Life is but a stream精读.docx

Life is but a stream全民直播A new way of bringing colour to dreary lives点亮暗淡生活的新方式LAST YEAR ZHAO XINLONG, aged 25, and his wife and baby boy moved from his parents’ farm into a mid-rise apartment in town. It has been a tough adjustment. Luan County is a rustbelt1 community on the polluted outskirts of the steel city of Tangshan in north-east China. Mr Zhao’s monthly income from driving a taxi has plummeted2 by more than half in the past couple of years, and he has not found it easy to make friends in his new abode3.去年，25岁的赵新龙（音译）离开父母家的农舍，带着妻子和出生不久的儿子搬到镇上的中层楼房里。适应新的生活并非易事。赵新龙居住的滦县位于钢铁重镇唐山市郊，这里污染严重，十分衰败。几年里，赵新龙开出租车的收入骤减，还不到原来的一半，并且他觉得来到镇上后也很难认识新朋友。rustbeltinformal?a part of a country considered to be characterized by declining industry, ageing factories, and a falling population, especially the American Midwest and NE states〈非正式〉锈带, 工业衰退地带（指工业衰退, 工厂老化和人口减少的地区, 尤指美国中西部和东北部各州）：a rust-belt town.一个工业衰退地带的城镇。plummetalso?plummet down?verb?I①?to suddenly and quickly decrease in value or amount〔价值或数量〕骤然跌落，暴跌;SYNplungeplummet from sth to sth?Profits plummeted from ￡49 million to ￡11 million.利润从 4.9 千万英镑下跌到 1.1 千万英镑。?House prices have plummeted down.房价已经暴跌。②?to fall suddenly and quickly from a very high place〔从高处突然而迅速地〕坠落，栽下;SYNplunge?The plane plummeted towards the earth.那架飞机直坠向地面。abodenoun?C①formalsomeones home – sometimes used humorously住所〔有时为幽默用法〕:?Welcome to my humble abode.欢迎光临寒舍。?a homeless person with?no fixed abode?(=no permanent home)居无定所的无家可归者②?right of abode?lawthe right to live in a country居留权But when he gets online in the evening, he becomes a different person: Zhao Long’er, an entertainer. Using Kuaishou, a Chinese video-sharing and live-streaming app, he broadcasts to a live audience of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of fellow Chinese every night. Taken together, they add up to more than 100,000. Many of them are diaosi, people who mockingly4 identify themselves as losers in dead-end jobs. Online he can relate to them, telling them stories, dirty jokes, whatever is