What is great art? On the one hand, we can all see that great art is old art which is called great. But how do we know which art of our own times is great, and which will be forgotten? And who decides?
These are important questions, for the great art of the past often was not considered great during its own time. When Shakespeare and Charles Dickens were writing, for example, most critics considered them as hack (平庸的) writers with little or no literary ability.
Similarly, Van Gogh and many of the other Impressionist painters of the late nineteenth century were not allowed to participate in events involving what were thought to be the "real" painters of the time, and often they were very poor. Yet today their paintings often sell for millions of dollars, while those so-called "real" painters are now barely remembered.
So what makes great art? Can, for example, rock music be great art? Music videos? Cartoons and comics? Those who call themselves critics of the fine arts often have been the last to recognize great art in the past, and we can probably expect this to be the situation today.
Critics often don’t recognize great art because they tend to be prejudiced against what is popular. Popular works, whether they are novels, movies, or comics, are usually considered to be produced for the sake of money only, and not for the sake of art.
But popularity, it seems to me, is one of the three signs that a present-day work of art may come to be thought of as great. The other two are that it is groundbreaking, and that it is inherently (内在的) beautiful.
Many works have one or even two of these qualities of being popular, unusual, and beautiful. But having all the three often will mean that a work of art will someday be seen to be great, though it may take a good spoonful of time, such as a century or two, to know for sure. The first paragraph is intended to__________.
| A．lead to the following and arouse the reader’s curiosity |
| B．introduce some real painters to the readers |
| C．introduce the questions the writer wants to answer |
| D．explain what kind of art will become popular |
The author used the examples of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Van Gogh to prove _____.
| A．these masters’ works have some shortcomings |
| B．these masters wouldn’t have been so successful without the critics |
| C．truly beautiful works of art are never understood when first created |
| D．great masters are often not acknowledged while they were alive |
According to the author, great works _______.
| A．may be presented in different forms |
| B．are generally valued by critics |
| C．are thought valuable because of their sale price |
| D．will lose their value if they’re not accepted |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Critics have changed their attitudes to great works. |
| B．Most of the opinions of critics are valueless. |
| C．The work of art itself, not the critics, determines its greatness. |
| D．Works of Impressionist painters will be great one day. |
Bushwick is a tough place to grow up. This part of Brooklyn, in New York City, has a lot of crime. More than half of its 100,000 residents rely on aid from the government. Only 50% of students at Bushwick High School graduate in four years.
Some people might say, “We should help these poor kids who have so many challenges.” But Malaak Compton-Rock looks at the teens in Bushwick and says, “ Go to help kids who have even bigger challenges than you do.” She believes that once young people see the power they have to make things better, they can handle their own problems more easily. So her service group, the Angel Rock Project, took 30 Bushwick kids to Soweto, in South Africa, to help poor families there. Soweto is a township outside the city of Johannesburg. The effort, called Journey for Change, aims to show that any kid can change the world.
“Kids in Bushwick face pressure to drop out of school or become involved in gangs and drugs.” Says Compton-Rock. “We want them to live a life of purpose and service.”
In Soweto, many parents have died of AIDS, a deadly disease. When that happens, a grandparent or a child must lead the family. The Bushwick volunteers helped such families. They tended vegetable gardens, cared for babies and bought groceries.
“The saddest thing was when we visited an orphanage (孤儿院) and I helped a little boy who had been abandoned because he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,” says Queen Clyde, 12. “It‘s been good to be on this trip. But what’s also important is what we do when it’s finished. That’s what counts.” “ I never appreciated what I had until I saw some people who had nothing,” says Sadara Lewis, 12 “It’s really changed my attitude. I want to make a difference.”
