A
In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after World War Ⅱ.
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 about 400,000 people yearly.
At the same time, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the Fringe) appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, believing that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house that had been disused for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from The University of Edinburgh, 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 halls.
Today the Fringe, once less embraced, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of music, dance and theatre 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 (管理人员) 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.
语篇解读：本文是一篇说明文，主要介绍了爱丁堡边缘艺术节的形成和发展。
1．What was the purpose of some famous people’s holding an international festival in 1947?
A．To honor heroes of World War Ⅱ.
B．To introduce young theatre groups.
C．To attract great artists from Europe.
D．To bring Europe together again.
解析：选D 细节理解题。根据第一段中的“The idea was to reunite Europe after World War Ⅱ”可知，一些名人建立国际节日是为了在第二次世界大战后使欧洲联合起来，故选 D项。
2．Why did some uninvited theatre groups come to Edinburgh?
A．They came to take up a challenge.
B．They thought they were also famous.
C．They wanted to take part in the festival.
D．They owned a public house there.
解析：选C 细节理解题。根据第三段中的“Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, believing that everyone should have the right to perform”可知，这些未被邀请的团体认为每个人都有权利表演，所以他们想要参加这个节日，故选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.
解析：选B 细节理解题。由第四段可知，先是爱丁堡大学的学生，后来是牛津大学、剑桥大学、达勒姆大学和伯明翰大学的学生，他们纷纷来到苏格兰首府表演。故选B。
4．Why are the numbers mentioned in the last paragraph?
A．To prove different groups have come to the festival.
B．To show administrators are busy in August.
C．To prove the tickets of the festival sell well.
D．To show the festival has grown rapidly.
解析：选D 推理判断题。根据最后一段可知，爱丁堡边缘艺术节发展很快，故选D项。
