Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 39 to 43.
Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings of all time, in 1503. He was working on a special painting for a church at the time, but it was not going well. The woman who can be seen in the Mona Lisa is said to be Madonna Lisa del Giocondo. She was the wife of an Italian businessman who asked da Vinci to paint a portrait of her.
After Leonardo da Vinci finished the painting in 1506, he was invited by the French King, Francois I, to visit France, and he took the painting with him. Today, the Mona Lisa is kept in the Louvre, an art museum in Paris, and it is seen by about six million visitors a year.
The painting measures only 77 centimeters by 53 centimeters and is painted with oil on wood. In 1911, it was stolen by a worker at the Louvre, Vincenzo Peruggia, who took it out of the museum by hiding it under his coat. Two years later, police found the painting under Peruggia's bed after he tried to sell it.
In 1962, the Mona Lisa was taken to Washington and New York for an exhibition. For the journey, it was insured for 100 million dollars, making it the most valuable painting ever!
