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Passage 1
The Art of the Elephants
If your cat walked across something you were painting and left footprints behind, would you consider your cat an artist? What if your bird held a colored pencil in its beak（喙） and painted on a piece of paper? Most people may think of animal art as a joke, but some people have been taking it very seriously.
Elephants were used for hundreds of years in Thailand’s logging industry(伐木业). They moved wood from forests in areas where there were no roads. At the beginning of this century, when the forests of Thailand began to quickly disappear, the government put a stop to logging. All of a sudden, many elephants in Thailand no longer had a way to make a living.
Some elephants were treated badly. Others had to try to live on their own and couldn’t find enough food to eat. There were once tens of thousands of elephants in Thailand. Today, there are less than five thousand. When two Russian American artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, first heard about the troubled elephants in Thailand, they knew that something had to be done to forever change the way people treated Thai elephants. Then, they came up with an idea to help these elephants.
Komar and Melamid visited elephant camps in Thailand and began
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to show the elephant trainers how to teach the elephants to paint. At first, the trainers had to guide the elephants’ trunks. The elephants became more comfortable doing this with practice—and lots of sweet snacks—and finally started to paint on their own. The strange idea that Komar and Melamid had to save the elephants actually began to work. They even helped found several elephant art schools in Thailand and in other Asian countries. The elephants and their trainers go there to learn about painting and get supplies they need.
Today, people begin to buy elephant artworks from galleries(画廊) all around the world. Some are even willing to pay more than ＄2,000 for the works of the elephant artists! Some people compare the cheerful, brightly-colored artworks to the works of some great abstract(抽象地) painters. Some people are just happy to buy these special and original(原创地) artworks. Others think they are helping the troubled elephants in this way. The next time you see a piece of colorful abstract art, find out who the artist is. You just may be surprised at what you learn! 1. What may most people think of animal art?
___________________________________________________________ 2. What did elephants do in Thailand’s logging industry?
___________________________________________________________ 3. How many elephants are there in Thailand today?
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___________________________________________________________ 4. What was Komar and Melamid’s idea to help the elephants in Thailand?
___________________________________________________________ 5. Please list one reason why people buy elephant artworks.
___________________________________________________________
【主旨大意】本文是一篇说明文，介绍的是大象艺术品。大象作画是两名俄罗斯籍的美国画家为帮助大象而想出的一个主意，即让训象师教大象作画，画作出售后，训象师和大象可以得到报酬和需要的东西。很多人喜欢大象的画作，也有人是为支持这些受苦的大象而购买这些画作的。
1. Most people may think of animal art as a joke.【解析】细节理解题。题干意为：大多数人对于动物艺术的看法是什么？根据第一段最后一句“Most people may think of animal art as a joke...”可知，大多数人觉得动物艺术是笑话。
2. They moved mood from forests where there were no roads.【解析】细节理解题。题干意为：大象在泰国的伐木业中从事什么工作？根据第二段第二句“They moved mood from forests where there were no roads”可知，人们用大象在没有公路的森林中运输木头。
3. There are less than five thousand.【解析】细节理解题。题干意为：现如今，在泰国有多少只大象？根据第三段第四句“Today，there are less than five thousand.”可知今天的大象数量不足5千只。
4. They showed elephants trainers how to teach elephants to paint.【解析】细节理解题。题干意为：Komar和 Melamid想出了什么办法来帮助泰国的大象？根据第四段首句“Komar and Melamid visited the elephant camps in Thailand and began to show elephants trainers how to teach elephants to paint.”可知,两人拜访了泰国的大象营地，并给训象师展示怎样教大象绘画。 5. Some people compare the cheerful, brightly-colored artworks to the work of some great painters./ Some people are just happy to buy these special and original artworks./ Others think they are helping the troubled elephants in this way.【解析】细节理解题。题干意为：请列举人们购买大象艺术作品的一个原因。根据最后一段中“Some people...Some people...Others...”可知,有些人把这些艺术比作最伟大画家的抽象艺术；有些人就是喜欢购买这种特别和原创的
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艺术作品；另一些人认为以此可以帮助受苦的大象。
Passage 2 Albino Power
I was born an albino（白化病患者） in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1945. No one in my family had ever known what an albino was, what it meant to be an albino, what had to be done differently because I was an albino.
My parents and friends treated me just like they treated everybody else. They was just about the best thing they could have done. It gave me a leg up on trusting myself, so when troubles came along, I could deal with them.
Truly, my schoolbook photo always looked like a snowball with two pieces of coal for eyes. Like most albinos, I had terrible eyesight, but the fact that I could hardly see didn’t worry me all that much.
Kids laughed at me, calling me “Whitey”. People stared at me when I held reading material right at the tip of my nose so I could see it well enough to read. Even when I was eight or nine, movie theater workers started asking me to pay adult prices because I “looked older”.
The worst part for me was that because my eyesight was so bad that I
couldn’t play sports very well. but I didn’t give up trying. I practiced playing basketball every day. And I studied harder.