Around
the world young people are spending unbelievable sums of money listening to
rock music. Forbes reports that at least fifty rock stars have incomes between
two million and six million dollars per year.
"It
doesn't make sense," says Johnny Mathis, one of the older music
millionaires, who made a million dollars a year when he was popular in 1950s.
"Performers aren't worth this kind of money. In fact, nobody is."
But
the rock stars' admirers seem to disagree. Those who love rock music spend
about two billion dollars a year for records. They pay 150 million to see rock
stars in person.
Luck
is a key word for explaining the success of many. In 1972 one of the luckiest
was Kon Mclean, who wrote and sang "American Pie". Mclean writes his
own music, so he earns an additional two cents on every single record of the
song.
Neil
Young who performs in torn blue jeans, sometimes sings to an audience of
10,000, each of whom has paid five dollars for a ticket. After paying expenses,
Young leaves with about $ 18,000 in his blue jeans at the end of an evening.
How
do the rock stars use their money? What do they do when the money starts
pouring in like water? Most of the young stars simply show the money around.
England's Elton John gave someone a $ 38,000 Rolls car and bought himself 5,000
pairs of eyeglasses, then lighted up and spelt :E-L-T-O-N.
He also bought himself two cars, "one for each foot".
Many
rock stars live like Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane. Those performers
return from a tour, pay their bills, and buy new toys. Then when they need
money again, they do another tour. They save no money and live from hand to
mouth.www.zxxk.com
In
the end the rock stars' life is unrewarding. After two or three years riches
and fame are gone. Left with his memories and his tax problems, the lonely star
spends his remaining years trying to attract strangers. New stars have arrived
to take his place.
1.
This passage is mainly about .
A. the success of a rock star
B. the way rock stars live
C. rich rock
stars
D. the admirers of rock stars
2.
How much expense does Neil Young pay for a performance?
A. 10,000B.33,000 C.
32,000D.38,000
3.According
to passage, the underlined phrase "from hand to mouth" means .
A. they have to earn money by hand
B. They know how to spend money in a reasonable way
C. they earn money only for their immediate enjoyment
D. they steal to feed their mouth when they need money
If you have ever gone through a toll booth(收費(fèi)所), you know that your relationship to the person in
the booth is not the most intimate you'll ever have. It is one of life's
frequent affairs: You hand over some money; you might get change; you drive
off.
Late one
morning in 1984, headed for lunch in San Francisco, I drove toward a booth. I
heard loud music. It sounded like a party. I looked around. No other cars with
their windows open. No sound trucks. I looked at the toll booth. Inside it, the
man was dancing.
"What
are you doing?" I asked.
"I'm
having a party," he said.
"What
about the rest of the people?" I looked at the other toll booths.
He said,
"What do those look like to you?" He pointed down the row of toll
booths.
"They
look like……toll booths. What do they look like to you?"
He said,
"Vertical coffins. At 8:30 every morning, live people get in. Then they
die for eight hours. At 4:30, like Lazarus from the dead, they reemerge
and go home. For eight hours, brain is on hold, dead on the job. Going through
the motions."
I was
amazed. This guy had developed a philosophy, a mythology about his job. Sixteen
people dead on the job, and the seventeenth, in precisely the same situation,
figures out a way to live. I could not help asking the next question: "Why
is it different for you? You're having a good time."
He looked at me. "I knew you were going to ask
that. I don't understand why anybody would think my job is boring. I have a
corner office, glass on all sides. I can see the Golden Gate, San Francisco,
and the Berkeley hills. Half the Western world vacations here……and I just
stroll in every day and practice dancing."
1.According to the first paragraph, in most cases, how
do you describe the relationship between drivers and toll booth?
虎媽?zhuān)绹?guó)耶魯大學(xué)的華裔教授蔡美兒Amy
Lynn Chua,出版了一本名叫《虎媽?xiě)?zhàn)歌》Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother的書(shū),在美國(guó)引起轟動(dòng)。在接受采訪時(shí),回答了記者的5個(gè)問(wèn)題(第61—65題)。請(qǐng)從下列提問(wèn)(A、B、C、D、E和F)中選出與她的回答相匹配的問(wèn)題,并在答題卡上將相應(yīng)選項(xiàng)涂黑。選項(xiàng)中有一項(xiàng)是多余選項(xiàng)。
Questions
A.What do you think of the
competition between China and the US?
B.What do you think of the
image of “tiger mom?”
C.How do your daughters
take the criticism about you after your book was published?
D.You said you would not
get her Christmas gifts or anything when your daughter refused to repeatedly
practice the music. How did your husband respond?
E.What do you think makes a
good mother?
F.What does your husband
think of your method of bringing up kids?
1.
Chua’s answer: Well, actually I think there are many
ways of being a good mother. In my book my focus is just a memory about my own
family story, me trying to raise my own children in a kind of traditional
Chinese way. I make mistakes and I make fun of myself. It’s amazing the way the
book has been received internationally, because. I didn’t intend my book to be
telling other people of view and I am a proud strict “tiger mom”. But I’m not
trying to tell other people what are the best ways to teach or raise their
children.
2.
Chua’s answer: Well, the title may sound a little
frightening. Let me tell you why I chose the title. I was born in the year of
the tiger. And “battle Hymn” in the United States comes from “The Battle Hymn
of the Republic”. The book is really about finding some sort of balance: how
can we find the balance between the eastern way of parenting and the western
way of parenting. In ways the book as been misunderstood maybe because of the
title.
3.
Chua’s answer: I didn’t write this book to have any
foreign policy implications. But it’s been taken into the foreign policy realm.
It is of course true that there is a connection between child-raising and the
future of nations. We are raising, as parents, the next generation. So I think
Henry is right. We tapped into this thing of insecurity, American’s fear about
the rising power of china. A friend of mine told me that if the book had been
called The Battle Hymn of an Italian Mother or The Battle Hymn of a Mexican
Mother, nobody would have cared. It’s really “China”. you know.
4.
Chua’s answer: I don’t think he opposes my idea of
raising children. I’d like to think we have a combination, which is the right
solution. You need a balance. From my perspective, what I give my kids is
something that I thought was lacking in the US educational system. You know,
they hate memorization, while in China you have too much of it. In the US,
learning should be fun, a lot of games,. So I brought hard work and
disciplines. My husband and I think this is a great thing always teaching them
to question the authority and to ask why. Don’t accept everything just because
somebody tells you. Figure it out yourself. I really think you need to combine
both these qualities if you want creativity and dynamism.
5.
Chua’s answer: They both are stronger than I am.
I am really proud of them. Their friends and communities supported them. At a
time, I couldn’t even look at the Internet because there are so many negative
comments. And they would find the good ones and text them to me, saying “here’s
a good one mommy, hang in there.” This experience has actually brought my
family together. Believe it or not, not just my kids, also my parents and my
three younger sisters have supported me.