阅读理解1
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 event 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 little­known 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 as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.
1．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.
答案：A　细节理解题。根据第一段最后一句“The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.”可知该项活动的目的是将欧洲再次联合起来，故选A项。
2．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.
答案：D　细节理解题。根据第三段中的“... in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform ...”可知这些未受邀请的艺术团体来这个艺术节主要是想参加这个节日的活动，进行表演，故选D项。根据第三段最后的a public house disused for years可排除A项；文中没有提及他们是来接受挑战的，故排除B项；也没有提及他们认为自己是非常有名的，故排除C项。
3．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.
答案：B　细节理解题。根据第四段的描述“groups of students firstly from Edinburgh  University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and  Birmingham ...”可知后来的都是大学生，故选B项。
4．We may learn from the text that Edinburgh Festival ________.
A．has become a non­official event
B．has gone beyond an art festival
C．gives shows all year round
D．keeps growing rapidly
答案：D　推理判断题。根据最后两段所列举的一些数字我们可以推断出该节日规模在不断增长，故选D项。
阅读理解2
First established in 1958, the Grammy Awards recognize outstanding contributions in the music industry. The first Grammy ceremony was a dinner held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, with 500 attendees. The Recording  Academy had organized a competition earlier that year to find a name for the award, and Grammy was invented by Jay Danna, of New Orleans, who won 25 albums as a prize.
On November 29th, 1959, NBC broadcast a recording of the Grammy Awards as part of their regular anthology (选集) programme, Sunday Showcase. During the  1960s ceremonies were held in both New York and Los Angeles, with winners accepting the showcasetrop
hy at one or the other. Recordings of the ceremony were broadcast throughout the 1960s by NBC, entitled The Best On Record. When the ceremony moved to Nashville for one year in 1973, CBS bought the rights to the telecast, and has broadcast it each year since.
The last show to have a live host was the 47th Grammy Awards, hosted by Queen Latifah. Since then the shows have followed the pattern of other contemporary awards ceremonies and have had the celebrities who present the awards being introduced by an off­stage announcer. The record for hosting the most telecast is held by Andy Williams, who presented the show every year from 1971 to 1976. During the 1976 show a live link with Stevie Wonder, who was in Nigeria, was planned but there were technical problems. Fumbling (笨拙的) for something to say in front of a live nationwide audience, Williams asked，“Stevie，can you see us now？” He was never asked to host again.
It seems likely that whether the Grammy's audience are hoping for a controversial celebrity faux pas (失言) or sincerely wanting to appreciate the wide range of popular music available today, they will continue to tune in their millions for years to come.

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