Rafael is my parents’ friend who owns a bakery with the yummiest (最美味的) treats imaginable. He happened to stop by when my friends Mareya and Daniel, my little sister Indi and I were drawing with chalk in front of my house. He said our drawings were cool, while trying not to step on them as he walked toward the door to find my dad. We expressed our thanks and continued to draw.

A little while later, when he came back out with my dad, Rafael said he had been thinking about our wonderful drawings, and that he’d really love our help. He was going to sell cookies, and the profits would go to an organization that worked to save the rainforests. When asked if he wanted us to help taste the cookies, Rafael laughed and said “Of course”. But he said he also needed some artwork for the bags. He wondered if we would be up for making some sketches (草图) on paper that he could consider for the label.

We said yes right away. I mean, who wouldn’t want to help the rainforests — and sample some of Rafael’s delicious cookies? Rafael had to leave for a meeting but promised to be back by four o’clock. “Don’t worry about making the pictures perfect,” he said as he left. “Just have fun drawing.”

After we read a little bit about the rainforests, my mom helped get us set up with art supplies and background music. And away we drew! Finally, about five minutes before four o’clock, we decided to stop and look at one another’s work. To our great surprise, Daniel made an incredible drawing. When asked why he never told us he could draw like that, Daniel just smiled. He said he was glad we liked it and that he thought all of ours were really awesome too.

2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。

I liked my drawing, but after comparing it with Daniel’s masterpiece, I felt like the worst artist ever.

When I looked closely at everyone’s art, I could see what Rafael meant.

The production of fine art is the use of skill and imagination to create aesthetic objects or experiences which can be shared with other people. Photography is thought by some to be a form of fine art; however, others claim that photography is not.

Those who believe that photography is not a form of art present several arguments. They claim a photograph is nothing but an objective record of a particular place at a particular time. Therefore, any beauty that is perceived in the picture is the beauty of the time and place where it was taken, and is not the creation of the photographer. They also argue that sophisticated and expensive equipment often plays a greater role in the success of a photograph than the photographer’s creativity. Even some of the greatest photographers acknowledge that there is a limit to the amount of influence they can have on a final product.

However, there are also many reasons why photography is appreciated on the same level as other recognized forms of visual art. The decisions involved in creating a photograph are analogous to those made by any other artist. A photograph is not just a banal record of the world, but a deliberately created image with its own artistic features. Ansel Adams, the American photographer, commented on this point when he noted: ‘You don’t take a photograph, you make it.’ There is a growing trend for photographers to call themselves artists and their photos are sold for millions of dollars. However, these high prices may not be enough to change people’s perceptions of whether photography is art.

The arguments about whether photography is art have been discussed since the earliest cameras were used. The creative process involved in taking a fine photograph, deciding what, when and how the picture should be taken, is certainly similar to the process of making fine art. However, cameras are also increasingly used to take photographs for non-artistic functions. Although we cannot say that photography itself is necessarily art, we can certainly see that it is a medium that can be used to make art.