Adding to the achievements of a remarkable year, Taylor Swift has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023.
Already a superstar before 2023, Swift’s career has reached new heights thanks to the beginning of her Eras Tour that brought her 3.5-hour performance to 66 shows in 23 cities across North America, Argentina and Brazil. Promoted by her tour, Swift has been named the most-streamed female artist in the history of Spotify and Apple Music. According to Billboard, the tour made about $900 million (about 6.4 billion yuan) in 2023. In addition, the tour’s movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the biggest concert movie of all time, taking more than $250
million globally.As she was declare a billionaire by Bloomberg in November, a hidden “Taylor Swift economy” also promoted sales for business owners across the US. From soaps to a cruise inspired by her different “eras”, interest in Swift-related products went way up.
Apart from her financial contributions, Swift made a significant cultural impact by taking back control of her music. In 2019, her old record label, Big Machine, sold the master tapes of her first six albums (专辑) to Scoot er Braun. The sale meant that she didn’t have the rights to the albums. In response to this, Swift began re-recording her first six albums, tagging (加标签于) them “Taylor’s Version”. This move stressed her belief that artists deserve to own their work. “It’s all in how you deal with loss,” she told Time. “I respond to extreme pain by resisting.”
Heading into 2024, Swift will start the Eras Tour again in Japan and Australia. As USA Today noted, “Her current top has been a long time coming, but it may also be just beginning.”
1. What do we know about Taylor Swift?| A．She broke a new record on her tour. | B．She toured South America before 2023. |
| C．Her achievements received great recognition. | D．Her performance began with the Apple Music. |
| A．She proved herself to be an artist. | B．She learned to make some products. |
| C．She had influence on music culture. | D．She sold her master tapes to a company. |
| A．She will end her music career. | B．She will continue her Eras Tour. |
| C．She will reach her top in Japan. | D．She will make a record in Australia. |
| A．Admirable. | B．Uncaring. | C．Doubtful. | D．Critical. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】“Hi everyone, my name is Yao Yuan,” said Mongolian performer Ayanga, 31, greeting the audience on stage.
The scene happened to the musical On the Road, first played in Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center on Dec 24. The musical concentrates on Yao Yuan (played by Ayanga), a courier (快递员) at a private delivery company, who built his own express delivery and e-commerce business. By focusing on the changes of the delivery industry, the musical aims to reflect the rapid development of Chinese society in the past 20 years.
“Those straightforward and good-natured couriers are the first people I think of when it comes to the delivery industry,” Ayanga said. In 2018, he impressed the audience with performance in the show Super Vocal.
“Most people would naturally remind themselves of one scene – individual people riding an electric tricycle,” said the main actress, An Yuexi, 31, known as her role as Tangbao in The Journey of Flower.
“It’s difficult to make original musical with Chinese characteristics. The script was changed at least 10 times,” Ayanga told Beijing Daily. He would even call the director at midnight to share his new thoughts on the musical.
An also made sure her performance was the best it could be. “The biggest challenge is how to improve my singing technique with emotion on the stage,” she said. She hoped to convey to the audience the spirit of courageousness when they pursue their dreams. “The path to realize your dream is rough, but you’ll succeed as long as you keep moving on.” she added.
1. What is the musical “On the Road” mainly about?| A．It mainly deals with the life of Ayanga. |
| B．It introduces a private delivery company. |
| C．It centers on a courier’s life and business. |
| D．It reflects China’s rapid development in economy. |
| A．Brave and serious. |
| B．Outgoing and optimistic. |
| C．Simple and broad-mined. |
| D．Frank and good-tempered. |
| A．To show the director’s struggle. |
| B．To highlight Ayanga’s great efforts. |
| C．To describe the performance’s process. |
| D．To explain the importance of original musical. |
| A．Singing skill with emotion on the stage. |
| B．Sticking to the same goal all the time. |
| C．Voicing the spirits of courageousness. |
| D．Understanding the musical new opinions. |
【推荐2】This is Scientific America's 60-Second Science. I am Christopher Intagliata.
The Apollo missions brought back 842 pounds of rock and soil from the moon, that's nearly 2200 different samples. But the most interesting one, according to a scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa, is a sample named "Apollo 1-0-0-8-5 collected by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11.
“He was about to step back into the lunar module(登月舱) when he turned around and saw there were little spaces in the rock box. He knew that geologists on earth would be just so excited to study these materials, so he just scooped up nine scoops(勺) of soil and put it into the box." Wadhwa explained.
It was one of the most well studied samples of the Apollo missions. And a geologist named John Wood noticed white flecks(微粒) of rock in the soil, which inspired him to dig deeper into the moon's ancient past.
“This was quite a leap of imagination — he proposed that the whole of the moon had been almost covered with a magma(岩浆) ocean nearly 4.5 billion years ago. This was a revolutionary idea at the time, because people had thought the moon had formed cold, so it completely changed our idea how the moon formed.”
But Wadhwa has a more personal reason to appreciate this sample. She met her husband Scott Parazynski also because of this rock sample. Scott, a mountaineer at that time, wanted to climb Mount Everest with a moon rock while Wadhwa was the chairman of the NASA committee that gives access to the samples for scientific purposes.
