1. At what time did Yuja become internationally famous?
| A．When she was 21 years old. |
| B．When she studied in Canada as a teenager. |
| C．When she was a young child. |
| A．Casually. | B．Traditionally. | C．Fashionably. |
| A．She leaves the stage right away. |
| B．She is asked to play more by the audience. |
| C．She feels free when the performance is over. |
1. When did jazz get popular?
| A．During the early 20th century. |
| B．During the middle 20th century. |
| C．During the late 20th century. |
| A．About half a decade. | B．About a decade. | C．About two decades. |
| A．Guitar. | B．Bass. | C．Drums. |
| A．A music show. | B．Band practice. | C．A radio interview. |
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 |
In recent years, many artists have taken part
1. What is the woman doing?
| A．She’s interpreting a painting. |
| B．She’s chairing a meeting. |
| C．She’s hosting a program. |
| A．From an oil painting. |
| B．From a city in Mexico. |
| C．From his initials in Spanish. |
| A．His childhood friend. |
| B．His father. |
| C．A woman artist. |
| A．His focus on life of the aged. |
| B．His unique use of bright colors. |
| C．His expression of childlike innocence. |
1. Which date was Van Gogh born on?
| A．March 30. | B．March 20. | C．March 13. |
| A．He began to learn French. |
| B．He decided to be an artist. |
| C．He started to work. |
| A．France. | B．Germany. | C．Britain. |
| A．He made paintings for Van Gogh. |
| B．He sold Van Gogh’s paintings to others. |
| C．He bought Van Gogh’s works from others. |
Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature
US music legend Bob Dylan won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the first songwriter to win the prestigious award in a decision
The 75-year-old Dylan —best known for tunes like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone”
The choice was met by gasps and a long round of applause from reporters
“Dylan has the status of
The Nobel is the latest award for the singer, who has come a long way from his humble beginnings as Robert Allen Zimmerman, born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and who taught
Initially
8 . 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 |
A Great musician Brings Ancient Chinese Sounds to London
On the afternoon of the second Saturday of every second month, Cheng Yu dresses in traditional Chinese attire(服装)and takes a guqin and pipa to a special gathering she started in London 20 years ago. Cheng is a master of the two instruments who was trained at Xi’an Conservatory of Music before
Cheng Yu has been active since she started educating people and performing Chinese music in the United Kingdom. To Cheng, sharing and promoting Chinese
The bimonthly yaji in London
Charlie Thomas from Birmingham said: “It’s not just Chinese people who come. I met a German lady who also liked guqin. People here are so welcoming and they have
10 . 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. |
