1 . Daniel Brush, an astonishing worker in gold, jewels and steel died on November 2022, aged 75. Students from a jewellery school once came to Brush’s studio, a loft in mid-Manhattan, awed to be meeting a figure who, to them, was a worker of miracles.
For 45 years in that loft, he had pursued his calling. His wife Olivia was the only company. He produced hundreds of objects of all sorts, most of them exquisite and many astonishingly small. Rather than use electricity, he laboured alone in a forest of antique machines and when tools frustrated him he made his own, displaying them in cupboards as art in themselves.
Above all else, he worked in gold. His obsession took fire when at 13 he saw an Etruscan gold bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The ancient technique of applying gold beads as fine as sand-grains to a curved gold surface without solder (焊接), was stunning, but so was the lightness of spirit.
He resolved then that he would make such a bowl, and gold became the study of his life. Simply to watch it melt, turn to red-hot and white-hot, then glow purple, was magical. To hold pure gold grain and let it move slowly through his fingers restored his calm of spirit. His chief motivation, he said, was to understand the material and, through that, himself. He wondered why his heart had beaten so fast in the museum that day. Gold in particular had a message for him. His contact with this glorious metal might focus all his attention and help him to hear it.
He developed delicate craftsmanship, with each object virtually a museum piece. For Daniel Brush, he loved the idea that one might take a piece made by Brush out of a pocket, let its beauty pass from mind to mind, and smile. That too was what its maker was after.
1. What can we learn about Daniel Brush?| A．Students visited him regularly. |
| B．He began to live in his loft in 1975. |
| C．He tended to use ancient crafts to produce objects. |
| D．Most objects he produced were of a surprisingly small size. |
| A．He wanted to learn more about both gold and himself. |
| B．He wondered why his heart had beat fast in the museum. |
| C．His calm was restored when gold grain moved through fingers. |
| D．Gold had a particular message for him and he was eager to hear it. |
| A．Stubborn. | B．Wealthy. | C．Dedicated. | D．Lonely. |
| A．Brush’s valuable works. | B．The admirers Brush expected. |
| C．Brush’s desire for fame. | D．The artistic ideal Brush pursued. |
2 . As you walk around the UK in March, you might notice that some people are wearing a daffodil(水仙花) on their coats. The British wear these yellow flowers to show they support one of this country’s best-known charities: the Marie Curie Cancer Care.
The Marie Curie Cancer Care tries to ensure everyone diagnosed with cancer is cared for in the best possible way. It also helps fund research into possible cures through other organizations. Founded in 1948, it has been continuing with its goal ever since.
The charity was named after Marie Curie, a renowned scientist. She experimented with newly-discovered elements to create the theory of radioactivity. Unfortunately, over-exposure to the radioactive elements made her develop a disease and die in 1934. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in two different fields. Because of her pioneering work which led to chemotherapy (化学疗法), the charity shared the name of Marie Curie.
The daffodil is one of the first plants to flower during spring in the UK, which marks the return of flowering plants to the ecosystem after winter. Because of this, the charity uses the daffodil as a metaphor for bringing life to other people through charitable giving.
Everyone you see wearing a daffodil has donated money to the charity, but each daffodil is worth only what you want to pay for it. The charity does ask that you stick to a minimum amount of £1.
The charity encourages people to start wearing their daffodils at the start of March, when the “Great Daffodil Appeal” kicks off. But that doesn’t mean you can only wear them in March. People are sometimes seen walking around with daffodils on their clothes all year round.
1. What does it mean when the British wear a daffodil on their coats?| A．They support a charity. | B．They are recovering from cancer. |
| C．They’ve been helped by a charity. | D．They’ve been diagnosed with cancer. |
| A．Beautiful. | B．Modest. | C．Famous. | D．Humorous. |
| A．Because patients required that. | B．Because it was launched by her. |
| C．Because she greatly supported it. | D．Because it could show respect for her. |
| A．It can be used as medicine. | B．It’s thought to stand for hope. |
| C．It’s widely worn worldwide. | D．It’s sold to the wearers at a high price. |
3 . Women are equally responsible for the growth of a free, modern society. Here’s a look at some outstanding women who made great contributions to world history.
Maria Sibylla MerianToday, children can explain how a caterpillar (毛毛虫) turns into a butterfly (蝴蝶). But there was a time when no one knew this --not even scientists. Thanks to Maria Sibylla Merian, we know the truth about these beautiful winged insects. Merian was fascinated by insects, and she began collecting, studying, and drawing them when she was as young as 13. It was through her study of caterpillars that she discovered the truth about their life cycles.
