Animated film ‘Chang An’ love letter to golden age of poetry

A Chinese animated (动画) film, Chang An, featuring some of China’s most well-known poets has been a surprise hit at the box office. Since its release on July 8, the film     1    (fetch) over 700 million yuan, leading the domestic box office over the weekend. It is also a success by     2     (arouse) enthusiasm for poetic romance in the hearts of moviegoers.

The film is set in the Tang dynasty,     3     is often seen as a golden age in Chinese history from 618 to 907 due to its     4     (economy) and cultural prosperity, describing the stories of Gao Shi and Li Bai, their struggles to better themselves and society in the Tang dynasty.

Sitting in cinemas     5    (crowd) with moviegoers of all age groups, the audience     6     (eager) recited poetry alongside the actors on screen as they headed down memory lane. The movie is undoubtedly a masterpiece showing the characteristics of Chinese culture to the world. “The most fascinating part of the film is realizing that these familiar names were not just great poets but real people with flesh and blood,” Liao Kun, a Guangdong resident who watched the movie Saturday,     7     (tell) Sixth Tone.

Zou Jing,     8     chief director, emphasized, “We created Chang An to explore into the limitless treasures of Chinese culture through animation”. Xie Junwei, who co-directs the movie with Zou Jing, says the film is aimed at increasing     9    (aware) among young Chinese of traditional Chinese culture and history. “We wanted to tell the stories of these brilliant figures to young people through an animated film so that they can have a deeper understanding and more passion     10     our history and classic works,” Xie told domestic media Beijing Daily.

5 . 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.

6 . 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,     1     (gain) more than 110 million views online since it was released.

The series, co-produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Bilibili, is     2     collection of 20-minute short films, consisting of eight separate stories     3     (feature) monster-like characters, or yao in Chinese. The collection,     4     ranges from ancient stories to science fiction, from emotional connection with hometowns to romantic love     5     from life themes to questions for humanity, presents Chinese culture and philosophy. For example, the first episode, named “Nobody”, tells a pig monster’s story     6     (base) on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. The creative team put the perspective on the little monsters who used to have blurry faces and didn’t even have names in the story.

Li Zao, general producer, said it was impossible     7     (predict) what the eventual outcome would be at first. Now, the     8     (favor) comments exceeded the expectations of the creative team. These contained both the audience’s     9     (recognize) of the work and their hopes of Chinese animation. Besides adapting     10     the taste of the masses, the team also wanted to guide them to appreciate different types of work.

The sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth II has not only raked in a whopping box office, but also focused much attention     1     science and technologies that appeared in the movie,    2    (include) space elevators, quantum computers, and nuclear fusions. China’s movie box office revenue     3    (reach) nearly 6.76 billion yuan during the Spring Festival holiday from Jan 21 to 27. The Wandering Earth II ranked the    4    (two) among six domestic titles released during the holiday.

To escape the harm of a    5     (rapid) burning sun, humans in the movie try to build about 10,000 massive engines     6    power) by nuclear fusions to propel the earth to a place     7    the atmosphere is safe both for humans and the earth.     8    the road to the universe is perilous. In order to save earth, young people once again have to step forward to start a race against time for life and death.

Over the past week, topics related to The Wandering Earth II have been trending on Weibo,     9     popular Twitter-like social media platform in China, one after another. Many     10    (audience) show great interest in the details in the movie.

A realistic drama A Lifelong Journey has become a huge hit on TV and online recently.    1    (focus) on the ups and downs of Zhou’s family over five decades, it has caused nostalgia (怀旧) among many viewers. With the drama    2     (release) on China Central Television and streaming platform iQiyi on Jan 28, its viewership is    3    (steady) on the rise. Many viewers issued a    4    (describe) of the show that it was like a time machine to drift into the past, reflecting how they got here.

Adapted    5    Liang Xiaosheng’s award-winning novel of the same name, the show explores themes of family, friendship and romance in a bittersweet story. Set in    6    1960s, it’s not surprising that the family has to deal with lots of social    7    (change). like the restart of Gaokao, the country’s Reform and Opening-up, the boom of Xiahai and the nation’s anti-corruption campaign. Following the lives of Zhou’s family, the Grama gives viewers an insight into the ordinary Chinese who have turned a country in    8    (poor) into the second largest economy in the world.

The show’s director Li Lu,    9    became well known for his anti-corruption series in the Name of the People in 2017, said “China    10    ( witness) dramatic changes over the past five decades and it is time to create such a drama to remember the past.”