A romantic message-in-a-bottle discovered by a mother and her daughter at a Scottish beach has sparked (触发)a mystery about whether it could have travelled 5,000 miles across the seas from China.

Nicola MacFarlane, 41, and her daughter Lucy, 4, from Portobello , near Edinburgh , were looking for driftwood(浮木)on Portobello Beach when they came across an old glass bottle containing a note inside written in Mandarin. Now the family are trying to work out if the letter has managed the extraordinary journey across the Philippine Sea, into the Indian Ocean and through both the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic Ocean before washed up on the shores of Great Britain. It was written on Chinese Valentine's Day or Qixi Festival as it is more traditionally known, lunar July 7, 2012, so it could have been sent off as recently as six days ago if it followed the modern calendar , which celebrated the occasion on August 23. Nicola was still excited to read about the Chinese love story after having it translated.

"I really do hope that it is from China but even it is from nearer to home, it's still a lovely gesture and an inspiring find. It's a love story regardless of where it came from. ,, Nicola, who runs a beach art business in Portobello, added, "I'm always at the beach looking for bits of driftwood but I've never come across anything like this before. We knew it was Chinese, but we had no idea what it said."

Unable to read the Mandarin text, Nicola turned to the Internet and her Australian friend, Julie Gould, whose daughter attended a Chinese school in Sydney.

Several hours later Julie returned with the news that it was in fact a love letter.

The translated letter reads, "Da Hai (Ocean) , I hope no one xvill get this bottle , as ive just vuish you can hear our voice, and get your blessing,   Today is the

Chinese Valentine's Day. We pray that our relationship 'will last forever and uue vuill have a long happy life together…,,

Nicola said, "It sounds to me like the couple are in love but cannot be together so they have sent the message to tell the world of their love.,,

1.    When did Nicola and her daughter come across the message-in-a-bottle?

A.    On July 15, 2012.

B.    On August 29, 2012.

C.    On August 31, 2012.

D.    On September 2, 2012.

2.    What were Nicola and her daughter probably doing when they found the bottle?

A.    They were walking on the beach.

B.    They were washing hands and feet.

C.    They were looking for driftwood.

D.    They were lying on the beach resting.

3.    The underlined word " Mandarin" probably means

A. Scottish     B. British

C.  English    D. Chinese

4.    We can learn from the passage that Nicola    .

A.    thought the letter was written to show love

B.    had expected to get something unusual

C.    knew a little Chinese

D.    found the bottle was from a nearby place

One of the qualities that most people admire in others is the willingness to admit one's mistakes. It is extremely hard sometimes to say a simple thing like "I was wrong about that."  and it is even harder to say, "I was wrong? and you were right about that.

I had an experience recently with someone admit?ting to me that he had made a mistake fifteen years ago. He told me he had been the manager of a certain grocery store in the neighbourhood where I grew up, and he asked me if I remembered the egg cartons (箱子).Then he related an incident and I began to remember clearly the incident he was describing.

I was about eight years old at the time, and I had gone into the store with my mother to do the weekly-grocery shopping. On that particular day, I must have found my way to the dairy food department where the incident took place.

There must have been a special sale on eggs that day because there was an impressive display of eggs in dozen and half-dozen cartons. The cartons were stacked three or four feet high. I must have stopped in front of a display to admire the stacks. Just then a woman came by pushing her grocery cart and knocked off the stacks of cartons. For some reason, I decided it was up to me to put the display back together, so I went to work.

The manager heard the noise and came rushing over to see what had happened. When he appeared, I was on my knees inspecting (examining) some of the cartons to see if any of the eggs were broken, but to him it looked as though I was the criminal. He severely scolded me and wanted me to pay for all the broken eggs. I protes?ted my innocence and tried to explain, but it did no good. Even though I quickly forgot all about the inci?dent, obviously the manager did not.

1.    The author was       when he wrote this article.

A. about 8      B. about 18

C. about 23     D. about 15

2.    Who was to blame for knocking off the stacks of car?tons?

A. The author. B. The manager.

C. The woman.      D. The author's mother.

3.    When the manager scolded him the author   .

A.    was frightened and cried

B.    tried to explain

C.    did not say anything

D.    felt the manager was right

4.    It can be inferred that the author .

A.    regrets arguing with the manager for what he didn't do

B.    would like to tell people never to be fooled by an egg sale

C.    has forgiven the manager for what he did to him fifteen years ago

D.    expects the woman to say sorry to him for the mistake she made

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