The trip was two weeks long. But the kids, aged 12 to 15, will spend all year speaking about their experience, fund-raising and more.What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．Bushwick is the poorest place in New York City. |
| B．Bushwick still needs more care from the government. |
| C．It is children who suffer most in New York City. |
| D．Children in Bushwick are living in a bad situation. |
In Compton-Rock’s opinion, the Bushwick kids __________.
| A．have few challenges |
| B．should be kept out of schools |
| C．can learn to deal with their own problems by helping others |
| D．are living much better than people in Africa |
Compared to Bushwick kids, some children in Soweto __________.
| A．may have bigger challenges |
| B．receive no care from the government |
| C．are much more independent |
| D．are able to lead the family |
According to the passage, “Journey for Change” can be best seen as the saying “________”.
| A．God helps those who help themselves |
| B．saying and doing are two things |
| C．one stone kills two birds |
| D．a friend in need is a friend indeed |
From the passage we know that __________.
| A．there are few students in Bushwick High School |
| B．the trip to Soweto will have a long influence in spite of its short time. |
| C．most children are suffering from AIDS in Soweto |
| D．kids with HIV will be abandoned in Soweto |
It was Thanksgiving morning and in the crowded kitchen of my small home I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together. “Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread with jam to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started again on my household budget.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
I looked at my shabby slipcovers. The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” Her voice was hungry with a need that no amount of food could supply. They left after that, holding their bundles of papers against the wind. They hadn’t said “Thank you.” They didn’t need to. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful. Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a good steady job—these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy prints of small sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am. Two children came to the writer’s front door because _________________.
| A．it was Thanksgiving Day | B．they were beggars |
| C．they wanted old papers | D．they wanted a cup of cocoa |
Why did the writer let the children in?
| A．She showed great pity on them |
| B．She had old papers to sell |
| C．She wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving feast |
| D．She wanted them to see how rich she was |
The girl thought the writer was rich perhaps because ________________.
| A．she saw that the lady’s room was comfortable |
| B．she saw the cups matched the saucers |
| C．the writer’s slipcovers were very new |
| D．the writer was preparing a big meal while she was too hungry. |
From the passage, we can infer that whether you are rich depends on ________.
| A．how much money you have had |
| B．how you feel about your life |
| C．how you have helped others |
| D．what job your husband is doing |
The writer left the muddy prints of small sandals on the floor for a while to ____________.
| A．show her husband that someone had come |
| B．remind her that she had helped two children |
| C．remind her that she was very rich in the neighborhood |
| D．remind her how life should be |
When an ant dies, other ants move the dead insect out. Sometimes, the dead ant get moved away very soon—within an hour of dying. This behavior is interesting to scientists, who wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist. Choe found that Argentine ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I’m dead—take me away.”
But there’s a twist to Choe’s discovery. Choe says that the living ants—not just the dead ones—have this death chemical. In other words, while an ant crawls around, perhaps in a picnic or home, it’s telling other ants that it’s dead.
What keeps ants from dragging away the living ants？Choe found that Argentine ants have two additional chemicals on their bodies, and these tell nearby ants something like, “Wait—I’m not dead yet.” So Choe’s research turned up two sets of chemical signals in ants: one says, “I’m dead,” and the other set says, “I’m not dead yet.”
Other scientists have tried to figure out how ants know when another ant is dead. If an ant is knocked unconscious, for example, other ants leave it alone until it wakes up. That means ants know that unmoving ants can still be alive.
Choe suspects that when an Argentine ant dies, the chemical that says “Wait-I’m not dead yet” quickly goes away. Once that chemical is gone, only the one that says “I’m dead” is left. “It’s because the dead ant no longer smells like a living ant that it gets carried to the graveyard, not because its body releases(释放) new unique chemicals after death,” said Choe. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they drag away the body.
Understanding this behavior may help scientists figure out how to stop Argentine ants from invading new places and causing problems. Choe would like to find a way to use the newly discovered chemicals to spread ant killer to Argentine ant nests.
