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,     1    .

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,     2    . Zhang Songwen’s character Gao appears as a humble fishmonger who relies on his small business to take care of two younger siblings.     3    . Luckily, he occasionally receives protective assistance from police officers he knew before. After tasting the benefits brought by guanxi, or “a special relationship” Gao is seduced (引诱) by the criminal underworld, a dark network that he once hated and fought against. In contrast, the police officer An Xin (played by Zhang Yi) is a lonely hero and idealist.     4    .

The show’s popularity index has reached 11,800—normally, 8000 marks a hit—on iQiyi.     5    . Despite describing the drama as “a shrimplike delicacy”, referring to its plain beginning and end, but with an excellent middle section, many viewers suggest the show signals the rise in quality of domestic TV offerings and express their hope that more, equally appealing, homegrown series will be forthcoming.

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 . Is a moviegoer different than a movie-lover? I’d say so. You can love a movie by watching it at home.     1    . I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people about movies. By listening to what they say, I can report they only share one thing in common: they go out.

I’ve thought about two views of the moviegoer lately.

The first view comes from Roland Barthes. Most often, his moviegoers don’t go to the movies for a distinct purpose.     2    . They are bored. Once they get inside, they can’t help but sink into a relaxed state. When they leave the movie theater, these moviegoers don’t want to talk to anyone about the movie.     3    . Barthes sees them as a lonely being, one who is introspective (自省的). I think some of us use movie theaters to retreat inside ourselves.     

The second view comes from the Clark Theater manager, Bruce Trinz. When people go to the movies they go for a certain personal motive. They may want to forget something, or escape from the lives they are leading. Or they may want to see a film they liked years ago.     4    , they are the hopeless addicts who, quite simply, like movies. The only thing I would challenge in this definition is the word hopeless.     5    , but they come to the movies filled with hope. They may not be able to define what they hope to experience, but they will know it when they feel it.

A．Whatever motive they have

B．To be a moviegoer, you have to go out

C．The movie also puts them somewhere else

D．They are instead wrapped up in themselves

E．Because moviegoers go in search of beauty

F．Moviegoers may be hopelessly addicted to the movies

G．It’s something to do with a response to leisure, free time

3 . Last weekend was terrible for awards ceremonies. The BAFTAS,defined by a painful monologue（独角戏）from Joanna Lumley, was watched by 500,000 fewer people than last year. Meanwhile,the number of 18﹣to 49-year-olds watching the Grammys has reached an all-time low.

Don't expect the Oscars to fare any better；they have lost millions of viewers since 2014. Add to the fact that comparatively few people have watched most of the nominated films and you have got a ratings time bomb.

Viewers are deserting awards shows in groups and something needs to be done. But what？Reorganize them to celebrate really popular work？That's what the Oscars put forward last year when it suggested a best popular film category﹣and it was swiftly booed（喝倒彩）out of town.

Another option would be to shorten the length of the ceremonies, but this won't work either. The Oscars recently announced plans to hide several categories in ad breaks,and the anger in some quarters（the cinematographers, makeup artists and editors who this year won't get their moment on the small screen）has been obvious.

What else can they do？ Fewer songs？ Shorter speeches？ An In Memoriam section that consists of the words： "People die： get over it"？

Fortunately, I have the perfect solution： don't televise awards shows. Just don't do it. Awards shows are the opposite of good television. They're too long and too boring because of regular and repeated patterns and too self﹣important. And by God, we should have learned by now not to give celebrities any more attention than they already have. It just makes them think that we want to hear them giving out half﹣baked opinions about Donald Trump and Brexit.

I'm not suggesting that the awards shows shouldn't happen. I'm just saying that the awards should be announced in the form of a press release at the end of the ceremony, followed by a handful of You Tube clips showing some nice outfits and a couple of speeches. That's how most of us consume them now anyway.

1. Why does the writer mention the BAFTAS and the Grammys？

A．To introduce the topic of the article.

B．To support the topic of the paragraph.

C．To attract the readers' attention.

D．To make comparison with the Oscars.

2. What does the underlined word "it" in paragraph 3 refer to？

A．The best popular film category.

B．The best actress.

C．The reorganized Oscars.

D．The deserted awards show.

3. What's the writer's opinion on awards shows？

A．Awards shows are better if shortened.

B．Awards shows are excellent television.

