河北省承德市2014高考英语阅读理解综合选练（1）及答案
【深圳市2014高考英语综合能力测试题（7）】
The fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day in America. There are thousands of bystanders and millions of television viewers. The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York is as traditional as turkey. The year 2013 marked the 87th year of Macy’s parade. It featured 15 giant balloons in the shape of cartoon and pop culture characters, 1,200 dancers and cheerleaders, 900 clowns, 10 marching bands and nearly 9,000 personnel, almost all of whom were volunteers.
Over the course of the nearly nine decades since Macy’s immigrant employees organized the first Thanksgiving Day Parade, the floats (彩车) and balloons8have been getting larger, more colorful and more surprising.
In 2013, school children were invited to the Macy’s parade studios outside New York City, for a first look at several just completed floats.
Bella was excited to be there. “I think it’s great because I get to see all of these floats before anyone else does in the parade,” said Bella.
John Piper is the vice president of Macy’s Studio. He said his work is fun all the time. “Or at least it seems that way. It’s a lot of work. All year long, the artists at Macy’s Studio build these floats. We create them from scratch. I have the finest carpenters, metal workers, sculptors, painters and illustrators all cooperating together,” said Piper.
