Talent shows are getting
What’s more,
However, every coin has two
All in all, we cannot live without amusement. As long as the talent shows could entertain and inspire
2 . 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? |
3 . 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. |
Not long after Freddy and the band became famous, they visited Britain on a brief tour. Fans showed their devotion by waiting for hours to get tickets for their concerts. Freddy was now quite confident when he went into a concert hall. He enjoyed singing and all the congratulations afterwards! His most exciting invitation was to perform on a TV programme called Top of the Pops. He had to go to London, wear an expensive suit and give a performance to a TV camera. It felt very strange. But as soon as the programme was over, the telephones which were in the same room started ringing. Everybody was asking when they could see Freddy and his band again. They were truly stars.
Then things went wrong. Freddy and his band could not go out anywhere without being followed. Even when they wore sunglasses or beards, people recognized them. Fans found them even when they went into the toilet. They tried to hide in the reading rooms of libraries, but it was useless. Someone was always there! Their personal life was regularly discussed by people who did not know them but talked as if they were close friends. At last feeling very upset and sensitive, Freddy and his band realized that they must leave the country before it became too painful for them. So they left Britain, to which they were never to return.
1. What was the trouble the band had when they became famous?2. How would your life change if you became famous overnight? Discuss with your classmates.
5 . 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. |
6 . 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.
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.
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.
| 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. |
7 . 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. |
| A．The best popular film category. |
| B．The best actress. |
| C．The reorganized Oscars. |
| D．The deserted awards show. |
| 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. |
| A．The bright future of awards shows. |
| B．What terrible awards shows. |
| C．Stopping the television of awards shows. |
| D．Boycott attention to celebrities. |
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. |
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：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
A famous circus comes to our town last week. On Saturday morning, all the performers marched brief down the street. The clowns（小丑）happily passed out balloons to the children whom waved and laughed out loud. My five-year-old sister closely watched the performers but waited eagerly for the clowns. Follow the performers, everyone had then walked into the big top. Though there weren't any animals in the circus, the performances turned out to being amazing. I was very impressed the sound effects, beautiful lights and performers' skills. Therefore, I'm exciting to know that the circus will stay in town for one more weeks.
10 . Do you really care who wins Oscars? On February 24 this year, the Academy Awards were presented to actors, actresses, directors, musicians and many other people. Usually they are the “best” and we, the Audience, are persuaded that this is true.
This year, the nominations for Best Picture include Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book. According to many people, these are great movies, as are the performers who bring the stories to life. Whoever wins the award for Best Actor or Best Actress will undoubtedly become a Hollywood star.
However, Leonardo had never won an Oscar before 2016, but that doesn’t mean that his films aren’t amazing. I only need to mention Titanic and The Wolf of Wall Street and you can clearly see that he is an excellent actor. And of course, let’s not forget Romeo and Juliet.
I’m afraid someone may wrongly apprehend my meaning. I am not saying that those who win Academy Awards are not talented people. They most certainly are talented. What I mean is that I don’t think we should judge films and actors by how many awards they have. After all, at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, Ricky Gervais compared the prizes to a doorstop and told the nominees to remember that no one cared about that award as much as they did.
So let’s not judge an actor or actress just based on what critics say. If you want to know how good an actor or actress really is, go and watch the film he or she stars in.
1. Why is Leonardo mentioned in the passage?| A．He is one of the writer’s favorite film actors. |
| B．He is one of the actors who starred in many films. |
| C．He is the leading actor in many award-winning films. |
| D．He is a good actor who didn’t win an Oscar until 2016. |
| A．Express. | B．Understand. | C．Change. | D．Show. |
| A．To see if he has won an Oscar. | B．To read what critics say. |
| C．To judge him by watching his acting. | D．To see how many awards he has won. |
