题型：阅读理解 题类：常考题 难易度：普通
江苏省南通市2019-2020学年高二上学期英语期初调研测试试卷
Late US artist Andy Warhol is believed to have once said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
But in this age of social media, selfies (自拍), and the Internet, it's hard to say what “fame” actually is.
In the movie Vox Lux (《光之声》), which was first shown this month at the Venice Film Festival, US director Brady Corbet tries to answer that question.
“Fame is a commodification of everything, where violence becomes something you sell, news becomes something you sell, even private life does,” the movie's star Natalie Portman told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In the movie, the Israeli-US actress plays the lead role of Celeste, a pop singer who's 14 years into a hugely successful career. By that point, however, the character has become bitter (忿忿不平的) and her fame is beginning to fade – compared to her younger self, a sweet and carefree girl who suddenly finds herself in the spotlight.
This is a classic (经典的) tale of a rise to fame, but in today's world of social media, it's easy for just about anyone with a smartphone to become famous. But as more and more people search for the spotlight, this may add pressure on many of us to keep up with the “perfect” lives we see on the Internet.
“It appears that most people ... are living lives full of nothing but happiness, love, and rewarding events and experiences,” psychologist (心理学家) Kurt Smith wrote on HuffPost.
That isn't to say that everyone uses their popularity to make others feel bad about themselves. Take UK beauty blogger Em Ford for example. In 2015, the online star, known for her makeup tutorials (教程), posted a video in which she slowly removed her flawless makeup, showing her bad skin underneath (在下面). “I wanted to create a film that showed how social media can set unrealistic expectations for both women and men,” Ford wrote in the video's description.
So, it seems that the definition of fame changes all the time. But if Vox Lux teaches us one lesson, it's that if we're lucky enough to obtain the “commodity” of fame, we should spend it wisely.
|
Journey |
40 pages Age Range: 4-8 years Publisher: Candlewick (6 Aug. 2013) Language: English Price: $ 10.72 |
| Introduction | A girl can't get the attention of her busy family. She goes to her room feeling sad but discovers a red crayon and draws a magic door on her bedroom wall and through it escapes into a world where wonder, adventure, and danger abound (大量存在). On her journey, she finds people are trying to catch a bird. She rescues the bird with courage but finds herself caught and placed in a cage. The grateful bird helps her escape and together they fly to safety and back to the city where the girl lives. |
| About the author | Born in Baltimore, Aaron Becker moved to California to attend Pomona College where he scored his first illustration (插图) job designing T-shirts. Then, he traveled to Kenya, Japan and Sweden backpacking around while looking for interesting things and feeding his imagination. He's now busying at work on his next book project. |
| Reviews | By Barb Mechalke on November 23, 2019 This is a beautiful book and tells a story only with illustrations. |
| By Elise Nuttall on August 11, 2017 It's a picture book, and it's so inventive and creative! I "read" it with my niece and she absolutely loved that book. She could understand the story without having to struggle as a new reader | |
| By Colby J Cuppernull on September 11, 2013 I read this book with my three-and-a-half-year-old son last night. Tonight, when we read it again, it is slightly different. New words are used to give voice to the story told through the images. Every time we read this book, it will become new. |
试题篮
