2 . Statistics from the China Film Administration, China’s box office revenue during the Spring Festival holiday hit a record high of 8 billion yuan, or more than 1.1 billion U. S. dollars, the milestone being achieved in the shortest time span in the history of the Chinese film industry.
Seizing a lot of attention due to actress-director Jia Ling’s weight loss of up to 50 kilograms in one year, YOLO—a comedy recounting Jia’s portrayal of an oversized woman striving to become her better self —earned 2.72 billion yuan, topping the festival box-office charts. Many people wanted to watch the comedy film with their families during this ‘festival of reunions’, because the film went far beyond expectation whose story in Yolo was so inspiring. So, it was a good thing to watch it with children.
Pegasus 2, the sequel to a 2019 blockbuster racing film by writer-director Han Han, ranked second at the box office with 2.4 billion yuan. Boonie Bears: Time Twist, the latest installment in the Boonie Bears animated film series, took the third spot with 1.39 billion yuan, and Zhang Yimou’s Article 20 ranked fourth with 1.33 billion yuan.
A report from Maoyan, one of the country’s largest ticketing services, revealed that 39.2 percent of the audiences purchased movie tickets while returning to their hometowns or traveling, which was the highest in the past four years. Industry analysts say family-friendly comedies align perfectly with the cultural atmosphere surrounding New Year celebrations. The films of this festive season focus on diverse and relevant topics that resonate with the viewers — such as family values and inspirational stories.
So, they attract people from all walks of life.
1. What milestone has the Chinese film industry achieved during the Spring Festival holiday?| A．Earning 2.72 billion yuan. |
| B．Setting a record of 8 billion yuan. |
| C．Making 50 million U. S. dollars. |
| D．Breaking the record of 2.2 billion U. S. dollars. |
| A．Comedy. | B．Action. | C．Crime thriller. | D．Romance. |
| A．YOLO. | B．Pegasus 2. |
| C．Boonie Bears: Time Twist. | D．Article 20. |
4 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.
A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.
In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.
| A．Musical roads are also keeping drivers safe. |
| B．There is not any music road in Eastern countries. |
| C．Musical roads help improve the road safety greatly. |
| D．But they can also enjoy music while taking road trips. |
| E．Formed in 1990, the group is one of Hungary’s biggest acts and is still active today. |
| F．The first musical road was created in Gylling, Denmark, in 1995. |
| G．For example, in Japan, there are many musical roads throughout the country. |
5 . After decades of exploring the moon, a dramatic vision is finally becoming reality. The Guardian recently reported that a project called Lunar Codex is planning to send and store over 30,000 works on the moon from artists, writers, filmmakers, and musicians from over 150 countries and regions. The goods to be stored range from novels and paintings to music, films，and even soil from Earth.
In fact, this is not the first time that people have tried sending human legacies (遗产) to outer space. In 1969, the Apollo 12 mission carried a ceramic piece with drawings. In 1971, the Apollo 15 staff left a sculpture to honor those who had died in space exploration. What’s more famous is the Golden Record carried by spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 from NASA in 1977, which contains human language, music and images. For example, a piece of Chinese guqin music, called Flowing Streams was included in it.
Although we don’t know who determines which symbols of human legacy get sent out to space in most projects, it’s obvious that the criteria keep changing. In the past，space heritage products only focused on space-related works; but gradually, more human-related contemporary goods which held great importance in their respective eras have been added to the list. In the Lunar Codex, films, diverse art and literary works produced by women, disabled artists, and even AI have been collected for the first time to be sent to the moon.
These changing criteria also leave space for ordinary people to imagine and think. Many people are now trying to store their DNA information digitally. Will people be able to find even more surprising and inventive ways to preserve their legacy in the future? Only time can tell.
1. What is the goal of the project?| A．To make the moon livable. | B．To show respect to artists. |
| C．To enrich the life of astronauts. | D．To preserve human legacies. |
| A．By explaining reasons. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comparisons | D．By analyzing previous data. |
| A．AI technology is amazing. | B．The selective rules are strict. |
| C．Human civilization is inclusive. | D．Space-related works are popular. |
| A．A magazine. | B．A textbook. | C．An advertisement. | D．A poster. |
When she was just three years old, Alyssa Carson from the USA took an interest
Alyssa’s goal is to help others understand the potential for human life in outer space. She also wants to be one of the first humans
She is studying astrobiology (天体生物学) at the Florida Institute of Technology. It is the only program in the USA
Alyssa is a(n)
7 . Challenges are part of life and something we can all expect to encounter at one point or another during our lifetime. We handle challenges differently;some of us choose to face them head-on, while others flee in uncertainty.
