Take Away English-Summer Festivals 夏季的节日

UK Music Festivals 英国的音乐节

What's your idea of a good time? What about dancing in a rainy field with one hundred and fifty thousand other people while a famous rock band plays on a stage so far away that the performers look like ants?

It may sound strange but that is what many hundreds of thousands of young people in the UK do every summer. Why? Because summer is the time for outdoor music festivals .

Held on a farm, the Glastonbury Festival is the most well-known and popular in the UK . It began in 1970 and was attended by one thousand five hundred people each paying an admission¹ price of ￡1 – the ticket included free milk from the farm.

Since then the Glastonbury Festival has gone from strength to strength – in 2004 one hundred and fifty thousand fans attended, paying ￡112 for tickets to the three-day event . Tickets for the event sold out within three hours. Acts included veteran² superstars, such as Paul McCartney and James Brown, as well as new talent , like Franz Ferdinand and Joss Stone.

Although many summer festivals are run on a profit-making basis, Glastonbury is a charity event, donating millions of pounds to local and international charities.

Glastonbury is not unique in using live music to raise money for global poverty . In July of this year, the Live 8 concerts will be held simulta neo usly in London , Paris , Rome and Berlin . Superstars, such as Madonna, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder will perform in order to highlight³ international poverty and debt .

GLOSSARY 　词汇表
stage - 舞台	outdoor music festivals – 户外音乐节
admission price – 入场券	(to go) from strength to strength – 越来越壮大；迅猛发展
fans – 狂热者；影迷，乐迷，球迷	three-day event – 三天的活动
sold out – 售光	acts – 演出；（戏剧中的）幕
veteran – 老牌的；老资格的	new talent – 新人
profit-making – 盈利的	charity – 慈善
live music – 现场音乐；实况音乐	global poverty – 全球贫困
simultaneously – 同时地	perform – 表演；演出
debt - 债务

 

1 admission   

n.允许进入；承认；入场费，入会费，入场券

参考例句：

• We attached a condition to his admission to our school.我们对准许他入校附加了一个条件。
• By her own admission,she was responsible for the accident.她自己承认，事故应该由她负责。

2 veteran   

n.老兵；经验丰富的人，老手

参考例句：

• My grandfather is a veteran of the Second World War.我祖父是二战时的老兵。
• We often asked the veteran workers for advice.我们常常向老工人求教。

3 highlight   

n.加亮区；v.加亮，强调；[计算机]醒目

参考例句：

• Her performance was the highlight of the show.她的表演是那场演出中最精彩的部分。
• The highlight of this term is the school trip to Austria.这学期最重要的活动就是去奥地利的校外旅行。