Love the way you walk
Listen carefully to the footsteps in the family home, and you can probably work out who is walking about. The features most commonly used to identify people are faces, voices and fingerprints. But the way they walk is also a giveaway.
Researchers have used video cameras and computers to analyze people’s gaits, and are now quite good at it. But translating such knowledge into a practical identification system can be tricky. Cameras are often visible, are difficult to set up, require good lighting and may have their view blocked by other people. A team led by Dr. Ozanyan and Dr. Scully have been looking for a better way to recognize gait. Their answer: pressure-sensitive mats.
Such mats are nothing new. They have been a part of security system. But Ozanyan and Scully use a complicated version that can record the amount of pressure applied in different paces as someone walks across it. These measurements form a pattern unique to the walker. The researchers turned to an artificial-intelligence system to recognize such patterns, and it seemed to work. In a study in 2018, they tested the system on a database of footsteps of 127 people. They found its error rate in identifying who was a mere 0. 7%. And Scully says even without a database of footsteps to work with, the system can determine some’s sex and, with reasonable accuracy, a subject’s age.
One application of the mat-based gait-recognition system might be in health care, particularly for the elderly. A mat placed in a nursing home or an old person’s own residence could monitor changes in an individual’s gait that indicate certain illnesses. That would provide early warning of someone being at greater risk of falling over.
Gait analysis might also be used as a security measure in the workplace, monitoring access to restricted areas, such as parts of military bases, server farms or laboratories dealing with dangerous materials.
Perhaps the most interesting use of the mats, though, would be in public places, such as airports. For that to work, the footsteps of those to be recognized would need to have been stores in a database, which would be harder to arrange than the collection of photographs and fingerprints that existing airport security systems rely on. Many aircrew or preregistered frequent flyers would welcome anything that speeded up one of the most tiresome modern travel.
1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?| A．Research equipment | B．Research findings. |
| C．Research assumptions(假设) | D．Research background. |
| A．collect data | B．ensure safety | C．determine age | D．analyse pressure |
| A．monitor security work progress | B．find potential health problems |
| C．keep track of travelling frequency | D．warn passengers of possible dangers |
| A．compare and educate | B．examine and assess(评估) |
| C．discuss and persuade | D．explain and inform |
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【推荐1】If you live in Washington, D. C., you may have noticed a small, boxy robot rolling along a local sidewalk (人行道), focusing on its own business, but attracting the attention of plenty of people passing by wherever it goes.
The robots, which look like cute electric rice cookers with wheels, were part of an experimental program last year by Starship Technologies. They focused on delivering meals from local restaurants in dozens of cities around the world.
This week, the company showed plans to broaden its delivery service beyond food to include packages, a move that made it “the world’s first robot package delivery service”. The package delivery service can only be applied in some cities in the US.
The wheeled robots can carry about nine kilograms and deliver the goods to a place about five kilometers away. They have a top speed of 4 mph and can detect barriers（检测路障）from as far as 30 feet away. “The robot can operate through just about anything,” says Nick Handrick, head of operations for Starship’s D. C. office, “If there is something in the way, it’s able to climb it. It can also be aware of whether it’s safe to cross the road.” By giving customers control of when deliveries happen, Starship Technologies is selling its service as a way to combat packages being stolen.
To make use of the service, which costs a little more than $10 per month, customers need to download the company’s app. Customers then create a “Starship Delivery Address,” a unique address inside a Starship facility, instead of a home address, where they can have packages sent from places such as Amazon. com.
Once a package is delivered to the Starship address, customers receive a text notice on their mobile phones that allows them to plan a home delivery through robot. The robots are opened by customers with a mobile phone code (代码), and then customers can pick up what they have bought.
