Test Yourself is where you can improve your reading skills. Whether it’s for tests like University Entrance Exams or IELTS and TOEFL, or even just for fun, these pages help you to read, understand and improve your English.
Read the following story by Karnjana Karnjanatawe from the Bangkok Post. Then, answer the questions that follow.
Creating stickers for Line can make you a million-aire. So what are you waiting for?
GET THE PICTURE
Fumihide Watanabe had spent several years developing Line stickers. But his work had hardly sold. Then one day, the 57-year-old looked at his own reflection in the mirror in his house in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He scratched his bald head. Then instinctively, he started to make funny faces.
Suddenly he had an idea. What if he made Line stickers based on these funny faces? He took photos of his facial expressions, then drew cartoon versions of them. Eventually he came up with a set of 40 humorous stickers, which he launched under the name Human Skin Head.
The stickers became a big hit - not in Japan, but in Thailand.
GOOD FORTUNE
Fumihide has made a lot of money from the stickers. Line doesn’t give out specific figures, but total sales of stickers worldwide since 2014 are around 14 billion baht. The top 10 creators have earned about 155 million baht per person. But exactly why some stickers are more popular than others isn’t clear.
“I was very glad when Human Skin Head became one of the best-selling sets of stickers. I wonder why Thai people like them so much,” Fumihide said.
According to Kanop Supamanop, the Business to Consumer Head of Line (Thailand), the success of stickers seems to be based on two factors. One is a creative design that catches the attention of mass users. The other is luck.
“Creating Line stickers is like starting a business. You may not succeed on the first day. You can keep developing ideas until your sticker becomes a hit,” Kanop said. He added that Line has tools and an online market to support creators because it wants to have new stickers to meet the demands of users. The company also wants to promote Line sticker development as a viable career.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
About 41 million Thais use Line either for personal or business use, making Thailand one of the keymarkets in Asia along with Japan, Taiwan and Indonesia. Stickers are a popular way to communicate. As well as having its own official stickers, the app also launched the Line Creators Market. The platform allows users to create and sell their own cartoon stickers.
According to Line, there are currently at least one million registered creators worldwide, of which 230,000 are from Thailand. Each creator can produce as many stickers as they like. There is no up-front payment to join the creators market. When a sticker is sold, Line splits 50 percent of earnings with the creator after deducting 30 percent fee charges by Apple or Google. The copyright belongs to the creator.
There are about 600 million Line users world-wide. The company forecasts the number of total users to reach 700 million this year.
SECTION 1
Read through the story and answer the following multiple-choice questions.
1. What is the story about?
a. Fumihide Watanabe.
b. Creating content for an app.
c. The global success of Line.
2. How much money has Fumihide Watanabe made from Human Skin Head?
a. Around 14 billion baht.
b. Around 155 million baht.
c. The story doesn’t say.
3. What factor does Kanop Supamanop identify as being key to the success of Line stickers?
a. A creative idea.
b. Luck.
c. Both a and b.
4. How many Thais are registered Line sticker creators, according to the story?
a. About 230,000.
b. At least one million.
c. About 600 million.
5. How does Line deal with independent sticker creators?
a. It provides support and encouragement.
b. It makes them share copyright.
c. It requires them to pay a large initial fee.
6. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the article?
a. There is a clear formula for creating successful Line stickers.
b. Line is used by more than half of the Thai population.
c. Line sticker creators have a limit to the number of stickers that can make.
7. Which of the following statements is NOT true, according to the article?
a. Fumihide Watanabe spent many years developing Line stickers without success.
b. Fumihide Watanabe understands why his stickers became popular in Thailand.
c. Indonesia is one of the biggest markets for Line in Asia.
SECTION 2
Match each of the following words used in the story with the correct definitions from the choices given.
| 8.earnings | a. having the sole legal right to use something, with other people needing their permission to use it |
| 9.copyright | b. the type of computer system or the software that is used |
| 10.forecast | c. to take away money or points from a total amount |
| 11. viable | d. the money that you earn for the work that you do |
| 12. deduct | e. that can be done or will be successful |
| 13.platform | f. to say what you think will happen in the future based on information that you have now |
SECTION 3
Read the following passage. Then, fill in the blanks with the correct words from the choices given.
According to Ai-Chen Yung of Global Sticker Team at Line Corp, to be …..15….. as a creator, one should …..14….. a good product and should have good marketing strategies. "A basic tip for …..16….. a good product is to create a sticker with a character or a theme that …..17….. easy to see, easy to use and easy to remember," she said. This includes using attention-grabbing and memorable colours or pictures. Creators should also promote …..18….. own stickers through social media channels …..19….. Facebook or Instagram.
14.
a. success
b. succeed
c. successful
15.
a. create
b. creation
c. creating
16.
a. have
b. had
c. having
17.
a. are
b. were
c. is
18.
a. their
b. theirs
c. them
19.
a. like
b. unlike
c. likewise
SECTION 4
Write down the noun forms of the following words used in the story in the space provided.
20. registered
……………………
21. facial
……………………
22. popular
……………………
23. specific
……………………
24. official
……………………
Answers
Section 1
1. b.
2. c.
3. c.
4. a.
5. a.
6. b.
7. b.
Section 2
8. d.
9. a.
10. f.
11. e.
12. c.
13. b.
Section 3
14. c.
15. a.
16. c.
17. c.
18. a.
19. a.
Section 4
20. Registration.
21. Face.
22. Popularity.
23. Specifics/specification.
24. Office.
SCORE
21-24: Excellent!
17-20: Good.
13-16: Fair.
12 or fewer: You'll do better next time!
