Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is perhaps the ...

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous portrait in the world, but now some suspect that the woman with the mysterious smile may not be a woman after all. They are suggesting that the Mona Lisa may be a self-portrait, da Vinci in drag (女装).

Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage (INCCH) is carrying out the research. They think the artist, who died in 1519, was buried at a French castle and they plan to dig up his body. Using CSI-style technology, they want to rebuild da Vinci’s face. Jason Rosenfeld, a member of INCCH, says, “ It shows the reason why we preserved Einstein’s brain or King Tut’s mummy (木乃伊), which throws light on the problem we are working on.”

“Now we want to get the body of Leonardo. We want to see what he died of, we want to see his DNA, we want to see the size of his head, and what his facial feature were like, so we can know whether this was a self-portrait.”

The Mona Lisa was painted around 500 years ago. Beyond that, we know almost nothing about the painting that is now on display at the Louvre in Paris.

But will the exhumation (发掘) discover the truth behind the Mona Lisa? Not likely, according to Rosenfeld. “If the French government really wants to help find out what this is about, what they should do is allow us to clean the Mona Lisa. We will learn much more from it and understand it better if we are allowed to clean the painting than by digging up a body.”

1.What can be learnt from the text?

A. The French government will be in charge of digging up da Vinci’s body.

B. The INCCH will learn more if allowed to clean the Mona Lisa painting.

C. The exhumation will help uncover the truth behind the Mona Lisa.

D. The French government wants to help find out the truth.

2.Which of the following is TRUE about the Mona Lisa?

A. It is now preserved in France.

B. It is a self-portrait of da Vinci in drag.

C. It has the same long history as King Tut’s mummy.

D. It was painted in 1519.

3.What’s the question that the INCCH is researching on?

A. What da Vinci died of.

B. Whether da Vinci liked dressing in drag.

C. Whether the Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci.

D. Whether the Mona Lisa is da Vinci’s self-portrait.

4.What the underlined phrase, “ throws light on”, in the second paragraph mean?

A. Pays attention to.

B. Makes people feel confident.

C. Makes it possible for people to know.

D. Draws people’s attention.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503. He was working_______a special painting for a church at that time,_______the church painting was not _______well. An Italian businessman asked da Vinci to paint a picture of his second _______. This is the woman who _______be seen in the Mona Lisa.

All in all, the Mona Lisa is a very good example of da Vinci's _______, and it satisfied the husband. Da Vinci used ______and light in a clever ________in the painting.

Da Vinci loved science and_______Right away a person can see that there is a lot of geometry(几何形状) in the Mona Lisa. The face of the Mona Lisa is made of many circles and ________shapes like ________. Even her ________can be seen as a small part of a large circle.

The woman in the ________is sitting on a balcony (阳台), and ________can be seen behind her because Da Vinci loved to study rocks, and these can be seen ________in his other paintings. The woman is sitting with her knees _______the side. Her head is turned to look out of the painting. Her hands are_______together in front of her. This way of________is now used by many ______when they are______. The Mona Lisa is a remarkable master.

1.A. about　　 B. up　　 C. in　　 D. on

2.A. so long as　　 B. but　　 C. in spite of　　 D. however

3.A. working　　 B. doing　　 C. going　　 D. making

4.A. wife　　 B. servant　　 C. daughter　　 D. nurse

5.A. can　　 B. must　　 C. should　　 D. might

6.A. novels　　 B. photos　　 C. works　　 D. masterpiece

7.A. darkness　　 B. oils　　 C. heaviness　　 D. blank

8.A. hand　　 B. eye　　 C. way　　 D. picture

9.A. geography　　 B. biology　　 C. chemistry　　 D. maths

10.A. long　　 B. circular　　 C. square　　 D. round

11.A. cigars　　 B. packets　　 C. diamonds　　 D. balls

12.A. emotion　　 B. pattern　　 C. preference　　 D. smile

13.A. painting　　 B. cottage　　 C. exhibition　　 D. canvas

14.A. sparrow　　 B. mountains　　 C. landscape　　 D. kitten

15.A. that’s to say　　 B. over and over　　 C. on the other hand　　 D. by and by

16.A. on　　 B. by　　 C. to　　 D. beyond

17.A. hung　　 B. caught　　 C. held　　 D. supported

18.A. sitting　　 B. painting　　 C. living　　 D. smiling

19.A. models　　 B. females　　 C. bridegrooms　　 D. brides

20.A. played　　 B. being painted　　 C. painting　　 D. being played　　　　　

高二英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Here’s a simple challenge: name a famous inventor. Perhaps Leonardo da Vinci springs to mind. Or the pioneer of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. But you might be hard-pressed to name many female inventors, even though women are behind some of the most widely used technologies in the modern world.

