Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 31 to 40.
A Biography of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
[I] Vincent Van Gogh was one of history’s greatest painters, although he met only rejection and failure during his lifetime. Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands. [II] He was well educated in French and English but was shy and introverted as a child, lacking self-confidence. His greatest friend was his younger brother Theo, who supported him emotionally and financially all his life. [III] At 16, Van Gogh turned to religion and became a preacher in an impoverished mining district of Belgium. [IV] Van Gogh still stayed without pay because he was concerned about the suffering of the poor miners.
After his failure as a preacher, Van Gogh decided to devote his life to art. Although he had been drawing since childhood, his first major painting, “Potato Eaters”, was completed when he was in his late twenties. In 1886, Van Gogh briefly attended formal art school in Antwerp, where he discovered Japanese art, which inspired him to use bright, vibrant colors. For him, color was the key to communicating his emotions.
In 1887, Van Gogh visited Theo in Paris, where he met the Impressionists; he liked their use of natural light and color, although he regretted their lack of commitment to social causes. Van Gogh wanted his artworks to hang in poor people’s homes to bring them happiness through beauty. Unlike the Impressionists, he painted not what he saw but what he felt. His style of Expressionism opened the way to the modern, abstract art of the 20th century.
In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles, in the South of France. There, he spent most of the money Theo sent him on painting supplies, neglecting his health. Feeling lonely as a foreigner and an artist, he invited Paul Gauguin to found an artists’ colony, but the two soon quarreled. Suffering from severe depression, Van Gogh asked to be taken to a mental hospital, where he continued painting. He passed away in Auvers, near Paris, at the age of 37. His last words were, “The sadness will never end.” Theo died six months later and was buried next to his brother.
(Adapted from Longman Academic Reading)
