1 . Consisting of 39 episodes, the drama Knockout (狂飙) was directed by Xu Jizhou in 2021. It stars actors Zhang Songwen and Zhang Yi, who respectively play a fishmonger-turned-gang boss and a devoted police officer, recounting how they turn from friends to enemies over a period of two decades. Not only does it become a hit in China,
Set against the background of two decades of major social development in China and progress in it law-enforcement methods and capabilities, the story earned 8.6 points out of 10 on Douban and has won the market largely,
The show’s popularity index has reached 11,800—normally, 8000 marks a hit—on iQiyi.
A.for it’s an in-depth examination of the complexity of humanity. |
B.it was released on Feb 1 and reported by some domestic media. |
C.it has also been streamed overseas and translated to more than eight subtitled languages. |
D.However, he is bullied by two villains (恶棍) frequently and can’t do anything about it. |
E.Many viewers spent their Spring Festival holiday following the Suspense-filled drama. |
F.He makes people believe that even the darkest corner can be brightened by a glimmer of light. |
G.The company believes the drama’s success can be attributed to creative writing and the multifaceted characters. |
2 . 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 |
3 . Do you find yourself waiting for the next MrBeast video to drop so you can see his latest challenge? Or perhaps the newest experiment from Mark Rober? Maybe you’re wild about Harry Styles or Timothee Chalamet. You follow them on social media, connect with other fans online and maybe even message them now and again. Even though these people are celebrities, you feel like you know them.
Most of us form relationships of some sort with celebrities and fictional characters. We imagine having a conversation with that person or asking for advice. Sometimes we develop a more romantic crush. Embarrassing as it may sometimes feel, this is perfectly normal. Scientists call these faux friendships “parasocial relationships”. Social relationships involve two or more people. Parasocial ones, on the other hand, are completely one-sided.
Decades ago, parasocial relationships happened between TV viewers and the people on screen. This was especially true for talk-show hosts and newscasters who spoke directly to the camera. People watching felt as though these TV personalities were talking directly to them. Over time, they felt a close connection with them. It wasn’t just people on TV. Beatles fans went wild for the band, just as Harry Styles fans do today.
More recently, parasocial relationships have shifted to other types of screens. Many people, from children to adults, have some form of screen that they use for entertainment. Even young children form parasocial relationships with on-screen personalities. Big Bird and Elmo from Sesame Street can seem like friends. So can animated characters or superheroes.
“We root for them,” says Kristin Drogos. “We want them to do well.” Drogos is a communication researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It’s that positive feelings toward these on-screen personalities that cause us to form a parasocial bond with them. And that connection can be powerful.
1. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 1?A.To suggest several ways to kill time. |
B.To reflect the diversity of people’s interests. |
C.To show people’s attachment to famous people. |
D.To confirm the benefits of watching celebrities. |
A.Innocent. | B.Imaginary. | C.Fashionable. | D.Abnormal. |
A.They can exist between human beings and non-humans. |
B.People are more willing to become friends with talk-show hosts. |
C.Superheroes are more popular among adults as on-screen friends. |
D.Celebrities make the best of parasocial relationships to attract more fans. |
A.How parasocial relationships benefit people. |
B.What can influence a parasocial relationship. |
C.How to communicate with on-screen friends. |
D.What people share in parasocial relationships. |
4 . 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. |
5 . When A33, a theater in Beijing, hosted a new stand-up comedy show(脱口秀), to the surprise of the organizers, nearly 250 people turned up and laughed together. Six years ago, that would have been unbelievable. Indeed, there were even cases of shows having more performers than viewers.
Wan Da, one of the performers, said, “Many people are worried about the future of stand-up comedy, a genre (类型) that is very popular in the U.S. after its introduction in China. Can it adapt itself here? But as the results show, there is no need to worry. We have survived and carried on some of the best American traditions.”
Programs such as Rock& Roast, a comedy talk show competition, which are thought to help people reduce their pressure, drive audiences to offline performances for a real laugh. “Generally, our audiences are in the 20-35 age group, but recently some older people are reported to go to the theatre,” said Song Qiyu, a performer and founder of Beijing Comedy Center.
Compared to traditional Chinese comedy performances, the stand-up comedy has a lower bar as it doesn't require years of professional training. This allows everyone to take part. Work experience and personal observations of life are the sources of their inspiration. Different lives and jobs make the performances varied, giving them unique individual colors.
Joe Wong, a humorist from Jilin province, whose performance in Washington, D.C. in 2010 attracted much attention across China's social media, is happy to see the development of the industry in China. However, he has a warning, too: There is huge space for the genre in China, but we should be careful of growing too fast as the market still needs good works.
In China, many fresh college graduates join. Through their efforts, the industry will improve its standards and popularity as well as influence.
1. What can we learn about the stand-up comedy from Paragraph 2?A.It develops well in China. | B.It is created by Americans. |
C.It faces an uncertain future. | D.It is very popular in Beijing. |
A.They have a gift for talking. | B.It needs plenty of performers. |
C.It needs no special backgrounds. | D.Most people have a sense of humor. |
A.Learning from America. | B.Offering quality content. |
C.Keeping creating works. | D.Employing fresh graduates. |
A.The stand-up comedy: a rising industry | B.A33: a quickly growing comedy theatre |
C.Why does the stand-up comedy get popular? | D.How does the stand-up comedy survive in China? |
6 . It’s a dream come true for many fans to get a close view of their favorite stars and take pictures with them.
At Hong Kong International Airport on Dec 15, three young Chinese people boarded a Korean Aircraft.
The three people – two from the Chinese mainland and one from Hong Kong – were fans of Wanna One, a Korean pop band, who were on the same flight. However, immediately after taking pictures with their idols (偶像), the fans asked to get a repayment and got off the plane.
