A. After one month of painting every day, from sunrise to sunset, I was selling here and there, mostly right off the easel (画架), but I quickly burned through my savings, and soon after, lost my apartment and moved into my car parked along the Pacific Coastline. A few more months passed. I was underfed and had no gas to move my car, but I kept painting.
B. This was back in 2008 and so many years later, I’m painting more than ever. I will still pick up an illustration job from time to time, but painting plein air is what I love more than anything - this is how I spend my time. I have work in a couple of galleries here in Oregon, but I do most of my sales through my website, which is updated daily.
C. One day, with a dozen paintings laid out by my feet in South Laguna with a serious sunburn and hungry stomach, a woman walked by, complimented my work and then bought all of my paintings! Turns out this woman was a big art collector. Then she generously gave me a show in her home a couple of weeks later. I nearly sold out at the show and then I got picked up by a famous gallery in Laguna Beach the following week.
D. After graduating from art school with a degree in illustration (插图), I was at a stand still and didn’t know how to work in the art industry. Back then, I was still living in Laguna Beach, California, so I decided to try my hand at plein air (野外写生) painting. This was something I had only done once or twice before, and with little success.
E. After a week, I fell in love with the work of Edgar Payne, William Wendt and the like, and at that moment I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life.
A. We have always looked to “experts” to remember things for us. And even in more informal ways, long-term couples also learn to rely on each other for remembering Information.
B. According to research, the rise of Baidu and other search engines has changed the way our brain store and recall Information.
C. Interestingly, the brain is a malleable (可塑的) organ which changes according to our circumstances, so it is not just Baidu that can really change the way we remember things.
D. We no longer need to store so much Information in our heads. With the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, we will find enough information from the largest libraries and museums in the world at our command.
E. We are more likely to remember something we might not be able to find on the internet, forgetting information we believe we can find online. We are not better at remembering where we can get the information than remembering the information itself.
1. /'reɪʃ(ə)l/
2. /'pəʊətri/
3. /vi:ɪkəl/
4. /'lɪtərətʃə/
5. / 'dʒʌŋgəl/
1. /’brervəri/
2. /’brəʊʃə/
3. /rɪ’fɔ:m/
4. /ɪ’stæblɪʃ/
5. /dɪ’preʃən/
5 . Facebook Is a Big Waster
During the first decade of the 21st century, a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary—Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the Internet. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who have Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, I need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend!”
In spite of the benefit it does on common people, it is true that this social network is a big waster. There are about 350 million active users on this website and 67% of them are between the ages of 13-25. More than 35 million users update their status every day.
The highest age group who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer. if they aren’t in school or when they aren’t asleep. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters unconsciously. The teenage life is one of the most important stages of life.
Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose “top friends”, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play childish games, invite friends to parties or events and a lot more. Generally, all these would just disturb (扰乱；妨碍) people into living life to the fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted, even grown-ups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook.
| A．And 2.5 billion photos are added each month. |
| B．Wasting it on Facebook is not encouraging in any way. |
| C．As a result, the average Facebook users have 130 friends who they share links with. |
| D．This statistic isn’t that bad but some people spend about 3-5 hours. |
| E．It is time people should take a break from Facebook once in a while. |
A. During this time, he made paintings of circus people and clowns which were a bit happier. Later, Picasso moved to Paris, where lots of new art was being created. He, along with an artist friend Georges Braque, came up with a unique abstract form of art--Cubism.
B. Picasso kept changing his art style and tried lots of different things, like making sculptures and pottery. He left behind a lot of art that still makes people think and feel different things. His work changed the way we understand and make art today.
C. Pablo Picasso was a famous artist born in Spain in 1881. He was very good at drawing from a young age and became one of the most important artists in the 1900s.
D. According to Picasso it was drawing objects as he thought them, not saw them, since in Cubism, artists show all parts of a scene at once, using simple shapes and putting them together in unusual ways, like a puzzle.
