Liu Yexi has taken Douyin by storm. As of Nov 17, the virtual idol, who performed on the social media platform on Oct 31, had only released two short videos but attracted over 5 million followers.
Different from other virtual idols, Liu is defined as a “virtual beauty vlogger”. In her first video, Liu is doing makeup with an eye brush while dressed in a traditional Chinese costume.
When she turns around, the onlookers are terrified, except one boy. Then Liu slightly brushes the boy’s eyes, allowing him to see the fantasy world in her own eyes. The internet users marveled(使...惊叹) at its storyline, science-fiction elements and special visual effects with cyberpunk style. Liang Zikang, the CEO of the production team, told China Newsweek that the team spent two months making the video.
Liu’s instant popularity online further reflects that the virtual idol industry in China has been booming. There are over 32,400 virtual idols that have opened accounts on video-sharing platform Bilibili in the past year, seeing a year-on-year rise of 40 percent, Chen Rui, the CEO of Bilibili, said in a speech.
“Compared with real idols and stars, the virtual ones seem to be more approachable for fans,” Shine News noted. Additionally, these virtual web celebrities(名人) won’t have scandals(丑闻).
As more young people are fascinated by these virtual figures, their commercial(商业的) value has been on the rise. Generally, they earn money by online concerts, livestreaming and related products. For example, Luo Tianyi, a well-known virtual singer, cooperated with livestreamer Li Jiaqi to promote goods in 2020.
Therefore, some people are wondering whether they will replace real humans. “These socalled virtual idols have real human teams to back them up and control them. They are not really virtual.” Ding Daoshi, an independent analyst in the internet sector, told the Global Times. The real virtual idol will come when artificial intelligence achieves a new level of selflearning and self-training and then interacts with others, he added.
1. What do we know about Liu Yexi?| A．She becomes an online celebrity. | B．She creates a virtual fantasy world. |
| C．Her song becomes famous overnight. | D．Her costume wins her great popularity. |
| A．Beginning. | B．Arriving. | C．Growing. | D．Falling. |
| A．Their various styles. | B．Their friendly character. |
| C．Their commercial value. | D．Their wonderful performance. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Favorable. | D．Indifferent. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】In many parts of the world, there are four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. In the U.S., there are only three: football, basketball and baseball. If you want to know what season it is, just have a look at what people are playing.
For many people in the U.S., sports are not just for fun. They’re almost a religion. Thousands of sports fans buy expensive tickets to watch their favourite teams and athletes play in person. Other fans watch the games at home. The most devoted sports buffs never miss a game. Many a wife becomes a “sports widow (寡妇)” during her husband’s favorite season.
America’s devotion to athletics has created a new class of wealthy people: professional athletes. Sports stars often receive million -dollar salaries. Some even make big money appearing in advertisements for soft drinks, shoes and even toiletries (化妆品).
Sports are an important part of Americans’ culture. Throughout their school life, Americans learn to play many sports. All students take physical education classes in school. Some try out for the school teams, while others join school sports leagues. Athletic events at universities attract scores of fans and benefit the whole community.
1. The most popular sports in America are the following EXCEPT .| A．soccer | B．American football |
| C．basketball | D．baseball |
| A．Athletes | B．Fans |
| C．Clubs | D．Teams |
| A．some American men love sports more deeply than their wives |
| B．some American men often quarrel with their wives during their favourite season |
| C．some American men can hardly find time to be with their wives during their favourite season |
| D．some sports starts’ wives are left home alone during their favourite season |
| A．are well paid |
| B．often appear in advertisements |
| C．live a busy life |
| D．make big money by selling products such as soft drinks and shoes |
| A．Sports seasons in America | B．American sports fans |
| C．Americans’ sports culture | D．Sports in America |
That should have been the end of the story, but it wasn’t!
We like famous persons, and we enjoy listening to them.
| A．Well, clearly, there are lots of problems. |
| B．Sometimes we think we know them as well as we know our closest friends. |
| C．It seems like the coolest job in the world. |
| D．The family had spent all their money to meet Andy and they had no money to return home. |
| E．They hated the superstar. |
| F．Pop stars have their own personal lives. |
| G．In fact, there is no difficulty in becoming a pop star. |
【推荐3】It’s a dream come true for many fans to get a close view of their favorite stars and take pictures with them.
At Hong Kong International Airport on Dec 15, three young Chinese people boarded a Korean Aircraft.
