1 . Passing the Cities through the Lens (镜头) of Women, a solo exhibition by Swiss artist Catherine Gfeller, is being held at the Swiss embassy in Beijing.
Between 2016 and 2019, Swiss artist Catherine Gfeller embarked on a journey to a number of Chinese cities, weaving a narrative as she engaged with the stories of women from different backgrounds. Her vision of the women, the challenges they confront, and their distinctive spirit are the focuses of the artist’s subsequent explorations.
In the bustling streets of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Hong Kong, Beijing and Kunming in Yunnan province, Gfeller found a means of exploring the essence of these urban landscapes by focusing her lens on women. On Saturday, the Swiss embassy in Beijing launched a solo exhibition, Passing the Cities through the Lens of Women, which spotlights the perspectives and voices of women with photographs, texts, and videos. Through her lens, Gfeller skillfully establishes a dialogue and builds a bridge between the narratives of the women and the liveliness of the cities they inhabit.
For Gfeller, women’s voices are very important in modern Chinese society. During shooting, she learned how the women perceive the new ways of life and how they find an anchor in their cities. “The moment I pressed the shutter, I felt like I became part of the city,” Gfeller says.
Ambassador of Switzerland to China Jurg Burri said at the opening ceremony, “Ms Gfeller cares very much about people, especially women in cities. Women’s issues are a global topic and I hope that more women’s voices will be heard.”
The exhibition is open to the public until the end of March. The 58-year-old artist is known for her focus on landscape photography. Using techniques like montage, collage, and superimposition, she creates unique photographic artworks.
1. Where is the passage probably taken from?| A．A leaflet. | B．A newspaper. | C．A brochure. | D．A research paper. |
| A．Chinese women’s viewpoints. | B．Chinese urban landscapes. |
| C．Chinese traditional roles of women. | D．Chinese women’s status in society. |
| A．Jurg Burri is the Ambassador of Switzerland to China. |
| B．The theme of Catherine Gfeller exhibition is a global topic. |
| C．Jurg Burri is in favor of Catherine Gfeller’s means of exploring cities. |
| D．Catherine Gfeller attaches great importance to women’s perspectives. |
| A．To introduce an exhibition. | B．To educate readers. |
| C．To persuade readers. | D．To advertise an exhibition. |
2 . The scientist’s job is to figure out how the world works, to “torture (拷问)” Nature to reveal her secrets, as the 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon described it. But who are these people in the lab coats (or sports jackets, or T-shirts and jeans) and how do they work? It turns out that there is a good deal of mystery surrounding the mystery-solvers.
“One of the greatest mysteries is the question of what it is about human beings — brains, education, culture etc. that makes them capable of doing science at all,” said Colin Allen, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University.
Two vital ingredients seem to be necessary to make a scientist: the curiosity to seek out mysteries and the creativity to solve them. “Scientists exhibit a heightened level of curiosity,” reads a 2007 report on scientific creativity. “They go further and deeper into basic questions showing a passion for knowledge for its own sake.” Max Planck, one of the fathers of quantum physics, once said, the scientist “must have a vivid and intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction (推论), but by an artistically creative imagination.”
But others disagree with this universal scientific mind. They believe that scientists have special abilities that set them apart. Discovering these abilities may be hard, Allen thinks, as many scientists will be reluctant to reveal them and would prefer to preserve the mystery of creativity, fearing that if it became an object of study it would lose its magic.
But for Allen, this is all part of a bigger question of what lies behind anyone’s behavior. “We are only just beginning to understand how the characteristics of organisms, including ourselves, aren’t the fixed products of either genes or of environment/culture, but each of us is the product of a continual interactive process in which we help build the environments that in turn shape us,” he said.
“As long as our best technology for seeing inside the brain requires subjects to lie nearly motionless while surrounded by a giant magnet, we’re only going to make limited pro gress on these questions,” Allen said.
1. Why does the author mention Max Planck in paragraph 3?| A．To introduce a famous scientist. | B．To stress the role of creativity in science. |
| C．To compare different views on science. | D．To illustrate what is curiosity inscience. |
| A．Human behavior is changeable and unpredictable. |
| B．We are passively influenced by our genes and culture. |
| C．Our interaction with the environment makes us who we are. |
| D．Current technology has revealed a lot about human behavior. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Indifferent. | C．Approving. | D．Pessimistic. |
| A．Who Are The Mystery-solvers | B．Scientists Are Not Born But Made |
| C．Great Mystery: What Makes A Scientist | D．Solving Mysteries: Inside A Scientist's Mind |
3 . Will Smith jumped into a live volcano and kayaked (划皮艇) down an Icelandic whitewater river for his latest project. But he wasn’t making an action movie. It was personal.
