2026年真题19

Listen to a talk in an art history class (man) Jacob Lawrence was an African American painter born in 1917. His paintings celebrated African American culture and history. Lawrence painted well-known black figures like Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman had been an important African American social activist before the painter’s time. Lawrence also painted everyday people and their struggles, for example, The Migration Series. Uh, Lawrence frequently made series of paintings. The Migration Series is sixty panels with captions that chronicle the Great Migration, when many African American families made the difficult move from the rural United States South to north cities in the early 1900s. In the painting, Lawrence used bold colors and strong diagonal shapes to create a sense of motion which is representative of many of his paintings. He was only in his mid-twenties when he completed the sixty panels, quite an accomplishment for such a young artist. Lawrence purposely used a style that appeared somewhat simple. Unfortunately, this led to some critics saying his work, such as the migration series, was childlike or even crude. However, you can see a very polished style in his even earlier works, which showed he was perfectly capable of a painting style that would satisfy snooty critics. He chose to paint the way he did because he found this style more powerful and convincing.

Listen to a talk in an art history class (man) Now, let’s look at a twentieth-century artist and teacher named Lois Mailou Jones. Lois Mailou Jones was born in 1905 in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. Early on, her parents recognized her creative talent and gave her a good start by making sure she had crayons, paper and other supplies. As a adult, Jones took a sabbatical from her teaching job to study art in Paris in 1937. With the artistic communities and museums in Paris, it was a formative experience where Jones practiced painting landscapes and street scenes. She also learned more about Impressionism and other painting styles. You can see this influence in her 1940 oil painting called Indian Shops, which depicts a scene in Martha’s Vineyard, a coastal town in Massachusetts where Jones had spent time as a child. Indian Shops shows a pretty realistic and calm summer scene of small stores with vendors. The ocean, the sky, the colors are warm and light. I appreciate the way it balances nature alongside human-made structures. Now, later in her career, Jones produced more abstract work. One striking example of this is an oil and collage piece called Moon Masque from 1971. In Moon Masque, Jones connected with her own African heritage using vibrant colors and geometric shapes. It’s an emotional work where she incorporated a replica of a white African mask that appears to be crying. It’s surrounded by black profiles of faces looking left and right.

Listen to a talk on an astronomy podcast (man) When I was growing up, Pluto was known as the ninth planet in our solar system. Alas, Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006, and not only because it’s so small, maybe half the width of the United States. It’s mainly because in 2006, it was decided that planets had to meet three criteria. They had to orbit the Sun and be round in shape, check and check. But they also had to be the main object in their orbit, which, well, Pluto is in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a region in the far outer reaches of the solar system with many other bodies that orbit the Sun, so Pluto lost its planet status as a result. Many scientists dismissed Pluto as just a ball of ice anyway. However, about ten years later, the New Horizons spacecraft went back new images and data showing that Pluto is far more complex than previously thought. We’re talking volcanoes, dunes. I mean, get this. Pluto has a deep basic with three types of ice, and New Horizons’ images suggest there’s convection in the basin of ice. With convection warmer ice rises to the surface, then cools and sinks at the edge of the basin. So, the surface is continuously rejuvenating, renewing itself. Moreover, under the basin of ice, there may be something astonishing: a saltwater ocean. Life could exist there. This means many neighboring bodies in the Kuiper Belt could also have oceans and potentially be habitable.

Listen to a talk in a physiology class (man) You know, modern LED light bulbs have really changed the way we light our homes and workplaces. They’re extremely energy efficient, but before LEDs took over, incandescent bulbs were the norm for everyday lighting needs. Incandescent bulbs give off a warm, full spectrum glow, including the wavelength called near-infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. Now, LEDs are designed to shine in the visible range, about 400 to 700 nanometers, a relatively narrow band of the spectrum, which is great for saving energy and thus for reducing costs. But by cutting out near-infrared from the artificial light we’re exposed to, we might be missing out on some subtle but important health benefits. Research suggests that exposure to near-infrared light may support cardiovascular health, reduce stress and even boost your mood, kind of like the light from a campfire or a bright sunny day. Incandescent bulbs, though less efficient, might offer physiological benefits that LEDs lack. Despite these limitations, LED bulbs remain a popular and practical choice. But the question is, are the downsides worth it? Many experts say no, and they’re advocating, instead, for advanced LED systems that bring near-infrared back into the mix. Such systems do exist, but they’re pricey, sometimes ten times more than regular LEDs. So, for now at least, they’re mostly used in specialized medical settings.