Modern media is awash in advertising clutter(杂乱), and who’s to blame? Modern audiences that hate conventional full-length and full-size ads.

Today’s consumers don’t like to pay for content, which ought to create a rich environment for advertisers. Yet these same consumers are prone to click or turn away when a conventional ad appears. The result is ad clutter.

YouTube     1    a combination of full-length ads, skippable ads, lower-screen banners and display ads on the page alongside each video. Newspapers that once considered the front page important now     2    run ads there.

Advertisers integrate plugs(推销) into content to frustrate digital video recorders, which allow viewers to watch programs on a delay and skip regular commercials. If you watch regional telecasts of baseball games, the commercial clutter is so     3    . Ads are visible on the stadium wall behind the home-plate umpire(裁判). On-screen graphics include sponsor logos. And everything is a paid plug--“This call to the coach’s zone is brought to you by Verizon.”

According to the showbiz paper Variety, several streaming services are about to introduce a new twist: commercials that start running whenever a viewer pauses a program. Hulu intends to launch such ads this year. AT&T’s DirecTV and U-verse units will     4    use similar technology to trigger full-motion commercials whenever a viewer tries to take a break.

There’s a lot at stake. According to Variety, National Football League(NFL) TV broadcasts generate an estimated $4.35 billion in ad revenue during the 17-week regular season. NFL     5    are now loaded with mini commercials that pop up when there is a brief pause in the action, often in “double boxes” that show a view of the field in one frame and a(n)    6    in the other.

Interestingly, with no “screen” to work with, radio is one medium that has tried for some time to buck the trend. Many commercial stations trade clutter for clusters--that is, a solid block of commercials running five minutes or more, followed by lengthy commercial-free     7    of time.

But wherever a screen is involved, or a printed page, ad clutter is     8    everywhere. Programmers and advertisers can’t really be expected to limit this; it’s a fact of business. Consumers, on the other hand, can opt for commercial-free content--if they’re willing to pay for it.

But getting limitless content without paying while also being     9    heavy advertising intrusions is impossible. As media environment is permanently cluttered, audiences should be     10    with what they wish for.

American authorities arrested Masphal Kry, an official in Cambodia’s forestry administration, last November when he was heading to an international meeting about trade regulations for endangered species in Panama. Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with a smuggling ring. The contraband (违禁品): monkeys,     1     long-tailed macaques. His     2     allegedly grabbed wild macaques in Cambodia’s national parks and bribed officials to label them as captive-bred. Fake papers allowed Vanny Bio Research, a Cambodian pharma company, to ship these unfortunate primates (灵长类动物) to America for use in research. Mr Kry is facing trial in Florida’s Southern District Court. The federal government funds seven National Primate Research Centres (NPRCs), which     3     in total around 20,000 primates, not only macaques but also baboons and marmosets. These centres then     4     primates to labs across America. NPRCs have fulfilled only a third of requests for untested-on macaques in 2021 and prices have soared. Before the covid-19 pandemic a rhesus macaque cost $8,000; by 2022 they had     5     $24,000. Another species, long-tail macaques, is probably per pound currently the most expensive     6     wildlife, says Lisa Jones-Engel, a science adviser at PETA, an animal-rights group.

Getting lab monkeys from abroad became harder during the pandemic. Chinese authorities banned the export of all primates in early 2020. The Chinese government wanted to     7     the country’s wildlife trade, which is thought to encourage the     8     of pathogens—like sars-cov-2—from animals to humans.

That forced American companies to rely on less     9     South-East Asian suppliers. Many scientists believe poaching is prevalent across Cambodia. In February, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Charles River over 1,000 juvenile macaques the pharmaceutical company had bought from Cambodia; the DoJ suspected they were     10     in the wild then exported. These primates are now in Texas and Maryland but also in dilemma: they cannot be tested on, nor can they be flown back to Cambodia.

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

No child or young athlete should be subjected to genetic testing to find sporting talent or improve performance, conclude the experts in a statement published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The scientific evidence on the effectiveness of these     1     tests is simply far too weak to back their use, says the experts in the fields of genomics, exercise, sports performance, etc. While the science of genomics has advanced rapidly over the past decade, the ability to interpret the meaning of genetic test results is still at a relatively early stage.