Smith, a Hollywood leading man who admits that he’s far from enjoying outdoor activities, has put himself in danger while filming Welcome to Earth, a Disney original series from National Geographic. He was afraid at that time, but he says “It’s really difficult to enjoy things if you’re scared. I think the ability to see how beautiful things are is directly connected to your openness to them and fear closes you down.”
Smith says he was once scared of everything and hated water, but he learns to read the rapids (急流) while whitewater kayaking, rescues turtles near the Great Barrier Reef and goes 3,000 feet below the sea in a deep-water submarine.
Dr. Albert Lin, an engineer and explorer who has uncovered lost cities previously for National Geographic, was astonished to find that Smith was able to control his fears even in the face of real danger. While diving in the underground lake in Namibia, Smith got into trouble and Lin watched him “dropping at a rate that felt like maybe we wouldn’t see him again.” But Smith was able to control his mind and deal with the situation. “I respected Will Smith, the actor, before, but now I definitely have grown to truly respect Will Smith, the human being,” says Lin.
Produced by famous filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, the series carries on the tradition of National Geographic pushing the exploring envelope (极限) and employing the latest technology to help us understand our world. “I hope this can help people out there get a sense of how absolutely incredible our planet is,” says Lin.
The experts Smith has paired with teach him about speed, smell and sound and the colors out there he might miss. “You can’t really want to protect something that you don’t understand. And you can’t want to protect something that you can’t recognize as beautiful,” Smith says.
1. What enables you to enjoy beautiful things according to Smith?| A．Spirit of adventure. | B．Ability to find beauty. |
| C．Respect for nature. | D．Openness to change. |
| A．He found a lost city. | B．He nearly lost his life in a lake. |
| C．He entered a diving competition. | D．He went deep under the sea in a submarine. |
| A．It explains the origin of our planet. | B．It targets potential explorers. |
| C．It won important film awards. | D．It applied advanced technology. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A book review. | C．A magazine. | D．A diary. |
4 . The Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose experience of crossing continents and cultures plays a vital role in his novels about the impact of migration(移居)on individuals and societies, won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar, Abdulrazak Gurnah never considered the possibility that he might one day be a writer. ”It never occurred to me,“ he said in an interview. ”It wasn’t something you could say as you were growing up.” He assumed he would become “someone like an engineer.” In 1964, a violent uprising(暴动)forced Gurnah to flee to England. Unhappy, poor and homesick, he began to write down thoughts in his diary and then stories about other people. Those writings as well as the habit of writing gave rise to his first novel, then nine more.
In almost all of his works, Gurah has tried to uncover the way in which colonialism(殖民政策)has changed everything in the world, and people who are living through it are still processing that experience and some of its wounds. “The thing that motivated the whole experience of writing for me was this idea of losing my place in the world,” he said.
Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature, called him one of the world’s most extraordinary post-colonial writers. He said it was crucial that Gurnah’s roots are in Zanzibar, a place that had people from different countries, and was influenced by their cultures long before globalization.
It is of great significance for Africa-born Gurnah to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which has been occupied by European and North American writers since it was founded in 1901.
1. What is the reason for Gurnah’s winning the Nobel Prize?| A．He is a Tanzanian writer. |
| B．He suffers too much all his life. |
| C．His rich experience and cultural background count. |
| D．His novels involve colonialism and poor life of people. |
| A．He aimed to be a writer while young. |
| B．His habit of writing contributed to his career. |
| C．He fled away to England for his political reasons. |
| D．His earlier stories were mainly about homesickness. |
| A．Inspire. | B．Persuade. |
| C．Combine. | D．Forecast. |
| A．A Worldwide Novelist Rooted In Tanzanian. |
| B．The Dream Of Becoming A Post-colonial Writer. |
| C．Abdulrazak Gurnah Awarded Nobel Prize For Literature. |
| D．The Influence Of Migration On Individuals And Societies. |
1. What is Bill Gates famous for according to the speaker?
| A．His family background. |
| B．His position in society. |
| C．His educational background. |
| A．He went to Harvard University. |
| B．He began to develop new software. |
| C．He sold his inventions to MITS. |
| A．In 2000. | B．In 2008. | C．In 2014. |
| A．Bill Gates grew up in Washington. |
| B．Bill Gates' mother worked as a lawyer. |
| C．IBM partnered with Microsoft for a short time. |