The three people – two from the Chinese mainland and one from Hong Kong – were fans of Wanna One, a Korean pop band, who were on the same flight. However, immediately after taking pictures with their idols (偶像), the fans asked to get a repayment and got off the plane.
According to the flight regulations, all passengers need to get off and go through security checks once again even if only one passenger gets off the plane before takeoff.
Cases of crazy fans buying flight tickets just to follow and get a close view of their idols are common nowadays, reported CGTN. A series of rules were issued in July in order to stop crazy fans from disturbing public security at the airport.
“
| A．To make up for the loss, a sizable amount of money went to 357 passengers. |
| B．As a result, all the remaining 360 passengers had to get off the plane. |
| C．This is in case any dangerous things have been left on the flight. |
| D．It’s not unusual for fans and stars to share the same flight. |
| E．Some fans will do anything they can to realize the dream. |
| F．It was to fly from Hong Kong to the capital Seoul. |
| G．There’s nothing wrong with going after idols. |
【推荐1】Do you speak a dialect (方言) in daily life? While many Chinese people speak Mandarin, some local dialects are in danger of disappearing. To save them, the Chinese government started the Chinese Language Resources Protection Project a few years ago.
This project looks at how people talk in 1,712 places. Their languages include 103 dialects that are almost gone. It has helped China to build the largest language resource library in the world. There’s an online library where people can learn dialects from over 5.6 million audio clips (音频) and over 5 million videos.
Why is it important to protect the dialect culture? According to British linguist Harold Palmer, dialects are a key to store local cultures. Language faithfully shows the history, the beliefs and the biases (偏见) of an area, he said.
Scholar Zhang Hongming talked about his concerns of the disappearing of dialeets, “For about over 10 years, in the Wu dialect areas such as Shanghai and Suzhou, children aged 6 to 15 can understand but hardly speak the dialect. Meanwhile, young people above 15 years old sometimes speak it, but not very well. If this keeps happening, the dialect might disappear,” he said.
So how did China make this big library? “A big national effort has been put into the project to make it happen,” said Cao Zhiyun, chief expert on the project. Over five years, more than 350 universities and research groups joined in, along with over 4,500 experts and more than 6,000 dialect speakers.
The project is now entering into its second part. This includes creating digital tools like apps and mobile dictionaries to help people lean dialects.
1. How does the author start the text?| A．By quoting sayings. | B．By sharing a story. |
| C．By stating his own experiences. | D．By asking a question. |
| A．The development of Mandarin. | B．Why to protect dialects. |
| C．How to develop speaking skills. | D．The disappearing of dialects. |
| A．Worried. | B．Positive. | C．Indifferent. | D．Unelear. |
| A．It has entered into the third part. |
| B．Over 5.6 millions videos are collected in the project. |
| C．It looks at how people talk in 1,712 places. |
| D．Harold Palme is the chief expert on the project. |
【推荐2】(CNN) —European Union lawmakers struck a deal Friday agreeing to one of the world’s first major comprehensive artificial intelligence laws.
The landmark legislation, called the AI Act, sets up a regulatory (监管) framework to promote the development of AI while addressing the risks associated with the rapidly developing technology. The legislation bans harmful AI practices “considered to be a clear threat to people’s safety, livelihoods and rights”.
In a news conference, Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, called the law “a balanced and human-centered approach” that will “no doubt be setting the global standard for years to come”.
The regulatory framework, which classifies AI uses by risk and increases regulation on higher risk levels, was first proposed in 2021. The riskiest uses for AI are banned. According to the law, those include systems that exploit specific disadvantaged groups, biometric identification systems for law enforcement purposes and artificial intelligence that arranges controllable “subconscious techniques”. Limited risk systems, such as chat-bots like Open AI’s ChatGPT, or technology that generates images, audio or video content, are subject to new transparency (透明) duties under the law.
“The AI Act is much more than a rulebook—it’s a launchpad for EU start-ups and researchers to lead the global AI race,” Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market, wrote on social media, “The best is yet to come.”
Artificial intelligence broke into the mainstream with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chat-bot in November 2022. Seemingly overnight, generative AI technology exploded in popularity and spurred an AI arms race. But AI’s disturbance reaches far beyond the world of big tech: Educators have struggled with generative AI’s ability to complete schoolwork assignments; artists and musicians have fought with the potential for Al-fueled imitation (模仿) and even the media industry has seen its debate.