According to the flight regulations, all passengers need to get off and go through security checks once again even if only one passenger gets off the plane before takeoff.
Cases of crazy fans buying flight tickets just to follow and get a close view of their idols are common nowadays, reported CGTN. A series of rules were issued in July in order to stop crazy fans from disturbing public security at the airport.
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A.To make up for the loss, a sizable amount of money went to 357 passengers. |
B.As a result, all the remaining 360 passengers had to get off the plane. |
C.This is in case any dangerous things have been left on the flight. |
D.It’s not unusual for fans and stars to share the same flight. |
E.Some fans will do anything they can to realize the dream. |
F.It was to fly from Hong Kong to the capital Seoul. |
G.There’s nothing wrong with going after idols. |
7 . 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. |
8 . China’s TikTok, which has taken the world by storm, is working its magic in its home nation, too.
The Chinese version of TikTok, called Douyin, has amassed (累积) 400 million daily active users, parent company Byte Dance (字节跳动) revealed in its annual report this week. This is an impressive growth for the addictive video app, which had 250 million daily active users in January last year.
The report, which describes users’ behavior and trends, shows the cultural difference between China and the US, said Katherine Wu, an investor at New York-based firm Notation Capital.
Things that trend in these two countries are completely different. For example, knowledge-based content is extremely popular in China, but less so in the U.S. Also, those creators that did the most dance videos in China are users born in the 60s, while in the US, it seems that it’s mostly teenagers who are creating the dances.
Byte Dance claimed that Douyin has established itself as the largest knowledge, culture and art platform in China. 14.89 million “knowledge-based content videos” were shared on the app last year, it claimed. For example, one of the world’s most valued startups claimed that the number of users who posts videos about chemistry reached 130 million people last year. “On the art and culture front, videos related to those topics had 543.1 billion plays on Douyin last year.” it claimed.
Education has become a main use case for Byte Dance. TikTok, which is estimated to have earned more than $50 million last year, already counts educational content as one of the most consumed categories on its app across the world. The app launched an educational campaign in India last year, where it has amassed more than 200 million users.
1. The difference in trends between China and the US reflects the difference in ________.A.culture | B.education |
C.knowledge | D.hobby |
A.Music videos | B.Knowledge-based videos |
C.Humorous videos | D.Videos about chemistry |
A.analyzing reasons | B.showing survey results |
C.stating arguments | D.providing statistics and examples |
A.To introduce the app --TikTok. |
B.To help customers use TikTok. |
C.To reveal the popularity of TikTok. |
D.To recommend TikTok to customers. |
9 . The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has changed not only our own lives, but the lives of those who live to entertain us.
Most US talk show hosts depend on having a live audience. Audiences laugh when hosts crack jokes (讲笑话), they cheer for guests or take part in activities with the host. But with social distancing, talk show hosts have to stay at home just like the rest of us.
I’m a big fan of talk show hosts like Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert. Without guests to interview and audiences to interact with, they’ve had to put new twists (改变) on their shows.
Other hosts choose to bring their families or other people on board for their shows. Host Jimmy Kimmel, for example, has made videos in which he plays with his children at home.
It is kind of heartwarming to see that even famous people have to struggle with the same problems we have while they’re stuck at home. But these hosts still do their best to entertain us.
A.I have been feeling bored and trying to find something fun to do. |
B.They have certainly cheered me up during my time stuck inside. |
C.This, however, has made their shows interesting in a new way. |
D.Some of them have been doing video chat interviews with pop stars. |
E.One of the changes I’ve seen personally has been in TV talk shows. |
F.Do you know what your favorite talk show hosts have done in quarantine? |
G.He even surprised a food delivery driver with a pizza to thank him for his work. |
10 . China has entered the cinematic(电影制作的) space race. Wandering Earth, the country’s first blockbuster science fiction film, is on track to be one of the highest grossing (票房收入) films in China’s history.
The film has brought in more than 2bn yuan (£232m) in the six days since its release on February 5. So far, it is the highest-grossing film released over the holiday season, a peak time for the Chinese box office(票房收入).
Wandering Earth is based on the work of Liu Cixin, the author of the Three-Body Problem series and the first Chinese author to win a Hugo award.
“Wandering Earth fills the gap in Chinese science fiction movies. It means that China’s science fiction movies have officially set sail,” one fan of the film wrote on the review site Douban.
The film is seen by some as the dawn of Chinese sci-fi — a genre(类型;体裁) that has long been led by Hollywood. Several other Chinese-made sci-fi films are due to debut (首映) this year, including Shanghai Fortress, about an alien invasion, and Pathfinder, which follows a spaceship that has crashed on a deserted planet.
Frant Gwo, the director of Wandering Earth, said, “2019 could be remembered as year zero of Chinese science-fiction blockbusters. It is not just about one successful movie but about multiple films.”
Critics of the film have pointed out the plot holes(剧情漏洞) and cloying of sentimentality(刻意煽情) — something Wandering Earth shares with its Hollywood peers.
In response to plot criticisms about the necessity of ejecting (喷射) Earth from the solar system, Liu said: “Of course we don’t need to escape soon. That’s why it’s a movie instead of a real-life crisis.”
1. What’s the Chinese meaning of the underlined word?A.非常成功的事物 | B.非常成功的人 |
C.外星人 | D.英雄人物 |
A.Doubtful. | B.Negative. |
C.Positive | D.Uncaring. |
A.Shanghai Fortress | B.Wandering Earth |
C.Pathfinder | D.Avatar |
A.The theory. | B.The ending. |
C.The special effects. | D.The plot holes. |