1. What do you know about Starship Technologies company?| A．Its robots can only deliver meals in the US. |
| B．Its delivery service is the best of all in the world. |
| C．Packages are delivered by its robots all round America. |
| D．It is the first company to provide robot package delivery service. |
| A．Find. | B．Stop. | C．Report. | D．Suggest. |
| A．Customers have to pay a little more than $10 each time. |
| B．Starship Delivery Address is the customer’s home address. |
| C．Customers can’t open the robots without a mobile phone code. |
| D．Robots themselves have control over when to deliver packages. |
| A．Humans are being replaced by robots. |
| B．Packages can be delivered by robots. |
| C．Everything can be done by delivery robots. |
| D．Delivery robots are popular around the world. |
【推荐2】What inventions have had the greatest impact on the way we live? Most people would mention the wheel, the printing press, the internet, and so on. But pause for a moment and consider the following four contenders.
Standard time
Time has always existed, but “standard time” hasn’t. Imagine the world today if our clocks weren’t synchronized. In the 18th and 19th centuries, towns around the world used their own local time, which was different from town to town. This meant that a train could arrive in one town before it had officially left the previous one! Time zones across the world were only standardized at the beginning of the 20th century, enabling international air travel and global business to take place.
The light bulb
When the electric light bulb first appeared in the 19th century, it came with a warning sign to be placed on the wall next to the bulb: “Do not attempt to light with a match.” Now, perhaps more than any other object in our lives, we take it for granted. Light bulbs light up our cities and roads at night, they have led to more flexible working hours and they enable us to do much more with our free time. Imagine your evenings without electric lights!
Algorithms
An algorithm is defined as “the steps that you follow to solve a problem or reach an answer.” The first algorithms date back almost 4,000 years to the Babylonians, but the word itself comes from the 9th century Persian mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi. Algorithms started to make a big impact in the 20th century. They are central to how computers process information and they decide everything from the search results you see when you Google a word, to the time you wait at traffic lights. In fact, you could argue that we are living in the age of the algorithm. It’s a shame so few of us understand them!
Shipping containers
First used in the 1950s, shipping containers are, in many ways, the symbol of our times. They have made globalization possible. Before shipping containers, goods were loaded and unloaded by hand. Each package had to be carried onto the ship, tied down with ropes and then untied and carried out at the other hand. Just unloading a single ship could take 20 men a week, making goods from abroad very expensive. Nowadays, three people operating three cranes can unload a ship in about ten hours. The largest modern ships are four football fields long and can carry almost 15,000 containers. This has made shipping costs low, which has resulted in cheaper goods all over the world and has affected all our lives dramatically.
1. The word “synchronized” (in paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “________.”| A．made to show standardized time | B．made to adapt to the local time |
| C．made to indicate the local time accurately | D．made to ensure that trains arrive on time |
| A．Standard time. | B．The light bulb. | C．Algorithms. | D．Shipping containers. |
| A．the light bulb, shipping containers, algorithms, standard time |
| B．algorithms, the light bulb, standard time, shipping containers |
| C．shipping containers standard time. the light bulb, algorithms |
| D．standard time, algorithms, shipping containers, the light bulb |
【推荐3】A Japanese telecom company has designed a robot that it says has emotions (情绪). But rather than run in fear from it, we’ve welcomed it into our homes: Pepper, the “emotional robots” sold out within a minute of going on sale.
Created by Aldebaran Robotics and Japanese mobile giant SoftBaok, Pepper went on sale to the general public in Japan on June 20. It is “the first humanoid (类人的) robot designed to live with humans,” Aldebaran says on its website. Pepper costs about $ 1,600. And like all good mobile products, there’s a $ 120 per month data fee, as well as an $80 per month damage insurance fee. According to a news report, Pepper can pick up on human emotions and create his own using a “multi-layer neural (神经的) network.” Pepper’s touch sensors and cameras are said to influence its mood, which is displayed on the tablet-sized screen on its chest.
Pepper will sigh when unhappy, and can go around your house recording your family’s daily activity. Aldebaran says Pepper can feel “joy, surprise, anger, doubt and sadness,” but it doesn’t say how strongly it can feel these emotions. What happens when Pepper is having a bad day? Will it, like many humans, become uncooperative? Will it ask for some time alone? What happens if it knows that its purpose in life is just to take part in small talk? Thankfully, Pepper is only about four feet tall, with roller balls instead of legs, so if it is angry with and even turns on its owners, you’ll be safe if you can make it upstairs.
