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Ticket tax fuels Indian cinema strike
Cinemas in Mumbai, Bollywood’s homeland are striking against high taxes on ticket sales.
Owners of Mumbai’s single-screen theatres will keep their shutters (百叶窗) down until Friday to protest about taxes, which they say are driving them out of business.
More than a third of single-screen cinemas in the state of Maharashtra have closed down in the last five years. According to the Cinema and Exhibitors Association of India, just 700 are still in operation. The association blames the closing down on Maharashtra’s high rate of entertainment tax. Its president, R V Vidhani, says that cinemas must pay a tax for every ticket sold, which is 45%, and this makes it hard to break even. It’s the highest of all states across India. The majority of the states in India pay zero entertainment tax. Mr Vidhani says his members had decided to go ahead with a one-week closure after getting no response from the state government on the matter.
It is not just a high tax rate contributing to the shrinking（收缩）number of traditional cinemas, however. Large costs and declining box office takings also make times tougher.
Mr Vidhani has run the New Excelsior Theatre in South Mumbai since 1974. Last week a screening of Bollywood movie Tanu Weds Manu sold just 71 tickets despite a capacity of more than 1,000. Whether it’s a full house or an empty screening, running costs are more or less the same. “Air conditioning, regular business — every expenditure (支出) is the same, but the income has stopped.”
The cricket (板球) World Cup is not helping matters, according to Mr Vidhani. “The World Cup is creating the biggest problem,” he says. “These people are crazy so far as the cricket is concerned. When India is playing, occupancy in the theatre is just 15%.”
Mumbai’s city centre is dotted with empty cinemas.
So after remaining empty for six years, the Novelty theatre is perhaps more fortunate than its neighbours: it is to be reborn as a four-screen multiplex cinema.
Over the last decade the number of multiplexes in India has risen sharply. Despite higher ticket prices, with more choice on offer and typically newer facilities they pose fierce competition to the traditional single-screen theatres.
“Competition from the multiplexes is really tough,” Mr Vidhani says. “Then there is competition from the movie window being narrow. Movies are being released much quicker on television than they used to be so people can pretty much watch movies for free at home.
“With rising incomes, everyone’s going out and buying DVD players or VCD players. Content is available for the asking whether it is official or pirated(盗版).”
Unless single-screen theatres can become special destinations in their own right, while also offering up-to-date facilities, Jehil Thakkar thinks the decline is a trend that will continue, especially as multiplex cinemas spread to smaller towns.
“They are large corporate chains,” he says. “They have the ability to spend money on branding and advertising, so to a large extent the small cinema guys are fighting a losing battle.”
Ticket tax fuels Indian cinema strike
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The current (1) ▲ of cinema business in Mumbai |
● Many single-screen cinemas are (2) ▲ . |
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The causes of the closing down of cinemas |
l Cinemas in Mumbai have to pay a tax (3) ▲ than any other places in India. l It costs a lot to (4) ▲ a cinema whether it’s a full house or an empty screening. l The occupancy is (5) ▲ by people’s enthusiasm for cricket. l Single-screen cinemas are (6) ▲ with competition from multiplex cinemas, which offer more choices and (7) ▲ facilities. l A quicker release of movies on television is to (8) ▲ . l People prefer to watch DVD or VCD rather than go to the cinema. |
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The (9) ▲ of single-screen cinemas |
l The trend of decline will continue. l Single-screen cinemas are certain to (10) ▲ the battle. |
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception (知觉) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping (打败) evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses (假定), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form. The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
1. In Bargh’s experiment, the students were asked to _______.
A. evaluate someone’s personality
B. write down their hypotheses
C. fill out a personal information form
D. hold coffee and cold drink alternatively
2.We can infer from the passage that _______.
A. abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences
B. feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide
C. physical temperature affects how we see others
D. capable persons are often cold to others
3.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Drinking for Better Social Relationships
B. Experiments of Personality Evaluation
C. Developing Better Drinking Habits
D. Physical Sensations and Emotions
The flag, the most common symbol of a nation in the modern world, is also one of the most ancient. With a clear symbolic meaning, the flag in the traditional form is still used today to mark buildings, ships and other vehicles related to a country.
The national flag as we know it today is in no way a primitive artifact. It is, rather, the product of thousands of years’ development. Historians believe that it had two major ancestors, of which the earlier served to show wind direction.
Early human beings used very fragile houses and boats. Often strong winds would tear roofs from houses or cause high waves that endangered travelers. People’s food supplies were similarly vulnerable. Even after they had learned how to plant grains, they still needed help from nature to ensure good harvests. Therefore they feared and depended on the power of the wind, which could bring warmth from one direction and cold from another.
Using a simple piece of cloth tied to the top of a post to tell the direction of the wind was more dependable than earlier methods, such as watching the rising of smoke from a fire. The connection of the flag with heavenly power was therefore reasonable. Early human societies began to fix long pieces of cloth to the tops of totems (图腾) before carrying them into battle. They believed that the power of the wind would be added to the good wishes of the gods and ancestors represented by the totems themselves.
These flags developed very slowly into modern flags. The first known flag of a nation or a ruler was unmarked: The king of China around 1,000 B.C. was known to have a white flag carried ahead of him. This practice might have been learned from Egyptians even further in the past, but it was from China that it spread over trade routes through India, then across Arab lands, and finally to Europe, where it met up with the other ancestor of the national flag.
1. The underlined word “ vulnerable” in paragraph 3 means _______.
A. easy to damage B. likely to be protected
C. impossible to make sure of D. difficult to find
2.The earliest flags were connected with heavenly power because they _______.
A. could tell wind direction B. could bring good luck to fighters
C. were believed to stand for natural forces D. were handed down by the ancestors
3.What does the author know of the first national flag?
