备战2023年中考英语阅读话题训练 专题06 直播与网购

The Palace Museum, one of the greatest ancient wonders of China, is using modern technology to attract visitors.

Back in December 2015, a digital gallery (数字馆) at Duanmen opened in the Palace Museum. A film on the screen helps visitors learn about the museum in a short time. Then visitors can walk into a palace, seeing and touching many treasures through VR. They can even talk with ancient people with the help of AI.

In fact, digitalization of the museum started 20 years ago. In 2001, the museum first opened websites (网站)in Chinese and English. Visitors from all over the world can see the introduction and new notices online. In February2015, the museum offered an app to show its collection. The app introduces one treasure every day. In 2018, the museum developed a program me on WeChat. The programme advises visitors on the best route (路线)through the museum.

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 virus, the Palace Museum closed its door to the public on January 25. Then the museum turned to the Internet. As a result, on April 5and 6, it provided three live-streamed(直播的)tours. The three tours took different routes around the Palace Museum. Two researchers from the museum became tour guides, telling people secrets and stories about the place.

What's more, the Palace Museum has worked with Huawei to build a smart network of 5G throughout the museum. Huawei will also use Al to help with the protection of artworks.

If most museums, theaters and libraries are closed, you might miss the cultural activities you used to have during holidays. But don't worry. As we are living in the Internet era（时代）, virtual（虚拟的）museums, concerts, and libraries are at our fingertips, ready to be discovered from our homes.

Cloud museums

If you are a fan of museums, visit the official website of the National Museum of China. There are VR exhibitions（虚拟现实展览）,live-streaming（直播）classes and many other resources. For example, an exhibition about Confucius is going on right now. You can learn about his life and ancient culture during the Spring and Autumn Period （770 BC - 476 BC）. There are also pictures and videos of the relics（文物）,such as bianzhong and books.

Cloud concerts

Do you miss going to live concerts? There are many online concerts going on right now, such as "DOULive Sofa Concert" on Douyin and "I'm With You" on Weibo. Go and find your favorite singers! Talented singers are in their live houses with microphones and musical instruments such as guitars or pianos. Since they're streaming live as they perform, you can not only interact with them by writing comments（评论）,but also pick songs for them to sing. What a cool experience!

Cloud libraries

There are many online libraries that provide free digital resources, such as the National Library of China, Shanghai Library and Hubei Library. On the Shanghai Library website, for example, you can see on the front page that there are many books related to virus outbreaks. Of course, you can also find other materials in these online libraries—comic books, documentary films, and English tutoring（教学）videos are all available.

A new way of eating becomes popular with young people on the Internet. It is called mukbang. Starting from South Korea, mukbang means "eating broadcast（吃播）". The hosts live-stream（直播）themselves eating a large number of food online. At the same time, they talk with those who are watching them through the Internet.

In South Korea, it's not common for people to go out to eat by themselves. Dining is a social（社交的）activity, and people don't sit and eat alone（独自）. For those who can't eat with others, they'll stay at home to eat alone, but they still want to meet and spend time with people while eating. So they think of the idea for mukbang. In this way, they'll never eat alone again and they can even make a lot of money.

Now mukbang is popular in the world. People can share the happiness of eating and make friends through mukbang. It also helps people who have problems with food. By watching mukbang, those who always eat too much can satisfy their appetite（胃口）and those who don't eat enough can build their appetite.

Need to buy something? Why go to a store? Buy it on the Internet! Need it now? Why wait? Ask to receive it the next day! Each day, more and more people try on-line shopping. In fact, online sales have doubled in the last ten years. But not everyone is excited. Some scientists now say that online shopping is bad for the environment.