Neil Armstrong's last-minute scoop of moon dust brought two people together here on Earth and upturned our understanding of how the moon — and the Earth itself-got here.
Thank you for listening for Scientific American's 60-Second Science.
1. It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that ________ .| A．Neil Armstrong was excited to find the soil |
| B．the spaceship was about to land on the moon |
| C．Sample "Apollo 1-008-5" was collected at the last minute |
| D．scientists were not satisfied with the samples brought back by Neil |
| A．Scott made a new proposal about the moon's origin. |
| B．The Apollo missions brought back 842 rock samples. |
| C．"Apollo 1-0-0-8-5" brought new evidence to the moon's formation. |
| D．Wadhwa and her husband climbed Mount Everest with a moon rock. |
| A．A short interview. | B．An introduction to a scientist. |
| C．An inspiring speech. | D．A broadcast story of a program. |
| A．A romantic story of a moon rock. |
| B．A big leap made by Neil Armstrong. |
| C．An unusual task for Apollo missions. |
| D．An unexpected discovery in moon exploration. |
【推荐3】A new app will soon help more than 50,000 Israeli students learn English through popular music.
“There is so much research out there that shows how music can help students learn,” says Michael Peled, founder and CEO of Singit.“Getting kids to interact (互动) with words in real life through music is a very useful learning tool, and we are finding that it also works for dyslexic (朗读困难的) and special education students.”
Students can listen on their phones or computers to music from a sea of songs and follow along with the lyrics a on the screen. When they see a word that they don’t recognize, they can click (点击) the word. With the help of AI and Machine Learning technology, Singit offers other songs with the words they didn’t know. After hearing the song, students are given a test that tests them for the words they clicked on. Meanwhile, teachers can send students customized grammar tests.
“We work with a company called LyricFind that provides more than five million songs. Most schools won’t want to have many types of songs due to educational considerations, but that will still leave more than 100,000 songs they can hear,” Peled says.
“The first version (版本) of the app we built in 2017 was bad, but by 2019, we had a new version, and we tested it throughout 2020,” Peled says. Pilot tests show that the app increased students’ interaction with the English language by 62%.“ Singit was recently recognized by the Ministry of Education. Many schools, including ten special education schools, have already chosen the app,” Peled adds.“ By the end of the year, we will have about 53,000 users around the countr.” Peled has big plans for Singit.“ We are going to introduce Singit to Asia, Brazil, and other places where they teach English as a second language.”
1. What is the main purpose of Singit?| A．To carry out customized music tests. |
| B．To offer free online music lessons for students. |
| C．To introduce students to popular Israeli songs. |
| D．To help students learn English through music. |
| A．Its future development. | B．Why it is important? |
| C．How it works. | D．It’s wide popularity. |
| A．By selecting pilot schools in Israel. | B．By providing a huge library of songs. |
| C．By developing AI learning technology. | D．By translating Israeli lyrics into English. |
| A．It met with great success. | B．It was well received in Brazil. |
| C．It was a good try but poorly supported. | D．It raised doubts for dyslexic students. |
【推荐1】Catherine Commale has long known what it is like to greet admiring crowds of kids, to have strangers beg for her autograph (亲笔签名), and to be featured in books and on TV shows. And yet most of her fellow Americans have never heard of the girl, who has helped to save millions of lives in African villages from malaria. The story began when she was only five.
On a spring night in 2006, Katherine’s mother, Lynda, watched Malaria: Fever Wars. The documentary described people who were fighting the mosquito-borne disease that has been blamed for millions of deaths in Africa and elsewhere. The next morning, she told her daughter about the program over breakfast. The little girl was particularly troubled to hear that every 30 seconds a child would end up dying of malaria. Lynda switched the conversation to things they could do to help, like donating mosquito nets (蚊帐).
At first, Katherine tried raising money by selling her old items in the flea market, but she was disappointed at how little she could gather in this way. Soon, she and her younger brother Joseph designed a program to explain to other children how a simple mosquito net, which typically only cost around $10 each, could protect a sleeping child. They took their show to Katherine’s Sunday school and then on to other churches. The idea took off. When that first effort ended, Katherine and her family donated $1,500 to the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign to buy mosquito nets.
Katherine’s efforts caught the attention of many international celebrities, such as David Beckham and Bill Gate. When she was six, she attended the first Malaria Awareness Day observance (纪念仪式) at the White House, and later a Clinton Global Initiative event where she met former U.S. President Bill Clinton. While Katherine’s pace slowed down as she entered middle school, she rose to fame around the world. She has even been featured in a board game beside the youngest Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. “I’m not Malala whatsoever,” she said. “It’s just an act of kindness.”
For Katherine, despite having raised about three million dollars for Nothing But Nets and seen the death rate from malaria decrease from every 30 seconds to every two minutes, the adventure that started at her kitchen table is one that she continues to pursue to this day.