But that has not stopped the growth of the “direct to consumer” genetic tests, which claim to be able to spot children’s athletic talents or tailor training to     2     performance. This fast - growing market has caused fears that the still limited level of knowledge on the genetics of sports performance is being     3     for commercial gain.

To inform the statement, the panel looked at the availability of DIY genetic tests. It found 39 companies     4     tests associated with sport or exercise performance or injury - almost twice as many as in 2018.

The claims included: “    5     your training based on your sports genetics,” “Give parents and coaches early information on their child’s genetic     6     for success for sports,” and “We use your DNA results to help you lose fat, build muscle, get fitter.”

But the     7     of any good scientific data to guide selection of which variants to test weakens the value of multiple testing. Besides, while there is some evidence to suggest a link with enhanced physical performance, it is very weak, making the     8     value of these tests “actually zero,” says the statement.

The statement emphasizes the     9     of change in gene sequencing technology has got much faster than regulation. And it points out the importance of counselling before any genetic test is taken.

“While further evidence will undoubtedly emerge around the genetics of sport performance in the future, the data are currently very     10    . Therefore, in this stage of limited knowledge, no child or young athlete should be exposed to genetic testing to define or alter training or for talent identification aimed at selecting gifted children or adolescents,” it concludes.

If you see a house cat, the    1    are high that it will have white paws, a look that many owners affectionately call“socks.” But socks are rarely seen in wildcats, the elusive and undomesticated cousin of the house cat, so why do so many pet cats sport furry white feet?

As it turns out, this story started about 10,000 years ago, when humans and cats     2       life was better together.

This    3    eventually led to uber-prevalent socks on cats, as well as other well-known coat patterns, said Leslie Lyons, professor emerita and head of the Feline Genetics Laboratory at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine.

“As humans became farmers and started staying in one place, they had grain stores and waste piles” that attracted rodents, Lyons said. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement: the humans had fewer rodents to deal with and the cats got an easy meal.

The wild, undomesticated ancestor species of house cats, Felis silvestris, lives in Africa and Eurasia. These felines are tasty snacks as kittens and stealthy predators as adults, so     4     born with a coat that offers camouflage (保护色) have tended to survive and reproduce.

But not every F. silvestiis is born with a coat that blends into its habitat.

“Genetic mutations are occurring all the time.” Lyons said.

There isn’t much evidence to indicate why early cat people chose the individuals they did, but Lyons said the range of coats seen on modern domestic cats shows that our agrarian ancestors favored cats with markings that would have     5    with their camouflage.

In its native mixed forest or scrub desert environment, a cat with stark white paws would have stood out to predators and prey.

When humans started taking an interest in cats, these white paws would have stood out to them, too. “There were probably people saying, ‘I particularly like that kitten because it has white feet . Let’s make sure it survives’”, Lyons said.

Humans probably also    6    cats who were calm and comfortable around humans, Lyons said. Behavioral traits seem unrelated to coat color, but for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand, white spots tend to appear when the     7    individuals are selected and bred.

These    8    fur colors and markings emerge while a cat embryo is developing. The cells that give cat fur its color first appear as neural crest cells, which are located along what will become the back, Lyons said.

Then, those cells slowly migrate down and around the body. If those waves of cells move far enough to meet each other on the cat’s front side, the embryo will be born a solid-colored kitten, such as an all-black or all-orange cat. Felines     9    white feet, faces, chests and bellies when these cells don’t quite make it all the way.

So, the next time you see a kitty wearing white socks, you’ll know that this     10     feature is a result of genetic mutations, domestication and developmental biology. Although if you try telling the cat that, it will probably just look at you quizzically before sauntering away.

This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty discomfort. In the U.S. alone, it kills more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. As climate change worsens, access to     1     cooled spaces is rapidly becoming a health necessity.