Beryl MarkhamBeryl Markham was quite incredible in not just aviation (航空) but several other industries, including horse racing. In 1936, at age 33, Markham became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone from the east to the west, nonstop. The pilot played a role in the classic best-selling novel and film, Out of Africa, and had many biographies penned about her talents and life.
Madam C. J. WalkerMadam C J. Walker developed a condition that caused her to lose her hair, and with it, an interest in hair care. She began working for black hair care entrepreneur (企业家) Annie Turnbo Malone. Eventually, Walker began making and marketing her own hair care products designed for African-American women. Her company developed into the successful Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She is widely recognized as America’s first black female self-made millionaire.
Hedy LamarrYou might know Hedy Lamarr from the silver screen; she starred in many films. But her film career is far from her only achievement; she was also a brilliant inventor. In 1942, she received a patent for an invention that could change radio signal frequencies. It paved the way for much of the wireless technology we use today.
1. Who had a lot of enthusiasm for the study of insects?| A．Hedy Lamarr | B．Beryl Markham |
| C．Madam C.J. Walker | D．Maria Sibylla Merian |
| A．Her losing her hair. | B．A type of hair care product. |
| C．Annie Turnbo Malone’s success. | D．Her wish to help African Americans. |
| A．She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone. |
| B．She was both a film star and an inventor. |
| C．She was a successful businesswoman. |
| D．She was a best-selling writer. |
4 . Tobias, a 35-year-old Belgian musician, has become popular on social media for his excellent grasp of the Shanghai dialect. He has been sharing his everyday experiences, which he
In the videos, he speaks
Tobias did not bury his nose in textbooks or
Tobias said he did not expect he would
| A．acts | B．delivers | C．competes | D．votes |
| A．approaches | B．habits | C．platforms | D．communities |
| A．likes | B．dollars | C．medals | D．chances |
| A．ancient | B．sweet | C．modern | D．fluent |
| A．understand | B．write | C．create | D．practise |
| A．advancing | B．searching | C．recording | D．observing |
| A．testing | B．reviewing | C．selling | D．posting |
| A．notes | B．comments | C．reports | D．replies |
| A．interrupt | B．assess | C．conduct | D．appreciate |
| A．materials | B．methods | C．objectives | D．resources |
| A．secretly | B．slowly | C．happily | D．bravely |
| A．fun | B．work | C．fame | D．show |
| A．stick to | B．contribute to | C．focus on | D．rely on |
| A．advantage | B．opportunity | C．honor | D．option |
| A．authority | B．history | C．custom | D．culture |
5 . Wang Fang, a Suzhou native, has given her heart and soul to Kunqu Opera. Wang, who has twice won the Plum Performance Award — China’s top award for theater and opera performances-started to learn the traditional art form in 1977.
Born with a melodic voice, Wang loved to sing and dance when she was little. She performed frequently, and was recruited by the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Troupe (剧团) when she was in middle school. However, her parents refused the troupe’s invitation, insisting that she should concentrate on her studies and not drop out of school. After members of the troupe visited the parents repeatedly and showed great sincerity,Wang’s parents finally agreed.
Learning the traditional art form was never easy. She started to learn how to pronounce words, sing them lyrically and make gestures gently. As an actress playing martial artists roles at first, she had to spend extra time practicing kung fu movements. Years later, Wang used the word “unimaginable” to describe how hard the days were when she first learned Kunqu. She was soaked in sweat when practicing movements in summer, while in winter she often had chilblains (冻疮) on her hands when training in shabby classrooms with broken windows. “But I was young and determined at the time. No matter how difficult, I always got up early the next morning to practice,” Wang recalls.
Wang says she did not love Kunqu at first, but in her early 20s,when she watched the show Peony Pavilion performed by Zhang Jiqing, a master of the art form, it clicked. “I was shocked,” Wang says. “Her every movement was full of elegance and delicacy. Each of her lines and songs was perfect. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Kunqu for the first time in my life, and it has stayed with me since.” Now, Wang has herself become a master of Kunqu. Her performances have impressed generations and helped to promote the art form among young people.
1. Why did Wang’s parents turn down the troupe’s invitation at first?| A．They didn’t think Wang had artistic talent. |
| B．They saw no future in learning Kunqu Opera. |
| C．They didn’t want Wang to ignore her studies. |
| D．They regarded members of the troupe as insincere. |
| A．Wang has made great efforts to learn Kunqu well. |
| B．Artists should be given more attention and care. |
| C．Traditional culture needs to be further promoted. |
| D．Wang has played a key role in the development of Kunqu. |
| A．Winning the Plum Performance Award. |
| B．Joining the Suzhou Kunqu Opera Troupe. |
| C．Watching Zhang’s masterly performance. |
| D．Being greatly admired by the audience. |
| A．It is never too late to learn. | B．Rome was not built in a day. |
| C．Doing is better than saying. | D．Don’t judge a book by its cover. |
6 . At 74 James Patterson has sold more than 425 million copies of his 200 novels globally, making him one of the highest paid authors in the world. “I do not work for a living. I play for a living. I love doing it,” Patterson tells CNBC. But Patterson’s road to success didn’t happen overnight. He started writing as a side hustle and he faced a lot of rejection before getting his first book published.
