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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 was done at the celebration to commemorate its new headquarters in Times Square ?
选项 A、The announcement of the new name of the square.
B、Fireworks display on the square.
C、Ball descending from a flagpole.
D、Celebrating outside Old Trinity Church.
答案B
解析 事实细节题。由题于中的its new headquarters定位到第一段第一句。第一段第二句描述了奥齐兹策划的这次庆祝活动的内容：以全天的街上庆祝活动为开端，然后转入焰火表演，最后在午夜20万人同时欢呼迎接新年的到来，焰火表演当然要在时报广场进行，故正确答案为[B]。[A]在文中没有体现，故排除；从第一段的最后一句可知，当时的庆祝活动“以现在的标准来看根本算不上晚会，因为没有时间球”，故排除[C]；第一段第三句说：以前的新年庆祝活动都在曼哈顿的金融区进行，说明这次庆祝并没有在那里举行，故排除[D]。
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