Yet standard air-conditioning systems have     2     us in a vicious cycle: the hotter it is, the more people use the AC—and the more energy is used as a result. Nicole Miranda, an engineer researching sustainable cooling at the University of Oxford says: “it’s not only a vicious cycle, but it’s a(n)     3     one.” According to 2018 data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide annual energy demand from cooling is     4     to more than triple by 2050.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that humans cannot outrun climate change with the same air-conditioning technology we’ve been using. One well-known problem with current AC systems is their reliance on refrigerant     5    , many of which are potential greenhouse gases. About 80 percent of a standard AC unit’s climate-warming emissions currently come from the energy used to     6     it, says Nihar Shah, director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Standard air-conditioning systems     7     cool and dehumidify through a relatively inefficient mechanism: in order to condense water out of the air, they overcool that air past the point of comfort. Many new designs therefore separate the dehumidification and cooling processes, which avoids the need to overcool.

Even with some of the best technologies available, the gains in     8     alone might not be enough to offset the widely expected increase in air-conditioning use. It will not work to simply replace every     9     air conditioner with a better model and call it a day. Instead, a truly cooler future will have to     10     other strategies that rely on urban planning and building design to minimize the need for cooling in the first place.

Construction of the world’s largest radio astronomy observatory, the Square Kilometre Array, has    1    begun in Australia after three decades in development.

A huge intergovernmental effort, the SKA has been hailed as one of the biggest scientific projects of this century. It will enable scientists to look back to early in the history of the universe when the first stars and galaxies were     2    .

It will also be used to     3    dark energy and why the universe is expanding, and to       4    search for extraterrestrial life.

The SKA will       5     involve two telescope arrays — one on Wajarri country in remote Western Australia, called SKA-Low, comprising 131,072 tree-like antennas. SKA-Low is so named for its sensitivity to low-frequency radio signals. It will be eight times as sensitive than existing comparable telescopes and will     6    the sky 135 times faster.

A second array of 197 traditional dishes, SKA-Mid, will be built in South Africa’s Karoo region.

Dr Sarah Pearce, SKA-Low’s director, said the observatory would define “the next fifty years for radio astronomy, charting the birth and death of galaxies, searching for new types of gravitational waves and expanding the    7    of what we know about the universe”.

She added: “The SKA telescopes will be sensitive enough to detect an airport radar on a planet circling a star tens of light years away, so may even answer the biggest question of all: are we alone in the universe?”

The SKA has been described by scientists as a gamechanger and a major milestone in astronomy research.

“To put the sensitivity of the SKA into     8    , it could detect a mobile phone in the pocket of an astronaut on Mars, 225m kilometres away,” said Dr Danny Price, a senior postdoctoral fellow at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy. “More excitingly, if there are intelligent     9     on nearby stars with technology similar to ours, the SKA could detect the aggregate ‘leakage’ radiation from their radio and telecommunication networks — the first telescope sensitive enough to achieve this feat.”

Prof Alan Duffy, director of the space technology and industry institute at the Swinburne University of Technology, said the SKA would probably be the largest telescope     10    , “connecting across continents to create a world-spanning facility allowing us to see essentially across the entire observable universe”.

Pokemon Stickers Are Back for Koreans Nostalgic (怀旧的) for Childhood

Small pastries include a surprise sticker, and the goal is to find all 159 varieties — just like a trend more than 20 years ago.

Jeong Bo-ram’s new fascination has him     1     mass-produced pastries(糕点), delivery trucks and his childhood memories. His     2     are $1.20 bakery items sold with random Pokemon stickers that fly off store shelves in South Korea.

Just a few short of a full 159-sticker collection, 29-year-old Mr. Jeong has gone to more than 10 convenience stores and supermarkets a day, often leaving empty-handed. He has paid hundreds of dollars. He has learned the evening     3     times throughout his neighborhood to know when fresh drop-offs occur.

More than two decades ago, the Pokemon sticker-treat duo caught on with a generation of South Korean children, before the craze passed after a few years and the products were discontinued. Now the goodies are back just in time for the country’s broader retro boom,     4     by adults nostaglic for simpler times.

South Koreans are going to great     5     to live out the Pokemon tagline of “Gotta catch ’em all,” with some     6     the stickers in display booklets. Pokemon, originally a Japanese game for the Nintendo Game Boy that     7     hundreds of monster characters, has expanded into globally popular animated series, toys and video-games,     8     the recent hit Pokemon Go for smartphones.

Retailers have posted signs on their entrances that read, “We have no Pokemon bread,” while some store owners are     9     of bundling the in-demand pastries with unpopular items. Hunters camp outside supermarkets early in the morning. The rarest of stickers, such as that of the legendary characters Mew (梦幻) and Mewtwo (超梦), fetch $40 online. A full collection     10     more than $700, the listings show. Actual children also try to find the stickers, but adults are using their greater resources for the hunt.

