Oursenseofhearingisoneofthemos-优题课

Throughout the history of the arts，the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select，artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.
Landscape（风景）is another unchanging element of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie，one of the new American realists，continued this practice，Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature，Ledge pains what he actually sees. In his paintings，there is no particular change in motion，and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography（摄影术）to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.
Besides，all art begs the age-old question：What is real？Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects，the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes，and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up. understanding reality is a necessary struggle for Artists of all periods.
Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present，Eastern or Western，the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art，and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.
71. The underlined word “poetry” most probably means______________.
A. an object for artistic creation B. a collection of poems
C. an unusual quality D. a natural scene
72. Leslie’s paintings are extraordinary because______________.
A. they are close in style to works in ancient times
B. they look like works by 19th-cenary painters
C. they draw attention to common things in life
D. they depend heavily on color photography
73. What is the author’s opinion of artistic really？______________.
A. It will not be found in future works of art. B. It does not have a long-lasting standard.
C. It is expressed in a fixed artistic form. D. It is lacking in modern works of art.
74. What does the author suggest about the arts in the last paragraph？
A. They express people’s curiosity about the past.
B. They make people interested in everyday experience.
C. They are considered important for variety in form.
D. They are regarded as a mirror of the human situation.
75. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage？
A. History of the arts. B. Basic questions of the arts.
C. New developments in the arts.D. Use of modern technology in the arts.

As a professor at a large American university, there is a phrase that I hear often from students: “I’m only a 1050. ”The unlucky students are speaking of the score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), which is used to determine whether they will be admitted to the college or university of their choice, or even have a chance to get a higher education at all. The SAT score, whether it is 800, 1 100 or 1550, has becomes the focus at this time of their life.
It is obvious that if students value highly their test scores, then a great amount of their self-respect is put in the number. Students who perform poorly on the exam are left feeling that it is all over. The low test score, they think, will make it impossible for them to get into a good college. And without a degree from a prestigious university, they fear that many of life’s doors will remain forever closed.
According to a study done in the 1990s, the SAT is only a reliable indicator of a student’s future performance in most cases. Interestingly, it becomes much more accurate when it is set together with other indicators——like a student’s high school grades. Even if standardized tests like the SAT could show a student’s academic proficiency（学业水平）,they will never be able to test things like confidence, efforts and willpower, and are unable to give us the full picture of a student’s potentialities（潜力）. This is not to suggest that we should stop using SAT scores in our college admission process. The SAT is an excellent test in many ways, and the score is still a useful means of testing students. However, it should be only one of many methods used.
64. The purpose of the SAT is to test students’ .
A. strong will B. academic ability
C. full potentialities D. confidence in school work
65. Students’ self-respect is influenced by their .
A. scores in the SAT B. achievements in mathematic
C. job opportunities D. money spent on education
66.“A prestigious university”is most probably
A. a famous university B. a technical university
C. a traditional university D. an expensive university
67. This passage is mainly about .
A. how to prepare for the SAT B. stress caused by the SAT
C. American higher education D. the SAT and its effects

Photos that you might have found down the back of your sofa are now big business!
In 2005, the American artist Richard Prince’s photograph of a photograph, Untitled (Cowboy), was sold for $ 1, 248, 000.
Prince is certainly not the only contemporary artist to have worked with so-called “found photographs”—a loose term given to everything from discarded(丢弃的) prints discovered in a junk shop to old advertisements or amateur photographs from a stranger’s family album. The German artist Joachim Schmid, who believes “basically everything is worth looking at”, has gathered discarded photographs, postcards and newspaper images since 1982. In his on-going project, Archiv, he groups photographs of family life according to themes: people with dogs; teams; new cars; dinner with the family; and so on.
Like Schmid, the editors of several self-published art magazines also champion (捍卫) found photographs. One of them, called simply Found, was born one snowy night in Chicago, when Davy Rothbard returned to his car to find under his wiper(雨刷) an angry note intended for some else: “Why’s your car HERE at HER place?” The note became the starting point for Rothbard’s addictive publication, which features found photographs sent in by readers, such a poster discovered in our drawer.
The whole found-photograph phenomenon has raised some questions. Perhaps one of the most difficult is: can these images really be considered as art? And if so, whose art? Yet found photographs produced by artists, such Richard Prince, may riding his horse hurriedly to meet someone? Or how did Prince create this photograph? It’s anyone’s guess. In addition, as we imagine the back-story to the people in the found photographs artists, like Schmid, have collated (整理), we also turn toward our own photographic albums. Why is memory so important to us? Why do we all seek to freeze in time the faces of our children, our parents, our lovers, and ourselves? Will they mean anything to anyone after we’ve gone?
64. The first paragraph of the passage is used to _________.
A. remind readers of found photographs B. advise reader to start a new kind of business
C. ask readers to find photographs behind sofa
D. show readers the value of found photographs
65. According to the passage, Joachim Schmid _________.
A. is fond of collecting family life photographs B. found a complaining not under his car wiper
C. is working for several self-published magazines
D. wondered at the artistic nature of found photographs
66. The underlined word “them” in Para 4 refers to __________.
A. the readers B. the editors C. the found photographs D. the self-published magazines
67. By asking a series of questions in Para 5, the author mainly intends to indicate that ________.
A. memory of the past is very important to people
B. found photographs allow people to think freely
C. the back-story of found photographs is puzzling
D. the real value of found photographs is questionable
68. The author’s attitude towards found photographs can be described as _________.
A. critical B. doubtful C. optimistic D. satisfied

