Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.
Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.
Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.
"I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."

1. 1.

   What did Nathan put on his desk at college?

   1. A.
      The Statue of Liberty
   2. B.
      Superman
   3. C.
      His serf-portrait
   4. D.
      A Greenwich Village modal
2. 2.

   Why did Nathan give up his job as a lawyer?

   1. A.
      Because he made little money out of a lawyer
   2. B.
      Because he wanted to make toys for the children
   3. C.
      Because he decided to become an artist of toy bricks
   4. D.
      Because he was going to work in the museum instead
3. 3.

   What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

   1. A.
      Nathan's work
   2. B.
      Nathan's exhibition
   3. C.
      Nathan's art
   4. D.
      Nathan's self-portrait
4. 4.

   What would be the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      The Brick Artist
   2. B.
      The Brick Exhibition
   3. C.
      Toy Bricks for Adults
   4. D.
      The Artist's Childhood

An artist went to a beautiful part of the country for a holiday, and stayed with a farmer. Every day he went out with his paints and brushes and painted from morning to evening, and then when it got dark, he went back to the farm and had a good dinner before he went to bed.
At the end of his holiday he wanted to pay the farmer, but the farmer said, “No, I don’t want money… but give me one of your pictures. What is money? In a week it will all be finished, but your painting will still be here.”
The artist was very pleased and thanked the farmer for saying such kind things about his pictures. The farmer smiled and answered, “It’s not that. I have a son in London. He wants to become an artist. When he comes home next month, I’ll show him your picture, and he will not want to be an artist any more, I think. ”
【小题1】__________ people are mentioned (提到) in the article.

Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.

Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.

Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.

"I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."

1.What did Nathan put on his desk at college?

A．The Statue of Liberty.                    B．Superman.

C．His serf-portrait.                        D．A Greenwich Village modal.

2.Why did Nathan give up his job as a lawyer?

A．Because he made little money out of a lawyer.

B．Because he wanted to make toys for the children.

C．Because he decided to become an artist of toy bricks.

D．Because he was going to work in the museum instead.

3.What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Nathan's work.                         B．Nathan's exhibition.

C．Nathan's art.                           D．Nathan's self-portrait

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．The Brick Artist                         B．The Brick Exhibition

C．Toy Bricks for Adults                     D．The Artist's Childhood

 was born in Brussels, on June 25th, 1928. His real name was Pierre Culliford. At first, he almost became a dentist’s assistant. Luckily, he got a job in a cartoon studio. There he met and worked with some of Europe’s most famous comic book artists such as Franquin and Morris. Unfortunately the studio closed down and Peyo decided to become a full-time comic artist. He found himself a pen name from his childhood nickname ‘Pe- yot’.
Peyo became successful as a comic (连环画) artist. He decided to draw what he really loved,
stories based in the Middle Ages. He created the character Johan and drew some Johan strips (漫画) for the Belgian daily newspaper ‘Le Soir’ and then for ‘Spirou’ magazine. Johan soon became a huge success and one of the magazine’s main characters.

For Johan’s ninth book of adventures, Peyo needed a group of imps (小精灵) to build a magic flute. At a meal with his friend Andre Franquin. he asked Franquin to pass him the salt. But he couldn’t remember the word so he said, “Pass me the … um… the smurf!”. Franquin handed it over and answered, “Here’s the smurf. Onee you’ve smurfed with it you can smurf it back to me!” And so the name and language of the little imps were invented. The readers soon fell in love with these little smurfs, who love having fun, live in mushroom-shaped houses and speak a strange and wonderful language.
The Smurfs films were first seen on Belgian television and then in France and the Netherlands. In 1981. The Smurfs was on the American NBC TV Channel for the first time, but the success didn’t stop there. The success of the Smurfs became planetary in the 80’s because of the cartoons. There are few regions left where people don’t know smurfs, but their name changes in every county; the Smurfs, die Schlümpfe, Los Pitufos, I Puffi. de Smurfen, les Schtroumpfs… and 蓝精灵 in Chinese.
In August 2011, the Smurfs make their return to the big screen again, this time in 3D! Peyo left us on December 24, 1992, but the Smurfs have continued their many adventures and are today looking forward to a bright and even more exciting future.
【小题1】Peyo’s real name was       .

Pieter Bruegel was a famous artist who lived in Europe five hundred years ago. He is well known for a painting called Children’s Games. People like this painting because it is full of fun. It shows how children in Pieter’s time enjoyed themselves in different ways. In all, there are about eighty games being played in the painting.
Children’s Games shows a busy street scene in a town long ago. The street is a wide and open space. There are no cars, so there is plenty of room to play. There are about two hundred children in the painting. Some play in groups and others play alone. They seem to be enjoying their freedom in the fresh air and their games. Some of the games are still played today.
The games in the painting do not require children to spend money on extra materials(材料). Instead, they use simple everyday objects like hats and sticks. A game might need a rope, some chalk, a hoop, a spinning top, or even a barrel. Some games are played without any toys at all. For example, one scene in the painting shows children turning somersaults(翻筋斗) inside the fence.
Even though Pieter Bruegel lived a long time ago, children today can learn an important lesson from what he painted. The painting shows us how little we need in order to enjoy ourselves. All children really need is one another. It’s not the toys or games that are found in the stores that create fun. Using our imagination can do this for us. 
【小题1】The painting shows about ______ games.