请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。 Time, a faithful company of our life, is a universal topic. People are always curious about what it is, how it travels and who it meets. Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s smartest physicists, once said. “I’m fascinated by time.” Many of us are, and the popularity of time travel novels, movies and TV series has proved that. After Palace and Startling by Each Step achieved astonishing ratings last year, Palace 2 aired on January 20, attracting time travel fans back to TV. Woody Allen’s movie Midnight in Paris achieved great success. It was nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards. Dream of heroism Time travel TV series and movies connect both today and the past, thus offering room for imagination. Imagination creates a chance for the young to fulfill a dream that is hard to achieve in reality. Chinese writer Xi Juan is a pioneer of time-travel stories in China. In 1993 she published a love story about a young woman time traveling to ancient times. The leading role’s modern personality and perception of love help her win the heart of a cool, handsome martial art master. Such a plot satisfies female fans’ love fantasy. Starting from the late 1990s, novels about men traveling back to the past prevailed (盛行), with a Step into the Past as the most popular example. In these stories, the male leading roles accomplish great things with their modern skills and wisdom. It is usually “a dream of heroism come true”, along with enviable romances. Eye candy “I’m hooked by the shows because they are characterized by dramatic and poetic love and have eye-pleasing actors,” Xia Xiaoyan, who works for a foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai, explained her love for time travel TV series. Her comment echoes a 2011 survey by Creat Marketing Research Co Ltd in China. When asked about what is so appealing about time travel TV series, 21 percent of respondents answered, “These attractive characters.” A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, however, is the relaxation they offer, according to the survey. Cai Yinong agrees. “Many people are facing tremendous pressure in their fast-paced lives, so this genre is more relaxing than other shows as it provides people with a terrific outlet to escape reality,” Cai told China Daily. Cultural homesickness “Which dynasty would you like to live in if you could travel to the past?” asked a survey launched by Shanghai University and Shanghai Social Sciences Association last December. About 60 percent of the 2,543 respondents chose Tang Dynasty, while Qing Dynasty, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were the other top two destinations. The survey results reflects people’s definition of the good days: prosperous economy and culture, steady society, fair and uncorrupted politics, and opening up to the outside world. As for the movie Midnight in Paris, it features modernity versus cultural homesickness. The New York Times commented, “The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present. The good old days are so attractive because we were not around, however much we wish we were.”
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