Reading Exercise 1 Festivals and celebrations of all kinds have been held everywhere since ancient times. Most ancient festivals would celebrate the end of cold weather, planting in spring and harvest in autumn. Sometimes celebrations would be held after hunters had caught animals. At that time people would starve if food was difficult to find, especially during the cold winter months. Today's festivals have many origins: some are religious, some seasonal, and some for special people or events. (Taken from Festivals and Celebrations) Please feel free to correct me if you thought my tones were wrong or my rhythm was off. Any comments would be appreciated!

You have very good pronunciation overall! However, you have some problems with word/sentence stress. For example, have been held = have been HELD -> "Been" is usually reduced to "bin" in a British accent and it's usually not stressed. ancient festivals = ancient FESTIVALS -> "Noun" is more important than adj. some are religious, some seasonal, and some for special people = some are RELIGIOUS, some SEASONAL, and some for special PEOPLE -> "Religious" is more important than "some". And when you don't stress "some", you keep it that way for the rest of the series. Knowing where to stress and where to reduce vowels is absolutely important for natural-sounding speech.

Reading Exercise 1 Festivals and celebrations of all kinds have been held everywhere since ancient times. Most ancient festivals would celebrate the end of cold weather, planting in spring and harvest in autumn. Sometimes celebrations would be held after hunters had caught animals. At that time people would starve if food was difficult to find, especially during the cold winter months. Today's festivals have many origins: some are religious, some seasonal, and some for special people or events. (Taken from Festivals and Celebrations) Please feel free to correct me if you thought my tones were wrong or my rhythm was off. Any comments would be appreciated!