A Form of Long Distance Communication|神秘的瓶中信

with an Ancient Past

by Brian Foden

Have you ever written a message, put it in a bottle, and tossed it in the ocean?

　　Messages in bottles could be considered one of the first forms of long distance communication, as they have been used over the millennia for a wide variety of purposes. The earliest _(1)_ of messages in bottles dates back more than 2,000 years to around 310 BC. At that time, a Greek philosopher named Theophrastus threw sealed bottles into the Mediterranean Sea to test his _(2)_ that the waterway was connected to the Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly, messages in bottles are still being used today for _(3)_ purposes as oceanographers employ them to study ocean currents.

　　There have been many _(4)_ accounts of messages in bottles being discovered. The world's oldest message in a bottle currently _(5)_ existence was recently discovered in March of 2014. In this case, the message is a postcard that had been written by a German named Richard Platz on May 17, 1913, and the container was a brown beer bottle that had been _(6)_ into the Baltic Sea. After being found by a fisherman, the bottle and its _(7)_ were taken to the International Maritime Museum in Hamburg, Germany. Using the information that was still legible on the postcard, researchers tracked _(8)_ the granddaughter of the note's author and handed it to the astonished woman.

　　Another amazing story of a message in a bottle _(9)_ one from Jeremiah Burke, a 19-year-old man who died in the Titanic disaster of 1912. Before _(10)_ along with more than 1,500 others, Burke penned a message that stated "From Titanic, goodbye all" along with his name and hometown.

(A) involves (B) cast (C) record (D) down (E) scientific

(F) drowning (G) theory (H) fascinating (I) contents (J) in

神秘的瓶中信

你曾经写过一封信，然后把它放在瓶子里投到大海中吗？

　　瓶中信可以被视为最早的远距离沟通方式之一，因为它们已被运用在各式各样的用途长达数千年之久。瓶中信最早的纪录可以追溯至两千多年前，也就是大约公元前三百一十年。当时有一位名叫西奥弗拉斯托斯的希腊哲学家将许多密封的瓶子投入地中海中，其目的是要测试他所主张的地中海水路是和大西洋相联结的理论。有趣的是，瓶中信至今仍被运用在科学的用途上，因为海洋学家会运用它们来研究海洋的潮流。

　　长久以来已有许多迷人的瓶中信报导被发现。全世界现存最古老的瓶中信是最近在 2014 年三月被发现的。本例中的瓶中信是一位名叫理查‧普拉兹的德国人在 1913 年五月十七日所写的一张明信片，而装信的容器则是被投入波罗的海的咖啡色啤酒瓶。这个瓶子被一名渔夫发现之后，就和它的内容物一起被送到位于德国汉堡的国际海事博物馆。科学家们运用这张明信片上仍然清晰可辨的信息找到了这张明信片作者的孙女，并将明信片交给了这名大感惊讶的女士。

　　另一个惊人的瓶中信故事的主角是杰瑞迈尔‧博克，他是一名在 1912 年铁达尼号船难事件中丧生的十九岁男性。在和其他一千五百多人一起淹死之前，他写了一封讯息，上面是这么说的：『来自铁达尼号的讯息，再见了大家』，同时还写上了他的名字和家乡。

答案： 1. C 2. G 3. E 4. H 5. J

6. B 7. I 8. D 9. A 10. F