A. He knows when it was sent to Europe. B. He doubts where it started.
C. He thinks it came from China. D. He believes it was made in Egypt.
4.What will the author most probably talk about next?
A. The role of China in the spread of the national flag.
B. The importance of modern flags.
C. The use of modern flags in Europe.
D. The second ancestor of the national flag.
Department stores sell ready- to-wear clothing, which is also called ready-made clothing. Such clothing is made in fixed sizes. Those people who find that ready-made clothing fits them well can save money by buying it. Most often, people do not fit exactly into a producer’s size. Their clothing must be altered to make it fit better. However, most alterations are not very expensive. The small cost of most alterations means that ready-made clothing can meet the needs of most customers.
Those who can afford it often get someone to design and make their clothing. Such clothing is called custom-made. The person who makes it measures the customer, and then sews it so that it fits perfectly. Alterations are not needed. Custom-made clothing is largely sewn by hand, has better quality, better material, and is of the style you have chosen. Of course, it costs much more than ready-to-wear clothing. You need to pay the difference for the special fitting and better skill that you are receiving. This often means that you spend double or more than you would for a ready-made garment.
Custom-made clothing is not always that much better than ready-made clothing. It costs more partly because only one garment has been made, just for you. Companies that produce ready-made products make thousands of garments at a time. This means they can buy large quantities of material. Workers cut each size by the hundreds. Companies work out ways to make the garments quickly by machine and pay workers according to their skill. Thus they can sell the finished products at a low price while still making money. Most of the clothing sold in the United States is made in this way. Customers gain from the lower prices which are made possible by mass production. It may or may not give them high quality.
1. According to the passage, people who buy ready-made clothing ______.
A. wish to make alternations B. will spend less money
C. want to make it better D. can fit into the sizes
2.We can learn from the passage that custom-made clothing is_______.
A. specially made B. fashionably designed
C. chosen by few people D. made with difficulties
3.Which of the following is true about ready-made clothing?
A. It is of poor quality. B. It suits all people.
C. It is labor-saving to make it. D. It takes more time to make it
4.The purpose of the writer is _______.
A. to explain why custom-made clothing costs more
B. to show the advantages of mass production
C. to tell readers how to make money from ready-made clothing
D. to provide information about different kinds of clothing
Intellectual property (IP) is a product of the mind that has commercial value. The concept dates back to 1623, when the first patent law to protect IP rights was passed. IP rights protect an artist from having his/her creative ideas copied by another. For example, if somebody generated an idea for a novel, that idea is protected by IP rights. If someone else wishes to represent the idea or develop it further, he/she must consult the original artists, who will normally be rewarded financially for its use. Back in the 17th century, IP rights were primarily carried out to protect newly developed manufacturing processes against stealing, but today intellectual property rights are also enjoyed by those who create music, art and literature.
In recent years, IP rights have been the focus of a great deal of discussion because of a technology which looks set to weaken them altogether: the Internet. Many years ago, if you wanted a recoding of a song, you would have to purchase it from a music store; if a novel, from a book store. In those days, IP rights were easily protected since it was very difficult to obtain intellectual property without paying for it. However, a lot of IP, including songs, films, books and artwork, can be downloaded today free of charge using the internet. This practice has now taken the world by storm, dramatically affecting the way in which we view IP rights.
1.According to the writer, in the beginning, IP rights were mainly of use to _______.
A. those creating music, art and literature
B. novelists
C. those not receiving financial reward for their work
D. engineers and inventors
2.What do we know about the Internet according to the passage?
A. It does not affect the way we understand IP rights.
B. It sells songs and films.
C. It makes IP rights harder to protect.
D. It prevents the production of artwork.
3.According to paragraph 2, what has “taken the world by storm”?
A. Intellectual property rights. B. Free downloading.
C. The Internet. D. The large number of songs, films and books.
4.A possible title for this passage could be _______.
A. IP Rights and Our Attitudes B. Ways to Protect Your IP Rights
C. The Present and the Future of IP rights D. A History of IP Rights
Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had ___36____ from just the two of us in a ___37____ into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just ___38___ our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you ___39___? Well, as Apple grew we ___40___ someone who I thought was very talented to ___41___ the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge (分歧) and ___42___ we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors ___43___with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. ___44___ had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating（毁灭性的）.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to ___45___ for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to ___46___ on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been ___47___, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it ___48___ that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the ___49___ of being a ___50____ again, less sure about everything. It freed me to ___51___ one of the most creative periods of my life.
I’m pretty sure _ _52___ of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was ___53___ tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Don’t lose ___54___. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t ___55___. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it.
－By Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer
1.A. grown B. begun C. removed D. kept
2. A. bedroom B. farm C. garage D. kitchen
3.A. announced B. declared C. released D. coped
4.A. managed B. started C. installed D. entitled
5.A. provided B. sorted C. promoted D. hired
6.A. run B. involve C. open D. engage
7.A. instantly B. constantly C. eventually D. frequently
8. A. risked B. supported C. pleased D. sided
9.A. Which B. What C. Whichever D. Whatever
10. A. apologize B. reveal C. head D. stand
11.A. imply B. put C. impress D. dawn
12.A. resisted B. rejected C. solved D. interrupted
13.A. made out B. come out C. turned out D. tried out
14.A. darkness B. lightness C. carelessness D. business
15.A. waiter B. pioneer C. beginner D. visitor
16.A. enter B. relieve C. preview D. expect
17.A. something B. none C. everything D. anything
18. A. careful B. acceptable C. hopeful D. awful
19.A. courage B. patience C. imagination D. faith
20.A. settle B. recall C. claim D. deny
