Enjoying a musical performance no longer requires a costly ticket or a trip to a theater. These days, musicians are performing in private homes, at haircutting shops, at airports...even on ferry boats.

   Musicians like house concerts. At music clubs ,they often have to perform over loud conversation or deal with people who have had too much alcohol. People at house concerts are more focused on listening to the music.

   Just a few hours before the Bombadils started singing at the O' Hair Salon, Lindsay was cutting hair and Tamera was doing facials. Then, they moved chairs and microphones to create a small performance space. The Bombadils made music in the front part of the hair salon, near the hair dryers and make-up table.

   "This is our first show at a hair salon," Sarah Frank of the Bombadils told concertgoers at last week's performance. Frank said she and band members Luke Fraser and Kaitlyn Raitz had a great time "interacting" with the audience.

   Concerts in people's homes, or small businesses such as O' Hair's, are becoming more popular, musicians say. "There is a more relaxed atmosphere," said Domenic Cicala, a musician who opened up his O'Hair Salon to concerts. "People really get to know the artists."

   At house concerts, people get time before and after concerts to meet the performers. Often, the hosts or guests will provide food and drink.

   "People really like listening to music in the living room of a friend," said Matt Hart, with Aubrey Zoli making up Local Strangers, a folk-rock group based in Seattle. At many such concerts, the musicians do not need microphones. Yet, every word of their songs can be heard.

The meaning of silence carries among culture groups. Silence may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or, worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore attempts may be made to fill every gap with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person’s needs.

Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing. In these cultures, silence is a call for reflection.

Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with conflicts among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.

Nurses and other care-givers need to be aware of the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient’s silence is not interrupted too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing value of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.

Tea cultureis varied in different countries by the way tea is made and drunk, and by the places for tea drinking. How to make tea may be different. According to the ways of making tea, tea is classified (分类) into white tea, green tea, black tea, etc. And how to prepare tea may be different, too. In Tibet, tea is commonly boiled (煮) with salt and butter (黄油). People may drink tea at home or in public, for example, at tea houses.

As part of culture, tea has a relationship with history, health, education, communication and so on. It is commonly used at social activities. For example, afternoon tea is a British custom. Families or friends can communicate with each other while having afternoon tea.

   Tea hasremained a way of daily life in China and drinking tea has a lot of advantages. It makes people less tired, clears heat in the human body and helps people lose weight.

   Chinese people are good at using tea to make other things delicious. Tea, originally (最初) served as a medicine in ancient times, is now not just a kind of drink, but also excellent seasoning (调味品). Here are two delicious dishes made with tea:

   Tea Eggs: Youcan find them cooked and sold in street markets in almost every city in China.

DragonWell Tea Shrimp (龙井虾仁): It’s one of the most well-known dishes in Hangzhou.

   Before you drink tea, please check the following tips:

   ◆Drink tea hot.

   ◆Thebest time to drink is in between meals. It is bad for your stomach if you drink tea just before meals, during meals or soon after meals.

   ◆Do not drink too much strong tea.

Tea has no relationship with ______ as part of culture according to the passage.

Inancient China, tea was originally served as ______ according to the passage.

The best time to drink tea is ______ according to the passage.

The passagedoesn’tmention _____.

Early man lived by hunting animals and gathering wild grain. After a tribe had lived in an area for some time, its food supply would begin to dwindle. Then the tribe had to move to new hunting grounds where there was more food.

  This way of life caused special problems for the tribes. They were forced to depend on luck, as well as on their hunting skill. If they could find no game, the whole tribe was in danger of starving. And even when the hunters had good luck one day, they were not sure to find game the next time. The tribes moved often because much land was needed to support a few people.

  Finally, man learned that he could grow his own food. At first, the women of the tribe raised patches of wild grain. Later, people discovered that they could plant their own seed. Farming slowly became a way of life.

  As man turned away from hunting to farming, much of his life changed. When his food supply became more constant, he no longer moved from place to place. The success of his crops depended partly on the weather, but there were things he could do to help crops grow.

  Before, a tribe had had to roam many miles for food. Now, only a small amount of land was necessary to feed the whole tribe. The tribe could grow in size because farming provided a way to feed people.

A

February has long been a month of romance. With the sweet smell of roses in the air, romantic films hit cinemas and love stories fill newspapers and magazines.

   On the 14th day, it is a custom for a boy to take his girlfriend out to dinner, buy her flowers and chocolates, write poems, sing to her or even spell out her name with rose petals! This is what you see on Valentine’s Day, a day named after Valentine who was a priest in the third century Rome. When the emperor (皇帝) decided that single men could become better soldiers than those with wives, he didn’t allow marriage. But Valentine continued to perform marriage ceremonies for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, the emperor sentenced him to death. While in prison, it is said that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his prison guard. Before his death, he wrote her a letter, which he signed “From your Valentine”, an expression that is still in use today. Valentine died for what he believed in and so he was made a Saint (圣徒), as well as becoming one of history’s most romantic characters.

   Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is also popular among Chinese young people. Some students are planning to make Valentine’s cards for parents, teachers and friends. Others want to hold parties at which they will exchange small gifts and eat heart-shaped cakes. The idea is to have fun and encourage people to share in the spirit of St. Valentine.

The dog meat-eating festival will be held on June 21 in Yulin, Guangxi, when more than 10,000 dogs will be killed and served at table and enjoyed by dog meat eaters.

The dog meat-eating festival in Yulin is only a local tradition, to celebrate summer’s coming. The fight over the festival shows different ideas between traditional habit and the modern idea of animal protection. While some persons want to continue local traditions, animal lovers want to stop festivals like Yulin’s because they believe dogs, as man’s best friends, should not be killed for food.

Perhaps they should learn from the example set by South Korea, a country that has a much longer eating tradition of eating dog meat. Ba ck in 1988, when Seoul would host the Olympic Games, animal lovers from some countries asked South Korea to stop eating dog meat. To keep a balance between South Koreans’ love for dog meat and some foreign countries’ and animal lovers’ demand, the South Korean government made restaurants sell dog meat in far away areas.

In China, there are no rules on saving dogs, so giving up the dog meat-eating festival will not be a good way to solve the problem. It requires time to encourage Y ulin residents to change their eating habit. But animal lovers should respect other people’s choice of food in the great country of more than 50 ethnic groups.

But it is also important for people who eat dog meat to understand animal lovers’ demand. The local government in Yulin could use the South Korean example to at least control the number of dogs killed before summer comes and cut down the bad social influence of the festival.