For five days, Edmonton's Downtown Park is transformed into one huge stage where artists are able to share their talents, and where people are able to celebrate and enjoy themselves. Since its beginning  in 1980, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been commemorating（纪念）the true feeling of what folk music is all about and that's the traditional togetherness（友爱）that is felt when people gather to share stories and feelings through song．
This year will be the sixth year when volunteer Riedel will be offering up her time to the festival. "People coming off a busy spring and summer have a moment of relaxation ," Riedel said．"It's really east to relax, and it's great seeing family and friends have fun together．" These families and friends all come from all different kinds of musical tastes．People who take pleasure in Blues are there, so are people who love Bluegrass．This festival does its best to develop everyone's musical interests．
With so many years of experience, the festival has become a well-oiled machine, and does whatever it can to make attendees feel as possible．There are free water stations throughout the venue（举办地）for people to fill up their travel cups．When people buy food, reusable dishes are given a $2 plate fee, but that is returned when the plate is brought back．
The festival has completely sold out of tickets, and in record time．But with big names such as Van Morrison and Jakob Dylan, it’s easy to see how that was going to happen．There is no parking area during the festival, so using the Park & Ride system or Edmonton Transit is highly recommended．A bike lock-up area is provided and will be available Thursday until Sunday one hour before the gates open until 45 minutes after the gates close．
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival begins on Wednesday, Aug．4 with Van Morrison playing the special donation fund （基金）concert, and will finish up on Sunday, Aug．8．
【小题1】The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is held mainly to ___________．

Eat, drink and be merry. That’s what Spring Festival is all about. But there are millions of people, too, who love to let happiness go up in smoke.

Offering cigarettes to guests is a traditional Chinese way of showing respect to them. A cup of tea and cigarettes are perhaps the most common way of welcoming a guest in China, especially during festive occasions.

No wonder, 40 percent of the people surveyed(调查) recently said they would smoke at least twice the usual number of cigarettes during the Spring Festival because of all those gatherings and parties. Only 20 percent of the respondents said they would refuse a cigarette when offered one. Why can’t the others do the same? Because they could be seen as being rude, said more than half in the respondents. 15 percent feared they could be taken as “someone who cannot get along well with others”.

The Think-tank Research Centre for Health Development and sohu. com survey shows 61 percent Chinese think offering a cigarette is useful for socialising, and 52 percent have offered cigarettes to others. The study surveyed 3,800 people, and 64 percent of them were men.

One-third of those surveyed were smokers, out of which 57 percent said they couldn’t give up smoking because of the offering-and-accepting culture. “People have accepted offering cigarettes as an effective way of making friends,” research centre director Wu Yiqun says.

China has more than 350 million smokers, catering to the tobacco market that is worth 500 billion yuan. “The survey shows we still have a lot of work to do,” Wu says. “It is time to let people know that offering a cigarette is a bad habit and it should be given up immediately.”

