A．their life was as luxurious as that of royaltyB．they ……
TEXT C
Pop stars today enjoy a
style of living which was once the prerogative only of Royalty. 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 of managers,
press agents and bodyguards. Photographs of them appear regularly in the press
and all their comings 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 public. They must be constantly shielded from the adoring crowds
which 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 astronomical.
And why not Society has
always rewarded its top entertainers lavishly. The great days of Hollywood have
become legendary: famous stars enjoyed fame, wealth and adulation on an
unprecedented 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. The competition for the title
"Top of the Pops" is fierce, but the rewards are truly colossal.
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 services they perform to their
companies and their countries Pop stars earn vast sums in foreign
currency—often more than largo industrial concerns—and the taxman can only be
grateful fro their massive annual contributions to the exchequer. So who would
begrudge them their rewards
It’s all very well for people in
humdrum jobs to moan about the successes and rewards of others. People who make
envious remarks should remember that the most famous stars represent only the
tip of the iceberg. For every famous star, there are hundreds of others
struggling to earn a living. A man working in a steady job and looking forward
to a pension at the end of it has no right to expect very high rewards. He has
chosen security and peace of mind, so there will always be a limit to what he
can earn. But a man who attempts to become a star is taking enormous risks. He
knows at the outset that only a handful of competitors ever get to the very top.
He knows that years of concentrated effort may be rewarded with complete
failure. But he knows, too, that the rewards for success are very high indeed:
they are the recompense for the huge risks involved and if he achieves them, he
has certainly earned them. That’s the essence of private enterprise.
The first sentence "Pop stars today enjoy a style of living which was once the prerogative only of Royalty" means ______.
A．their life was as luxurious as that of royalty
B．they enjoy what once only belonged to the royalty
C．they are rather rich
D．their way of living was the same as that of the royalty
