Recently, Ma Xiaohui, a famous Chinese erhu     1     (perform) and composer with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, held     2     erhu concert with the theme of “Erhu Holding Hands with the World, New Music Trend, New Cultural Tour” in the Delegates’ Room at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Attendees from different backgrounds and participants in the World Madam Global Awards Ceremony were     3     (deep) moved by the unique charm of traditional Chinese musical instruments     4     (display) during the concert.

The concert began     5     the song “Woman Flower”. In the first movement, “Seven Colors of Erhu, Walking with Beauty, Colorful Silk Road,” melodies from Chinese and Western songs created an “ink painting” of the Silk Road.

In the next three     6     (movement), a classical repertoire (曲目) including “Butterfly Lovers”, “Thoughts on a Silent Night”     7     “The Spirit of My Erhu” attracted the audience. Next     8     (come) the theme song from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”,     9     beautifully celebrated the classic dialogue between erhu and cello (大提琴).

“This beautiful and     10     (inspire) concert wonderfully mixed classical, Chinese, and cross-cultural themes. It was a feast (盛宴) for the ears and souls,” multimedia artist Ranjit Bhatnagar said.

Thomas Eakins, a painter, photographer,     1     (sculpt) and fine arts educator, received little     2     (recognize) during his lifetime but he is now widely considered as one of the most     3     (influence) figures in American art history. Eakins was interested in bringing     4     the individuality of his models and created     5     are now regarded as masterpieces in portraiture (肖像画法). His most famous work, The Gross Clinic, is “celebrated as a great 19th-century medical history painting,     6     (feature) one of the greatest portraits in American art.”

Apart from his art, Eakins     7     (credit) for introducing “the camera to the American art studio”     8     for being a famous art teacher. As an early pioneer of photography, he used the medium extensively throughout his career as both a way of documenting his own work and as a tool for     9     (explore) new visual ideas. He is recognized as the most important     10     (real) in American art in the 19th and early 20th century.

Shao Lujie, a 28-year-old craftsman from Zhejiang Province, has created multiple works of art for the upcoming 19th Asian Games. His craft is known     1     quilling, an art of creating decorative designs from thin strips of curled paper.

Since Shao     2     (be) a child, he has loved painting and handicrafts. In 2016, he started to learn quilling from a master of the art and has been devoting     3     (he) entirely to it ever since.

“During this process, I found that this paper art handicraft can     4     (combine) with painting and different design elements. I hope to find breakthroughs in this handicraft,” Shao said.

In an era     5     AI-generated art and other commercial works are entering the art market, Shao still insists on     6     (stick) to this ancient craft. In recent years, Shao has begun to develop cultural and creative products with local characteristics. “One     7     (innovate) is changing the theme of a wedding celebration from flowers to ‘China-chic’ and local features,” Shao said.

    8     (attract) young people’s interest in this art form, Shao has gone online, creating accounts on social media such as Xiaohongshu. “    9     (normal), I would like to write articles about this art and post pictures of my latest works on Xiaohongshu,” he said.

Shao hopes to open     10     exhibition hall in the future so that more people can learn about his craft and, ideally, pass it down to future generations.

George Gershwin was one of America’s greatest composers. He was born in 1898. In 1916, when he was eighteen years old, he published his first song. During the next twenty years he    1    (write) more than five hundred songs.

Many of Gershwin’s songs were first written for musical plays     2     (perform) in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment during the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever,     3    have been sung and played in every possible way over the years-from jazz to country.

In the 1920s Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert of Paul Whiteman, who was a jazz musician and orchestra     4    (lead). Gershwin did this because he wanted     5     (support) his idea that jazz was serious music. In a short time, he composed     6     piece of music which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were     7     (excite) when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

In 1928, he wrote An American in Paris, which still     8     (remain) one of his most famous works. George Gershwin died in 1937     9    a very young age, with newspapers all over the world     10    (report) his death on their front pages.

Wei Chunrong has built a reputation as a leading actress of Kunqu Opera,     1     oldest traditional Chinese opera with a history of about 600 years, which, performed in the Suzhou dialect,     2     (know) for graceful body movements, rhythmic singing and exquisite costumes.

She started learning at 10 and     3     (perform) with the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre since she was 16. Wei performed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2001     4     the organization listed it as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity (人类口头和非物质遗产). Now in her 50s, Wei has found a new role. In the     5     (origin) Kunqu Opera production, titled Guo Feng, Wei plays the role of Lady Xu Mu,who was the first female poet     6     (record) in Chinese history.

“I played different roles during the past four decades. For Lady Xu Mu, I have to put aside all my experiences and start afresh     7     (comprehend) and perform the role,” said Wei,     8     (sit) in the dressing room of Tianqiao Theatre a day before the show started on June 19.

“The role, Lady Xu Mu, was written for Wei Chunrong     9     particular. Though she has played many classic roles, she needs one which could represent her     10     (specific) and take her career to the next level,” says Luo, the playwright (剧作家).