For example, where would we be without the windscreen wiper? Back on a freezing winter’s day in 1902, Mary Anderson was traveling by tram through New York city. Snow was falling, forcing the driver to stop repeatedly and get out to clear it. Each time the door opened, Mary suffered. She had a brainwave: why not make something that could be operated from inside the vehicle? And that’s exactly what she did.

Let’s step in from freezing New York for our next invention. The dishwasher dates back even earlier to the 19th Century, and to the dinner parties thrown by a lady called Josephine Cochrane. As a frequent host, she wanted a machine that could wash dishes faster than people. Her response was to develop what was to become the first commercially successful dishwasher.

Need something to do while the dishwasher is on? How about a round of Monopoly（强手棋游戏）? One of the most popular board games around, the rules were first drawn up by a lady called Elizabeth Magie, and patented in 1904.

To an altogether different kind of innovation: Kevlar is the lightweight fibre used in bulletproof（防弹）vests. The material is used by millions every day and has saved countless lives and is strength-lo-weight ratio is five times higher than steel.

Finally, one of the most important inventions of the 20th Century must surely be the computer programme. The world of programming is unbalanced among men and women, with men taking home around 30% more pay than their female partners on average. But back in the 1940s and 50s, women were at the forefront of this new field and Grace Hopper was one of them.

1.What do we know about the inventions mentioned in the text?

A. They were mostly made in the 20th century.

B. They all used high technology.

C. Their inventors came from families of good education.

D. They were all made by accident.

2.Why did Mary Anderson invent windscreen wiper?

A. The winter was extremely cold there.

B. She was forced to clear the snow by others.

C. The car she drove made her suffer a great deal.

D. She was sick of the driver getting out to clear the window.

3.Which of the following statements is WRONG according to the text?

A. Josephine Cochrane wanted a machine that operated automatically.

B. The game invented by Magie was popular merely among teenagers.

C. Kevlar is the super tough fibre and stronger than steel.

D. Grace Hopper was good at computer programming.

4.What is the best title of this passage?

A. Women can be Great Inventors

B. The Most Useful Inventions by Women

C. The Most Widely Used Technologies

D. Women Made Greater Contributions than Men

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

It’s common knowledge that the woman in Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting seems to look back at observers, following them with her eyes no matter where they stand in the room. But this common knowledge turns out wrong.

A new study finds that the woman in the painting is actually looking out at an angle that’s 15. 4 degrees off to the observer’s right-well outside of the range that people normally believe when they think someone is looking right at them. In other words, said the study author, Horstmann, “She’s not looking at you. “ This is somewhat ironic, because the entire phenomenon of a person’s gaze (凝视) in a photograph or painting seeming to follow the viewer is called the “Mona Lisa effect” . That effect is absolutely real, Horstmann said. If a person is illustrated or photographed looking straight ahead, even people viewing the portrait from an angle will feel they are being looked at. As long as the angle of the person’s gaze is no more than about 5 degrees off to either side, the Mona Lisa effect occurs.

This is important for human interaction with on-screen characters. If you want someone off to the right side of a room to feel that a person on-screen is looking at him or her, you don’t cut the gaze of the character to that side-surprisingly, doing so would make an observer feel like the character isn’t looking at anyone in the room at all. Instead, you keep the gaze straight ahead.

Horstmann and his co-author were studying this effect for its application in the creation of artificial-intelligence avatars(虚拟头像) when Horstmann took a long look at the “Mona Lisa” and realized she wasn’t looking at him.

To make sure it wasn’t just him, the researchers asked 24 people to view images of the “Mona Lisa” on a computer screen. They set a ruler between the viewer and the screen and asked the participants to note which number on the ruler intersected(和……相交) Mona Lisa’s gaze. To calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze as she looked at the viewer, they moved the ruler farther from or closer to the screen during the study. Consistently, the researchers found, participants judged that the woman in the “Mona Lisa” portrait was not looking straight at them, but slightly off to their right.

