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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  19
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 inspired the idea of the "time ball" in Ochs’ mind?
选项 A、The big ball in a public place to show the exact time.
B、Previous celebrations held in the Old Trinity Church.
C、US residents’ love for pocket watches in some cities.
D、Ochs worked it out all by his imaginary talents.
答案A
解析 推理判断题。由题干中的time ball和Ochs定位到第二段，开头指出：在美国的一些城市在某个公共场所会有一个大球从柱子上落下来来指示准确的时间，人们习惯了看这个大球来对表，紧接着说奥齐兹想出了一个主意，让时间球从空中降落来标志一年的结束。由此我们可以推断，他是受到了前面提到的美国一些城市公共场所指示时间的大球的启发，故正确答案为A。从文中我们看不到以前在旧三一教堂举行的庆祝活动与奥齐兹时间球想法之间的关系，故排除B；文中提到美国人喜欢看大球对时间，并没有说美国人都喜欢怀表，故排除C；文中并没有提及奥齐兹的丰富想象力，故排除D。
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