1 . 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.

2. What did Paul Smith have to do to work out his production?

A．Lock the shift key.	B．Erase mistakes neatly.
C．Steady all the symbols.	D．Adjust the keys precisely.

3. Which of the following can best describe Paul Smith’s works?

A．Primitive.	B．Sensitive.
C．Innovative.	D．Time efficient.

4. What can we learn from Paul Smith’s story?

A．Art comes from life.	B．Efforts work wonders.
C．Patience is a virtue.	D．Technique does count.

2 . 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.

2. What does Joanna Garcia Swisher think of a matchmaker in marriage?

A．It’s strange.

B．It’s acceptable.

C．It’s terrible.

D．It’s necessary.

3. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph imply?

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.

4. What can best describe Joanna Garcia Swisher according to the text?

A．Simple and talkative.	B．Stubborn and influential.
C．Strong and easy-going.	D．Negative and sensitive.

3 . 阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。

Actor Chadwick Boseman has died at 43. He brought the movie Black Panther to life with his extraordinary charm and     1     (perform).

In 2016, Boseman     2     (make) his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut (首秀)as Black Panther in Captain American: Civil War. With his role     3     King T' Challa in the film Black Panther, he became an inspiring idol     4     (global). That role was the honor of Boseman's career. Black Panther then got his own stand-alone movie in 2018,     5     (break) box office records.

Martin Luther King III said, “Boseman brought history to life with his     6     (role). As Black Panther, he was considered     7     (be) a superhero in the eyes of many people. And despite four years of fighting against cancer, he kept fighting and inspiring. He will     8    (miss).”

Actor Mark Ruffalo,     9     starred as Hulk in the Marvel movies, said, “What a man, and what a talent. Brother, you were one of the     10     (great) people in history and your greatness was only beginning. Please rest in power, King.”

4 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1. What did Potter have plenty of as a child?

A．Pets.

B．Friends.

C．Books.

2. What was the subject of Potter’s painting from an early age?

A．History stories.

B．Natural world.

C．Imaginary figures.

3. How was Potter educated when she was young?

A．By a famous professor.

B．By a private teacher.

C．By her own parents.

4. How old was Potter when she published The Tale of Peter Rabbit?

A．34.

B．45.

C．35.

5 . 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.

2. Which of the following can best describe Christo?

A．Considerate and humble.	B．Creative and courageous.
C．Enthusiastic and careful.	D．Demanding and generous.

3. What did Christo mean by his words in the last paragraph?

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.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for this text?

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

6 . 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.

2. Which word best describes the authors’ attitude towards the painting Girl With a Pearl Earring?

A．Indifferent.

B．Ambiguous.

C．Objective.

D．Conservative.

3. Why could Johannes Vermeer create the famous painting Girl With a Pearl Earring?

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.

4. What does the fifth paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Basic background.

B．Subject matter.

C．Magical quality.

D．Painting techniques.

7 . 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.

2. What does Tobii Dynavox’s system allow Ezekiel to do?

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.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph probably refer to?

A．Drawing pictures.	B．Staying positive.
C．Using technology.	D．Being a special artist.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．A Platform Brings Fame	B．An Artist Paints With Eyes
C．Art Makes Life Meaningful	D．A System Wins Much Favor

8 . The British Museum's rich collection of ancient Chinese paintings has attracted many visitors. At the heart of this preservation and revival of Chinese art history is senior conservator (文物修复员) Qiu Jinxian.

Joanna Kosek, head of Pictorial Art Conservation at the British Museum, told the Times Publications that Qiu is considered one of the museum's most priceless treasures. "We let the treasure treat the treasure," Kosek said.

In 1987, Qiu was introduced to Mrs. Jessica Rawson, director of the British Museum. At the time there were no conservators specializing in ancient Chinese art at the British Museum. The large collection of Chinese ancient paintings and cultural relics in the museum was mainly repaired by Japanese and British methods and materials. As these methods were not suitable for Chinese paintings, the art collection was kept in storage for a long time instead of on pubic display.

Just before Christmas in 1987, Qiu Jinxian had her first appointment at the British Museum. She was asked to repair an ancient scroll (卷轴) by Fu Baoshi, which had been badly damaged by fire. Qiu's methods, which included washing with warm water to separate the glue in order to repair the paper, stunned people on the spot. Some of them even got out the camera to record her methods as they'd never seen this way of restoring ancient art. Mrs. Rawson was completely amazed by Qiu Jinxian's incredible skills. She immediately invited Qiu to join the British Museum.

