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

    Venice is   1    the northeast of Italy.  It wasn't built    2  , like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is  3  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   4 can guide you where you want to go. People in Venice move   5  by boat.  They like to enjoy the scenery and cool summer nights while  6 boat trips. They can talk to other people as they go along.

    Venice grew out of small islands in saltwater lakes when some Italians    7    from a war over 1,500 years ago, and built homes there.

    Water makes the city special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange8. One moment they walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there's 9   . Butwhen they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone is wearing rain shoes.

    Once, people used 10  underground water. This made the city get lower   11  .Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the   12 seawater.The temperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean(北冰洋) melt.

    Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter.  When a lot of water   13   , more than half of the city is underwater.

    Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting   14 lower. The Italian government has asked some of Italy's biggest companies to build the MOST project, which was planned  15   under the seawater to stop the rising water. Anyway, this project is helping solve the problem.