Aldebaran says in reality, they’re probably quite a few years away from artificial intelligence that could create real emotions. Aldebaran wasn’t immediately able to tell when Pepper will be available out of Japan, but additional sales are scheduled for July after the first 1,000 units sell out. SoftBank currently uses the robots in its stores as greeters, and it plans to offer Pepper to other stores in the future. Hopefully “boredom” is not an emotion Pepper can feel.
1. According to the author, Pepper .| A．is very popular among customers |
| B．can not only run but also show fear |
| C．is going to be sold all over the world |
| D．can deal with many kinds of housework |
| A．80 dollars. | B．120 dollars. |
| C．1,440 dollars. | D．2,400 dollars. |
| A．introduce its appearance | B．tell Pepper won’t get angry |
| C．show that safety isn’t a big problem | D．explain robots have strong emotions |
| A．Pepper cannot produce real emotions. |
| B．Pepper can feel joy, surprise and boredom. |
| C．Pepper will be sold in other countries next year. |
| D．Pepper is being used as waiters in some restaurants. |
【推荐1】Over 40 years ago, Walter Mischel, a psychologist, explored self-control in children with a simple but effective test. His test using the “marshmallow (棉花糖) test” laid the groundwork for the modern study of self-control.
Mischel and his colleagues presented a preschooler with a plate of treats such as marshmallows. The child was then told that the researcher had to leave the room for a few minutes, and if the child waited until the researcher returned, she could have two marshmallows. If not, she would be allowed to eat only one marshmallow.
In children as well as adults, willpower can be thought of as a basic ability to delay gratification (满足). Preschoolers with good self-control sacrifice the immediate pleasure of a marshmallow in order to enjoy two more at some later point.
The marshmallow test eventually led Mischel and his colleagues to develop a framework to explain our ability to delay ‘gratification. He proposed what he called a “hot-and-cool” system to explain why willpower succeeds or fails. The cool system is essentially a thinking system, reminding yourself, for instance, why you shouldn’t eat the marshmallow. The hot system, however, is emotional. It is responsible for quick responses to certain triggers (诱因)—such as eating the marshmallow without thinking of the long-term benefits.
When Mischel revisited his marshmallow-test subjects as adolescents, he found that teenagers who had waited longer for the marshmallows as preschoolers were more likely to achieve high grades, exhibit self-control in frustrating situations and concentrate.
However, the marshmallow study didn’t end there. Recently, another group of researchers tracked down 59 subjects, now in their 40s, who had participated in the marshmallow experiments as children. The researchers tested the subjects’ willpower strength with a laboratory task known to show self-control in adults. Much to their surprise, the subjects’ willpower differences had largely remained over four decades.
Research has yet to fully explain why some people are more sensitive to emotional triggers, and whether these patterns might be corrected. However, the recent findings offer a future biological research direction for the push and pull of “marshmallow”.
1. What can we know about Mischel’s test?| A．It provided a basis for the study of self-control. | B．It was interesting for kids. |
| C．It was effective to adults. | D．It was applied to primary school students. |
| A．The relationship between two systems. | B．An explanation for the research results. |
| C．The benefits of delay gratification. | D．A framework to generate delay gratification. |
| A．It’s encouraging. | B．It’s doubtful. | C．It’s exciting. | D．It’s unexpected. |
| A．Researchers have grasped different patterns of willpower. |
| B．People should try hard to have willpower. |
| C．More research into willpower needs to be done. |
| D．It’s hard to describe the sensitivity to emotional triggers. |
【推荐2】A 14-year-old teenager was named “America’s Top Young Scientist” after winning this year’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a national science competition. He was given the title for creating a bar of soap (肥皂) that fights low-grade skin cancer and also awarded $25,000 for his research.
Heman Bekele, who is a freshman at WT Woodson High School, moved to Virginia from Ethiopia, where he observed people constantly exposed to the sun and suffering from skin cancer. While he didn’t initially give it much thought, as the competition drew near, he remembered his experiences in Ethiopia and decided to focus his research on skin cancer.