The ants’ removal behavior is important to the overall health of the nest. “Being able to quickly remove dead individuals and other possible sources of disease is extremely important to all animals living in societies, including us,” says Choe. “Think about all the effort and money that we invest daily in waste management.”The underlined word “twist” in Paragraph 3 means .
| A．an unexpected change | B．a clear mistake |
| C．an important key | D．a shocking conclusion |
Ants judge whether another one is dead or not depending on .
| A．the sense of taste | B．the sense of smell |
| C．the sense of touch | D．the sense of sight |
The result of the research can be used to .
| A．kill troublesome pests |
| B．solve the problem of endangered species |
| C．prevent further expansion of the ants’ territory |
| D．keep the balance of nature |
Why is it important to remove dead individuals?
| A．Because it is easier to manage the living. |
| B．Because it can save money to deal with the waste. |
| C．Because it can provide more space for the living. |
| D．Because it can keep the living from suffering disease. |
What might be the best title of the text?
| A．Dead or living? It is easy to judge |
| B．Pulling away the dead ants is a difficult task |
| C．Ant nests have great undertaking capacity |
| D．Leaving it alone or taking it away? Ants feel puzzled |
The accident at Lake Sherwood was in our backyard. An SUV(运动型多用途车)had gone off the road，down a hill, and collided with a tree. When we heard the wreck, I remembered to say “call 911”. My family was the first on the scene. Nick, my son, was on the cell phone with 911. He saw a friend who was a victim in the crash who was a 15 years old girl who was badly disfigured and had died instantly. It was a terrible scene.
There had been six people in the truck, all between 15 and 17 years old. My husband and I checked all the victims, and I picked one who was conscious and stayed with him. I talked with him and had him lay on the ground. When I asked him if he was hurt, he said he was sore all over. When help arrived, they asked me to stay and continue working with them. I did as Debbie Romine, .my instructor, said in class, and did what they wanted. They even said thank you before they left.
The sheriff deputies came by Saturday night to get our statements and play the 911 tape back, so Nick could identify all the voices in the background. They said over and over that the way he handled the call was the best they had heard in a long time. He was calm and worked with them even when he saw his friend who had died. The Sheriff’s Department is sending some people over to help us work through our emotions.
The first aid and CPR course I took in January really helped me. I just didn’t expect to put it to good use so soon.
Pennyd. Miller
Kansas State Dept of Education,Topeka According to the passage, in case of an emergence, people should dial_______________.
| A．110 | B．120 | C．800 | D．911 |
Who died immediately after the accident?
| A．A girl. | B．The writer. | C．Debbie Romine. | D．Nick. |
Why did the Sheriff deputies come by Saturday night?
| A．To arrest the offender. | B．To offer them help. |
| C．To get their statements. | D．To help them. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
| A．The writer is a doctor. |
| B．All the people in the car were killed in the accident. |
| C．Debbie Romine offered much help to the victims. |
| D．The writer took a first aid and CPR course in January. |
We can infer from the passage that__________________.
| A．The first aid and CPR course in January really helped the writer |
| B．The writer’s family were affected emotionally by the accident |
| C．The victims were all conscious after the accident |
| D．The police arrived long after the accident |
The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago, but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest problems is pollution. To pollute means to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it. Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution.
Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in one place, man moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world. Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad for all living things in the world, but it is not the only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us angry more easily. Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from putting dirty smoke into the air. Pollution by SO2 is now the most dangerous kind of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. We are sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.
The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must take care of the rise in pollution at the same time. _______, our world is becoming much smaller.
| A．Because of the rise in pollution |
| B．Thanks to science development |
| C．Because the earth is being polluted day and night |
| D．Because the earth is blown away by the wind every year |
Hundreds of years ago, life was __________ it is today.
| A．much easier than | B．as easy as |
| C．much harder than | D．as hard as |
Pollution comes in many ways. We can even hear it. Here “it” means _______.
| A．rubbish(垃圾) | B．noise pollution |
| C．air pollution | D．water pollution |
Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution because _______.
| A．it makes much noise |
| B．it makes us angry more easily |
| C．it makes our rivers and lakes dirty |
| D．it’s bad for all living things in the world |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. |
| B．The pollution of the earth grows as fast as the world population does. |
| C．The problem of pollution is not so serious because there are not so many people living on the earth. |
| D．If people could go to work by bus or bike instead of car or motorbike, it would be helpful in fighting against the problem of SO2. |
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