Patterson grew up in the woods in Newburgh, New York with an insurance salesman father and a schoolteacher mother. Despite having dreams of being a writer, the idea “always seemed presumptuous”, Patterson says. But after reading books by James Joyce, “it really turned me on to reading, and then I started writing,” he says.
After college, Patterson got his first job as a junior copy writer at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. While climbing the corporate ladder, Patterson wrote his first book, The Thomas Berryman Number in the mid-70s. The book “got turned down by 31 publishers”, Patterson says. But after it was finally published in 1976, “then it won an Edgar Award for best first novel.” The Edgar Award, which is named after Edgar Alan Poe, honors the best writers in mystery fiction and non-fiction.
Despite publishing his first book at age 26, Patterson didn’t have a bestseller until he was 40. “It wasn’t like all of a sudden,” he says. In fact, Patterson kept his day job for decades and got promoted to CEO of J. Walter Thompson in 1988. During that time, Patterson says he would read well over 100 books a year to help spark his creativity. “I have a huge imagination and I’m constantly asking, what about this? What about that?” he says.
Despite his success, Patterson says he doesn’t like to give advice, especially about writing. But he credits his own success to his work ethic and passion. “I also don’t take myself too seriously,” he says. “Yeah, I sell a lot of books, so what?”
1. What do we know about James Patterson?| A．He produced a bestseller when he was 26. |
| B．He read a lot of books to get source of inspiration. |
| C．He worked as a full-time writer when he was young. |
| D．He got inspiration for his first book when climbing a ladder. |
| A．Unrealistic. | B．Contradictory. | C．Imaginative. | D．Inspiring. |
| A．He has sold a lot of books. | B．He doesn’t take his job seriously. |
| C．He values positive attitudes to work. | D．He is unwilling to give advice to readers. |
| A．The Secret to Career Success | B．A Tough Road to a Bestseller Writer |
| C．An Edgar Award Winner | D．A Not-to-be-missed Fiction |
7 . This painting Spring Bouquet has a precise structure. The flowers spill over into the lower left-hand corner, with an imbalance as free and as wild as nature. But at once the artist responds to this unbalance. To the right of the vase, Renoir has developed a heavy shadow area, rich in purples and sharply contrasted with the light below it. The placing of the straight line in the lower right side is necessary. If the reader covers this line, he will see that the composition becomes unbalanced.
The Impressionist technique had not yet developed when Renoir painted this picture. Yet the painting with light and color indicates Impressionism is around the corner; there is something of that school in the feeling of the out-of-doors that Renoir has acquired. The texture (纹理) of the flowers is described. Above all, one can’t help saying the very nice smell of the flowers is there, too.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841. He began working as a young painter of porcelain and textiles. At age 21, Renoir entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and went on to study under the instructions of painter Charles Gleyre’s. Even though his paintings had been initially rejected by the Academy and the public, with time he became one of the most admired artists of his generation.
Unfortunately, in 1899, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (风湿性关节炎). It is a disease that causes a lot of pain. In addition, the person affected by it may also have deformities (畸形). Consequently, his movements became very limited and each movement was a big and certainly painful effort.
His son, Jean Renoir, writes in the book Renoir, My Father after his father passed away, the reaction of the people to the painting of the father, after seeing his hands:
Visitors who were unprepared for this could not take their eyes off his deformity. Though they did not dare to mention it, their reaction would be expressed by some such phrase as “It isn’t possible!” With hands like that, how can he paint those pictures? There’s some mystery somewhere.
1. What can readers see in the painting?| A．A vase in the left corner. | B．A shadow to the vase’s right. |
| C．A straight line at the bottom. | D．A natural light in the middle. |
| A．The painting material. | B．The color choice. |
| C．The smelly flower taste. | D．The impressive feeling. |
| A．Renoir, My Father. | B．Spring Bouquet. |
| C．Rheumatoid arthritis. | D．Renoir’s bravery. |
| A．Patience Is a Lifetime Practice | B．Pain Passes, but Beauty Remains |
| C．Impressionism Is a Unique Technique | D．Work hard, and You Will Catch Up |
8 . Howard Schultz wasn’t the first person to be carried away by the pleasant smell of a well-roasted coffee bean. But the Starbucks Coffee Co. leader was undoubtedly the first to turn that dream into a billion dollar retail business.
