365个英语简短小故事-224. A Festival of Books
时间：2019-01-06 作者：英语课 分类：365个英语简短小故事
People joke that no one in Los Angeles reads; everyone watches TV, rents videos, or goes to the movies. The most popular reading material is comic books, movie magazines, and TV guides. City libraries have only 10 percent of the traffic that car washes have. But how do you explain this? An annual book festival in west Los Angeles is “sold out” year after year. People wait half an hour for a parking space to become available.
This outdoor festival, sponsored by a newspaper, occurs every April for one weekend. This year’s attendance 1 was estimated at 70,000 on Saturday and 75,000 on Sunday. The festival featured 280 exhibitors. There were about 90 talks given by authors, with an audience question-and-answer period following each talk. Autograph seekers sought out more than 150 authors. A food court sold all kinds of popular and ethnic 2 foods, from American hamburgers to Hawaiian shave ice drinks. Except for a $7 parking fee, the festival was free. Even so, some people avoided the food court prices by sneaking 3 in their own sandwiches and drinks.
People came from all over California. One couple drove down from San Francisco. “This is our sixth year here now. We love it,” said the husband. “It’s just fantastic to be in the great outdoors, to be among so many books and authors, and to get some very good deals, too.”
The idea for the festival occurred years ago, but nobody knew if it would succeed. Although book festivals were already popular in other US cities, would Los Angeles residents embrace one? “Angelenos are very unpredictable,” said one of the festival founders 4.
- The attendance of this class never dropped off.这个班的出席人数从未下降。
- The young man danced attendance on his rich aunt.这个年轻人小心侍候他有钱的姑妈。
- This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
- The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
- She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
- She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走，躲开采访者。