1. What is the text?| A．A short story. | B．An art review. | C．A news report. | D．A research paper. |
| A．AI risk regulation, | B．AI risk classification. |
| C．AI regulatory framework. | D．AI regulatory framework usage. |
| A．Positive. | B．Indifferent. | C．Disapproving. | D．Suspicious. |
| A．Ruined. | B．Caused. | C．Updated. | D．Interrupted. |
【推荐3】A computer program has been used to predict how people are feeling when they type.
In a study participants were asked to type a particular phrase and the program then estimated if they were happy, sad and so on. Surprisingly it was correct 70 per cent of the time, and the findings could lead to smarter artificial intelligence in the future.
The study published in the journal Behavior and Information Technology was carried out by researchers at the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh, reports Live Science.
In the research 25 people ranging from 15 to 40 years old were asked to retype two paragraphs from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll. They also had to enter their emotional state every 30 minutes while doing their regular activities on the computer. This allowed the program an opportunity to understand how their emotions changed their typing style.
Moods tested were joy, fear, anger, sadness, hate, and shame. The result was that the program could identify(识别) a person' s mood correctly 70 per cent of the time. It was most successful in identifying joyfulness with an 87 per cent success ratio, while sadness was the least successful at 60 per cent. The researchers found that the participants were less likely to input (输入) data when they were in a bad mood, which may explain the inexactness of the second result.
However, the findings could have great importance for artificial intelligence, and it may allow computers to get along with us in a friendlier manner, “If we could build any system that is intelligent enough to communicate with humans that is, it can identify user emotions and change its behavior accordingly then using machines could be more effective and friendly.” the researchers wrote.
1. Who conducted the study?| A．Lewis Carroll. | B．Islamic University of Technology. |
| C．Live Science. | D．Behavior and Information Technology. |
| A．Input words and emotional state. | B．Change their typing styles. |
| C．Change their feelings frequently. | D．Show their natural feelings. |
| A．People usually hide their unhappy feelings. |
| B．The program cannot recognize sadness clearly. |
| C．The program cannot calculate the data correctly. |
| D．It's more difficult to collect data when people are sad. |
| A．It helps people develop smarter machines. |
| B．It helps people speed up their typing speed. |
| C．It will inspire similar studies on people's mood. |
| D．It clearly explains the relationship between mood and typing. |
【推荐1】Foxes with nine tails, flying dragons that can spit fireballs and creatures with human-heads and snake-bodies. Many magical creatures are recorded in Chinese legends and myths. Now a group of young Chinese people has brought them to life.
Called “jialegeling”, the group is made up of three founding members—Zhang Jialing, Zhu Ying and Bao Kai. They personify the mythical figures from The Classic of Mountains ad Seas（《山海经》）with costume makeup and location shooting.
Recalling the origin of the idea, they spoke of their experience using social media six years ago. They found that cultural products from Japan, the US and Republic of Korea were popular among users. However, Chinese legends were unfamiliar to most of them.
To faithfully show the creatures in the legends, they learned special effects makeup and created props (道具) by themselves.
It takes Zhang at least four hours to apply makeup and get in the costume for each character, Zhu says. The team members often get up in the early hours so they can shoot during the day. Despite the lack of funding, the group insisted on shooting on location because the ancient texts had records of the natural features of the areas where the creatures emerged.
That means their journey could not sail smoothly. With some topography (地貌) having disappeared over the past thousands of years, they needed to find areas with similar natural features. Even though some places could be easily found, they still faced difficulties. Once when filming in a desert, Zhang became severely sunburned, resulting in her skin peeling. Another video with underwater scenes required Zhang to dive dozens of times and Bao to film in the water the entire time.
“Fortunately, our efforts seem to have been seen by people. Many of our viewers are even calling us ‘ancient culture inheritors’. When we set out on this journey, this is exactly what we hoped would come.”
1. Why does the author mention many magical creatures in the first paragraph?| A．To make comparison. | B．To provide examples. |
| C．To support an argument | D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．They were much impressed with Chinese legends and myth. |
| B．They were experienced in personifying the mythical figures. |
| C．They found it easier to profit from shooting culture-themed videos. |
| D．They intended to display ancient Chinese culture’s charm to the public. |
| A．They suffer from a great lack of sleep. |
| B．A shortage of fund sets them a barrier. |
| C．They have trouble finding suitable places. |
| D．Making up and getting dressed are time-consuming. |
| A．Creative and committed. | B．Determined and careful. |
| C．Confident and grateful. | D．Passionate and curious. |
【推荐2】E is a teen with special needs. Often, she feels that she is targeted by her schoolmates. She complains of dirty looks, eye rolling and whispering when she walks through the halls. This time, she saw A whispering and thought it was about her.