Everyone should visit a lighthouse at least once.
The most important reasons for such a visit is to realize how our ancestors(祖先) battled nature with the basic tools they had. They had only basic ways of creating light, and yet they found a way of using this simple technology in isolated（孤零零的）places to save ships from hitting rocks.
Secondly, visiting lighthouses will help us to understand the lives of lighthouse keepers. By their very nature, lighthouses were built on some rocks of cliffs. Thus, the lighthouse keepers often lived lonely lives. To walk around their small home, and imagine the angry storm outside beating against the walls, is to take a step towards understanding the lives they had.
The reasons for a visit to a lighthouse are not all so backward-looking in time. It is true that lighthouses were built in out-of-the-way places. But on a pleasant sunny summer day, this very isolation has a natural beauty that many people will love to experience. Therefore, with the gentle waves touching all round the lighthouse, the visitor is likely to think it is a world preferable to the busy and noisy modern life.
Another reason for considering a visit is that the lighthouses themselves can be very attractive buildings. Mankind could often not be content just to put up a basic structure, but felt the need, even in such an isolated place, to build with an artistic touch. The result is a view for tired eyes to enjoy.
Finally, lighthouses have a romantic attraction, summed up by the image of the oil-skin coated keeper climbing his winding stairs to take care of the light to warn ships and save lives.
67. What is the reason to look back into the past of a lighthouse?
A. To escape from the busy and noisy city.
B. To look for the tools used by our ancestors.
C. To experience the natural beauty of a lighthouse.
D. To learn about the living condition of lighthouse keepers.
68. The underlined phrase “out-of-the-way” in Paragraph 4 means ____________.
A. far-away B. dangerous C. ancient D. secret
69. Lighthouses were often built with an artistic touch _________.
A. to attract visitors B. to guide passing ships
C. to give a pleasant sight D. to remember lighthouse keepers
70. How many reasons are mentioned for a visit to lighthouse?
A. Three B. Four C. Five D. Six

Reading is very important to help you learn English. To learn as much as you can from reading, you need to read different kinds of English. This book provides not only different kinds of English but also a good way to check your reading ability.
There are four parts in the book:
Part 1 is Messages: In this part somebody wants to send information in writing to somebody else. There is a test on timetable and a test on text messages.
Part 2 is People: In this part all the tests are about people. For example, there is an informal letter between friends. There is formal(正式的) English in biography(传记). There is a job application as a model to help with your writing, as well as testing your reading.
Part 3 is Places: In this part, too, many different kinds of English are shown, some informal and some formal. There is the informal English of a holiday postcard. There is also the formal English in a letter of complaint.
Part 4 is Things: You will find some descriptive writing in this part. There are descriptions of clothes and of a computer.
You can do these tests in any order you like, or you can do all the tests with a formal or informal text. I enjoyed writing this book and I hope you enjoy using it.
59. We can find the introduction to a product in ___________.
A. part 1B. Part 2C. Part 3D. Part 4
60. Which of the following is most probably written in informal English?
A. A letter of complaint. B. A computer handbook.
C. A letter of a friend. D. A story of a president.
61. The passage is most probably written for _________.
A. test designers B. students C. test-takers D. teachers
62. What is the best title of the book?
A. Test Your Reading B. Help with Your Writing
C. Learn Different Kinds of English D. Practice English in Different Ways