"People are surprised to hear this. " They think, "I don't need to drive, and the business doesn't need to build a store, so there will be less pollution. "says Nuria Prost, an environmental scientist. "But it is not so simple. In fact，online shopping is wasteful. It also adds to air pollution. "

In truth, the Internet is not always as good a friend to the environment as it seems. For example, most people thought that the Internet would help offices use less paper and other materials. But paper use increased by 33 percent between 1986 and 1997. "Online shopping could have similarly harmful results," says Nevil Cohen, a researcher of environmental science. Part of the problem is what people are buying these days. In the past, people bought things on the Internet that did not require much packing material, such as books and clothing. But now people also shop online for large, heavy products such as televisions, computers, chairs and tables. These products need to be packed in lots of plastic and paper. This creates a lot of waste.

Another problem caused by online shopping is air pollution. When customers buy products and ask to receive them the next day, online businesses often have to send them by air. Airplanes use much more oil than cars and produce more carbon dioxide(二氧化碳). When people buy a lot of different things from different online businesses, this creates even more travel by airplane.

Online product returns are also a problem. For example, an online shoe store may allow customers to return shoes for free if they are wrong size. This doubles the packing materials and number of airline trips required to sell one pair of shoes.

"If people want to protect the environment, they need to think before they shop," says Prost. People need to ask themselves: Is this exactly what I want? Do I really need it tomorrow, or can I wait? Online stores can also ask customers to pay money for returns. This may make people shop more carefully. "Online shopping is fast and easy,"says Prost, "but we can't forget the harmful result it has caused to the environment.

    New Ways of Payment for Online Shopping in China

    "Who needs a shopping mall if you have Taobao?", says Wang Lin, 28, a writer in Beijing.

Taobao, China's largest online shopping site(网址), has become an important part of Wang Lin's life. She spends lots of money on Taobao.

A growing number of Chinese Internet users like Wang have found the joys of online shopping. Most online shoppers are students or young workers. More women shop on line than men. Clothing and home-use products are the most popular on line.

It was reported that more than 900 billion(十亿) yuan was spent on online shopping last year, 80% through Taobao.

Taobao means "looking for treasure" in Chinese. People can find almost everything they need on Taobao, from clothes to books, from candies to DVD players.

You may question the security(安全) of online shopping, Wang Lin said, "It's very safe and convenient. Unless you receive the products from the sellers and are satisfied with them, the shop owner will not get the money. You can also get your money back if you want to return the products."

It's lunch time. You're hungry and want to get your favorite meal in the restaurant, but there are a lot of people waiting at the door. Don't worry－in cyberworld (网络世界), you can get your meal just on the Internet.

"Shopping has never been so easy. With just a single click (点击) on your mouse, anything that you ordered online can be taken to your door quickly," said Bian Jing, a twenty-year-old girl.

"I don't want to spend too much time shopping, so I like doing shopping online better than in a usual store," said a boy from a middle school. "It's easy to find the things you want online."

If the shoppers buy something online, they can find lower prices and wider choices of things. But many teachers and parents are worried that shopping online is becoming too popular.

"It's not a good way for middle school students to spend their monеу," said a teacher. "I don't want them to shop online."

"It's also dangerous to lose money at online stores, because some of them just want to cheat shoppers," another teacher said.

Most parents are not willing to pay the money their children spend on the Internet.

How do you usually do the shopping? Do you go to the supermarket or shop online? Today, many Chinese love shopping through live-streaming.

Around the year of 2016, some Internet stars began selling products (产品) through live-streaming. The stars showed people the products, and told them what was so good about the products. If people liked the products, they would buy them in real time. This year, there are more than 520 million(百万) people watching live-streaming in China.

In August, Hainan TV Station and Alibaba Group started a project, The World 's Specialty, to sell products from all over the world. And its first show was on August 13th.

Ambassadors (大使) from five African countries were on the show. They brought people many different products from their own countries. During the show, the five ambassadors told a lot about the products. MOMO, an Internet star, also showed people how great the products were.

James Kimonyo from Rwanda, brought coffee and chili sauce(辣椒酱) to the show. He thought live-streaming was amazing. Before the show, he said," This is not my first time to take part in live-streaming. Every time I sell products through live-streaming, people buy them up in just a few minutes. I think it is very good for Africa. And it can help farmers in my country."

The show was very successful. In the future, the project will keep selling products with ambassadors from Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and many other countries.