Read the passage and mark A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions. Vincent Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert, in The Netherlands on March 30th 1853, to parents Theodorus Van Gogh, a preacher, and Ana Cornelia Carbentus. In 1869 at the age of 16, Van Gogh began a career, not as a painter, but as an art dealer with the firm Goupil & Cie. He spent 7 years at Goupil & Cie where daily contacts with works of art kindled his appreciation of paintings and drawings. ...

Read the passage and mark A, B, C or D to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Groot Zundert, in The Netherlands on March 30th 1853, to parents Theodorus Van Gogh, a preacher, and Ana Cornelia Carbentus. In 1869 at the age of 16, Van Gogh began a career, not as a painter, but as an art dealer with the firm Goupil & Cie. He spent 7 years at Goupil & Cie where daily contacts with works of art kindled his appreciation of paintings and drawings. Gradually Vincent lost interest in his work and decided to try his hand teaching at a Catholic School for boys. His growing interest religion and his desire to help the poor eventually drove him to become a clergyman. In 1878, he became a lay preacher in one of the most impoverished regions in Western Europe: the coal- mining district of the Borinage in Belgium. Vincent sympathized with the poverty-stricken miners and gave away most of his food and clothing to ease their burdened lives. His extreme commitment to the miners drew disfavor from the church, which dismissed him of his post. Vincent, however, decided to remain with the miners and began to paint them and their families, chronicling their harsh conditions.

Soon after, thanks to his brother’s financial help, Vincent decided to go to Brussels in 1880 to begin studies in art. During the next 10 years, Vincent painted around 872 painting. In 1882, Vincent began living with Clasina Maria Hoornik, also known as Sien, and her children, in The Hague. Their volatile personalities and the strain of living in complete poverty created stormy relationship. Vincent was devoted to Sien and her children, but art always came first. As his drawing and painting skills advanced, his relationship with Sien deteriorated and they parted ways in September 1883

In 1886, ẽVincent moved in with his brother-Theo in Paris where he met Paul Gauguin and various other artists, who had a tremendous impact on his ongoing evolution as an artist. Never truly happy in large cities, Vincent decided to move to Aries Province in the south of France, where he rented a studio and invited Paul Gauguin to live with him. In December 1888, Vincent experienced a psychotic episode in which he cut off a piece of his left ear. After his episode, he was in and out of asylums for the next year. It was thought that Van Gogh was actually epileptic and that is why people thought he had fits of insanity throughout his life. He painted one of his best-known painting, Starry Night, during one of his stays in the asylum. In mid-1890, Vincent left the asylum and spent the last few months of his life in Auvers, France. On July 27th 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. Two days later he died with his younger brother-Theo by his side. He left behind a wonderful array of paintings that make him one of the most influential painters of our time.

1. The word “chronicling” in paragraph 1 is closest meaning to “ “.