Educate ourselves. The reason why some issues prove challenging for us is that we aren’t familiar with them.
Be persistent. This is what is required to accomplish anything, especially when it comes to overcoming challenges. No matter how difficult our challenges might be, we must be willing to push through and try again and again until we achieve victory over them.
Ask for help. There are times when we can’t go it alone and need others to help us conquer whatever challenges we face.
| A．Meet them head-on. |
| B．Adapt a different strategy. |
| C．It is said that two heads are better than one. |
| D．If we give up, we allow the challenges to conquer us instead. |
| E．Therefore, our knowledge and ability to conquer them is limited. |
| F．Whatever our positions, we all wish to conquer them and move on. |
| G．Some challenges can be overwhelming, making us question our ability to overcome them. |
9 . The Internet is a global network, which allows digital information to travel around the world. Let’s view some most popular uses of the Internet.
Information search
We search for information every day.
One of the most significant and popular use of the Internet is email. Email is a common thing that a majority of people check after they have logged (登录) on to the Internet.
Online shopping
Education
The Internet plays an important role in effectively shaping today’s school education process. It has the availability and the quality of learning for many students. They can study what they want and whenever they feel the most productive.
We are witnessing the rise of informal education where college graduates have online access and can sharpen their skills and get faster progress in a specific field.
| A．Communication |
| B．Online bill payments |
| C．Our habits of buying things have changed a lot |
| D．They can also attend classes or take exams online at home |
| E．It is done by typing a question for which we seek specific information |
| F．Many other personal businesses create their online shops every day |
| G．The email has enabled easier and faster communication between people |
10 . Plenty of audiences have warned: don’t see the new French movie The Taste of Things on an empty stomach. Juliette Binoche plays a longtime personal cook to a man who’s a gourmand (美食家). They share a passion for food. Filled with delicious meals, the film celebrates food, and all the work and love that go into making it.
When you see a delicious meal in a movie or an ad, chances are that it’s not fit to eat. Food stylists have been known to substitute glue for milk, and coat meat with motor oil. All this was a big “No” for Vietnamese French director Tran Anh Hung.
Tran says he wanted everything in The Taste of Things “to be real,” from the raw ingredients (食材) to the menu to the way the cooks move in the kitchen. Real food can’t always handle multiple takes. Plus, Tran needed to show dishes at different stages of preparation. So he needed a lot of everything. For a classic French dish, “we needed 40 kilos of meat for the shooting.” He also had to find vegetables that looked like they were harvested in the 19th century. “They’re not as beautiful as today,” he says, “They’re not straight, and they have many spots on the skin.”
After doing extensive research into the history of French cuisine and working with a historian, Tran enlisted three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire to make sure the menu he’d come up with worked in real life.
Gagnaire also cooked for Tran for five days, so the director could study his movements in preparation for filming. Tran says watching Gagnaire move around the kitchen taught him that “simplicity is important and you don’t need to have the perfect gesture for this or that. You need only to be very free.” Gagnaire says the movie feels like a gift. “For my creativity, it’s an honor,” he says. The famous chef agreed to take a small part in the film.
“When you leave this film, you feel calm because instead of violence, there’s tenderness,” Gagnaire says.
1. What can we say about The Taste of Things?| A．It shows that food represents love. |
| B．It gives audience a good appetite. |
| C．Its characters only focus on cooking. |
| D．Its story is based on a food stylist. |
| A．Romantic. | B．Caring. |
| C．Demanding. | D．Humorous. |
| A．To get a role in Tran’s movie. |
| B．To give Tran some inspiration. |
| C．To test Tran’s menu for the film. |
| D．To show Tran his food creativity. |
| A．To show a film shooting style. | B．To recommend a film. |
| C．To call on people to save food. | D．To promote food culture. |