59. The passage is written with the purpose of ________.

A. telling us a custom about the Chinese Spring Festival

B. introducing a way to make friends with Chinese

C. stopping smoking during the Chinese Spring Festival

D. telling us that offering cigarettes is a bad habit

60. The third paragraph mainly tells us ________.

A. the fact that smokers are greatly increasing during the festival

B. the reason why refusing cigarettes is acceptable

C. the fact that many people have to smoke more cigarettes during the festival

D. it is rude to attend parties without smoking cigarettes

61. Which of the following may NOT be the reason that makes many people fail to refuse the offered cigarettes?

A. It’s impolite to refuse.                  B. Smoking is harmful for non-smokers.

C. They want to be friendly                 D. It’s a kind of social habit.

62. The writer mentions the 500 billion yuan tobacco market because ________.

A. the tobacco market is not developing smoothly

B. the writer thinks that smoking wastes a lot of money

C. smoking is helpful to the tobacco market

D. the tobacco market attracts too many smokers

For five days, Edmonton's Downtown Park is transformed into one huge stage where artists are able to share their talents, and where people are able to celebrate and enjoy themselves .Since its beginning in 1980, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been commemorating(纪念）the true feeling of what folk music is all about and that's the traditional togetherness(友爱）that is felt when people gather to share stories and feelings through song.
This year will be the sixth year when volunteer Riedel will be offering up her time to the festival. "People coming off a busy spring and summer have a moment of relaxation ," Riedel said. "It's really easy to relax, and it's great seeing family and friends have fun together." These families and friends come from all different kinds of musical tastes. People who take pleasure in Blues are there, so are people who love Bluegrass. This festival does its best to develop everyone's musical interests.
With so many years of experience, the festival has become a well-oiled machine, and does whatever it can to make attendees feel as comfortable as possible. There are free water stations throughout the venue(举办地）for people to fill up their travel cups. When people buy food, reusable dishes are given a $2 plate fee, but that is returned when the plate is brought back.
The festival has completely sold out of tickets, and in record time. But with big names such as Van Morrison and Jakob Dylan, it’s easy to see how that was going to happen. There is no parking area during the festival, so using the Park & Ride system or Edmonton Transit is highly recommended. A bike lock-up area is provided and will be available Thursday until Sunday one hour before the gates open until 45 minutes after the gates close.
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival begins on Wednesday, Aug.4 with Van Morrison playing the special donation fund （基金）concert, and will finish up on Sunday, Aug.8.
【小题1】The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is held mainly to ___________.

LONDON: The Edinburgh Festival, the biggest arts festival of its kind in the world, got under way in the Scotland capital on Sunday with a concert that included Hector Berlionz's To Deum, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnanyi.

The festival, which runs until August 31 this year, includes as its high points Peter Stein’s staging of Wagner’s Parsifal, with Claudio Abbado directing the Gustav Mahler youth orchestra. The concert programme includes American pianist Richard Goode, bass baritone Thomas Quasthoff and violinist Christian Tetzlaff. New to the programmes this year will be 25 late evening classical music concerts.

Earlier this month, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest show-case in the world for performance art, officially got under way with theatre, dance, poetry and music presentations.

Many of the fringe artists, who can enter the fringe festival upon payment of a small fee, were inspired this year by the event of September 11.

Thousands of people flock to Edinburgh from around the world during the festival, which is over 50 years old. It aims to promote and encourage arts and to reflect international culture. It consists of various dance, music, opera, and theatre presentation taking place across the city during the three-week run.

1.Who will perform in the concert on Sunday?

2.When did the Edinburgh Festival begin?

3. What did the Edinburgh Festival never have before?

4.Which of the following statements about the Edinburgh Festival is true?

Fireworks explosions killed many people and injured hundreds more in China as the 2006 traditional Lunar New Year celebrations led to much disorder as well as joy across the nation.
At a temple fair in Henan, 36 people were killed on New Year's Day when a nearby storeroom full of fireworks exploded. The accident, caused by 3 children who threw burning fireworks into the storeroom, injured up to 48 people.
In the capital, Beijing, where a 12-year ban on Lunar New Year fireworks had just been lifted, the government reported 112 people were treated at hospital emergency rooms over the weekend for fireworks-related injuries.
"On New Year's Eve alone, we had more than 40 injuries and among them there were around a dozen people with serious injuries," hospital assistant director，Tian Jian said. In China's south-western city, Chongqing, where the fireworks ban was also lifted after 12 years, firefighters rushed to put out nearly 200 fires caused by fireworks on New Year's Eve.
A ban on fireworks, which are traditionally believed to ward off evil spirits and ghosts trying to enter New Year, was put in place across 200 cities in China due to safety and environmental pollution concerns. The ban was lifted in Beijing and many other cities in 2006.
However, despite the fireworks disorder, China's 1.3 billion people were largely enjoying the festival, with celebrations to continue throughout all of this week-long public holiday.
46. In which year were fireworks forbidden in Beijing and Chongqing?
A. In 1990                     B. In 1992                    C. In 1994                    D. In 1995
47. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A. The origin of fireworks during the Spring Festival
B. The cause of lifting the ban on fireworks.
C. The direct cause of the fireworks explosion in Henan.
D. The number of injuries caused by fireworks in Chongqing.
48. The underlined phrase" ward off" in the fifth paragraph means ________.
A. prevent              B. set off                     C. allow                D. burn down
49. Which of the following is the very reason why fireworks were banned in China?
A. Noise pollution                                       B. Waste of money       
C. Air pollution                                                 D. Possible injury and death
50. The purpose of writing the passage is to ________.
A. warn people of the great danger of fireworks
B. report the number of fireworks deaths and injuries during the festival
C. report that fireworks cause more fires and injuries than deaths
D. Advise people to keep away from fireworks