Chinese ancient paintings are notoriously difficult to repair because of their large size, complex materials, diverse colors, and rich composition. The most important thing is to understand the long history, meaning and culture behind the painting. Repair is an extremely time-and-energy intensive process.Each painting normally takes several months from cleaning to restoration and drying. Since 1987, Qiu has repaired more than 400 artworks.

Oiu told the media that she is very proud of her work. She wants more people to understand and appreciate Chinese history and culture through art. Although the artworks originated from China, they now belong to the people of the world.

1. Why is Qiu considered a treasure at the British Museum?

A．She understands Chinese history well.

B．She is the only Chinese conservator there.

C．She repaired the Chinese scroll successfully.

D．She has special skills to repair the treasures.

2. What does the underlined word "stunned" in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Panicked.

B．Inspired.

C．Shocked.

D．Influenced.

3. What matters most for repairing Chinese artworks?

A．A deep understanding of the objects.	B．Incredible painting skills.
C．Strong determination.	D．A sound knowledge of Chinese history.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．The Well-known Chinese Conservator

B．The Protector of Chinese Treasures at the British Museum

C．The Chinese Treasures Repaired at the British Museum

D．The Ancient Chinese Artworks Exhibited at the British Museum

9 . Selvidge hopes to attend art or film school after graduation. Being a writer, director, actor and musician, Selvidge admits that his ability to adapt to his _______ environment is his strength. Of course, it is the very _______ that helps him with difficulties. However, he didn't gain it without _______.

At the age of 13, Selvidge _______ his hometown Dickson, Tennessee in _______ of a better life. In the following 4 years, he was just living with his friends and bouncing around wherever he could. That lasted _______ both his parents died off. The police were going to _______him over to a local shelter. However, at his father's funeral, his half-brother in Arizona offered to _______him to start over.

Selvidge saw the move as an opportunity to start a _______ life. The first day he came to Perry High School, he ________ to the Theatre Club and finally gained a role to play. That was the beginning of his ________ career. Last year he directed his own play and ________ in a musical and two comedies. Seeing his wonderful stage performance, debate coach Jim Fountain ________ Selvidge, believing his talents could take him far. ________, Selvidge did it well too. He won the state championship and will represent his state to ________ on the national stage for debate in June.

“He has suffered many that are ________ to kids his ages” his director, Shelley, explains why Selvidge can ________ the audience's eyes so well. “He has a ________ understanding of the human condition, which allows him to interpret emotions of various ________ with ease. In this sense, it is ________ that shaped what he is today.”

1.

A．economic

B．changeable

C．social

D．familiar

2.

A．patience

B．kindness

C．virtue

D．bravery

3.

A．interest

B．patience

C．luck

D．suffering

4.

A．left

B．worked for

C．missed

D．returned to

5.

A．favor

B．memory

C．search

D．celebration

6.

A．since

B．after

C．if

D．until

7.

A．roll

B．hand

C．carry

D．drag

8.

A．defend

B．assess

C．support

D．teach

9.

A．new

B．free

C．political

D．healthy

10.

A．complained

B．stuck

C．contributed

D．applied

11.

A．acting

B．composing

C．writing

D．coaching

12.

A．hosted

B．starred

C．spoke

D．debated

13.

A．sought out

B．dreamed of

C．told off

D．relied on

14.

A．Strangely

B．Certainly

C．Interestingly

D．Basically

15.

A．jump

B．graduate

C．play

D．compete

16.

A．critical

B．relevant

C．open

D．uncommon

17.

A．catch

B．meet

C．widen

D．test

18.

A．shared

B．normal

C．deep

D．childish

19.

A．members

B．characters

C．colleagues

D．directors

20.

A．sacrifices

B．choices

C．hardships

D．amusements

10 . After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.

Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.

“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”

The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.

Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.

1. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Written art.

B．A tough battle.

C．Social media.

D．A group of writers.

2. What challenged Cocozza when he began to translate art to social media?

A．To earn a living.	B．To draw readers’ attention.
C．To protect his personal life.	D．To show emotional depth.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Works with emotional depth are widely accepted on social media.

B．People with perfect lives like social media better.

C．Art galleries and bookstores will soon disappear.

D．Arts of emotion depth still hold value on social media.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards art in the future?

A．Positive.

B．Carefree.

C．Doubtful.

D．Disapproving.