Ko Hyo-jin shrieked when she ripped open a package of “Diglett Strawberry Custard Bread” recently and discovered inside a sticker of Mewtwo - a two-legged monster shown extending its paw. She immediately dialed up her husband. “It felt like winning the lottery,” said the 39-year-old homemaker in the Seoul Suburbs.

The nostalgic chase has been embraced by young adults facing Korea’s stagnant economy, soaring real-estate prices and a tight labor market.

Hamlet is the most     1     of William Shakespeare’s plays. While you read this article, somewhere there is an actor on a stage pouring out his heart to the audience.

The character of Hamlet has a personal, painful quality that still draws readers and playgoers today as it did 400 years ago. The problems he faces, such as what is     2    and how he should respond to events, are ones we all face in our lives.

Hamlet is the young prince of Denmark. At the beginning, he is sad about his dead father. Everyone else around him is     3     the marriage of his mother Gertrude to her brother-in-law Claudius, the new king. Hamlet thinks that the short time between the death of his father and the marriage of his mother and uncle is     4     .

Hamlet is told that a spirit has been walking around Elsinore castle. He meets it and it says that his father was killed, and by his brother Claudius — it was “murder most horrid (可怕的)”! Now, the ghost instructs him, it is his     5     to avenge (报仇).

Hamlet is in a terrible position. He does not know whether the ghost is who he says he is, or a being sent by the devil (魔鬼). Matters are     6     because Claudius is suspicious of his nephew. There is a cat-and-mouse game played between the king and Hamlet.

Hamlet has a play performed for the king which stages the way the ghost told him of his father’s murder. Claudius reacts with horror, proving to hamlet that he is     7    . But Hamlet misses the opportunity to take his revenge.

He tells Gertrude he hates her     8     to Claudius. During their meeting he kills Polonius, who is the father of his love, Ophelia. Then, Lacerates comes back to the court. He’s heard that his father, Polonius, has been killed, so he wants to kill Hamlet.

Cunning (奸诈的) Claudius attempts to play Lacerates and Hamlet against each other, and in the final scene it all goes horribly wrong.

One     9     speech in the play begins “to be or not to be”: it is about how Hamlet can’t decide whether to get out of his bad situation by killing himself. Hamlet is a thinking man. One who thinks too much in the world where others, like Claudius, show no     10    .

In the Journal of Social Psychology, two U. S. researchers published the first serious study of a question that seems to be troubling millions. Almost every     1     from Bill Gates to Kesha, is required to have an answer: What advice would you give to your younger self?

Robin Kowalski and Annie McCord asked more than 400 participants, all     2     over 30. They got some entertaining replies like “Don’t marry her”. But we’re little closer to making clear the     3     that has always bothered me: What, precisely, do people take themselves to be doing when they ask themselves this question?

Pretty     4    , it rests on a paradox(悖论). You only acquired the wisdom on which your advice is based by making the mistakes you’re now advising your     5     self to avoid. For example, many respondents gave some answers “Stop being so afraid” - of failure, of other people’s judgements, of life. Excellent advice, but you’ll never feel its force until you’ve first acted afraid and seen where that got you.     6    , as the saying goes, is a harsh teacher. It makes you sit the test first and only gives you the lesson afterwards.

Of course, if “advising your younger self” were just a happiness - boosting technique to remind you of what you’ve learned in life, nobody could     7    . However, browsing the replies to the study, what you sense, far more frequently, is regret. People truly wish they had not married so young, chosen a career to please their parents, or spent the money instead of saving it. And this only brings into focus on the     8     that regret is a basically self-contradictory(自相矛盾的)emotion. You’re feeling it because you’ve grown into the kind of person who can look back     9     on what you did in the past. This means that, judged by your     10     values, you’ve emerged from your life experience better than before. Therefore you ought to be happy rather than regretful.

The important thing isn’t what you might have done differently in the past, if you had been someone that you couldn’t have been back then. It’s what you’d do now. For many people, I know, this can be a huge challenge. But unlike changing the past, it has the great advantage of not being impossible.