【题目】La Tomatina, Spain

Tomato juice flows through the streets of Bunol on the last Wednesday of August as the worlds largest tomato fight happens. Festivities begin in the town square where there is a huge pole covered in soap and with a leg of ham at the top. Participants try to climb up the pole to get the ham as watchers throw buckets of water to them. After a gun is fired to signal the beginning of the fight, people catch the tomatoes and throw each other in the streets until the gun sounds again, marking the end of the event.

Holi, India

This spring festival is celebrated throughout the country in late February or early March. The two-day event celebrates the legend of Prahlad, who escaped unharmed from the fire of the evil Holika Dahan. People mark the event by lighting fires and throwing colored powder on one another Children load colored water into toy pistols called pichkari and take aim at passers-by. Holi is known as a happy celebration of the victory of good over evil.

Burning Man, Nevada

This infamous festival began in 1986 with the burning of a large figure to mark the summer solstice (夏至). It’s since grown into a week-long annual event that draws more than 48,000 people to the Black Rock Dessert. It is held during the week before Labor Day. Participants set up camp in the desert to celebrate art.

Songkran, Thailand

This festival marks the Thai New Year, which is celebrated in the second week of April. This is the hottest time of the year in Thailand, so it makes sense that the biggest Songkran tradition is to throw water on people. Thais of all ages join in water fights, using buckets, hoses (软管) and water guns to celebrate the event.

1The following celebrations are related to water EXCEPT ________.

A. La Tomatina B. Burning Man.

C. Holi D. Songkran

2If you want to experience the hottest season in a country, you can choose to visit ________.

A. Spain B. Nevada

C. India D. Thailand

3What’s the main writing purpose of the passage?

A. To encourage people to travel.

B. To introduce some interesting festivals.

C. To advertise the worlds biggest parties.

D. To show the most famous performances.

【题目】Decades before the first unaccompanied child was put on a plane to grandma’s in the care of a flight attendant, a few resourceful parents accomplished the same end by simply dropping their kids in the mail.

This was in the earliest days of the parcel post service, which launched in 1913. Before that, U.S. Postal Service packages were capped at four pounds, which limited the goofy things people tried to send by post.

But when the parcel service began, all kinds of cargo showed up in the mail stream, including coffins, eggs, dogs and, in a few cases, human young.

According to National Postal Museum historian Nancy Pope, the first known case of a mailed baby was in 1913 when Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge of Glen Este, Ohio, shipped their 10-pound infant son to his grandmother’s home about a mile away, paying 15 cents in postage and springing for $50 in insurance (because they were worriers).

But some children were mailed much farther, Pope said. Edna Neff of Pensacola, Fla., was 6 when she was packed off — or packaged off — to her father’s home in Christiansburg, Va., 720 miles away.

The precious parcels weren’t truly parcels in the brown-paper. Instead they were more like companions in the arms of their carriers or walked along the route(路线). But the most famous mailed child, May Pierstorff, was indeed sent by an Idaho railway mail car in 1914 with the appropriate stamps stuck to her traveling coat. May’s picture survives, but no physical evidence of her trip. “We would sure love to have that coat,” Pope said.

In 1914, the postmaster general instituted a rule about the mail that stands to this day: no humans. But that didn’t stop an ambitious thief from crating himself up and shipping himself airmail. When William DeLucia, packed in a trunk labeled “Musical Instruments” along with food and an oxygen tank, was airborne, he climbed out, pilfered thousands of dollars’ worth of goods from the registered mail and sealed himself back up. He was arrested at the Atlanta airport in 1980 after his trunk popped open as it was being unloaded.

“We have his oxygen tank” at the Postal Museum, Pope noted with pride.

1What did U.S Postal Service put a limit to before 1913?

A. The value of the mail.

B. The weight of parcels.

C. The content in the mail.

D. The postage for packages.

2How was Jesse Beauge’s son mailed?

A. Packed in a mailbox.

B. Walked along the route.

C. Sent by a railway mail car.

D. Carried in the arms of the postman.

3What does Nancy Pope wish to be exhibited most in the Postal Museum?

A. May’s picture.

B. The brown-paper.

C. May’s traveling coat.

D. Idaho railway mail car.

4Who discovered William DeLucia at last?

A. The airport porter.

B. The airport police.

C. The passenger victims.

D. The postmaster general.

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