On June 2, 1886, a German threw a message in a bottle into the water while his ship crossed the Indian Ocean. Around 132 years later in January, the bottle was 1 on the Australian coast, making it the oldest-known message in a bottle in the world.
The bottle was thrown into the water to study ocean currents（洋流）. But throwing messages in bottles into the ocean is not just for 2. People send out such messages for many reasons. Some people write information about themselves in 3 of finding a pen friend. 4 write down secrets, hoping that waves will5 those secrets. And still other people just write down some jokes, songs or anything else they think might be 6.
The reasons and ways might be different, but the 7 is always the same: to reach out and try to connect 8 someone. This kind of shared feeling might be 9 this tradition has remained popular for so long. In 1989, the British bandThe Policewrote a song calledMessage in A Bottlethat described this 10: A hundred billion bottles washed up on the beach. "Seems I'm not alone at being alone," the singer said.