Maxime Biou, a winner of the 2020 Yishu 8 Young French Artist Award, is holding     1     exhibition in Beijing. Biou, born in France in 1993, is based in Paris. He graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2019 and the following year he     2     (win) the Yishu 8 Young French Artist Award. Over the past few years, he     3     (participate) in artistic residencies in cities such as Madrid, Avignon, and Nantes, showing his creations in exhibitions     4     (hold) in well-known locations like Paris, Venice, and Arles. In October, Biou began his residency in Beijing. Within a month, he toured world- famous landmarks     5     the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Beihai Park, and the Great Wall. He also explored exhibitions showcasing the works of young Chinese artists in the 798 Art Zone. Yet,     6     truly attracted him was the hutong where he chose to live. Biou     7     (skillful) pictures the essence of the hutong life on oil paintings in this exhibition. Displayed are four oil paintings     8     Biou employs his distinctive brushwork to paint the differences of time, light, scenery, and     9     (object) within the small alleys. Christine Cayol, the     10     (found) of Yishu 8, said that Biou enjoyed the nights of Beijing, where he illustrated his viewpoints and reflections on life. The exhibition runs until Dec. 10.

When 35-year-old Chinese pianist WangYujia finished her last note on Tuesday, she received a standing applause from the audience. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, commonly     1     (know)as Yannick, the conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, even went down on his knees after watching her four-hour     2     (perform)at the Carnegie Music Hall.

She was considered as a superstar for her once-in-a-lifetime show. Yannick even compared the level of her excellence to     3     (climb)Mount Qomolangma. Despite the difficulty, however, it seemed she managed     4     (play)all the musical pieces with ease right to the last movement. Yannick noted that Wang was     5     ideal pianist because of her forceful and relaxed style. And he said that she was born for this kind of music. Wang showed a special interest     6     Rachmaninoff’s music when she was young. She began to play the piano when she was 6. At the age of 14, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music in the US and began to study it     7     (carefully)than before. She     8     (attract)by this Russian composer’s noble and pure music deeply at that time.

After graduation, she became one of the world’s most famous     9     (star)in classical music. Wang’s success also shows that her parents’ years of efforts have paid off,     10     will be very encouraging for other parents in China.

For years, artist Ren Jianguo     1     focuses on Chinese ink wash paintings has been exploring how the modern spirit of ink wash paintings can     2    (combine) with traditional Chinese aesthetics (美学).

The artist puts his deep     3    (understand) of Chinese culture and abstract (抽象的) expressionist painting language together     4    (produce) art with a unique modern sense.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Ren     5    (devote) to developing a new “figure landscape” painting style,     6     innovative combination of traditional Chinese figure and landscape paintings.

Ren’s works inherit (继承) the     7    (peace) sense of traditional Chinese ink wash paintings. Many of his works were inspired by the lifestyle that the poet Tao Yuanming described in his poetry.

Born in Beijing and late     8    (travel) to Australia, Ren made a name for himself as early as 1985, when he brought     9    (he) work to the milestone national art exhibition of Chinese contemporary art China Youth in Progress. The exhibition paved the way (为……铺平道路) for the 85 New Art Movement, which has been seen by many     10     an introduction to Chinese contemporary art.

Vincent van Gogh was one of the most gifted artists of his generation. He began working in     1     art gallery when he was 16 years old. However, it was not until more than a decade later that he started to     2     (serious) consider being an artist himself.

In 1880, he took up painting, from which he     3     (draw) much comfort. As he began to display a talent     4     painting, he realized that art was his true calling. He     5     (impress) by the artworks of the master painter Rembrandt when he laid eyes on them. In 1886, he moved to Paris to live with his brother,     6     introduced him to some Impressionist artists. He began to form his own style,     7     (employ) thick, unmixed paint. This resulted in vivid colours, similar to     8     in the Impressionist paintings. However, Van Gogh’s     9     (work) had strong lines, as opposed to the softer edges of Impressionism. He made friends with Paul Gauguin and they became     10     (know) as Post-Impressionists.

Every day at 9 am, Zhang Canjin, 58, comes to Drum Tower Street in Ningbo and walks into a small house     1     less than 10 square meters. Settling himself     2     (comfortable) in his usual chair, the inheritor of copper coin knitting starts his day.

In ancient times, copper coins     3     (represent) fortune and wealth. Linking copper coins one by one had the positive meaning of accumulating wealth. In 2018, copper coin knitting was listed as     4     intangible cultural heritage.

Zhang learned the skill from his dad     5     young. There weren’t that many ideas back then, just traditional ones like Chinese knots and swords. But this didn’t satisfy Zhang as he gradually mastered the skill. “Knitting the coins into different shapes doesn’t sound difficult, but the essence is     6     (think) big and be creative.” Zhang said.

Since starting his copper coin knitting store in 2014, Zhang     7     (spare) no effort in thinking big. To attract public attention and better promote the skill, Zhang spent two months crafting armor (铠甲) using over 8,000 coins,    8     (tailor) to his own body proportions, in2017. He then applied for a national patent following the work’s     9     (complete).

This success gave him more confidence to continue with his work. Even now, Zhang uses his we alth of creative ideas to make more copper coin products and shares the skill with a    10     (wide) audience.