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THE TALENT OF THE TRUNKFor the modest sum of $250, it will soon be possible to buy 1. a painting 2. one of the art world's next rising stars. If that 3. sound 4. very much to you, then this is a good moment to snap 5. a bargain; because it looks like the art world is 6. for a bit of a surprise. Two artists in Thailand have opened three elephant painting schools where they want to train elephants to produce 7. of art. They plan to sell these paintings but not to 8. money for themselves they are to channel the profits back into local elephant projects 9. the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The artists are on the 10. of finding out exactly how viable the project actually is. Some animal art 11. already a commercial success; paintings by chimpanzees can fetch high prices, and are highly sought 12. Apparently elephants have a more abstract style, and by the time their work has been assessed by experts it will already have been 13. the market for some time. Elephants may not be as smart as humans, but perhaps you don't 14. to be smart to be a great painter. And 15. all, who can really say what is or isn't art? AN ARTIST OF THE FUTURE?
Is he a complete phenomenon? He dashes 16. works of art with big, bold confident sweeps of the brush, and his style has been compared 17. Picasso. 18. unusual in that, 19. that Edward Simpson is only six years old. He has become the youngest artist to 20. his work accepted 21. the British Watercolour Society's annual exhibition, and his paintings sell 22. £50 each. A MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP COLLECTING THINGS!
Bom in 1893 in California, Robert Ripley was a self-taught artist, who 23. to sell his first drawing when he was 14. A natural athlete, he longed to have a career in baseball, but failed to achieve this after breaking his arm in his first professional game. 24. allowing this to interfere 25. his other plans, he began working as a professional cartoonist and in 1918 he started drawing cartoons 26. odd facts. Their success encouraged him to pursue his interest 27. oddities. Ripley loved collecting but avoided acquiring anything normal; he went 28. filling his houses with odd artefacts. He was an unusual person who 29. to wear bright colours; he collected cars, but never learned to drive. He never minded using recording equipment for radio broadcasts, but avoided communicating 30. telephone in 31. he risked being electrocuted. He detested swimming, but owned many boats. In 1933, he opened his first Odditorium intending to display his strange artefacts. He never regretted doing this, as it was so successful; there are now over 27 museums in ten countries, and tourists are 32. to make them a holiday highlight. Listening
Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1396
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