced and felt at different times in my life.”
Every one of her carvings tells a story. Many of the stories in Shelley’s woodcarvings come from memories of her childhood in a rural (乡村的) area outside of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Shelley’s family managed a small farm. Mary was a serious girl who spent a lot of time raising animals, exploring outdoors, and reading. Although Shelley never felt especially artistic as a child, there was always an art project in the works in the Shelley household. Her grandmother painted. Her father was a commercial artist, who drew and wrote to make a living.
______
Shelley attended Cornell University and hoped to become a writer, but an unusual present took her in another direction. At age 23, she received a gift her father had made-a woodcarving of her as a girl on the farm. The gift caught her interest. After gathering boards from a building site where she worked as a carpenter, Shelley bought some tools and taught herself to carve.
Shelley soon realized that she loved the slow, thoughtful process of working with wood and painting. “A carving is like a jigsaw puzzle (拼图游戏),” she explains. “I didn’t know how it would all fit together, but the process of solving the puzzle kept me going.”
The Shelley style
Early in her career, people hired Shelley to carve special pieces that took four or five weeks to complete. The money she received motivated her to try more complicated scenes created by carving deeper in the wood. Over time, Shelley’s art began to have its own style. In a typical Shelley woodcarving, some objects seem to reach out of the frame while others drop back, creating a feeling of depth.
1. What can we infer from the “From memories to carvings” part?| A．Art is from but beyond life. | B．Life is short and art is long. |
| C．It is great art to laugh at your own misfortune. | D．Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist |
| A．Life in School | B．A Dream Come True |
| C．A Life-Changing Gift | D．Jigsaw Puzzles and Carving |
| A．The dream to be an artist in her childhood. | B．Her father’s low-relief carving for her. |
| C．The rugs hooked by her grandmother. | D．Her school life in Cornell University. |
| A．is very popular | B．is very expensive |
| C．has simple scenes | D．creates a feeling of depth |
5 . Uygur musician, Sanubar will give two concerts in Beijing and Shanghai on Jan. 13 and 14, featuring songs with dutar — a traditional folk instrument, which her father loved playing at home. “The instrument was hanging on the wall at my home and my father often played it for fun. My mother always sang along and we danced together,” recalls Sanubar, who was born into a Uygur family in Xinjiang. When her father died, Sanubar, who was 8 years old, composed her first song to honor him.
One of the songs she will perform is White Horse, adapted from an old Xinjiang folk song and telling a love story. “I get inspired by poems. Poems are as rhythmic as music. So when I read a beautiful poem, I easily connect it with its sounds, which allows me to turn the poem into a song,” says Sanubar. Some other songs are selected from the Xinjiang Uygur Muqam recorded on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 by UNESCO, which includes songs, dances, folk and classical music.
Sanubar learned to play dutar at Xinjiang Arts University and, after graduation, she joined the Xinjiang Art Theater Muqam Art Troupe. From 2003 to 2005, she came to Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music to study music production. In 2010, at the age of 39, Sanubar enrolled in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she spent four years learning to compose and got her Bachelor’s degree.
So far, Sanubar has written over 100 songs and released about 10 albums. She teaches dutar at an art school in the regional capital Urumqi. Sanubar and other folk musicians sang and danced with smiling faces. “I notice that many young people in Xinjiang are learning traditional instruments and singing old songs, which makes me very happy.” says Sanubar.
1. What originally inspired Sanubar’s music career?| A．The rhythm of poems. | B．The impact of her father. |
| C．The honor of her first song. | D．The company of her mother. |
| A．She promoted the beauty of traditional folk art. | B．She wrote many beautiful poems from old songs. |
| C．She gained reputation both at home and abroad. | D．She helped complete the Xinjiang Uygur Muqam. |
| A．Sanubar’s main achievements. | B．Sanubar’s learning experiences. |
| C．The composition of folk songs. | D．The preservation of local music. |
| A．Intelligent and sensitive. | B．Elegant and reliable. |
| C．Energetic and productive. | D．Motivated and cautious. |
6 . Zheng Xiaoying was born in Shanghai in September 1929. Her youth and passion for music helped her become a conductor in an art troupe (巡回演出团). In the early 1960s, Zheng was sent to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to study opera and symphony conducting, becoming the first professionally trained female conductor in China at that time.
As a student, she conducted the Italian opera “Tosca” in public at a large opera house in the Soviet Union and won great applause not only for the wonderful performance, but also for the Chinese woman on the stage. Recalling this experience, Zheng said it was of great importance for her to become an opera symphony conductor and served as one of the turning points in her life.
After return to China, she did her best to combine Western and Oriental music. In addition to lectures and performances, in 1998, she founded the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. With the concept of “attracting more audiences to the concert hall to enjoy the beauty of music,” the musical orchestra has now gained worldwide recognition. It has also become a popular travel destination in the city of Xiamen.