So why do people repeat the belief that her eyes seem to follow the viewer? Horstmann isn’t sure. It’s possible, he said, that people have the desire to be looked at, so they think the woman is looking straight at them. Or maybe the people who first coined the term “Mona Lisa effect” just thought it was a cool name.

1.It is generally believed that the woman in the painting “Mona Lisa”___________.

A.attracts the viewers to look back

B.seems mysterious because of her eyes

C.fixes her eyes on the back of the viewers

D.looks at the viewers wherever they stand

2.What gaze range in a painting will cause the Mona Lisa effect?

A. B. C. D.

3.The experiment involving 24 people was conducted to______.

A.confirm Horstmann’s belief

B.create artificial-intelligence avatars

C.calculate the angle of Mona Lisa’s gaze

D.explain how the Mona Lisa effect can be applied

4.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Horstmann thinks it’s cool to coin the term “Mona Lisa effect”.

B.The Mona Lisa effect contributes to the creation of artificial intelligence.

C.Feeling being gazed at by Mona Lisa may be caused by the desire for attention.

D.The position of the ruler in the experiment will influence the viewers’ judgement.

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Which of these paintings was painted by the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci? _______.

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

请阅读下面短文，然后按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。

Water is the driving force of all nature, Leonardo da Vinci claimed. Unfortunately for our planet, water supplies are now running dry at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to increase but that rise in number has not been matched by adequate supplies of fresh water. Reports show that more than a billion individuals — one in seven people on the planet — now lack access to safe drinking water.

In Sao Paulo, a Brazilian city, drought got so bad that residents began drilling through basement floors and car parks to try to reach groundwater. Officials in this city warned that rationing（配给制）of water supplies was likely soon. Citizens in Sao Paulo might have access to water for only two days a week. In California, US, officials have shown that the state has entered its fourth year of drought. At the same time, its per capita（人均）water use has continued to rise.

（写作内容）

1.用约30词概括上述信息的主要内容；

2.结合上述信息及日常生活，简要分析导致全球淡水资源短缺的主要原因（不少于两点）；

3.谈谈在日常生活中我们应如何保护淡水资源（不少于两点）。

（写作要求）

1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；

2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3.不必写标题。

（评分标准）

内容完整。语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。

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高二英语概要写作困难题查看答案及解析

Leonardo da Vinci was an extraordinary genius, _______ is believed _______ “Renaissance man”.

A.who, to be B.that, to be C.which, to have been D.whom, to have been

高二英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest thinkers in the world, began his career as an artist. Very little is known about Leonardo’s early life. He was born in 1452 in the town of Vinci. As a boy, Leonardo showed a great interest in drawing, sculpting and observing nature.

However, because Leonardo was born to parents who were not married to each other, he was barred from some studies and professions. He trained as an artist after moving to Florence with his father in the 1460s. It was an exciting time to be in Florence, one of the cultural capitals of Europe. Leonardo trained with one of the city’s very successful artists, Andrea del Verrocchio. He was a painter, sculptor and gold worker. Verrocchio told his students that they needed to understand the body’s bones and muscles when drawing people.

Leonardo took the teacher’s advice very seriously. He spent several periods of his life studying the human body by taking apart and examining dead bodies. While training as an artist, Leonardo also learned about and improved on relatively new painting methods at the time. One was the use of perspective(透视) to show depth. A method called “sfumato” helped to create a cloudy effect to suggest distance. “Chiaroscuro” is a method using light and shade as a painterly effect.

Leonardo’s first known portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. He made this painting of a young woman named Ginevra de’ Benci around 1474. The woman has a pale face with dark hair. In the distance, Leonardo painted the Italian countryside.

He soon received attention for his extraordinary artistic skills. Around 1475 he was asked to draw an angel in Verrocchio’s painting “Baptism of Christ.” One story says that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo’s addition to the painting, he was so amazed by his student’s skill that he said he would never paint again.

1.Which of the following words can be used to describe Leonardo according to the third paragraph?

A. Stubborn.　　 B. Creative.

C. Pessimistic.　　 D. Determined.

2.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. Verrocchio felt shame at his own work.

B. Verrocchio thought Leonardo’s work terrible.

C. Verrocchio thought highly of Leonardo’s work.

D. Verrocchio didn’t believe Leonardo could paint well.

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Leonardo was prevented from some studies because of his parents.

