文档介绍：2012高考英语精选备考题库系列(含详解)
阅读理解(十)
备战2012高考,精选阅读200篇,适合高三上学期使用,希望对大家有帮助。(2011-8)
Pop stars today enjoy what once only belonged to the royalty (皇室). Wherever they go, people turn out in their thousands to greet them. The crowds go wild trying to catch a brief glimpse of their smiling, colorfully dressed idols. The stars are transported in their chauffeur driven RollsRoyces, private helicopters or executive aeroplanes. They are surrounded by a permanent entourage(随从) of managers, press agents and bodyguards. Photographs of them appear regularly in the press and all ings and goings are reported,for, like royalty, pop stars are news. If they enjoy many of the privileges of royalty, they certainly share many of the inconveniences as well. It is dangerous for them to make unscheduled appearances in must be constantly shielded from the adoring crowds who idolize them. They are no longer private individuals, but public property. The financial rewards they receive for this sacrifice cannot be calculated, for their rates of pay are great.
And why not? Society has always rewarded its top entertainers lavishly. The great days of Hollywood have e legendary: famous stars enjoyed fame, wealth and adulation (奉承) on an alltime scale. By today’ s standards, the excesses of Hollywood do not seem quite so spectacular. A single gramophone record nowadays may earn much more in royalties than the films of the past ever did. petition for the title “Top of the Pops” is fierce, but the rewards are truly huge.
It is only right that the stars should be paid in this way. Don’t the top men in industry earn enormous salaries for the service they perform to panies and their countries? Pop stars earn vast sums in foreign currency — often more than large panies — and the taxman can only be grateful for their massive annual contributions to the exchequer(国库). So who would begrudge them their rewards?
It’ s all very well for people in boring jobs plain about the esses and rewards of o