An artwork made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) won first place at the Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition last week, sparking a lot of discussion and argument.

Artists all over the world have joined in the discussion with their opinions on social media, with a common view that Jason Allen, the designer of the award winning artwork, isn’t an artist and it really isn’t his own artwork; therefore, his art shouldn’t have been accepted in the competition as original artwork in the first place, let alone won the competition.

“We’re watching the death of artistry(艺术性) unfold before our eyes,” a Twitter user said in a reply that gained over 2,000 likes. “If creative jobs aren’t safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. What will we have then?” Many people believe AI-generated art should be classified differently, saying it threatens the work of human artists.

According to Allen, his input was important to the shaping of the award winning painting. With the help of Midjourney, an AI program, he generated several hundred images, choosing three of them that he liked most. Then the man slightly processed each of the paintings using Adobe Photoshop, enlarged it in size using Gigapixel AI, and then printed it on canvas and sent it to the competition. Allen said he did a lot of preparatory work in order to get a really effective and beautiful artwork. He states that he noted that AI was used while creating the artwork, labelling it as “Jayson Allen via Midjourney”.

However, according to the judges of the fine arts competition, they were not warned that they were evaluating the work by artificial intelligence, not a human being. They were just judging, first of all, how the art tells a story. And the official list of winners doesn’t say anything about Midjourney either. In any case, out of twenty-one entries submitted to the contest, they chose the one, which was generated by AI.

1.What do artists think of Jason Allen’s artwork?

A It is original.

B It deserves the award.

C It can’t be accepted.

D It shouldn’t be in the competition.

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据第二段的“his art shouldn’t have been accepted in the competition as original artwork in the first place, let alone won the competition”可知，艺术家们认为这幅画最初就不应该进入比赛。故选D。

2.What does the underlined word “obsolete” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A Out of date.

B More popular.

C Less attractive.

D Out of balance.

解析：选A。A 词义猜测题。根据划线部分前面的“We’re watching the death of artistry unfold before our eyes”和“If creative jobs aren’t safe from machines”可知，一位推特用户认为：艺术正在消亡，在机器的冲击下，连最需要创意的艺术工作都不安全，其他高技能的工作也有过期或失效的危险。故选A。

3.What’s Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A How Allen created his work.

B Why Allen created many images.

C What Allen thought of his work.

D What preparation Allen did for his work.

解析：选A。A 段落大意题。通读本段内容可知，本段主要描述了Allen创作这幅画的过程：首先输入文字描述到Midjourney，生成几百张图片，选出最喜欢的三张，用Adobe Photoshop进行微处理，然后借助Gigapixel AI放大图片后打印在画布上送去参展。故选A。

4.What was the judges’ attitude to Jason Allen’s artwork?

A Negative.

B Positive.

C Neutral.

D Curious.

解析：选B。B 推理判断题。根据最后一段的“They were just judging, first of all, how the art tells a story.”可知评委们评判作品时首先看作品所传递出的故事；结合最后一句评委们在21幅参赛作品中选中了这一幅，说明他们很欣赏这幅画，对之持积极态度。故选B。