【推荐1】I started a “question of the day” section in a family text group. We’d talk about everything from movies to politics. But despite several warnings from loved ones that some of my responses were judgmental and that I was too quick to attack an opinion, I all but killed that group text. It had a good 12 people in it. We’d shared laughs, encouragement, and funny memes (表情包). It took only one conversation — which I was in the middle of — to end it.

I realized that I had a problem. The medium for my problem is the smartphone. Before smartphones enabled instant communication, people talked on the telephone. In person, you could cut in a “What do you mean by that?” to correct a misunderstanding before it got out of hand. Don’t get me wrong: I love a good group text. It makes me feel connected to people in a way that I just can’t seem to anymore, now that I have a wife and kids.

I’m learning, but I had a relapse (复发) recently. I joined a new text group. I introduced my “question of the day” feature. I fooled myself into thinking that I was encouraging a healthy debate on current events. No. Others in the group saw it as me trying to prove that my way was the right way. Then I made the mistake of sharing some personal information that one friend had told me during a phone conversation. I thought everyone knew. Then this friend started referring to me as a snitch — not terms of kind word. So I asked him about it — in person. That’s when he told me I’d shared sensitive information he hadn’t told anyone else. I apologized plentifully and came away from the conversation more determined to slow down my texts.

My new resolve seems to be working. You should be pleased to know that I have avoided making a few points that I was tempted (鼓动) to make in individual and group texts. In some cases, I didn’t even respond. I haven’t lost any more connections by doing this.

1. How does the author introduce the topic?

A．By making judgments on politics.	B．By responding to some text messages.
C．By presenting a personal experience.	D．By starting a funny conversation.

2. What problem does the author have in digital communication?

A．Ignoring the need to listen to others.	B．Making quick and sharp responses.
C．Failing to express himself timely.	D．Focusing on the issues of his own.

3. Why was the author attacked by his friend in the text group?

A．He gave away the privacy of his friend.

B．He always made mistakes on current events.

C．He made a fool of himself in chatting.

D．He liked enquiring personal information.

4. What does the author learn from his experience?

A．Hurry makes waste.	B．Understanding each other is vital.
C．Sometimes fast is just too fast.	D．Trust is the bridge of communication.

【推荐1】Different from regular concerts, roadside concerts in Guiyang, capital city of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, allow people to immerse themselves in music. Without tickets or fences, young people held hands together, singing and dancing. Videos showing their relaxing and cheerful performances went viral after being posted on social media.

From common people to stars, music brings people together. “Whether they are ordinary people or stars, when stepping onto the small stage by the road, they can enjoy the joy of music together,” said Zhou Wenjia, deputy head of the publicity department of Yunyan District.

Sun Guang, head of Nanming District’s cultural and tourism bureau in Guiyang, became a hit for the roadside concert.

“I have a music dream,” said Sun, who once took part in national competitions and performed on stage in Beijing. But for being busy with his work, he saw his guitar covered in dust. While seeing the flowing crowds, Sun signed up in secret, put on his leather jacket and sunglasses, and stood on his beloved stage.

But perhaps because of his wonderful performance, some audience recognized him. When singing on the stage for the third time, a short video showing his performance became a hit online and received nearly 1 million views, which put him at a loss for a time.

Qingyun Market, one of the venues of roadside concerts, is a famous tourist attraction in Guiyang which sells night snacks and local cultural and creative products. With the popularity of concerts, the market has become an important engine to boost the city’s economy.

“Roadside concerts now have become an important economic booster, and I could be a promoter. This is a good combination of my hobbies and duties,” said Sun.

As roadside concerts continue to gain steam, music has become a driving force for consumption. Guiyang has made it clear that roadside concerts will continue to require zero tickets, zero business, and zero distance from the people, with an aim to build a city with warmth and hospitality.

1. What does the underlined expression “went viral” in paragraph 1 mean?

A．Caught a virus.	B．Became popular.
C．Piled up.	D．Got blocked.

2. What is the feature of the roadside concert?

A．People enjoy the music together for free by the road.

B．Many superstars and bands enjoy street performances.

C．Audience immerse themselves in music inside the fences.

D．Roadside concerts gain little support from the government.

3. Why did Sun Guang sign up in secret?

A．Because he is too busy with his work.

B．Because he can’t stand public attention.

C．Because he wants to mask his real identity.

D．Because he lacks confidence in his performance.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Roadside concerts will attract sponsorship to earn profit.

B．Roadside concerts will charge the audience in the future.

C．Roadside concerts are aimed to improve the urban infrastructure.

D．Roadside concerts can boost the economic development in Guiyang.

【推荐2】Music will not earn an income unless it is well marketed. No matter how good you are at songwriting, composing music, playing instruments and everything on the creative side of music, you will never earn money without marketing it to your customers.

Let’s look at the steps in marketing and apply (应用) it to the online business world to make an effective marketing plan for your music.

Find out customer’s need

Before you can discover, you need to make it clear who your customers are, by answering the following questions:

First, what industry do your customers belong to? For example, if you are a music producer, your customers will most likely be recording companies.

Second, what field are you in? Music is broad; you need to specialize. Are you a rock songwriter, a pop producer or a jazz musician?

You then need to judge your customer’s need by examining those things already commonly accepted in the marketplace: the lyrics and melodies that are popular.

In this stage, you should examine your competitors by visiting their websites to learn from them. What is done by your competitors in the marketplace (where your business belongs) is most likely to meet your customer’s need.