1. According to the article, which of the following statements about Katherine is NOT true?| A．She is now in her early twenties. |
| B．She learned about malaria from a documentary. |
| C．She isn’t a well-known name in the United States. |
| D．She was upset about the death rate from malaria in 2006. |
| A．how Katherine got full support from her friends |
| B．how Katherine managed to make her first donation |
| C．what lies behind Katherine’s devotion to charity work |
| D．what prevented Katherine from raising enough money |
| A．felt proud to have met former U.S. President Bill Clinton |
| B．got to know Bill Gates on the first Malaria Awareness Day |
| C．remained modest even though people spoke highly of her goodness |
| D．wasn’t able to continue with her charity work after entering middle school |
| A．Better later than never. | B．All that glitters is not gold. |
| C．All good things come to an end. | D．Actions speak louder than words. |
【推荐2】Tom Costello Jr. was once afraid of homeless Americans. That changed seven years ago after his wife, a volunteer at a homeless shelter, persuaded him to help with a holiday dinner for shelter residents.
Tom Costello remembers going to a store and buying socks for the residents. He knew many of them were in need of clothing. At the shelter, Costello said, he dropped a pair of socks into a bag for a woman. “She started to cry and told me that nobody had ever given her socks before,” Costello said. “Then she reached out and gave me a hug.”
That experience at the shelter helped Costello end his fear of the homeless. It also led him to set up a group called “The Joy of Sox.” The Joy of Sox collects socks from donors and gives them mostly to shelters in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, where Costello and his wife Nacy live. But the group has been expanding its reach, now providing socks for homeless shelters in 21 states and three countries: Mexico, Afghanistan and Uganda.
Why socks? Costello explains that some Americans give food, coats and other clothing to shelters, but donating socks is not something most people think about. And, he says, socks are very helpful in keeping people warm in cold weather. A man named Kiwi, who has lived in homeless shelters, explains that socks are important to people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Kiwi says most of the time he can find enough food through shelters and soup kitchens, but socks are much more difficult to get.
Costello says his hope for “The Joy of Sox” is to be the best sock charity in the world. He also wants the group to give six pairs of socks to every homeless person in the United States each year.
1. Which word can best describe the woman when Costello gave her socks?| A．Greedy. | B．Embarrassed. | C．Confused. | D．Grateful. |
| A．personally helped at a homeless shelter |
| B．heard a shelter resident’s heartbreaking story from his wife |
| C．got help from a homeless person |
| D．became a volunteer at a homeless shelter |
| A．The homeless need food more than socks. | B．Socks can’t help the homeless keep warm. |
| C．Socks are precious things to the homeless. | D．The homeless only get sock donations in winter. |
| A．To stand out as the world’s best sock charity. | B．To become the only sock charity in America. |
| C．To expand its reach to three countries. | D．To provide socks for every homeless person in the world. |
| A．treasure what they have | B．face difficulties bravely |
| C．try to help those in need | D．stick to their dreams |
【推荐3】Steven Spielberg has always had one goal: to tell as many great stories to as many people as possible. Spielberg spent his early childhood in New Jersey and, later, Arizona. Some of his childhood memories became the inspiration for his filmmaking.
Even decades later, Spielberg says he has clear memories of his earliest years, which are the origins of some of his biggest hits. He believes that E.T.is the result of the difficult years leading up to his parent’s 1966 divorce, “It is really about a young boy who was in search of some stability in his life.” “He was scared of just about everything,” recalls his mother, “When trees brushed against the house, he would jump into my bed. And that’s just the kind of scary stuff he would put in films like Poltergeist.” To this day, Spielberg’s wife, actress Kate Capshaw, says her husband remains terrified of airplanes.
Spielberg was 11 when he first got his hands on his dad’s movie camera and began shooting short movies about World War ΙΙ battles. These homemade movies gave him a way to escape his fears. From the very beginning, he had a creative imagination. With his talent for scary storytelling, he could terrify his three younger sisters. It also made it easier for him to make friends. On camping trips, when night fell, young Spielberg became the center of attention. He would start telling his ghost stories, and everyone would suddenly get quiet so that they could all hear it.
Spielberg moved to California with his father and went to high school there, but his grades were so bad that he hardly graduated. Both UCLA and USC film schools rejected him, so he entered California State University at Long Beach because it was close to Hollywood. Spielberg was determined to make movies，and he managed to get an unpaid, non-credit internship(实习)in Hollywood. Soon he was given a contract, and he dropped out of college. He never looked back.
Now, many years later, Spielberg is still telling stories with as much enthusiasm as when he was a boy.
1. We can infer that Poltergeist is probably a(n) ________.| A．romance film | B．horror film | C．comedy film | D．action film |
| A．was a good communicator | B．was good at making friends |
| C．had a talent for filmmaking | D．made some classic movies |
| A．He is kind-hearted. | B．He performed well in high school. |
| C．He is strong-minded | D．He lacked confidence about his career. |
| A．didn’t finish college | B．never went to college |
| C．got bad grades in college | D．rejected two film schools |
| A．advertise readers | B．inform readers |
| C．entertain readers | D．persuade readers |