Heman started doing experiments at home and doing testing on digital models. He learned much about dendritic cells (named for their tree-like branches), which boost human immune (免疫的) responses. In his submission video to 3M, Heman explains, “When skin cancer cells develop, they weaken dendritic cells in the body, allowing the cancer to take over.” He said the soap contains agents that could potentially reactivate dendritic cells that help eliminate the cancer cells.
The soap can be applied to the skin every couple of days and then the person with skin cancer will start to see progress. “The average price of skin cancer treatment in the US alone is almost $40,000, but my bar of soap only costs $8.50 to create, and it can have the same effects as something that people would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to try to get,” Heman said.
For now, Heman said he has a five-year plan. At the end of it, he hopes to have created a nonprofit organization where he can provide accessible skin cancer treatment to as many people as possible. But to achieve his goal, he would have to get his treatment through clinical trials and have it certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he said.
1. What does the author intend to tell us about Heman in paragraph 2?| A．The memory of his childhood. | B．The inspiration for his invention. |
| C．The spread of skin cancer in Africa. | D．The reason for his moving to Virginia. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Remove. | C．Awake. | D．Balance. |
| A．It is more affordable. | B．It takes effect at once. |
| C．It has fewer side effects. | D．It is suitable for all skin cancers. |
| A．Starting a nonprofit enterprise. | B．Distributing his soap to patients. |
| C．Obtaining a drug production license. | D．Applying to perform human trials. |
【推荐3】When asked in 1993 to comment on accusations that the movie In the Name of the Father distorts （曲解） contemporary British and Irish history, female lead Emma Thompson responded that she couldn't care less. Even since the premiere （首映） in 1915 of The Birth of a Nation, filmmakers have rewritten history to create top-dollar entertainment. The films are very persuasive: well-made movies hold your interest continuously, drawing your attention to “what happens next,” and pulling you forward with no time to reflect on individual scenes until the final credits roll. The result: you don't remember much about a movie after watching it for the first time. For this reason, movies have extraordinary power - unmatched by any other medium - to leave you with a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, who is bad and who is good, even though critical details presented in the movies may be false.
Well, so what? They're just movies. In fact they're not just movies. Millions of Americans are devoted history lovers, and they pack theatres every time new movies about historical figures or events come to town. Saving private Ryan and Titanic drew viewers and cash for months. Many high school teachers screen movies in the classroom. Clearly countless Americans get most of their history from television and the big screen.
Some of the industry's finest historical and period films premiered during the past decades. But the 1960s also saw a number of politically charged history-based movies full of factual distortions and, occasionally, outright lies. Today the trend continues on a larger scale: many movies released in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21*t century reflect lack of respect for solid, reliable history.
History Goes to the Movies is a source of information and, it is hoped, entertainment for everyone interested in the actual history behind a wide selection of movies grouped into twelve sections--11 covering historical periods and events and twelfth containing biographies and period films. Each movie review includes an essay on the history covered in one or more movies, and a brief plot summary. Star ratings (five stars: don't miss it) reflect each movie's historical accuracy and - to a much lesser extent --- its power to amuse.
Obviously, expecting textbook accuracy from movies would be ridiculous-and producers have delivered a remarkable number of historically faithful movies. But some of them get too much of their history wrong. History Goes to the Movies is a guide, however imperfect, for readers and viewers aiming to get it right.
1. Emma Thompson said ________ that In the Name of the Father was historically inaccurate.| A．it didn't matter. | B．it was upsetting. |
| C．It aroused her attention. | D．it wasn't obvious. |
| A．some movies are much more profitable than others |
| B．movies serve more purposes than entertaining views |
| C．movies tend to provide viewers with false details |
| D．the movies about historical figures attract history lovers |
| A．It is aimed at those who take interest in biographies. |
| B．It rates a movie mainly according to how amusing it is. |
| C．It introduces a movie's story as well as its related history. |
| D．It focuses on the movies that presented history in a funny way. |
| A．criticize the film industry's favoring entertainment over truth |
| B．point out which films presented history in a wrong way. |
| C．call on film directors to show respect for history |
| D．introduce a book involving history-based films |