Schultz’s adventure started in 1981 when he traveled from New York to Seattle to check out a popular coffee bean store called “Starbucks”. It had been buying many of the Hammarplast Swedish drip coffeemakers (滴滤式煮咖啡壶) he was selling.
There was that great smell, sure, but what caused him to fall in love with the business was the care the Starbucks owners put into choosing and roasting the beans. He was also impressed with the owners’ devotion to educating the public about the wonders of the coffee.
It took Schultz a year to convince the Starbucks owners to hire him. When they finally made him director of marketing and operations in 1982, he had another idea. This one occurred in Italy, when Schultz noticed the coffee bars that existed on almost every block. He learned that they not only served excellent espressos (蒸馏咖啡), they also served as meeting places or public squares, and there were 200,000 of them in the country.
But when he came back to Seattle, the Starbucks owners resisted Schultz’s plans to serve coffee in the stores, saying the restaurant business was competitive, and it was costly to hire waiters. After all, economic benefits were their primary motivator. Frustrated, Schultz quit and started his own coffee-bar business in 1985, named “II Giornale”. It was successful, and two years later, the original Starbucks management sold its Starbucks retail unit to Schultz for $3.8 million.
As the company began to expand rapidly in the 1990s, Schultz always said that the main goal was “to serve a great cup of coffee”. Asked about the secret of his success, Schultz told us the principles: “Don’t be threatened by people smarter than you. Compromise anything but your core values.”
1. What caused Schultz to join the Starbucks?| A．The pleasant smell of its coffee bean. | B．His strong desire to improve himself. |
| C．The owners’ impressive work attitude. | D．His eagerness to sell more coffeemakers. |
| A．Committed and generous. | B．Sociable and helpful. |
| C．Motivated and considerate. | D．Determined and creative. |
| A．Many coffee bars had existed in Seattle. |
| B．People preferred tasting coffee at home. |
| C．Workforce was insufficient in the market. |
| D．They tried to avoid high cost of labor force. |
| A．Learning from smarter people. | B．Sticking to his own core values. |
| C．Keeping his business a secret. | D．Remembering a set of principles. |
John is a Mazahua textile artist from the community of San Felipe Santiago, Villa de Allende, Mexico. Ten-year-old John was
After that talk with his mother, John set about
John’s success has changed community opinions and encouraged young people, including men,
10 . Leslie Jones is a well-known comedian and actress, best known for her time on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) and her work in stand-up comedy. Her journey into comedy started unexpectedly.
When she was a college freshman, and a friend signed her up for a campus comedy contest. Despite having no previous experience in stand-up, she immediately felt comfortable on stage and won the contest. This experience lit her passion for comedy. However, Leslie Jones faced challenges in pursuing (追求) a professional comedy career.
At the age of 19, she received advice from Jamie Foxx, who suggested that she needed more life experiences to draw material from for her comedy. Foxx advised her to go out, live life, work various jobs, and gain a broader range of experiences to enrich her comedy. Jones took Foxx’s advice to heart and took on a series of jobs, including working as a justice of the peace at weddings and even working for a construction company owned by Scientologists. Throughout these experiences, she kept her ultimate goal of becoming a comedian in mind.
In her memoir, Leslie Jones, she reflects on her upbringing as a military brat, her journey through the male-dominated (男人主宰的) world of comedy clubs, and her eventual breakthrough when she joined the cast of SNL in 2014 at the age of 47.
One unique aspect of Leslie Jones’ comedy style is her commitment to physical comedy, even if it sometimes results in injury. She’s willing to take risks and use her physicality to get laughs from her audience. She’s known for her energetic and bold performances, which often involve physical performance or exaggerated movements.
In summary, Leslie Jones’ comedy career began unexpectedly in college, and despite facing initial challenges, she pursued a variety of life experiences to enrich her comedy. Her devotion to physical comedy and her unique approach have contributed to her success in the entertainment industry.
1. What do we know about Leslie Jones?| A．She is afraid of standing on stage. | B．She is famous for performing comedy. |
| C．She has challenges in contacting people. | D．She starts her comedy career on schedule. |
| A．To make her comedy colorful. | B．To give some advice on Foxx. |
| C．To remember her ultimate goal. | D．To keep her friendship with Foxx. |
| A．Her spirit of taking risks. | B．Her exaggerated eye contact. |
| C．Her unique physical performance. | D．Her desire for gaining experiences. |
| A．Responsible. | B．Easy-going. | C．Self-confident. | D．Hard-working. |