Predict customer’s need

What you have to predict are the things that even your competitors may not have realized. These can be discovered by doing a survey or interviewing your customers. For example, you need to ask them directly, “What things are you looking for in a music publisher? When you are searching for music online, what would be the best presentation of music material to make you interested?”

                                                                                   

Now that you have known what your customers expect from your music, you need to write your music with the goal of meeting their expectations. This time your marketing efforts will most likely pay off.

1. We can learn from the first paragraph that________.

A．musicians usually have little income

B．music won’t be popular if it is too creative

C．to earn money musicians have to give up the creative side of music

D．it is not enough to only have good music if musicians want to earn money

2. To find out customer’s need, you have to________.

A．interview a music producer	B．join a recording company
C．decide the kind of music you will make	D．listen to popular songs in all fields

3. What is the best title to be put in the blank?

A．Change the customers’ attitudes.	B．Admit your own style.
C．Meet the customers’ need.	D．Try to get in touch with the customers.

4. Who are most likely to be interested in the passage?

A．Famous musicians.

B．Recording companies.

C．Managers of big companies selling music instruments

D．Music-makers expecting to earn money.

【推荐3】The Kyiv City Ballet danced to a full theater in Paris for the company’s last show of its French tour. The tour has left the dancers without a place to go after the war started in Ukraine. In other times, performing at the Théatre du Chatelet would be a dream come true for the dancers. But with the ongoing war in their country, the dancers feel only a deep sadness.

“We are both physically and emotionally exhausted.” Ekaterina Kozlova said. She is the company’s assistant director. “Everyone in the ballet is worried about their families, loved ones, friends, colleagues at home. It’s been very difficult.”

The Théatre du Chatelet, in the center of Paris, offered them the stage on Tuesday for the group’s final show of a French tour. The dance director of the Paris Opera and some members of her company joined the Ukrainians for a class before performing several ballet classics together. They danced parts of Russian composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Nutcrackery.

For many of the dancers, the chance to train and dance was a way to think about “something other than the conflict in Ukraine,” Kozlova said. One of the dancers will be going to the Ukrainian border in the coming days to pick up her young daughter who was taken out of the country. Only some members of the company were traveling around France. Many of the ballet’s best dancers stayed behind, waiting to join their friends after they reached Paris.

“Most of our artists are detained in Paris.” Director Ivan Kozlova told the Paris crowd. The city of Paris and the ballet community have helped find temporary housing for the Ukrainian dancers who say they hope to continue dancing in France and elsewhere. The Chatelet theater offered the whole group a residency. But for now, Tuesday’s last-minute performance was their last. All sales from their performances will go to nongovernmental organizations collecting and sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries.

1. What would the dancers feel about performing at the Théatre du Chatelet before the war?

A．Pleased.	B．Indifferent.
C．Sorrowful.	D．Sympathetic.

2. What do we know about the Ukrainian dancers?

A．They would leave Paris soon.

B．They would prevent the conflict.

C．Many best dancers stayed in Paris.

D．Some would go to the Ukrainian border.

3. What does the underlined word “detained” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Arrested.

B．Stuck.

C．Promoted.

D．Educated.

4. Which of the following words can best describe the dancers?

A．Enthusiastic and kind.	B．Generous and professional.
C．Cooperative and ambitious.	D．Courageous and calm.

【推荐3】When I was young, a friend and I came up with a “big” plan to make reading easy. The idea was to boil down great books to a sentence each. “Moby-Dick” by American writer Herman Melville, for instance, was reduced to: “A whale of a tale about the one that got away.” As it turned out, the joke was on us. How could a single sentence convey the essence (精髓) of a masterpiece with over five hundred pages?

Blinkist, a website and an app, now summarizes nonfiction titles in the form of quick takes labeled “blinks.” The end result is more than one sentence, but not by much. Sarah Bakewell’s “At the Existentialist Café” is broken into 11 screens of information; Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” fills 13.

Blinkist has been around since 2012. It calls its summaries “15-minute discoveries” to indicate how long it takes to read a Blinkist summary. “Almost none of us,” the editors assure us, “have the time to read everything we’d like to read.” Well, yes, of course, “So many books, so little time,” declares a poster I once bought at a book market. But I judge the quality of someone’s library by the books he or she has yet to read.

That’s because a book is something we ought to live with, rather than speed through and categorize. It offers an experience as real as any other. The point of reading a book is not accumulating information, or at least not that alone. The most essential aspect is the communication between writer and reader. The idea behind Blinkist, however, is the opposite: Reading can be, should be, measured by the efficient uptake (吸收) of key ideas. No, no, no. What’s best about reading books is its inefficiency.

When reading a book, we need to dive in, let it take over us, demand something of us, teach us what it can. Blinkist is instead a service that changes books for people who don’t, in fact, want to read. A 15-minute summary misses the point of reading; speed-reading with the app isn’t reading at all.

1. What does the underlined part “the joke was on us” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．We were actually joking.	B．We were laughed at by others.
C．We were underestimating ourselves.	D．We were just embarrassing ourselves.

2. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．What Blinkist is.	B．Why Blinkist is popular.
C．How to use Blinkist.	D．Where you can use Blinkist.

3. What is mentioned as a problem about reading in paragraph 3?

A．There are few new books of quality.	B．Many books are hard to understand.
C．People do not have enough time to read.	D．People do not like reading as much as before.

4. What is an ideal pattern of reading according to the author?

A．Obtaining key ideas efficiently.	B．Further confirming our beliefs.
C．Accumulating in formation quickly.	D．Deeply involving ourselves in books.

5. What is the author’s attitude to Blinkist?

A．Positive.

B．Negative

C．Uncaring.

D．Tolerant.