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 . 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

3 . 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.

4 . Tips on Presentation Skills

Even with a snappy (漂亮的)opening, after 10 minutes, most audiences will lose 75 percent of their listening capacity.     1    Effective speakers use a variety of presentation skills to deliver a message attractively all the time.

Effective speakers understand that wandering presentations are impossible to understand and are guaranteed to lose an audience. Behind every powerful speech is a solid outline matching with the goal of the presentation. One basic structure is an “open,body and close” approach.     2     If the goal is persuasion，Motivated Sequence (激励序列)is a technique of presenting information that involves an audience in both a problem and a solution.

    3    Practice and relaxation are the best ways to improve voice tone and pace. Being well prepared and relaxed can help a speaker deliver speech confidently. Not everyone is born a good presenter. Skills and techniques can be obtained by practice including an appealing voice tone at a proper speed when presenting.

Nonverbal communication, such as dress and gestures,can dramatically influence the acceptance of a presentation. A speaker's dress should match his audience and the significance of the event. For example, a speaker presenting to a corporate audience should wear a suit. Dress specifics will vary from speaker to speaker, but the key is choosing clothes that enhance(增加),not distract,from the message.     4    

    5     PowerPoint is a popular,but often misused,presentation technology. Like nonverbal communication,the key to PowerPoint success is designing slides to enhance,not take over,the presentation.

A．If used correctly,technology can help keep audience's interest.

B．This can't happen if a speaker is too worried about his/her own reaction.

C．If the goal is to inform,information may be structured by cause and effect

D．Voice tone and speed are well-known topics when it comes to presentation skills.

E．It means a speaker must work throughout the speech to draw listeners into the presentation.

F．Message acceptance is a two-way communication process and requires audience agreement.

G．And keep movement close to the body to ensure gestures are emphasizing key points but not distracting from the message.

5 . 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.