C．Awards shows are important to us.

D．Awards shows should be shown in another form.

4. What is the passage mainly about？

A．The bright future of awards shows.

B．What terrible awards shows.

C．Stopping the television of awards shows.

D．Boycott attention to celebrities.

4 . 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.

2. What does the underlined word “withhold” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Keep back.

B．Pick out.

C．Hold onto.

D．Put away.

3. What can we learn from the text?

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.

4. What can be a suitable title for this text?

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

5 . 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.     1    

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.     2     To create the neighborhood, the shooting crew built a set covering 8, 000 square meters in Changchun, Jilin province, collecting many old items, such as old-fashioned televisions and calendars, to re-create the past. The clothing, like Lei Feng-style hats, and interior spaces, also play an essential part, changing with time as the plot develops.

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.     3     In the show, Zhou Bingkun used to be a factory worker, the one who has taken care of the big family and friends selflessly.

Following the lives of Zhou’s family, the drama gives viewers an insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese.     4     It is the kind of show that strikes your heartstrings and leaves you in tears even if you’ve already read the book.     5    

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.

6 . The new TV series Joy of Life is a hit, scoring 8/10 among the most critical reviewers of Douban, a Chinese social networking service website. The series premiered(首映)on Tencent Video and iQiyi(online video platforms)on November 26,2019.

But how would you feel if Tencent Video and iQiyi allowed anyone to pay an extra fee to see a show’s upcoming episodes(集)ahead of schedule? The two of China’s biggest video streaming platforms decided to allow users to pay an extra fee on top of their subscription(订阅)to get advanced access to episodes of Qing Yu Nian(Joy of Life). Monthly subscriptions for Tencent Video cost 15 yuan(US$ 2.14)and iQiyi charges 19 yuan(US$ 2.71). Under the new policy, users could pay 50 yuan(US$ 7.14)to always stay six episodes ahead in Qing Yu Nian. Alternatively, watching a single episode in advance costs 3 yuan(US$ 0.43).

Users are mad about Tencent Video’s and iQiyi’s extra fees on top of subscriptions. On Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, tags related to the two platforms’ pricing policies repeatedly recurred on trending searches, where many people were found complaining about the platforms being greedy and called for the audience to boycott the policy.

The policy also drew criticism from People’s Daily. The state-owned newspaper said the platforms “have bad table manners” and “drain the pond to fish and burn the woods to hunt,” which are Chinese idioms used to describe someone focusing on quick profits as opposed to long-term interests. People’s Daily also said the sites look down upon on users’ rights. ” Two lawyers apparently agreed. The lawyers, who claim to be users of Tencent Video and iQiyi, started two separate cases, saying that they violated users’ rights.

But some experts don’t think the new pricing rules are unreasonable. Zhu Wei, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, argued in an article that charging outside subscriptions are value-added services and don’t violate the law. But Zhu added that the platforms are at fault for not properly informing users about the policy in advance.

In the face of extreme competition and perhaps an ambitious business model, China’s streaming giants are hoping that additional charges could turn their luck around. But judging by the pushback on social media, it may not be so easy. It’s hoped that the next stage of this streaming war is a little more friendly.

1. According to the new policy,how much will the subscribers pay in total if they want to watch six episodes on Tencent Video in advance?

A．50 yuan.

B．18 yuan.

C．65 yuan.

D．69 yuan.

2. What is the author’s attitude towards the new policy?

A．Indifferent.

B．Neutral.

C．Favorable.

D．Critical.

3. What does the underlined word “recurred” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．Appear.

B．Perform.

C．Attract.

D．Serve.

4. What is the best title of the passage?

A．A well-received TV play.	B．An actor loved by the audience.
C．A debatable charging policy.	D．A TV play worthy of money.

7 . 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

2. What videos are mostly shared on TikTok in China?

A．Music videos	B．Knowledge-based videos
C．Humorous videos	D．Videos about chemistry

3. The passage is written by ________.

A．analyzing reasons	B．showing survey results
C．stating arguments	D．providing statistics and examples

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

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.

10 . 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.

2. Which can best replace the underlined word “faux” in Paragraph 2?

A．Innocent.

B．Imaginary.

C．Fashionable.

D．Abnormal.

3. What can be concluded about recent parasocial relationships?

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.

4. What will the text probably talk about next?

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.