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  3. The New Year Celebration Ceremony of Times Square When the New York Times officially opened its new headquarters in Times Sq

The New Year Celebration Ceremony of Times Square When the New York Times officially opened its new headquarters in Times Sq

admin2013-06-05  26
问题               The New Year Celebration Ceremony of Times Square
    When the New York Times officially opened its new headquarters in Times Square in 1904, owner Alfred Ochs not only convinced the city to rename the intersection formerly known as Longacre Square, but he also threw a grand party to commemorate the mile stone. The New Year’s Eve celebration started with an all-day street festival, transitioned to a fireworks display ending with cheers at mid-night from the crowd of more than 200,000. Previous New Year’s Eve celebrations typically took place outside of Old Trinity Church in Manhattan’s financial district. But by contemporary standards these weren’t parties at all because there was no ball.
    For decades, residents of US cities would synchronize (校准钟表) their pocket-watches using a giant globe that would descend from a pole in a public space to mark the exact hour. Ochs conceived of a well-decorated "time ball" that would descend just before midnight to mark the exact end of the year. The first ball to drop—an illuminated 400-pound iron-and-wood globe—was lowered from a flagpole. Tradition took root and the ball has announced a new beginning almost every year since—in 1942 and 1943, during World War II , the ball was temporarily put out of commission by a war-time "dimout". Instead crowds gathered in the square and observed a moment of silence before cheering.
    Although the newspaper moved to a different location in 1914, the ball remained a Times Square tradition, with several redecorations along the way. In 1955 it slimmed down to a 200-pound aluminum (铝) globe, and remained that way until the 1980s when red lights and a green stem were added to make it an apple promoting the city’s "I Love New York" tourism campaign. That flashy phase ended in 1988 in favor of simple white lights, followed later by rhinestones (莱茵 石) with edges and strobes (频闪闪光灯). But the biggest checkup was saved for the ball that would ring in the new millennium. Weighing up to 1, 070 pounds, the massive new ball marketed handcrafted Waterford crystal triangles, each with a design symbolizing various messages such as "Hope for Fellowship", "Hope for Wisdom" and "Hope for Abundance". With minor changes, that sphere remained through the 2007 festival.
    This year’s ball tops out at 12 feet in diameter (double the size of previous balls) and weighs 11,875 pounds; it sparkles with 32,256 LED lights and 2,668 crystals, it’s not the only thing that’s gotten bigger since the 1900s; a crowd estimated at a million people will be celebrating in Times Square on Dec. 31, and millions more will be watching worldwide.
What can we learn about the history of the "time ball" ?
选项 A、All the balls in its history are illuminated.
B、There have been seven balls throughout its history.
C、There have been only small changes in its history.
D、All the balls weighed more or less the same.
答案B
解析 推理判断题。由题干中的the history of the“time ball”定位到文章第三段，该段讲述了时报广场时间球的演变历史：第一个，1904年铁木制成；第二个，1955年重200磅的铝质球；第三个，20世纪80年代在前一个的基础上加了红色的灯和绿色的柄，变成了苹果状；第四个，由简单的白光灯制成；第五个，由莱茵石和频闪闪光灯做成的时间球；第六个，新千年由沃特尔弗德水晶三角体制成；第七个，2007年制成的重达11875磅的现在仍在使用的新球。故B为正确答案。第三段的第二二句中提到的1955年的铝制球并没有照明效果，故排除A；从第三段来看，历史上出现的时间球不管是从材质上，还是从大小、重量上都有很大的差别，故排除C；我们从第三、四段可知，最轻的球只有200磅，而最重的球重达11875磅，它们之间的差别是非常大的，故排除D。
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