题目内容
The name of the 1 artist Picasso is very famous in the West. Today Picasso 2 “art”. Picasso started off with various styles of painting until he invented “Cubism(立体派)”.?Picasso's father was also a painter, a Professor of Art at the local school of fine arts (美术). He taught his son how to draw figures and how to paint 3 oils and took him to some of the schools of art that he himself 4 .Although he was Spanish, Picasso spent much of his life in Paris and never took part in 5 the Spanish Civil War, World War I or World War II.?
Picasso's 6 life was very unconventional(非传统的). He had four children 7 three different women, two wives and many lovers. In 1961, however, he married and stayed with Jacqueline Roque 8 the end of his life in 1973.?
Picasso produced paintings of acrobats (杂技演员) at the beginning of his 9 and moved into a different style when he started painting pictures of artists. 10 he developed his works into the famous style which is known as “Cubism”. He also created 11 and wrote poetry.?
Picasso produced 12 paintings than anyone else ever has: 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and 34,000 book illustrations. He worked in many different mediums(手段): oils, watercolors, charcoal, and pencil. His paintings in the Cubist style started a new movement in art in 13 20th century. Picasso 14 this style of painting with a colleague, Georges Braque in 1909. They painted objects by 15 them into small pieces and then viewed and painted them from several angles at once. 16 used brown colors for the paintings.?
The Cubism Movement started with Picasso and Braque in Montmartre, Paris, and 17 rapidly among the artists. It began to develop into a second phase(阶段), in which artists added 18 objects to the painting in various materials, such as cloth or newspaper. In 19 1950's Picasso's works went through more changes when he started to look at the grand masters of art, like Velasquez.?
In his 80's and 90's he began to paint a mixture of many styles that he kept changing. Only after his death 20 fully appreciate his great achievements and in 1999 one of his paintings sold for us﹩51 million.
1. A. French B. English C. Spanish D.German
2. A. is B. means C. learns D.makes
3. A. with B. on C. from D.in
4. A. teach B. taught C. teaching D.taught at
5. A. among B. either C. between D.beyond
6.A. real B. old C. public D.private
7.A. by B. in C. on D.about
8. A. until B. at C. as D.to
9. A. life B. career C. paintings D.school
10.A. Accidentally B. Frankly C. Eventually D.Fortunately
11.A. sculptures B. telephones C. pictures D.poems
12. A. fewer B. scores of C. a great deal D.more
13.A. late B. modern C. early D.difficult
14. A. found B. invented C. searched D.protected
15.A. separating B. cutting off C. throwing D.dividing
16.A. He B. It C. They D.We
17.A. speeded B. went through C. spread D.wide
18.A. the same B. different C. special D.extra
19. A. these B. those C. the D.some
20. A. he did B. people would C. did people D.did he

What would you think if someone suggested knocking down St Paul’s Cathedral to widen the road? Or pulling down Big Ben to make way for a car park? It would be ridiculous, right? But when it comes to devastation (毁灭) of the natural world, we aren’t so easily shocked. But we should be…or we’ll be in a lot of trouble.
Nature is shrinking by the day. Ancient forests are destroyed. Wetlands are becoming dry. Woodland is disappearing, and all in the name of progress. This is bad in itself, but it’s devastating for biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other living things that are all interconnected. The ecological services provided by biodiversity are vital to everyday life. The air we breathe is a product of photosynthesis (光合作用) by green plants. Insects, worms and bacteria break down waste and make soils rich. And tiny organisms clean the water in rivers and sea. In fact, all life on the earth exists thanks to the benefits of biodiversity. More than 90 percent of the calories consumed by people worldwide are produced from 80 plant species. And 30 percent of medicines are developed from plants and animals. Maintaining a wide diversity of species in each ecosystem is necessary to preserve all living things.
The loss of biodiversity could be devastating. “It is wrong to think that biodiversity can be reduced indefinitely without threatening humans,” said Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, known as the “father of biodiversity”. He warned, “We are about to reach a critical point beyond which biodiversity loss will become irreversible (不可挽回的).”
But what can we do? The present problem is that the concept of biodiversity is so vague (含糊的). People might care about giant pandas, but it is much harder to excite them about the fate of tiny sea creatures which are being boiled to death in the cooling systems of power stations along coastlines. The Guardian newspaper is trying to help. It has launched the Biodiversity 100 campaign to try to convince governments around the world to take action to deal with the widespread concerns about biodiversity. This includes persuading the UK government to create a series of marine reserves to reserve the decrease in the sea-life caused by industrial fishing, stopping fishing sharks by the Japanese fishermen and banning the killing of dingoes (wild dogs) in Australia, among many other things.
There is a lot to do. And we’d better act quickly if we don’t want to end up with a planet that can’t sustain life!
【小题1】The writer thinks it ________ to pull down Big Ben to make way for a car park.
A.unreasonable | B.necessary | C.difficult | D.reasonable |
A.nature is badly polluted by humans |
B.species are becoming fewer and fewer day by day |
C.rainforests are being cut down every day |
D.nature is full of mysteries |
A.it doesn’t matter to reduce biodiversity |
B.people have done enough to preserve biodiversity |
C.the situation of biodiversity is very serious |
D.biodiversity loss has become irreversible |
A.people might not clearly know what is biodiversity and what should be protected |
B.people are not aware that giant pandas are endangered |
C.people don’t realize that biodiversity is vital to everyday life |
D.people hunt sea creatures for food |
A.The UK government. | B.The concept of biodiversity. |
C.The action to deal with the problem. | D.The Guardian newspaper. |