4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. boom B. enthusiastically C. voiced D. finds E. sharply F. racing
G. fortune H. distinctly I. venturing J. deals K. joined |
Eight months ago, Meng Hu, 27, quit her job as a flight attendant in Guangzhou, China. She is now working full-time as a live-streaming host on Taobao.
“I’ve been talking nonstop,” Hu said, laughing. “My throat gets really hoarse. You need to talk a lot, because your mood is contagious (有感染力的). Only when you talk 1 can you get your audience excited.”
Hu is part of a rising class of creators in China who are 2 to get in on live-stream shopping, an emerging form of retail that has grown into an industry worth an estimated $66 billion. Although the trend has been part of Chinese internet culture for years, analysts say the coronavirus pandemic has brought it mainstream.
Even the Chinese government has 3 its support, calling the industry the “new engine” of e-commerce growth and encouraging live-streaming as a solution to unemployment, which has risen 4 in China due to the pandemic.
Live-stream shopping is a combination of entertainment and e-commerce. Viewers buy goods online from people who show off their latest 5 --from lipstick to laundry detergent--in real-time videos. Many compare the concept to the TV shopping channel, but the Chinese model is 6 more modern, mobile and interactive. Hosts can give their fans discount coupons(优惠券) and flash 7 in real time, while viewers can click to send their favorite stars virtual “gifts.”
Part of the allure(吸引力) of 8 into this world is the prospect of a big payday. Brands routinely announce tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in sales in a single sitting. Top influencers can earn millions of dollars a year, according to Taobao. And even well-known business leaders are getting in on the act.
For people like Hu, the live-stream host in Guangzhou, the ongoing 9 presents both “a chance and a challenge.”
“Viewers might have doubled, but there’s probably about seven or eight times more new live-streamers now,” she estimated. “So many people like me have 10 live-streaming, and are selling products and doing the same thing.”