Besides being a conductor, Zheng is also a teacher. As one of the most famous Chinese conducting professors, she has taught many famed musicians. Many of them are still active on stage, both in China and abroad. Still, as a daughter of the Hakka people, she follows the tradition of valuing education. The Hakka culture enabled her to create a Chinese symphony called “The Echoes of Hakka Earth Building” which promotes China’s cultural achievements in music. So far, the symphony has been performed 80 times in over 12 countries and regions.
Zheng not only promotes the Chinese symphony to the world, she also presents traditional Chinese music. She said the thought of spending her last few seconds on the conductor’s podium (乐队指挥台) would be what she calls “the most romantic” of a desirable career. Now in her 90s, Zheng Xiaoying is still active on the stage, sharing China with the world through her music.
1. What’s a turning point in Zheng’s life?| A．Joining in an art troupe. |
| B．Studying conducting in Moscow. |
| C．A job at a large opera house in Italy. |
| D．A public performance in the Soviet Union. |
| A．It is a characteristic of Xiamen. |
| B．Its concept is to draw people’s attention. |
| C．It combines Western and Oriental music. |
| D．Its aim is to inspire people’s music talent. |
| A．By asking questions. | B．By listing examples. |
| C．By analyzing reasons. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Her desire for romanticism. | B．Her ideal of spreading musical ideas. |
| C．Her enthusiasm for music career. | D．Her achievement in music field. |
As the daughter of a painter, Artemisia Gentileschi was afforded access to the art world at a young age. Early on, she was in her father’s workshop mixing paints and he supported her career when he noticed that she was gifted. As a famous painter of the Italian Baroque period, Artemisia Gentileschi did not let her gender hold her back from her subject matter. She painted Biblical and mythological (神话的) paintings, just like male painters.
Angelica Kauffman (1741—1807)
Born in Switzerland, Angelica Kauffman was the daughter of the artist Johann Joseph Kauffman. She received artistic training while acting as her father’s assistant from a very young age and copying the works of old masters as they traveled for commissions (委托). As a young woman, she also trained in Italy, where her historical paintings and portraits were well received.
Rosa Bonheur (1822—1899)
Like many female artists at the time, Rosa Bonheur’s father was a painter. The French Realist painter is considered one of the most famous female artists of the 19th century, known for her large-format paintings that featured animals. She showed her works regularly at the famous Paris salon and found success abroad in both the United States and Britain.
Berthe Morisot (1841—1895)
Considered one of the great female Impressionists, Berthe Morisot had art running through her veins. Born into a noble French family, she was the great-niece of celebrated Rococo painter Jean-Honore Fragonard. Her art often focused on family scenes, and she preferred working with pastels (粉彩), watercolor, and charcoal (木炭).
1. What artistic style do Artemisia Gentileschi’s paintings belong to?| A．Rococo. | B．Baroque. | C．Realism. | D．Impressionism. |
| A．Artemisia Gentileschi. | B．Angelica Kauffman. |
| C．Rosa Bonheur. | D．Berthe Morisot. |
| A．They all learned painting from their fathers. |
| B．They all loved copying classic paintings. |
| C．They were all born into a noble family. |
| D．They all grew up in an artistic environment. |
8 . In a studio on the top floor of a three-story Tibetan-style house in Lhasa, Phuntsok Tobgye and others are busy working on a thangka painting, which shows Tibet’s breathtaking beauty and famous attractions like the Potala Palace.
Phuntsok Tobgye is one of the inheritors (继承人) of Tsedong thangka. It is a branch of the Miantang painting, the most influential school of Tibetan thangka painting. Through the efforts of thangka painters, the skills have been passed to younger generations, with their works reaching a wider range of art lovers.
When he was a child, Phuntsok Tobgye developed an interest in the thangka paintings. He started sketching the landscape of his hometown. After primary school, he began to learn thangka painting. When he was 18 years old, he traveled to Lhasa, learning from thangka masters to help repair the murals (壁画) in the Potala Palace. It was there that he learned different styles of the art form.
In the following years, he continued to learn the art form in Lhasa. During this period, his works were displayed at various exhibitions, including one in Beijing and one in Vancouver, Canada. His solo exhibition held in Lhasa in June 2015 attracted nearly 1,000 visitors on its opening day and his works gained popularity among art collectors.
Sonam Wangden, Phuntsok Tobgye’s son, is learning thangka painting from his father. He says he can recall his father being busy with the canvas (帆布). Not long ago, Sonam Wangden and his father went to Lhasa to undertake restoration work of temple murals. After finishing their work, they sat by the wall chatting about their restoration work. Now, many of his relatives paint thangka. Phuntsok Tobgye takes pride in that.
