A middle-aged man with a long beard was caught by the police for bad behavior and property damage. The man, Bill Wild, checked into a hotel last night, telling the clerk he would pay cash in advance and would be staying for four nights. He then asked her where the nearest store was and she told him it was John-Johns.

    Wild went to the store and bought three gallons of honey and four gallons of chocolate syrup (糖浆). The cashier asked him why he wanted these things and he replied, "I'm trying to become a sweeter person." The cashier smiled at the joke. Wild drove back to the hotel. He opened all bottles and poured them into the bathtub. He added warm water to the mix. He tuned the radio to an opera music station, took off his clothes, jumped into the tub, and started singing loudly with the music.

    Fifteen minutes later, the neighbor phoned the clerk complaining about the noise. The clerk knocked on Wild's door, but he just kept singing. She phoned his room, but he didn't answer. Then she called the police, who arrived quickly. They broke into the room. The floor was covered in water and the bathtub was full of chocolate and honey. "He seemed so nice and friendly. Who'd have thought he was a bathtub-singing nut?" said the clerk. The police said this was the third time that Wild had been arrested for this kind of behavior.

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 city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city.

    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

    Even so, travel isn't difficult. The waterways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can guide you where you want to go.  People in Venice move from place to place by boat.

    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange experiences. One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there's nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.

    Once, people used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean (北冰洋) melt (融化). Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.

    Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy's biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be build under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.

    Chris Thomas used to think of Facebook as just a platform to get in touch with his friends. He now believes the social networking service with saving his life. The 28－year－old was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy(肌肉萎缩症) nine years ago and has relied on a wheelchair ever since.

    On July 15，2015，Thomas was getting ready for bed in his apartment，when a shelving(架子) fell onto his wheelchair and knocked him over，causing him to fall and hit the back of his head. After waking up from a few minutes of coma(昏迷)，he realized he couldn't reach the string used to get the doorkeeper's attention.

    His phone was nearby and had the Facebook application conveniently open，so he posted a status update that immediately got his friends worried—even some he hadn't spoken to in years. “It was amazing，friends from six different states who didn't know each other were connecting with each other to get me help，” Thomas said. “Now that's the power of social media! You have hundreds of people at your fingertips.”

    Eight minutes after the status went up，an old friend，Leah，got in contact with Thomas' friend Brad，whose wife was in the neighborhood，and before you knew it there were 12 Facebook friends in his apartment，who took him to the hospital at once. They showed up to the rescue at the perfect time. Minutes before they arrived，Thomas thought he was going to have a panic attack，which he often suffers from because of his illness，but he's doing better now.

    “It felt good to know that my friends，even those I haven't spoken to in the past，came to save me，” Thomas said. “They all came together .I would've never imagined it.”

    Dr. Nancy Roman, born in 1925, who was celebrated as a pioneer for female scientists and had advanced the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, died on Dec 25, 2018.

    When Nancy Roman asked for permission to take a second algebra (代数)course in high school,a teacher demanded to know "what lady would take mathematics instead of Latin". In college, a professor admitted that he often tried to prevent women from majoring in physics but Nancy stuck to it. And after receiving Doctor's degree in astronomy. , she found a professional home at NASA(美国宇航局)In 1959, Dr. Roman became the first chief of astronomy at NASA. headquarters, a role that made her one of the agency's first female leaders.

    Dr Roman spent much of her career helping develop, fund and promote technology that would help scientists see more clearly beyond Earths atmosphere. But her most well-known work was perhaps leading to design the Hubble Space Telescope the first major telescope to be sent into space for the purpose of gathering photographs and data from the universe. She was, therefore, named as "the mother of Hubble".

    "She made it possible to get the early telescope up into space to learn what needed to be learned," said science historian Bob Zimmerman: and her hard-nosed nature helped get the telescope built.

    The telescope did not launch until 1990, a little more than a decade after Dr Roman retired, but when it did, its photographs of the universe thrilled the world.  I am glad, "she once told Science, "I ignored the people who told me that I could not be an astronomer. "

Table Talk

As we got out of the car, our son announced, "Phones stay in the car."

"Why do you always have to tell us that?" complained our fifteen-year-old grandson.

Our son's wife winked at us and then explained, "We have a family1 that no one may bring anything electronic to the table."

We 2 our phones in the car. Even though the restaurant was filled with families, there was little noise. All I heard were a few quiet conversations and the ding of forks on plates. The 3 unnerved me. I looked around. Everyone, even the young kids, was 4 at some kind of screen. 

The silence was broken when the six of us sat down, and started talking. The waitress stood patiently and waited for our orders. When our food came, we continued to chat. 

An elderly couple at the next table were finishing their dinners and conversing quietly. I noticed that they shot us a few glances, and wondered if our constant chatter was annoying them. 

After the dessert, my son signaled the waitress for the check. She hesitated when she brought the black folder to our table. My son opened the black folder — it was5 . "You forgot the check," he told her.

"There isn't one. Someone else6 your bill — and the tip too." she said with a giggle (咯咯笑).

"Why?" asked our son, his wife and myself at once.

"They loved it that no one was connected." she continued. "They loved watching you guys7 . The old lady went on and on about how nice it was to see a family eating and talking instead of looking at ‘electric games'."

For a moment, everyone at our table was at a loss for8 . Then we all started talking at once. My son's voice rose above the others. "Where are they? We want to thank them."

"They left after you ordered dessert," the waitress replied.

We spent the next fifteen minutes discussing this goodness and camp up with a 9 . Next time we see a family eating at a restaurant 10 looking at anything electronic, we'll pay it forward, just like what happened to us.

Njobati, a young woman from Cameroon, faced a challenging journey when she moved from her English-speaking area to a French-speaking area of the country to attend university. The sharp differences between these areas, once part of the British and French empires, made it difficult for her to fit in, which led her to examine her own identity—who she truly was. 

Seeking guidance, she turned to her grandfather who also felt disconnected from his own culture. He expressed sadness about what the Nso had lost both culturally and materially, including Ngonnso statue. Ngonnso was the founder of Nso dating back to the 14th Century, whose statue was an important cultural symbol for the Nso. However, it was taken by the Germans in 1902 and has been housed in Berlin's Ethnological Museum ever since.

Inspired by her grandfather's desire and saddened by the loss of culture, Njobati made a promise to bring back the statue. She believed it would not only achieve her grandfather's wish but connect her with her Nso heritage again.

Njobati did many researches about the statue and former unsuccessful attempts. She realized that restitution ( 归还) was actually about facing the colonial ( 殖民主义的) past. Njobati decided to try differently. To gather support online and offline, Njobati began a grassroots campaign. She organized meetings in community halls and churches, met people one-on-one, and used the power of social media. Through Twitter, she established contact with the Ethnological Museum. 

Njobati's tireless efforts paid off. She was told that a decision about Ngonnso statue was coming, which was an important moment for her.

"Finally, this is happening. Not just for me, but for the Nso people, and for Cameroon, " She cried. "This also lends a hand to other communities that are seeking justice for stolen culture relics. "