And E had power to hit back-on Facebook. As soon as she got home, she logged on and demanded that her friends unfriend A, and choose between the two of them. She teased them for talking to A at school, and called A “ugly” and “fat”, “She is smelly.” E wrote, “and she uses her Mum to fight her battles.” You can only imagine the comments.
However, E didn’t know that her Facebook privacy setting was set to the public which meant that anyone-including A-could read her posts. In a matter of hours, E was the cyberbully.
And here’s the thing about cyberbullying: It can become real-life trouble. This can often be heard. “You bother me online. I will bother you up on the bus.” It can start with a misunderstood comment or an inappropriate post meant as a joke, And for a teen with special needs, words can take on literal meanings, creating an environment that’s frightening. Combine that with a lack of control of online privacy and virtual social skills and you may have an ill outcome.
Social media can open doors to new friendships and social circles that are inaccessible in real life. But we, as adults, often give our children access to this virtual world without guidance and boundaries, while counting on them to use it with ease and wisdom. We expect too much with little direction. The advice that I give parents is to set clear rules and stay consistent, even repeated.
1. What did E do on Facebook when believing A was whispering about her?| A．She made unfair comments about A. |
| B．She challenged A to fight against her. |
| C．She asked her friends to forgive A. |
| D．She teased A for talking with her friends. |
| A．focusing on | B．relying on |
| C．appealing to | D．turning to |
| A．Parents. | B．Teenagers. | C．Children. | D．Teachers. |
| A．How to protect privacy for children in the virtual world. |
| B．How to set regulations for children in the virtual world. |
| C．How to build friendships for children in the virtual world. |
| D．How to fight the cyberbully for children in the virtual world. |
【推荐3】In the past decade, the use of social media has grown in a way that no one could have guessed. It has turned some teenagers into celebrities (名人) and turned the famous into the infamous, overnight.
A key feature of social media, however, is its volatility. Trends come and go, disappearing almost as quickly as they appeared. So, what were the key social media trends of 2019?
Short video apps such as TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin, took the world by storm. The Telegraph reported that TikTok was ranked 8th on Apple’s App Store in April. And Douyin had more than 300 million domestic monthly active users in June, CNBC said.
Why are these short videos — which are rarely longer than a few minutes — so popular? Jiang Yige, Singapore-based analyst at FengHe Fund Management, has a theory. Short videos are “just right to fill in the little gaps in our busy schedules”, he told CNBC.
These videos — apart from being very convenient — are important to teenagers because they allow them to express themselves, according to Teen Vogue.
The sense of community that users of short video apps get is another appealing feature. Liza Koshy, a user of the US app Musically who has over 2 million followers, said that she was thrilled when anyone said that her video had “inspired” him. “It’s really cool...because I think that as short video creators that’s what we all expect,” she added.
Live streaming is another feature of our social media life that now seems as natural as sunrise. It’s a pretty neat idea: You can watch anyone, anywhere, live.
However, China has taken live streaming to a whole new level. In China, more than 100 million viewers monthly watch a live streaming video. Forbes thought that a number of factors had led to the popularity of live streams. Among them is viewers’ ability to interact while remaining anonymous.
However, the boom in social media may be having side effects too. Fake news is one serious problem it arguably causes. Material shared on these platforms is often not checked for accuracy. The most basic content can be false and can sway users one way or another. We use social media all the time; that doesn’t mean that we understand the influence it is having on us. We should be mindful of both the time we spend on it and its impact on our minds.
1. The underlined word “volatility” in Paragraph 2 possibly means “being ”.| A．changeable | B．steady |
| C．promising | D．violent |
| A．they are very convenient |
| B．they help people kill time |
| C．they provide a sense of community |
| D．they allow people to express themselves |
| A．The information from social media is highly reliable. |
| B．When it comes to social media, people know short videos the best. |
| C．People can’t communicate with each other without social media. |
| D．There is still much room for social media to make improvement. |
| A．Rapid Development of Social Media |
| B．Key Social Media Trends of 2019 |
| C．Short Videos Taking the World by Storm |
| D．Live Streaming — A New Feature of Social Media |
