Many people believe that the glare from snow causes snowblindness. Yet, dark glasses or not, they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snowblindness, when exposed to several hours of "snow light". The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain. So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offsets this irritation by producing more and more fluid which covers the eyeballs. The fluid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs, then is obscured, and the result is total, even though temporary, snowblindness. Experiments led to the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop scouring the snow-blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome.

“GRADUATION equals unemployment” has long been a common saying in China (the nouns share a character). It is often used in jest(玩笑) by university students as final exams loom. But for the 9million or so due to graduate in June—a (1)_______ high—the words convey a dark (2)_______. Companies normally begin scouring campuses for recruits soon after the spring-festival holiday (another big hiring round takes place in the autumn). This time, however, with universities (3)______ and big gatherings banned, the entire process was “wiped out”, says a business veteran. Some employers have gone (4)_______, using video interviews and online tests. But many, reeling from(从....中恢复) the impact of work stoppages and still-tepid(不热的;一般的) consumer demand, have cut hiring. A(5)______ of 1 million companies by Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and Zhaopin, a job-search site, found there were 30% fewer openings in the first quarter compared with last year. With less competition, firms that are still hiring can pick the best and (6)______. But they are also likely to plump for old hands rather than trainees. Competition for graduate jobs had already grown fierce in recent years, particularly for the most prestigious positions. Now it is cut-throat. Miriam Zhang, a graduate from Weifang, a city in the northern province of Shandong, has sent out 100 (7)_______ in the past two months and got (8)________ to six only. One job, she heard, had attracted 3,000 hopefuls. At least the epidemic has helpfully “weeded out(铲除)” weak or dodgy(冒牌的) companies, Ms Zhang notes. She is now keener than ever to get hired by a big firm, and is mainly searching for openings at state-owned companies. In a survey by China Youth Daily, an official newspaper, more than 60% of respondents said covid-19 had (9)______ them towards “more stable” work. To many that means finding an employer with links to the government. Officials are trying to satisfy such demand. They have promised more openings in the civil service (not least in rural areas) as well as in the army. They have directed state-owned businesses to boost their recruitment of new graduates. The government has also told universities to offer an (10)________ 200,000 places for graduate studies. Now all companies both big and small are scrambling to avoid (11)______,and even bankrupcies(破产). Hiring should be the least of their concerns,especially hiring fresh graduates. As graduates, there is not much they can do to change their (12)_______. But complaining about life being unfair is of no avail. Right now they are supposed to focus on things they can do ,like sharpening up their skills and enhancing their competitiveness.