B. Leonardo thought his teacher’s advice was unreasonable.

C. “Sfumato” is a method to show depth by using light and shade.

D. “Baptism of Christ” made Leonardo known across the world.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Every year in May, art galleries and museums prepare shows to honor Leonardo Da Vinci, who died in France on May 2, 1519. He is remembered as one of the greatest artists and creative thinkers of all time. His most famous paintings are The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Recently, researchers have been studying a painting-Landscape 8P which, they think, is Da Vinci's earliest-known artwork. They used special lighting to study the artwork and discovered there were two images, not one. One drawing is on the back of the piece, which dates back to August 5,1473.

The drawing on the front was painted when Leonardo was 21 years old. It shows a river valley and a castle outside the city of Florence. There is little left of the drawing on the back, perhaps because it was wiped off. Only a bridge over a river can be seen. But there is writing on both sides.

The writing on the front gives the date and goes from right to left. Some people would call this “mirror-writing”. It's a way Leonardo often wrote in his notebooks. The writing on the back goes from left to right and tells about an agreement, probably to produce a work of art.

Cecilia Frosinini is an art historian. She said, “Leonardo was born left-handed, but was taught to write with his right hand from a very young age. By looking at his writings, including from this drawing, we can see his right-handed handwriting is educated and well done.”

Experts compared the two handwriting samples(样本)and said they were both made by Leonardo. They show he could write well using his left hand or his right hand.

The drawing is known as Landscape 8P from its number in an art list. It will be part of an exhibit at Italy's Uffizi Gallery. The gallery director, Eike Schmidt, said by studying the drawing researchers gave us a new way of looking at Leonardo's drawing technique and his abilities in writing.

1.What does the writing on the back probably tell about?

A.A statement about the painting. B.An agreement to produce a painting.

C.An introduction about Leonardo. D.Something about the city of Florence.

2.What can we learn about Leonardo from Cecilia's words?

A.He did bad in right-handed handwriting.

B.He wasn’t good at writing with his left hand.

C.He could write with either of his hands.

D.He taught himself to write with right hand.

3.What's Eike Schmidt’s attitude towards the research?

A.Unclear. B.Indifferent.

C.Positive. D.Doubtful.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

They aren’t great artists like Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent van Gogh, but their paintings are just as popular on Chinese social media, with millions of Chinese people willing to pay for them.

The 36 works were painted by ordinary Chinese people who live with autism (自闭症) or cerebral palsy (脑瘫), aged from their early teens to late thirties. They all studied art at World of Art Brut Culture (WABC), which is a Shanghai-based non-profit organization (非贏利组织) for art education. The project was started by WABC and supported by the Tencent Charitable Foundation. Users could buy a digital copy of each painting by donating (捐赠) 1 yuan or more. By Aug 29, donations totaled more than 15 million yuan, with about 5.8 million people participating (参与).

“The paintings by these autistic kids and adults are beautiful: the style is similar to that of the Dutch artist Van Gogh. I’m really impressed by their talent,” Feng Li, a customer service officer in Shanghai, told the South China Morning Post.

However, the popular campaign also led to certain questions.

Li Laoxi, an experienced special education teacher in Hangzhou, said that based on his experience, people with autism could only draw a few lines or fill in colors under the guidance of their trainers. “Maybe there are some geniuses out there, but I’ve never met them”. Others questioned where the money would go, as the donations went to WABC instead of the painters. In response to these concerns, Miao Shiming, founder of WABC, said the money would be used to employ art teachers, buy supplies, and rent facilities. Meanwhile, Tencent said that all donation information would be open to the public.

1.What is the text mainly about?

A.An online painting exhibition. B.A non-profit organization.

C.A public donation. D.An online survey about paintings.

2.What does WABC do for people with autism?

A.It helps them cure autism. B.It provides art education for them.

C.It gives them money D.It offers schooling to them.

3.Why did Li Laoxi, an experienced special education teacher question the project?

A.Because he thought autistic people could not draw.

B.Because he doubted about the painting abilities of autistic people.

C.Because he didn’t trust the organization, WABC.

D.Because he believed the paintings were painted only by geniuses.

4.What is the author’s attitude towards the project?

A.Disappointed. B.Appreciated.

C.Worried. D.Objective.

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析