Nobody should ever be turned away from a church.I've always said that and have believed it,but I had to put it in practice the other night.It was my birthday,and we had a party at church,upstairs in the hall.My son Tim's roommate Garth sang in a great band,the Rooks,and they played for us.They performed wonderfully.

    Suddenly I noticed a man I'd never really seen before.He was big,never took off his coat or hat and stood in the middle of the room,looking a bit nervous.A homeless guy had just wandered into my birthday party,I thought.And I kept thinking about the guy who hadn't been invited,I meant to head over to him and politely asked him to leave. Wait a minute,I thought.Should anybody be turned away from God's house?Of course other uncertain thoughts crossed my mind: What if he was here to make trouble?What was under that coat?What if he was a terrorist?But some higher born qualities held sway."Hi,"I said,walking over to him."I'm Rick.This is a birthday party for me. Would you like something to eat?"He nodded his head.I got him a plate of food and told him he was welcome to stay. He nodded.He stayed there in the center of the room,smiling and swaying to the music.After a long time I looked for him again,and he was gone.

    I've always loved the parable（寓言）of Luke about the man who gives a big dinner and when no one comes,he sends his servants into the city streets to welcome the poor,homeless,disabled and blind.I don't know who invited this guy but I was glad he was there.I hope he had a good time.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

    A survey has shown that what you do on a plane can be determined by which nationality is listed on your passport.

    According to the results of an international passenger survey, Australians are the biggest drinkers on board with 36 percent choosing to down the hatch, compared to 35 percent of Americans and 33 percent of Brits.

    The Airline Passenger Experience Association(APEX) spoke to around 1,500 people, aged 18 and older, who have travelled by plane at least once during the last three months and were living in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia and Brazil.

The results found Chinese travelers are most likely to nod off once the seat-belt sign switches off. They are also the first to take out their credit card for some in-flight shopping and the biggest fans of gaming. Americans on the other hand like to use their time in the air more productively—- when not drinking—- choosing to work while flying at 35,000 feet.

Meanwhile, Brits and Germans are the best at making chat with random strangers—-spending 50 percent more time than any other nationality. Comparatively, Brazilians conduct their conversations online via email, messaging apps or social media.

    Despite plane food having a bad reputation, seven out of ten interviewees said they were happy to eat up on the selection of in-flight snacks and meals. In-flight magazines were also popular with four out of five passengers.

    The international flyers did however express their desire for better in-flight entertainment. “The industry has greatly improved the comfort, entertainment and onboard service, and passengers are accepting those improvements” said Russell Lemieux, APEX executive director. “At the same time, passengers are demanding more from their air travel experiences which will drive more improvements touching all aspects of the journey. ” he added. 

    Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is one of life's essentials. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have all been told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.

    But for many people the thought of food as first thing in the morning is by no means a pleasure. So despite all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of people who didn't have breakfast increased by 33 percent-from 8.8 million to 11.7 million-according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.

    For those who feel pain or guilt about not earing breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years indicate that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with not taking breakfast. “Going without breakfast does not affect performance,” said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition（营养）at Queen Elizabeth College in London, “nor doegiving people breakfast improve performance.”

    Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not adults. “The literature,” says one researcher, Dr. Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas, “is poor.”

    Americans, especially the millennials（千禧一代）, are always glued（固着于）to their phones. A common day of the average university student in America starts off like this: an alarm clock wakes you up, which is quickly followed by checking social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Once in classes, you are again attracted by your buzzing phone and access to the Internet rather than pay attention to the lecturing professor. Then you have lunch with some friends, only to look up from your screen to realize that no one has said a word in five minutes and instead all are looking at their phones. Once the day ends, you can't help checking all forms of social media again before finally being able to shut your eyes only to repeat this vicious cycle the next day.

    Cyberbullying（网络霸凌）, a concept unknown before, is now in fashion. Many of the millennials are using the Internet to make jokes about others to points of extremes. The Internet gives cowards bravery; people feel like their actions and words have no bad results because they cannot see the ache it causes another.

    Millennials also think that whatever information shows up on their screens must be taken as truth, whether the material is reliable（可靠的）or not.

    Social media is not all bad, however. People are still able to use social media to connect with friends and family who live a great distance away. With a few clicks of a button, someone could make another person smile, or give words of hope and encouragement to a friend in need, or even help repair a broken relationship. Cyberspace is a vortex（漩涡）that is easy to get caught up in, but we must find a balance to keep both feet in reality while traveling across the online world.

    US scientists say they have poured cold water on the theory that washing hands with hot water kills more germs (细菌) than unheated water. The small study of 20 people found using water at 15C (59F) left hands as clean as water heated to 38C (100F).

    National Health Service (NHS) recommends that people wash their hands in either cold or warm water. In this study, scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick wanted to find out if popular assumptions about the benefits of warm or hot water and official guidance on hot water —given to the food industry in the US - held true. They asked 20 people to wash their hands 20 times each with water that was 15C (59F), 26C (79F) or 38 degrees (100F). Volunteers were also asked to experiment with varying amounts of soap. Before they started the tests, their hands were covered in harmless bugs. Researchers say there was no difference in the amount of bugs removed as the temperature of the water or the amount of soap changed.

    Prof Donald Schaffner said: “People need to feel comfortable when they are washing their hands but as far as effectiveness goes, this study shows us that the temperature of the water used did not matter.”

    However, the researchers accept their study is small and say more extensive work is needed to determine the best ways to remove harmful bacteria.

    In the UK, NHS experts say people can use cold or hot water to wash their hands. They say hands should be washed for at least 20 seconds and stress the importance of using enough soap to cover the whole surface of the hands. Their guidance focuses on rubbing hands together in various .ways to make sure each surface of each hand is clean.

    The national environmental watchdog has declared that boosting efforts to cut air pollution in northern China, especially winter smog from the burning of coal, is a mission for this year.

    Burning coal for winter heating has been listed as one of the primary causes of air pollution, Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, said on Monday at the annual meeting on environmental protection in Beijing.“As much as 60 percent of smog content is caused by coal burning in the starting phase of each smog”, said Fang Li, an official with Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau. Therefore, Beijing has declared that it will wipe out coal use in its most rural areas by 2020.

    To start with, Beijing will replace coal-fired heating stoves with those powered by electricity or gas in 400 villages this year, before taking the campaign to the districts of Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan by 2017,said Guo Zihua, a municipal rural development official. Beijing's downtown districts of Dongcheng and Xicheng eliminated coal burning last year, officials said.

    The capital and other places in northern China experienced several smog alerts in November and December, when peak readings were many times higher than the national safety level. Obviously, the situation is deteriorating, and will become a norm. So the government came up with a “smog subsidy (津贴)” for those who work outdoors, and 95 percent of the respondents to a survey support it.

    The Trade Union in Zhengzhou City surveyed subscribers to its official WeChat account and found that 88 percent of nearly 400 respondents said priority should be given to outdoor workers on smoggy days But 9 percent said air pollution affects everyone so it would be unfair to only address the concerns of people who work outdoors.

    Over half of the respondents think the extra subsidy, if applied, could come in the form of protective tools or cash. Twenty-two percent said money is the easiest way. To finance the proposed subsidy, 53 percent think the government and companies should jointly pay the bill, while 44 percent said central and regional governments should be responsible.