1 . How to Do Man-on-the-Street Interviews

The man-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits the streets with a cameraman to interview people on the spot.     1     But with these tips, your first man-on-the-street interview experience can be easy.

When your boss or professor sends you out to do man-on-the-street interviews for a story, think about the topic and develop a list of about ten general questions relating to it. For example, if your topic is about environmental problems in America, you might ask, “Why do you think environmental protection is important in America?”     2    

Hit the streets with confidence.     3     Say, “Excuse me, I work for XYZ News, and I was wondering if you could share your opinion about this topic.” This is a quick way to get people to warm up to you.

Move on to the next person if someone tells you she is not interested. Don’t get discouraged.

    4     Each interview that you get on the street shouldn’t be longer than ten minutes. As soon as you get the answer you need, move on to the next person. Make sure that as you go from interview to interview, you are getting a variety of answers. If everyone is giving you the same answer, you won’t be able to use it. A safe number of interviews to conduct is about six to ten.     5    

If your news station or school requires interviewees to sign release forms to appear on the air, don’t leave work without them.

2 . A recent survey found children would rather be online influencers than astronauts. It made headlines and led to plenty of complaints about “kids these days”. Is influencing a promising career path? The lifestyles we see advertised on social media are enticing, but under the shining appearance lie uncertain income, pay inequality, disability and mental health issues.

Successful influencers will be the first to claim that anyone can make it in the industry. However, social media economy experts uncovered a huge income gap between successful influencers and everyone else. For most people trying to become an influencer, their passion projects of content creation often become free work for brands.

Most influencers are self-employed, often experiencing inconsistent income and a lack of protection that comes with long-term employment. The risks of self-employment are increased in the influencer industry by an absence of industry standards and little pay transparency(透明度). Influencers are often forced to assess their own value and determine fees for their work. As a result, content creators often undervalue their own creative labour, and many end up working for free.

Influencers are also often at the mercy of algorithms (运算法则) — the behind-the-scenes computer programs that determine which posts are shown, in which order, to users. Platforms share little detail about their algorithms, yet they finally determine who and what gains visibility and influence on social media, the threat of invisibility is a constant source of insecurity for influencers, who are under constant pressure to feed platforms with content. If they don’t, they may be “punished” by the algorithm-having posts hidden or displayed lower down on search results.

Constant online presence leads to one of the most common issues in the influencer industry: mental health concerns. Influencers can connect to their platform workspaces and audience at any time of day or night, which can lead to them overworking. Coupled with the fear of online criticism, it contributes to mental and physical health issues.

Although becoming an influencer may look appealing to more and more people, the industry’s dark underside needs to be made visible and improved through enhanced employment regulation and industry-led cultural change.

6 . By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on __________ beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her ____________. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to ____________ music so I can help Maria in her performance.”

Mr. Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to ____________ beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to ____________ the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.

“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn ____________pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr. Titterton explained.

Being a page turner _________ plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can ____________ for 40minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is ____________, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to____________ a page turn which they need to practice with their page turner.

But ___________ all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the ____________,” Mr. Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”

Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms. Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage. “My husband is the ____________page turner,” she laughed. “He’s ____________ in the music, feeling every ____________, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”

Kyrgyzstan(吉尔吉斯斯坦) is a mountainous country where nearly two thirds of the people live in rural areas. The UN notes that the local economy depends     1    (heavy)on farming. So it is rare for any Kyrgyz to choose technology     2     a career path.

The UN Development Programme studied records about the country’s college     3    (graduate)in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, construction and manufacturing. It found that women make up less than 10 percent of those graduates.

Nineteen-year-old Alina Anisimova,     4     is a computer programmer, says some girls don’t have the courage to take on such studies because it is not common in their country. And, she also says a majority of parents discourage their daughters from     5    (study)these subjects. Girls in her country are expected     6     (marry) instead of having careers. Nearly one in 10 girls in Kyrgyzstan is married before the age of 18, notes the international aid group Girls Not Brides. She wishes that in the future people will not consider it so     7    (surprise)to see young women get involved in engineering and metal working.

Actually, the number of women in science, technology, engineering and math areas     8     (increase)in recent years. For example, in the US, there has been a push to get more girls interested in such subjects at     9     early age. Still, the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO notes that only about 30 percent of the world’s researchers     10     (be)women.