An early message in a bottle was thrown into the sea by Christopher Columbus during a terrible storm. He wrote about his discovery of America and expected that his message would be sent to the Queen of Spain. He wanted the news to reach her, but he thought he might be drowned (淹死) in the storm. In fact, he survived but the bottle was never found.

　　I would be excited to find a message in a bottle, but in the 16th century, it could be dangerous. In those days, the British Navy (海军) used messages in bottles to send information about the enemy. When Queen Elizabeth Ⅰ found out that a boatman had opened a bottle containing one of these secret messages, she created a new job, Uncorker of Ocean Bottles. I was amazed to learn that anyone else who opened a bottle could be sentenced to death. It seems very strange to us now.

　　A long time ago, before dating websites existed to help people find partners, a sailor in Sweden put this message in a bottle - "To someone beautiful and far away." It was found by a young woman in Sicily. She answered the message - "I am not beautiful, but it seems a miracle (奇迹) I found your message." They began to write letters to each other, and eventually got married.

　　Nowadays it's easy to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world, but I think people will still go on throwing bottles with messages into the ocean and guessing where the winds and the waves will carry them. And how romantic it would be to find a bottle with a message inside!

语篇解读：漂流瓶是人们穿越广阔大海进行交流的一种有趣的交流方式。投进大海的漂流瓶不知道将漂向何方、被何人捡到，充满着未知的神秘气息。

　　5．Why did the author do some research on bottles thrown into the sea?

　　A．He had found a message in one.

　　B．He had read an article about one.

　　C．He had to do a project on them at college.

　　D．He had watched a TV programme about them.

　　解析：选B　细节理解题。由第一段中的"I was more interested to read an article about someone ... I decided to find out more about such bottles"可知，作者读到一篇关于21年前被扔到海里的漂流瓶被发现的故事后对漂流瓶产生了极大的兴趣，从而开始了对漂流瓶的研究工作。

　　6．Christopher Columbus put a message into a bottle to ________.

　　A．study ocean currents

　　B．report his discovery

　　C．ask for rescue

　　D．try his luck

解析：选B　推理判断题。由第二段中的"He wrote about his discovery of America ... He wanted the news to reach her"可知，哥伦布在信上写下他发现了美洲，希望这一信息能送到