题目内容
James Blunt is one of the most popular singers in the UK. His first album, Back to Bedlam, and his number one hit, You’re Beautiful, brought him fame in 2005. His music is a mix of pop, rock and folk.
Blunt comes to China for the first time this month, he will hold two concerts, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai on April 18 and 19 respectively.
Blunt, 34, took an unusual path to stardom. His father was a soldier and so was his grandfather.
“The only music he heard growing up was Happy Birthday and Silent Night. His father considered all music, even classical, to be unnecessary noise,” reads Blunt’s official website.
Even though Blunt did not want to join the military, he eventually followed his father’s wishes, and served as a soldier in Kosovo on peacekeeping duty.
“Like any parents, mine wanted me to have a secure job with a regular wage and career prospects,” Blunt said. “And the one job my father knew of, that he’d had experience of himself, was the army, so he could help me in that direction.”
Blunt eventually became a Captain. One of his final duties in the army before retirement was carrying the coffin (棺材) at the funeral of the Queen Mother of England in 2002.
But Blunt couldn’t escape his love for music. So, after leaving the British Army he moved to Los Angeles and worked on his first album. While in LA, Blunt lived with the actress Carrie Fisher, who played the lead female role in the Star Wars movie. He recorded his song, Goodbye My Lover, in his bathroom, where he kept a piano.
Blunt took his new album back to England where it was not very successful. But he kept performing and eventually his song, You’re Beautiful, became a number one hit.
Now Blunt has won numerous awards, sold millions of records and dated super models.
But his greatest accomplishment might be that his father now enjoys music!
1. All of the following belong to Blunt EXCEPT _____________.
A. Back to Bedlam B. Silent Night
C. Goodbye My Lover D. You’re Beautiful
2. Which of the following proves “Blunt took an unusual path to stardom”?
A. Blunt was 34 when he became famous.
B. Blunt recorded his most famous song in a bathroom.
C. Blunt’s father wanted him to have a secure job.
D. Blunt began to pursue a career in music after military service.
3. We can infer from the passage that _____________.
A. Blunt is living in Los Angeles at present
B. Blunt rose to fame two years after he left the army
C. Blunt became successful immediately he recorded his first song
D. Blunt has changed his father’s attitude towards music
4. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Blunt’s visit to China. B. Blunt’s military life.
C. How Blunt became famous. D. How Blunt’s father fell in love with music.
【小题1】B
【小题2】D
【小题3】D
【小题4】C
培优三好生系列答案
优化作业上海科技文献出版社系列答案Last week Adele's second album, 21, sold 257,000 copies in the UK, a sales figure that would look incredible as an opening sales week for any album by any global superstar. The fact that the album was celebrating its 10th week at No.1, and that each of the previous nine weeks it had sold over 100,000 copies, makes what Adele has achieved look miraculous. The last female singer to spend that long at No.1 in the UK was Madonna in 1990 with her greatest hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection.
For Adele, the success of 21 is part of a perfect storm of talent, timing and a connection that went beyond gender, age and credibility. But what does it say about the state of the music industry? Does Adele's success signal a return to the MOR(适合大众口味的音乐) musical depression, when the likes of James Blunt dominated the charts? Her success may well lead to a great many similar acts aiming for an MOR audience, but that's more the fault of an industry desperate to recreate any kind of success by creating poor copies until the world shouts "stop now".
What seems to have set Adele apart is her apparent ordinariness, besides that incredible voice. While Gaga parades around in a dress made of meat and Beyonce orbits a world out of touch to the majority of most human beings, Adele's chain-smoking, girl-you'd-like-to-go-to-the-pub-with persona stands out. Even for a British act, her ordinariness goes against trend, with fellow Jessie J adopting a very American habit of over-emoting, talking about a "journey" and making the idea of being a pop star seem fairly difficult.
It's this universality and broad appeal that's helped her translate talent into sales. While the first single from 21, Rolling in the Deep, appealed to Radio 1 listeners and bloggers, the second single, Someone Like You, is so successful that silenced the grand O2 Arena during this year's Brit Awards. The press can write pages and pages in that there's enough of a connection of musicians – Rick Rubin worked on the album, there's a cover of the Cure, Mumford & Sons were an influence – while the gossip magazines have been excited by the fact that the album is one long break-up record, eager to find the ex.
In 1990, Madonna was a global superstar with a back catalogue of era-defining hits to her name. She was untouchable and, tellingly, unknowable. She was (and still is) a megastar, but a megastar of a different age. These days, we want to know a bit more about our artists; that they have relationship problems, walk their dog. Her selling point and appeal is precisely the fact that she exists at the point between everyday ordinariness and pop star.
For now, Adele's success should be celebrated, especially for becoming an unlikely global star on her own terms. The danger is that we're headed for a lot of fairly boring pop, a situation that led to the "birth" of Gaga a few years back. Pop goes in cycles and it feels like we're headed back towards the very middle of MOR.
【小题1】Adele’s achievement seems unbelievable for the reason that ____________.
| A．the sales of her second album achieved an incredible success last week in the UK |
| B．her second album ranked first in a row with the incredible average sales per week |
| C．Madonna was the last female singer in the UK to stay at No. 1 as long as she did |
| D．she is such an ordinary singer with so fascinating a voice in the music industry |
| A．to a large extent depends on her apparent talent for music |
| B．is because of her extraordinariness and the wonderful voice |
| C．lies in gift, timing and something beyond sex, age and trust |
| D．is largely due to the state of the music industry currently |
| A．She stands out in a totally different way from Gaga and Beyonce. |
| B．She and Madonna are contemporary megastars in music. |
| C．Only she and Madonna spent that long at No.1 in the UK. |
| D．Jessie J and she both have an American habit of expressing themselves. |
| A．Her musical talent. |
| B．The joint work of musicians in the album. |
| C．Her incredible voice. |
| D．Her universality and broad appeal. |
| A．satisfying | B．disappointing | C．dangerous | D．desperate |
