F2F Class Notes 30th March (Raph)

Vocabulary

Drastic (adj): 1- (especially of actions) severe and sudden or having very noticeable effects.
E.g.: Many employees have had to take drastic cuts in pay.

Patrol (v/n): 1-  (especially of soldiers or the police) to go around an area or a building to see if there is any trouble or danger. 2- a small group of soldiers or military ships, aircraft, or vehicles, especially one that patrols an area.
E.g.: The whole town is patrolled by police because of the possibility of riots.
E.g.: The border patrol has arrested detained three people this morning.

Niche (n): 1- a job or position that is very suitable for someone, especially one that they like. 2- a hollow in a wall, especially one made to put a statue (= artistic object) in so that it can be seen.
E.g.: He has made a niche for himself as a financial advisor.
E.g.: They put the statue in a niche in the center of the room.

Niche (adj): 1- suitable only for a small target group.
E.g.: As a model, the older he gets, the more niche he becomes.

The hot seat (n): 1- the situation of being responsible for making difficult decisions that people, often employees, may not like.
E.g.: The man in the hot seat has a lot of figures to think about.

Edited:

TV Pop stars live in the world of social media

Whenever you open Weibo’s (Chinese Twitter) home page, you find it flooded by thousands of tweets sent by a bunch of TV pop stars. They live in this fictitious world, in which they upload their selfies everyday, operate their large fan bases, maintain their relationship with other pop stars and promote their new movies or songs. Weibo has become a crucial way for them to gain and maintain popularity.
In this world, they show their manufactured personalities to attract more fans even if, for that, they have to become hypocrites. If there is someone or some media outlet reports on a negative, true story about those stars, their fans have millions of ways to defend their idols and hurt the ones who are actually telling the truth. That makes it more like a cult, not a fan base. Some of the stars have become spoiled and entitled because of  their fans and, as a consequence, cannot live without compliments. Finally, they find their niches and become twitter addicts, rather than actors or singers.

Second Version:

Nowadays, Weibo’s home page is constantly flooded by innumerable posts by a celebrities, TV and internet personalities. In this fictitious world, they upload selfies, promote their own work and sponsored products, interact with other internet-famous and operate their large fan bases. In that way, Weibo has become a crucial part of their celebrity.

In this world, they carefully manufacture their image in order to attract more fans, and don’t seem to care about hypocrisy. Their fan bases have a big role in that process themselves. With an almost cult-like devotion, they deflect and dismiss any negative media attention their idols might get, even going so far as attacking whoever reports on their mistakes. As a consequence, these stars have become increasingly spoiled and entitled, not being able to live without all the praise. Instead, they find their own niches and become twitter addicts, rather than artists.