In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras (交响乐团）. It became a fixed e-vent every August and now attracts 400，000 people yearly.
At the same time, the “Fringe " appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947，in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the " Fringe " ，once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1，500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as1959，with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was get-ting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971，and to-day there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200places housing 1，695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50different countries. More than 1. 25 million tickets were sold. What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at the beginning?
| A．To bring Europe together again. |
| B．To honor heroes of World War Ⅱ. |
| C．To introduce young theatre groups. |
| D．To attract great artists from Europe. |
Why did some uninvited theatre groups come to Edinburgh in 1947?
| A．They owned a public house there. |
| B．They came to take up a challenge. |
| C．They thought they were also famous. |
| D．They wanted to take part in the festival. |
Who joined the “Fringe “after it appeared?
| A．Popular writers. |
| B．University students. |
| C．Artists from around the world. |
| D．Performers of music and dance. |
We may learn from the text that Edinburgh Festival _________.
| A．has become a non-official event |
| B．has gone beyond an art festival |
| C．gives shows all year round |
| D．keeps growing rapidly. |
If you see a group of people dancing and singing on the street or in the railway station, you don't need to feel surprised. They are a flash mob(暴民). Who are they? Are they mobs? Don't be confused by their name. Actually, a flash mob is a group of people who gather suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disappear.
They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communications networks. The messages may be sent to friends, who send to more people. At a predetermined time, they gather and perform some activities such as exchanging books, coming together to look at the sky, waving their hands and yelling something at the top of their voice for 30 seconds. Then, they quickly disappear before the police can arrive. Using mobile phones, the flash mob can change its place if the first one has been cancelled for any reason.
Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine, organized the first flash mob in Manhattan in May 2003 and the first successful flash mob gathered on June 3,2003. Wasik claimed that he created the flash mob as a social experiment designed to laugh at fashion seekers and stress the cultural atmosphere of wanting to be an insider or part of “the next big thing”．
Flash mob gatherings can sometimes shock people. Such an activity might seem amusing and magical, but it also might frighten people who are not aware of what is taking place. Undoubtedly, flash mob can serve as good political tools and have great potential, such as using to advertise a product.
The flash mob is now becoming more and more popular. People use it to do many things. Flash mobs give people from all walks of life an opportunity to come together to create a memory.What is NOT the feature of the flash mob?
| A．It can get together quickly. |
| B．It can change its place freely. |
| C．It can do activities suddenly. |
| D．It can injure people seriously. |
How do flash mobs inform one another?
①By using the Internet.②By writing letters.③By yelling.④By waving hands.⑤By using mobile phones.
⑥By holding a meeting.
| A．③④ | B．①⑤ | C．②⑥ | D．⑤⑥ |
Why did Bill Wasik create the flash mob?
| A．To advertise some products. |
| B．To help people make friends. |
| C．To laugh at fashion seekers. |
| D．To create some memories. |
What can we learn about the flash mob from the passage?
| A．Bill Wasik organized the first successful flash mob in May, 2003. |
| B．People are encouraged to take a more active part in an activity. |
| C．Flash mobs tend to do something illegal for a short time. |
| D．Flash mob gathering can frighten all the people present. |
It's such a happylooking library, painted yellow, decorated with palmtree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof. About the size of a microwave oven, it's pedestrianfriendly, too, waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach Country Estates, along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.
It's a library built with love.
A year ago, shortly after Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free Library organization, a Wisconsinbased nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making books freely available, she announced to her family of four, “That's what we're going to do for our spring break！”
Son Austin, now a 10thgrader, didn't see the point of building a library that resembles a mailbox. But Janey insisted, and husband Peter unwillingly got to work. The 51yearold owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he'd built years earlier for daughter Abbie's toy horses, and made a door of glass.
After adding the library's final touches(装点), the family hung a signboard on the front, instructing users to “take a book, return a book，” and making the Henriksen library, now one of several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2,500 in the world, the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach County.
They stocked it with 20 or so books they'd already read, a mix of science fiction, reference titles, novels and kids' favorites. “I told them, keep in mind that you might not see it again，” said Janey, a stayathome mom.
Since then, the collection keeps replenishing(补充) itself, thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers. The library now gets an average of five visits a day.
The project's best payoff, says Peter, are the thankyou notes left behind. “We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.”In what way is the library “pedestrianfriendly”？
| A．It owns a yellow roof. |
| B．It stands near a sidewalk. |
| C．It protects book lovers from the sun. |
| D．It uses palmtree stickers as decorations. |
Janey got the idea to build a library from ________.
| A．a visit to Brian Williams |
| B．a spring break with her family |
| C．a book sent by one of her neighbors |
| D．a report on a Wisconsinbased organization |
The library was built ________.
| A．by a ship supply company |
| B．on the basis of toy horses |
| C．like a mailbox |
| D．with glass |
What can we infer from the signboard?
| A．It was made by a user of the library. |
| B．It marked a final touch to the library. |
| C．It aimed at making the library last long. |
| D．It indicated the library was a family property. |
The passage tells us that the users ________.
| A．donate books to the library |
| B．get paid to collect books for the library |
| C．receive thankyou notes for using the library |
| D．visit the library over 5 times on average daily |
When 19yearold Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the MakeAWish Foundation(基金会), nobody understood what she was talking about. But Sophia knew just how important MakeAWish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends. We were interested in finding out more, so we went along to meet Sophia and listen to what she had to say.
Sophia told us that MakeAWish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. “It's a charity(慈善机构) that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. MakeAWish helps children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true，” Sophia explained.
We asked Sophia how MakeAWish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris, who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true—so, with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a “policeman” for a day. “When people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too, and that was the beginning of MakeAWish，” explained Sophia.