E. Early in his life, Picasso’s paintings were mostly in shades of blue and showed sad scenes, which is why that time is called his Blue Period. Later, he started using lighter colors like pinks and reds, which is known as his Rose Period.
| A．Based on the research findings, it looks like the mere presence of our phones might be triggering (触发) a system in students’ brain called automatic attention. That’ s a brain system that unconsciously monitors (无意中监测) the environment for signs of vital importance, which makes students focus less on their study. |
| B．In 2017, researchers were aware of the effect of cell phone presence on students. To prove this, the students were asked to complete math problems with their cellphones put on their desks, hidden in nearby bags or clothing. |
| C．Taken together, there ’s increasing evidence that the presence and usage of the cellphone in the classroom should be monitored, and even not allowed in some cases. |
| D．Although the students were required to turn off ring tones, the researchers found that the phone continued to have a great influence, occupying the students’ mental space even though they paid no attention to it. The students performed worse when the phone was nearby on the desk, and it didn’t matter if they turned it facedown. They didn’t do much better when the phone was hidden in a bag or a pocket. Why? |
| E．The researchers concluded that intuitive (本能的) fixes like putting the phone facedown or turning it off were useless. Also, they pointed out that the only effective solution was actual physical separation from the phone. That’s important when students are taking tests, of course, but the research says that physical separation is even more important when they’ re trying to learn something. |
However, in the 17th century when Francis Bacon (1561-1626) suggested that this type of thinking was the way to gain knowledge, he was going against the views of the day. Although Bacon held an important rank in King James’ royal court of England, his true interest was not the day-to-day, slow and inefficient working style of the government, but the worthy search for knowledge. This was certainly not the interest of most people in his days. At that time, people believed more in the church than in facts, and people like Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who proved the idea that “the Earth is not the centre of the universe”, were often punished by the church with no one coming to their defence. The church and many people tended to ignore the facts and didn’t want to challenge what they had always comfortably believed. In fact, when Galilei proved that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, instead of believing him, people chose to believe views that were almost 2, 000 years old!
It is not surprising that people wanted to believe these primitive ideas as they had been put forward by the great philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE). He said that the Earth must be the centre of the universe because it felt like the Earth was standing still. Galilei disagreed. At first, people approved of his studies and urged him to continue, but later when he proved Aristotle wrong, they grew angry and put him in prison. They didn’t want to abandon what they’d always thought as true. And this is still often true today. People make the assumption that if someone important and respected says that something is right, then it must be so. But even though Aristotle was a great man who inspired many great scientists and philosophers after him, he was wrong at times. And Galilei also made mistakes. He is now known as the father of astronomy but he believed that the Earth moved round the sun in a perfect circle. He was wrong.
1. What was Bacon’s true interest?| A．The worthy search for knowledge. | B．The interest of most people in his days. |
| C．The important rank in royal court of England. | D．The efficient working style of the government. |
| A．Because they believed more in church than in facts. |
| B．Because they didn’t want to challenge what they had always believed. |
| C．Because they didn’t want to give up what they’d always thought as true. |
| D．Because they chose to believe the views put forward by great philosophers. |
A. Another is to read to them. Researchers found that 80%of children surveyed say they love being read to. Children aged 6 to 11 whose parents do not read to them anymore say they miss it.
B. The researchers also suggest permitting children to choose their own books. Of all the 6-to 17-year-olds in the study, over 90%said their favorite books are those they chose for themselves.
C. For some people, the warmest memories from childhood come from being read a great story. But reading to children does more than create warm memories. It develops children’s language skills and increases their ability to succeed in school.
D. The researchers identify some ways to develop a love of reading in a child. One is simply to have books at home. Elizabeth once wrote and illustrated children’s books, so the family always have plenty to read. All her children learn from books.
E. A new report says reading aloud is so important that parents should start as soon as their children are born and continue to read aloud even after their children can read by themselves. For young children, parents should ask questions about the book.
| A．damage | B．anxious | C．escape | D．imagine |
| A．calm | B．rewarding | C．alarm | D．half |
| A．loss | B．operation | C．ecology | D．focus |
| A．crowded | B．account | C．download | D．shallow |
