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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

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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 redec-orations along the way. In 1955 it slimmed down to a 200-pound aluminum (18) 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 makes this year’s ball special compared with the other ones?
选项 A、It is a worldwide attraction.
B、There are crystals on it.
C、it’s twice the size of other ones.
D、It sparkles with lights.
答案C
解析 事实细节题。由题干中的this year’s ball定位到最后一段。本段第一句说：今年的时间球以12英尺的直径和11785磅的重量而超过以前所有的球，而12英尺的直径是以前的时间球的二倍，故正确答案为[C]。[A]可以在最后一句找到依据，但它并不是今年的时问球特别的地方，而是今年特别的时问球所产生的效果，故排除；时间球上有水晶并不是特别的地方，因为从第三段我们知道其他的球中也有用到水晶的，使它特别的是所用的水晶的数量，故排除[B]；同样的道理，安装了灯而闪闪发光也不是今年时间球的特别之处，而是灯的类型和数量使得它与众不同．故排除[D]。
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