When Sharon Lee of the Hollywood marketing firm Look-Look needs to know what’s cool, she taps in to a network of experts that even the CIA would envy. It’s a web-linked (網絡鏈接的) weave of nearly 10,000 volunteers and part timer, recruited over several years at clubs around the country. The network points in-between to report on their work。

　　“They upload photos, send e-mail reports and use message boards on our internet,” added Ms. Lee, who co-founded the firm in 1999 to find whatever makes the cultural contents exciting music, shoes clothes, games, makeup, food, technology. Look-Look’s correspondents some armed with digital cameras that Look-Look buys for them might snap anything from a rave (狂歡晚會) to their bedroom walls。

　　What is cool, anyway? “It used to be a personality based, anti establishment attitude,” said Ms. Lee. “For young people now it’s pure, raw emotion it’s anything that inspires you to think. It can be a person, a product, a place, anything。”

　　But there’s just no formula for cool. Likewise, it’s hard to define the cost of cool. None of the firms tracking it will discuss how they are paid, although they earn fees and work either on a per-project basis or no long-term counseling. Still, cool is as hard to make clear as a weather forecast for next week. “Cool burns out so fast that by the time companies know it’s cool, it’s not cool anymore,” said Ms. Lee. The old-time corporate methodology (企業的做法) was to treat it like the annual report for shareholders going out and testing a sample size of a few hundred people, then resting it again the next year. But a year in youth culture is like seven years。

　　核心詞匯

　　1.        net work n. 網絡

　　2.        envy vt. 妒忌羨慕n. 妒忌

　　【巧記】 enviable a. 引起妒忌‖envies a. 妒忌的

　　3.        recruit v. 征募新兵，補充n. 新兵，新成員

　　【巧記】 recruitment n. 征募新兵，新會員

　　4.        correspondent n. 記者

　　5.        digital a. 數字的

　　【巧記】 digit n. 數字

　　6.        emotion n. 情感

　　【巧記】 emotional a. 情緒的，情感的

　　7.        counsel n./vt. 忠告，勸告

　　【巧記】 counselor n. 顧問

　　8.        expert n. 專家，能手

　　【巧記】 expert n. 專家，能手‖expert a. 專家的，內行的，熟練的

　　9.        volunteer n. 志愿者

　　【巧記】 volunteer n. 志愿者，志愿兵‖volunteer vt. 自愿提供，自愿(做)‖volunteer vi. 自愿，當志愿

　　10.    snap vi. 喀嚓折斷，吧嗒一聲(關上或打開)

　　【巧記】 snap vi. 喀嚓折斷，啪地繃斷，吧嗒一聲(關上或打開) ，猛咬，怒聲責罵，厲聲說話‖snap vt. 使喀嚓一聲折斷，使發出吧嗒一聲(關上或打開) ，給……拍快照‖snap n. 吧嗒聲，快照‖snap a. 倉促的，突然的

　　【搭配】 snap out of 迅速從……中恢復過來‖snap up 搶購，搶先弄到手

　　11.    formula n. 原則，方案，公式，方程式，配方

　　12.    define vt. 給……下定義，解釋，限定，規定

　　【搭配】 define…as 把……定義為

　　13.    fee n. 費，酬金

　　14.    forecast vt./n. 預測，預報

　　核心詞組

　　be armed with 裝配有，拿著……         on a…basis 以……為基礎

　　likes wise 相似地，同樣地               treat…like… 把……當作……

　　(總字數：323；單詞：284；中文：39)

　　Passage 2

　　文史類論說文。本文談的是電影對整個印度社會的影響。

　　Indian cinema has often suffered the derision (嘲弄) of film critics and rightly so. But as Subhash Ghai, a prominent producer-director has pointed out, “Cinema mirrors society… India is rooted in tradition… and cinema reflects our family values”， though in a highly dramatized form. He adds, “Today I can sit in my drawing room and talk big, but the millions who go to the movies will reject what I am saying unless I keep them in mind。” In other words, there are inherent (內在的) limitations in making good and realistic cinema in Indian. This view is, however, challenged by some。

　　According to Ravi Gupta, Managing Director of the National Film Development Corporation which prides itself on making good quality films, “It is a media-created myth that parallel (to Hollywood masala films) cinema is dead. In fact, art films are more viable (能生存的) than commercial films。”

　　Be that as it may, one thing is for certain. Hindi films have probably done more for India’s national integration (一體化) than any other medium. Hindi films and film songs are watched and hummed all over the country, not with standing the country’s linguistic plurality (多數). Hindi, which is India’s national language but is not spoken and understood in all parts of India, has made its impact through the medium. Another positive aspect is that Indian cinema is the most all embracing, nonreligious part of India’s fractured social landscape. For instance, out of the six top actors listed by the newspaper, the Times of India, three are Muslims: Shah Rukh Knhan, Aamir Khan and Salman Kan. Therefore, despite all its acts of omission and commission, Indian cinema, in some ways, is a progressive phenomenon。

　　核心詞匯

　　1.       critic n. 批評家，評論家

　　【巧記】 critical a. 批評的，批判的‖criticize v. 批評，批判‖criticism n. 批評，批判