1 . If someone asked whether you like the arts, you’d probably say you do—at least in theory. According to a survey, more than two-thirds of U.S. adults say the arts “lift me up beyond everyday experiences.” However, only 30 percent attended a concert of any type in 2017; 23 percent went to an art museum. Fewer than half actively created art of any kind.

The mismatch can boil down to the fact that we are weighed down by our day-to-day responsibilities, leaving our schedule packed. Maybe you like to play a little background music while you work or do the chores, but even before the pandemic, most of us rarely, if ever, saw a live performance, let alone visited a gallery or watched a play.

Too often, we let the dull reality of life get in the way of the arts. But this is a mistake. The arts are the opposite of an escape from reality; they might just be the most realistic glimpse we ever get into the nature and meaning of life. If you make time for consuming and producing art—the same way you make time for work and exercise and family commitments—I assure you that you’ll find your life getting fuller and happier. Think of a time when you heard a piece of music and wanted to cry. Or maybe your dizziness as you emerged from a narrow side street in an unfamiliar city and found yourself in a beautiful town square as if in a fantasy. They probably stimulated a sudden awakening, much like the shock from a lungful of pure oxygen after breathing in smoggy air.

If you are among the people who feel that art is pure pleasure to experience and participate in, you might see it as a luxury item, while a preferable attitude is to treat art less like a distracting pleasure, and more like exercise or sleep, a necessity. Then draw up a schedule of your art exposure journey, and gradually weave art into your everyday life.

1. What prevents people from enjoying the arts?

A．Shortage of time.	B．Avoidance of duty.
C．Lack of interest.	D．Art space inaccessibility.

2. What can we learn about the role of art according to the passage?

A．It explores mysteries of life.	B．It sparks emotional responses.
C．It enhances physical well-being.	D．It offers a getaway from daily life.

3. What will be talked about next in the passage?

A．Ways to integrate art into routine.	B．Barriers to combine art and life.
C．Forms of distracting pleasures.	D．Benefits of engaging with art.

4. Which is the most suitable title for the text?

A．Art Journey: Refreshing Soul

B．Art Pursuit: Transforming Dull into Full

C．Embracing Art: From Luxury to Necessity

D．Connecting with Art: From Reality to Fantasy

2 . Despite the fact that there has never been so much wealth or so many wealthy people in the world, many of the world’s poor people still live in material and energy poverty. Could you and I cut back on our consumption (消耗) so as to make some space for others to increase theirs?

I am sure we could. But, unfortunately, everything about our economic systems is set up to make us believe and behave otherwise. The default (默认) mindset is that there is nothing wrong with wanting ever newer and more expensive things as long as we can afford them.

Look around you for a moment. No society anywhere before lived like this. Further, since our spending must necessarily be someone else’s income, we tell ourselves that we actually make the world a better place every time we buy another pair of shoes or trade in a car for the latest model. And that’s the tug (拉) of war that plays itself out cruelly in our lives, as one side of our age cries out “less”, and from the other side comes the answering cry “more”.

Of course, wanting to live a better life is deeply ingrained in human nature. Otherwise, we would never have generated the progress that has brought us to our present station.

But now we should think deeply about how and why we consume.

After all, even the earliest thinkers in the history of economic—including Adam Smith—thought, having more does not always translate into being happier. Evidence shows that many people in the developing world, despite being hard-up, report being just as happy as those in the materially rich societies of the West.

So what now? The answer, perhaps, is to try to be rich in the enjoyment of things, not in the accumulation (堆积) of them. A pair of good shoes, lightly creased (起皱) but also carefully polished (擦亮) once a month a meal cooked at home instead of a trip to McDonald’s—such as these lie our act of saving from the virus of compulsive (强迫性的) consumption.

1. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?

A．People tend to buy things unreasonably.

B．People refuse to cut down on consumption.

C．People all face material and energy poverty.

D．People believe in political and economic systems.

2. What does the underlined word “ingrained” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Held.

B．Rooted.

C．Changed.

D．Possessed.

3. What does the author suggest?

A．Trying to be rich.	B．The more, the better.
C．Enjoying what we have.	D．Focusing on the compulsive consumption.

4. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?

A．Entertainment.

B．Health.

C．Education.

D．Economy.