Grandma Moses is among the most famous twentieth-century painters of the United States, yet she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself：” I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.” No one could have had a more productive old age.

She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At twelve she left home and was in domestic(家庭的) service until, at twenty—seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived; her husband died in 1927.

Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery(刺绣) pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff(硬的) to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at the local drugstore(杂货店) and at a market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought everything she painted . Three of the pictures exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930’s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures： detailed(详细的)and lively portrayals(描绘) of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of color and form. “I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it.” she said.

52. According to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to .

A. make herself beautiful B. keep active

C. earn more money D. become famous

53. Grandma Moses spent most of her life .

A. nursing B. painting C. embroidering D. farming

54. The underlined word survived means .

A. graduated from college

B. examined the condition of the house

C. lived longer than the other children

D. gave up themselves to the police

55. From Grandma Moses’ description of herself in the first paragraph, it can be inferred that she was .

A. independent B. pretty C. rich D. nervous