4 . It was just before Christmas that my brother Jeremy and I were ready to watch a Nationals baseball game. We_________it very early that morning. With his brown beard to his chest, Jeremy was in a bright Nationals-red shirt and pale khaki shorts, in the_________of baseball.

On the subway, Jeremy caught the_________of a five-year-old girl. She stared at him, trying to_________the world’s greatest mystery.

Jeremy is always_________with children, and in his deep, charming voice said, “Hello!” The little girl could not contain her_________. She cried, “Santa!” Jeremy leaned down to her and _________ , “How did you know it was me?”

“Oh, it was the _________. No one has one like that but Father Christmas!” The little girl said. She_________ “Santa” up and down. “But, why isn’t your beard__________?” she asked.

Jeremy was__________. “Before Christmas, Santa goes undercover. I dye my beard brown so that people won’t__________it’s me.” he explained, “Now you know my secret so you can’t tell anyone.”

The little girl nodded with__________ , her eyes never leaving “Santa”.

As the little girl hopped off the subway, Jeremy called out. “I’ll see you at__________! Be good!”

“I will! Your secret is__________ with me, Santa!” she called back.

5 . Experts often tell students to center their efforts on a narrow field to get a job after school.     1    

One of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Danish scientist Morten Meldal, who is 68 years old and works at the University of Copenhagen. When describing his career, Meldal said he started out as an engineer but changed to chemistry because he “wanted to understand the world.”

    2     They might believe they have to center their work and school lives in one field to be successful. But a study from professors at Michigan State University shows that is not always the case. The researchers looked into past Nobel Prize winners and their students.     3     some of what they learned from their teachers is how to live a life with many interests. They are, in a way, learning how to be creative.

Nobel winners are nine times more likely to have experience in working with wood, metal or in the arts than most scientists. The researchers also found that the Nobel winners have an open mind about their life experiences. Unlike many people who spend long hours at work and give up their outside interests,     4    

The researchers say that, even among people who do not win big prizes, those with many interests are often successful. They pointed to a 2022 report about students who study two major fields in college.     5     Double majors are often more creative and more interested in starting their own businesses than those who centered on only one study area.

6 . Italian company Lablaco is working with fashion houses and brands to digitize their clothes in the growing “phygital” fashion market. Lablaco was founded in 2016 by Lorenzo Albrighi and Eliana Kuo, who both had backgrounds in luxury fashion. They were looking to improve the industry’s sustainability and promote circular fashion — the practice of designing and producing clothes in a way that reduces waste.

Pushing fashion into digital spaces helps generate data that is vital in efforts to move toward circular fashion. With Lablaco’s model, customers can buy both a physical fashion item and its digital “twin” designed to be collected or worn in virtual environments. The physical and digital items remain paired even after sale, so if a physical item is resold, the digital one is transferred to the new owner’s digital wallet. The item’s creator can follow its after-sales journey. Without digitizing the product, as Albrighi emphasizes, there wouldn’t be any data to analyze and understand the fashion’s impact.

The fashion industry creates roughly 92 million tons of waste annually, and it is believed that digital fashion could have a role in reducing that figure. Kuo said digital spaces could be used as a test bed for the physical world. For example, a designer could release an item of digital clothing in 10 colors in digital spaces, and use the sales data to inform which colors to use for the real-world version. This on-demand model can help reduce fashion waste. Trying on virtual clothes could also reduce the amount of clothes that are returned in the physical world. Additionally, staging fashion shows in virtual spaces reduces the need for the fashion world to travel, thereby reducing its carbon footprint.

But for this innovation to become widespread, Albrighi says motivating brands is the key. With the phygital model, they can receive royalties (版税) when an item is sold and resold throughout its lifetime — a way to “produce less and actually earn more”.

7 . Most animals are active around people, which makes observing them in the wild a challenging effort for researchers. The issue is worsened with naturally shy creatures like emperor penguins (企鹅), who show signs of physical sorrow in front of humans.

The French scientist Le Maho and his team began a project to test if sending tiny robots to collect the required information would affect the penguins as harmfully. They began by fitting 34 emperor penguins with outside heart rate monitors, which could be read from a distance of 60 centimeters. They then sent a simple, four wheeled robot into a place of hatching penguins that were stationary because they were using their legs to protect eggs.

Though the penguins were a little alarmed and even cried, they did allow the robot to read their heart monitors. Even more encouraging was the fact that as soon as the robot stopped moving, the penguins' heart rates returned to normal, much more rapidly than when humans entered the place.

However, for the extremely shy emperor penguins it was still too disturbing. After some discussions, their first attempt failed terribly. Fortunately, the scientists decided to try to cover the robot as a penguin chick for Le Maho's team, a British production company working on a news film, and it was also trying getting into the penguin place using secret cameras. The two worked together to create a lovely chick robot that the emperor penguins immediately considered as one of their own.

Covered in soft fuzz (绒毛) just like a real baby emperor penguin, it is so believable that the chicks gather around it, just as they do with each other. The penguins not only accept the robot, but they even sing to it, and appear a little disappointed when the “chick” doesn't respond—an error the scientists plan to correct with the next group of robot penguins. Not surprisingly, the penguins show almost no stress as the lovely “spy” walks around the place, gathering all kinds of information about their day-to-day lives.

8 . Ice Cold Coca-Cola Instant Win Game

If you are eager for a trip to Hawaii but short of money, then come to this game, which is right for you. The prize is a 6-night Hawaiian getaway for 4 from Coca-Cola, including a day trip to the Volcanoes National Park where an active volcano and more are waiting for you to explore.

A product code from a Coca-Cola l2 pack should be submitted to enter. You can submit up to 3 codes per day to increase your chances of winning. The game begins on November 1,2023,and ends on January 31,2024.

The Ice Cold Coca-Cola Instant Win Game, which is administrated by the Hello World, Inc, is now sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company.13-year or older children who are legal residents of the U.S. have the right qualifications to enter for it. Employees of the Coca-Cola company and any agencies involved in the development of the game will not be able to enter or win any prize in this game.

Grand prizes:

·A trip for four to Hilo, Hawaii

·6 nights’ accommodations at the sponsor's choice of hotel

·A $800 allowance for rental cars

·$3,000 that may be used for spending toward taxes and travel agent services.

·A round trip and economy class air transportation for 4 from a major airport near the winner's home

Extra considerations:

·The winner and his or her guests must travel on the same route.

·The winner must complete the trip within one year, otherwise the prize will be cancelled.