1. What does the thangka painting Phuntsok Tobgye is working on show?| A．Tibet’s architecture. | B．Tibet’s working people. |
| C．Tibet’s long history. | D．Tibet’s scenery and tourists spots. |
| A．His early interest. | B．His childhood experience. |
| C．His family’s support. | D．His teacher’s encouragement. |
| A．Excited. | B．Proud. | C．Surprised. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Phuntsok Tobgye Held Solo Exhibitions in Lhasa |
| B．Phuntsok Tobgye Loved Thangka Painting when young |
| C．Tibetan Artist Phuntsok Tobgye and Thangka Painting |
| D．A Tibetan Man Learns Thangka Painting from His Father |
9 . On the evening of June 22, a Kunqu Opera performance titled The Peony Pavilion took to the stage of Beijing’s Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, starring Wei Chunrong in the role of the female protagonist (主角), Du Liniang. Despite having performed the part on stage over 300 times, Wei still arrived at the theater four hours early, being the first actress backstage to get her makeup done and check the equipment. This is a habit she’s maintained ever since first entering the world of Kunqu in 1982.
Kunqu Opera originated in Jiangsu Province some 600 years ago. As one of the oldest traditional Chinese operas, Kunqu is regarded as the “ancestor of Chinese dramas” and the “mother of Chinese operas”.
Kunqu Opera prospered (兴盛) during the Ming Dynasty, but suddenly experienced a downturn in the mid-Qing Dynasty. Its lyrics (歌词), originally flowery, eventually became non-understandable, while its melodies slowed down to what some people called a “funereal level”. Kunqu therefore became unacceptable to all but a small number of fans.
But when UNESCO officially listed Kunqu Opera as intangible cultural heritage in 2001, it returned to the spotlight.
“When our application proved successful, we were all so happy and proud. However, I suddenly realized that it actually meant its decline (衰退) and that it required protection.” Since then, Wei has devoted herself to preserving and passing on her beloved art of Kunqu Opera.
To address the lack of young talent in Kunqu Opera, Wei herself today also teaches younger actors, doing for them what her teachers did for her. Offstage, Wei is their friend; onstage, she aims to bring out the best in them as performers of the art through her masterly knowhow and strict demands.
1. Which of the following can best describe Wei according to paragraph 1?| A．Devoted. | B．Creative. | C．Promising. | D．Curious. |
| A．It is the oldest opera. | B．It is especially popular with the young. |
| C．It once lost its appeal. | D．Its lyrics are long and difficult. |
| A．Promoting herself as a master. |
| B．Passing it down to a younger generation. |
| C．Getting people to learn more about its history. |
| D．Giving as many performances as possible globally. |
| A．Kunqu Opera—Intangible Cultural Heritage |
| B．Kunqu Opera—from Prosperity to Decline |
| C．The Origin and History of the Kunqu Opera |
| D．One Master’s Commitment to the Kunqu Opera |
10 . Rita Moreno is one of the very few performers to EGOT: to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. But come a little closer, and Moreno’s is another kind of immigrant (移民的) story.
She was a teen when MGM (米高梅电影公司) signed her in the 1950s. Major studios were still dominated by the men who’d run them for decades. They had her change her name. While recognizing her talent, they didn’t know what to do with a Latin girl. Moreno played small parts, including a girl from India and a Burmese (缅甸的) woman. What should have been her big break came when she was cast as Anita in West Side Story. She’d remember Anita as “the very first Hispanic (西班牙的) character I had ever played who had dignity, a sense of self-respect. She became my role model. ” The night Moreno won the Oscar, the Hispanic community across the USA broke out into cheers.
But that career turn didn’t happen. Instead, she received more offers to play what she described as “dusky servants”. The racial and ethnic prejudice was still at play. “It broke my heart, ”she says. Rita Moreno didn’t make another movie for seven years.
Then began her new act. Holding to her mother’s philosophy — Never give in, never quit, keep on moving — she survived professionally during those years with work on the London stage and in nightclubs, slowly reemerging on film and television, and eventually she earned herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Peabody Career Achievement Award.
But even as she continues to perform, her work continues off the screen, speaking out for and representing the Latin community. “I’m now known as la pionera, or the pioneer,” Moreno says. “I really don’t think of myself as a role model. But it turns out that I am, to a lot of the Hispanic community. Not just in show business, but in life. But that’s what happens when you’re first, right?”
1. What do we know about Moreno in Paragraph 2?| A．She was an actress contracted with MGM. |
| B．She had her future well-planned for her talent. |
| C．She was treated as a Hispanic girl with dignity. |
| D．She won the Oscar for acting a Burmese woman. |
| A．She did not receive any film offers. |
| B．She rejected roles of racial prejudice. |
| C．She was tired of performing on the stage. |
| D．She focused on her stage career in nightclubs. |
| A．Generous and brave. | B．Kind and grateful. |
| C．Honest and trustworthy. | D．Tough and determined. |
| A．She prefers to be a role model in show business. |
| B．She is unhappy with what happened to an actress. |
| C．She makes a difference to the Hispanic community. |
| D．She feels pressured about being a Hispanic pioneer. |
