1 . To stream or not to stream? That is a question facing both music listeners and musicians.
Taylor Swift made news recently by pulling her music off Spotify, the world’s biggest streaming music service and turned to iTunes downloading and stores for sales. Back in July, Swift swept the pop music industry by selling almost 1.3 million copies of her album, 1989 in its first week. In an article Swift wrote, “The music industry is not dying... it’s just coming alive.”
Her cheerful attitude surely comes from her own unique position. So far this year, Swift has made $64 million, according to Forbes. She’ll make plenty more by bringing in about 70 cents for each dollar paid to download her music. It is much more than the royalty (版税) rate paid out by Spotify of between $0.006 and $0.0084 per song stream.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), money from streaming on YouTube, Pandora and Spotify has helped bring in more money. But the small amount Spotify pays to musicians still caused many of them to withhold some or all of their music from the service, like artists from Beyoncé to The Beatles.
Yet for bands struggling to get by, struggling even to be heard, keeping their music off streaming services is not so easy. Such bands need to get their music out any way they can, and if they’re going to make money, they need to make their music easily accessible to listeners.
To stream or not to stream is a difficult choice for fans, too. The streaming model puts ownership (所有权) of the music in the hands of the music industry. Rather than letting you own your collection, the music business is moving toward a model similar to on-demand cable TV. Every song written is available online whenever and wherever you’d like to hear, but the problem is that you, the user, need to pay over and over again each time you stream it.
1. Why did Taylor Swift say “music industry is coming alive”?A.Because she got a unique position in music industry. |
B.Because her new album made a great offline success. |
C.Because the birth of streaming brings great chances to music. |
D.Because Spotify becomes the world’s biggest streaming music service. |
A.Keep back. | B.Pick out. | C.Hold onto. | D.Put away. |
A.Taylor Swift promotes free music streaming. |
B.Streaming puts ownership of music in the hands of fans. |
C.Some bands still depend on streaming for chances to be heard. |
D.Fans can own music with a once-for-all pay on streaming platforms. |
A.The Music Industry Is Coming Alive |
B.Streaming Leaves Musicians and Fans in a Dilemma |
C.To Pay or Not to Pay: a Tough Choice for Music Fans |
D.The Rise of Streaming: a Threat or Opportunity for the Music Industry |
2 . 阅读下面短文,在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
A new adaptation of Chinese mythological stories has won the heart of audiences with its distinctive style. The animation series, Yao—Chinese Folktales,
The series, co-produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Bilibili, is
Li Zao, general producer, said it was impossible
As COVID-19 continues to spread in China, watching a fitness livestreaming (网络直播) video,
Liu,
Experts voiced
China has the largest fitness market in the world. However, whether this trend has long-lasting power will depend on how money
4 . Do you really care who wins Oscars? On February 24 this year, the Academy Awards were presented to actors, actresses, directors, musicians and many other people. Usually they are the “best” and we, the Audience, are persuaded that this is true.
This year, the nominations for Best Picture include Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book. According to many people, these are great movies, as are the performers who bring the stories to life. Whoever wins the award for Best Actor or Best Actress will undoubtedly become a Hollywood star.
However, Leonardo had never won an Oscar before 2016, but that doesn’t mean that his films aren’t amazing. I only need to mention Titanic and The Wolf of Wall Street and you can clearly see that he is an excellent actor. And of course, let’s not forget Romeo and Juliet.
I’m afraid someone may wrongly apprehend my meaning. I am not saying that those who win Academy Awards are not talented people. They most certainly are talented. What I mean is that I don’t think we should judge films and actors by how many awards they have. After all, at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, Ricky Gervais compared the prizes to a doorstop and told the nominees to remember that no one cared about that award as much as they did.
So let’s not judge an actor or actress just based on what critics say. If you want to know how good an actor or actress really is, go and watch the film he or she stars in.
1. Why is Leonardo mentioned in the passage?A.He is one of the writer’s favorite film actors. |
B.He is one of the actors who starred in many films. |
C.He is the leading actor in many award-winning films. |
D.He is a good actor who didn’t win an Oscar until 2016. |
A.Express. | B.Understand. | C.Change. | D.Show. |
A.To see if he has won an Oscar. | B.To read what critics say. |
C.To judge him by watching his acting. | D.To see how many awards he has won. |
A.He is honest. | B.He is the best. | C.He has no interest. |
6 . Children and young people tend to have certain role models — people they want to be like when they grow
People have different opinions about
Most people tend to grow up to be those who are
Therefore, the job of a teacher is
A.younger | B.stronger | C.older | D.taller |
A.at first | B.at last | C.at least | D.at most |
A.generous | B.humorous | C.ordinary | D.favorite |
A.fans | B.singers | C.stars | D.dancers |
A.that | B.whether | C.why | D.if |
A.caught up with | B.looked down upon | C.thought highly of | D.made fun of |
A.hold | B.encourage | C.receive | D.ignore |
A.luck | B.effort | C.imagination | D.creativity |
A.similar to | B.far from | C.close to | D.different from |
A.read and write | B.sing and dance | C.draw and paint | D.listen and speak |
A.dance | B.think | C.sing | D.read |
A.may | B.should | C.must | D.need |
A.case | B.trouble | C.matter | D.deal |
A.art | B.music | C.piano | D.dance |
A.better than | B.more than | C.rather than | D.less than |
A.accept | B.lose | C.receive | D.gain |
A.negotiate with | B.communicate with | C.keep up with | D.put up with |
A.challenging | B.failing | C.winning | D.falling |
A.take charge of | B.lose control of | C.get rid of | D.make use of |
A.introduce | B.press | C.turn | D.push |
As a general rule, a band may start as a group of high-school students
The Monkees,