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A MakeAWish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.Sophia found out about MakeAWish because her best friend had ________.
| A．benefited from it | B．volunteered to help it |
| C．dreamed about it | D．told the author about it |
According to Sophia, MakeAWish ________.
| A．is an international charity |
| B．was understood by nobody at first |
| C．raises money for very poor families |
| D．started by drawing the interest of the public |
What is said about Chris in Paragraph 3?
| A．He has been a policeman since he was seven. |
| B．He gave people the idea of starting MakeAWish. |
| C．He wanted people to help make his dream come true. |
| D．He was the first child MakeAWish helped after it had been set up. |
Which of the following is true about MakeAWish volunteers?
| A．They are important for making wishes come true. |
| B．They try to help children get over their illnesses. |
| C．They visit sick children to make them feel special. |
| D．They provide what is necessary to make MakeAWish popular. |
What would it be like to take a walk on the surface of Mars? If you could design the tallest building in the world, what would it look like? Do you dream of being the next J．K. Rowling? This summer, you can experience all of these things, and more. All you need is an Internet connection and your imagination.
A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that kids spend an average of 1 hour and 29 minutes online each day. Many kids like to use that time to chat with friends, play games or check emails. But the next time you get on the Web, try exploring the world instead. “With the Internet, you can go back 11,000 years in time, or go 11,000 kilometers across the planet.” said Russell, Web search expert of Google. “The whole scope of history and the world is open to you.”
There is a wealth of information to be found online. For example, if your family is going on vacation somewhere，do a quick online search on the area before you even get in the car. “What's the background of the place; what's the history？” says Russell. “I like to tell my kids, ‘Whenever you have a question, whenever you have a doubt, search it out.’”
Ready to launch a virtual journey of your own? Here are a few starting points to get you thinking and to help you on your way. You can invite your parents along for the ride, too. Always ask for permission before downloading programs and software onto your computer. And check with a parent or an adult before visiting a new Web site.
Navigate the world in 3D with Google Earth. Begin in outer space and zoom(快速移动) into the streets of any city, from Hong Kong to San Francisco. Or visit ancient monuments, watch the changing rainforests over time, and dive underwater to explore tropical reef.
With the Moon in Google Earth tool, you can walk in Neil Armstrong's famous footsteps. Take a guided tour of the moon's surface with Armstrong's fellow shuttle mate astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
When you're exploring that part of the solar system, hop on over to the Red Planet with Google Mars. There, you can move very quickly around the surface and see images from the Mars Rovers.The author uses questions in the first passage to ________.
| A．introduce the topic of the paragraph |
| B．question the possibility of realizing the dream |
| C．attract the readers' attention |
| D．let the readers answer it |
How do you travel around the world in a day according to the passage?
| A．By taking the time shuttle. |
| B．By making use of the Internet |
| C．By watching 3D films. |
| D．By finding a tourism company in Google |
Russell thought ________.
| A．the students spent too much time on the Internet |
| B．the students shouldn't chat and play games online |
| C．the students could solve their problems through the line |
| D．the students should learn knowledge instead of chatting online |
What's the purpose of the passage?
| A．Encourage the kids to spend more time online. |
| B．Encourage the kids to do some research on science. |
| C．Encourage the kids to learn to use the computer. |
| D．Encourage the kids to explore the world online. |
Meet the “Tutor Kings and Queens”
“If you want to be a top tutor, it definitely helps if you are young and attractive. Students look at your appearance，” said Kelly Mok, 26, a “tutor queen” at King's Glory, one of Hong Kong's largest tutorial establishments.
Richard Eng from Beacon College, a former secondary school teacher, is often credited with being the first of Hong Kong's “star tutors”. “In school all the teachers look the same, there's no excitement，” he said.
The celebrity tutor phenomenon is a result of the huge growth in outofschool tutoring in Asia. It is fuelled by highly pressured examination systems and ambitious parents wanting their children to secure places at top universities and highstatus secondary schools.
In societies where success is_equated_with good exam results, parental anxiety converts into a “steady stream of revenue(收入)” for tutoring establishments, according to a study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)．
The tutoring industry, or “shadow education” as the ADB calls it, has become very widespread in Asia, fed by the growth in universities and the rising proportion of school leavers aiming for university. Hong Kong University's professor Mark Bray, one of the authors of the ADB study, said a staggering 72% of finalyear school students in Hong Kong now go to private tutors.
It's not just Hong Kong. Tutoring has “spread and intensified(强化) in Asia and become more commercialized，” said Professor Bray. In South Korea, 90% of primary school children attend such classes. In China, New Oriental Education and Technology has grown to become one of the largest tutoring schools in Asia with around 2.4 million students this year. In South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, tutorial schools use star tutors to attract even more students.According to Kelly Mok, tutors ________.
| A．have a lot in common with school teachers |
| B．benefit much from their appearances |
| C．become more and more popular in the world |
| D．have much more pressure than in the past |
Who is probably a “tutor king” in Hong Kong?
| A．Kelly Mok. | B．Richard Eng. |
| C．Mark Bray. | D．Not mentioned. |
What Professor Bray says in this passage means that ________.
| A．the number of school leavers is increasing |
| B．tutoring may improve achievement for individual students |
| C．star tutors have attracted 2.4 million students |
| D．more and more students in Asia go to private tutors |
The underlined part in Paragraph 4 is similar in meaning to ________.
| A．is equal to | B．leads to |
| C．results in | D．is different from |
Where is this passage probably taken from?
| A．An English newspaper. | B．A travel guide. |
| C．A fashion magazine. | D．A physics book. |