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
The sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth II has not only raked in a whopping box office, but also focused much attention
To escape the harm of a
Over the past week, topics related to The Wandering Earth II have been trending on Weibo,
4 . Liu Yexi has taken Douyin by storm. As of Nov 17, the virtual idol, who performed on the social media platform on Oct 31, had only released two short videos but attracted over 5 million followers.
Different from other virtual idols, Liu is defined as a “virtual beauty vlogger”. In her first video, Liu is doing makeup with an eye brush while dressed in a traditional Chinese costume.
When she turns around, the onlookers are terrified, except one boy. Then Liu slightly brushes the boy’s eyes, allowing him to see the fantasy world in her own eyes. The internet users marveled(使...惊叹) at its storyline, science-fiction elements and special visual effects with cyberpunk style. Liang Zikang, the CEO of the production team, told China Newsweek that the team spent two months making the video.
Liu’s instant popularity online further reflects that the virtual idol industry in China has been booming. There are over 32,400 virtual idols that have opened accounts on video-sharing platform Bilibili in the past year, seeing a year-on-year rise of 40 percent, Chen Rui, the CEO of Bilibili, said in a speech.
“Compared with real idols and stars, the virtual ones seem to be more approachable for fans,” Shine News noted. Additionally, these virtual web celebrities(名人) won’t have scandals(丑闻).
As more young people are fascinated by these virtual figures, their commercial(商业的) value has been on the rise. Generally, they earn money by online concerts, livestreaming and related products. For example, Luo Tianyi, a well-known virtual singer, cooperated with livestreamer Li Jiaqi to promote goods in 2020.
Therefore, some people are wondering whether they will replace real humans. “These socalled virtual idols have real human teams to back them up and control them. They are not really virtual.” Ding Daoshi, an independent analyst in the internet sector, told the Global Times. The real virtual idol will come when artificial intelligence achieves a new level of selflearning and self-training and then interacts with others, he added.
1. What do we know about Liu Yexi?| A．She becomes an online celebrity. | B．She creates a virtual fantasy world. |
| C．Her song becomes famous overnight. | D．Her costume wins her great popularity. |
| A．Beginning. | B．Arriving. | C．Growing. | D．Falling. |
| A．Their various styles. | B．Their friendly character. |
| C．Their commercial value. | D．Their wonderful performance. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Objective. | C．Favorable. | D．Indifferent. |
A realistic drama A Lifelong Journey has become a huge hit on TV and online recently.
Adapted
The show’s director Li Lu,
| A．Always happy and easy. |
| B．Always rich and relaxed. |
| C．Always hard and relaxed. |
| D．Always hard and tired. |
| A．A pop singer is somewhat afraid of meeting his fans. |
| B．A pop singer is free to see his fans. |
| C．The pop singers become famous easily. |
| D．The pop singers can’t save any money. |
| A．To show off his wealth to his fans. |
| B．To keep himself smart and different. |
| C．To advertise the clothes in business. |
| D．To make his fame bigger. |
7 . Adapted from Liang Xiaosheng’s award-winning novel, the realistic drama A Li felong Journey recently has been a huge hit on TV and online.
Given that A Lifelong Journey is set in the 1960s, it’s not surprising that the family has to deal with lots of social changes and uncertainties, like the restoration of Gaokao, the country’s reform and opening-up, the passion for private business and so on.
The five virtues in Confucianism—benevolence (仁), righteousness (义), courtesy(礼), wisdom and trust can be found in the lead character Zhou Bingkun, the youngest son in the family.
Following the lives of Zhou’s family, the drama gives viewers an insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese.
| A．No wonder viewers thought highly of this drama. |
| B．It is time to create such a drama to remember the bygone times. |
| C．China has witnessed dramatic changes over the past five decades. |
| D．And it explores themes of family, friendship and romance in a bittersweet story. |
| E．He was played by Lei Jiayin, who says he can almost “see his father” in the drama. |
| F．Disney has also announced it has acquired the drama series for an international release. |
| G．Most of the narrative took place in a shantytown (棚户区), where Zhou’s family lives. |
8 . The kid’s face is glowing green from the iPad in her hands, which shows a cartoon boy singing a nursery rhyme and dancing with dinosaurs. She’s so attracted that she doesn’t respond when her mother calls her name. “It’s literally like crack for her,” says her mom Meng Zhou at their home.
It is CoComelon, which may be the most streamed children’s entertainment program in the world. The show was watched for 33 billion minutes last year and had 3.6 billion views on YouTube in January, as many as three-quarters of whom were from outside the U. S. . CoComelon was a Top 10 show on Netflix for more than 100 straight days in 2021, and its music is streamed 1.3 million times a day on Spotify.
CoComelon is not only a ratings juggernaut (收视率主宰). It’s also a model for a new approach to children’s TV. A room of adults could work very hard for years on a concept that helped kids learn important ideas, only to find out viewers weren’t interested. CoComelon’s parent company, Moonbug Entertainment, searches digital platforms like YouTube for popular kids’ programming to figure out what the audience want to watch.
It’s clear that much of CoComelon’s popularity is caused by this program. As parents juggled childcare and remote work, demand for kid content increased greatly, thus making CoComelon successful. The success of the show is the influence that CoComelon has on babies and kids. You can see the evidence in the dozens of TikTok videos showing kids who hear the marimba tones of its theme song. And, Zhou’s daughter’s third word, after Mama and Dada, was CoCo.
As the show and others like it become inescapable, parents are going to have to deal with whether this type of children’s programming works for their families. Sure, their kids may love it — but does that mean it’s any good for them?
1. Why does the author mention the kid in the first paragraph?| A．To explain a phenomenon. | B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To make a prediction. | D．To present a fact. |
| A．It only attracts babies and kids in the U. S. |
| B．Its music is streamed 1. 3 million times a day on Netflix. |
| C．It serves as a model showing how to make children’s TV. |
| D．It is the most popular entertainment program on YouTube. |
| A．Balanced. | B．Matched. | C．Compared. | D．Connected. |
| A．Objective. | B．Dissatisfied. | C．Uninterested. | D．Supportive. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Nowadays, many students are worshipping stars so blind that they don’t care about how the stars do. It is really a pity that some fans lose them in the process.
Here are some suggestions giving to the fans. Firstly, please worship stars sensibly. Never try to do some stupid and even crazy things for our stars. Next, be aware of a most important task of a student. Everyone is supposed to studying hard at present. Last but not least, why not to worship the stars around us? There are some super stars we can communicate in reality, such as our parent and the medical workers.
10 . Have you ever heard of the group Westlife? Maybe you have, but I’m sure many of you don’t know very much about it.
Westlife is an Irish boy band group, which was made up of 6 boys in the beginning and called IOU. The group quickly became popular with young people thanks to their song Swear It Again, which was at the top of the UK charts (排行榜) in April 1999.
Chinese fans got their first chance to see Westlife on March 6th, 2006 in Beijing. Although the four-member group has been singing pop for seven years, the young boys have all grown up and their songs are still very popular. When they performed in Beijing, Westlife released (发行) their new album Face to Face in China. Face to Face has been at the top of the British charts for a long time. The album’s most popular song You Raise Me Up mixes traditional Irish music with pop music.
Although hip-hop is quite popular among the young, Westlife has no plans to change. They said, “Hip-hop is for the young, but pop can be enjoyed by moms who are busy cooking meals and raising the kids.
1. Westlife is from ________.| A．America | B．China |
| C．Ireland | D．Germany |
| A．went from 6 to 4 | B．went from 4 to 6 |
| C．went from 5 to 4 | D．didn’t change |
| A．Chinese fans fell in love with Westlife. |
| B．Chinese fans were first introduced to Westlife. |
| C．Chinese fans first heard Westlife’s songs. |
| D．Chinese fans could see Westlife in Beijing. |
| A．电影 | B．书 |
| C．歌手 | D．专辑 |
| A．Hip-hop music. | B．Pop music. |
| C．Rock music. | D．Classical music. |
