1 . Unless you are like Nasty Gal’s founder Sophia Amoruso, the passwords you use to access your email and the endless other accounts you need for work aren’t filled with intention. With increasing security requirements, it’s likely your word/number combinations are becoming even less memorable. But new research suggests it may not be long before you won’t need to memorize passwords.

“Brainprint”, published in Neurocomputing, reveals that the brain’s reaction to certain words could be a unique identifying code — like a fingerprint — that could eventually replace passwords.

In a small experiment, the researchers measured the brains’ signals of 45 volunteers as they read through a list of 75 acronyms such as FBI and DVD. The word-recognition response differed so much between each participant that a second experiment using a computer program could identify each one with 94% accuracy.

It’s not enough to feel totally secure, but promising enough to hint at the future of securing sensitive information.

The advantage of using such a biometric system (生物识别系统) is that it can be used for continuous verification (验证), New Scientist points out. Passwords or fingerprints only provide a tool for one-off identification. Continuous verification could in theory allow someone to interact with many computer systems at the same time or even with a variety of intelligent objects, without having to repeatedly enter passwords for each device.

As Hollywood has illustrated, it’s simply a matter of cutting off a finger to steal that person’s identity. “Brainprints, on the other hand, are potentially cancellable,” said Sarah Laszlo, assistant professor of psychology and linguistics at Binghamton University and co-author of the study, “So, in the unlikely event that attackers were actually able to steal a brainprint from an authorized user, the authorized user could then ‘reset’ their brainprint.”

Until now, brain signals have been a challenge to understand. This experiment leaped over the obstacle by focusing on the brainwaves from the specific area that reads and recognizes words. The signal is therefore clearer and easier to measure.

The problem, so far, is that the brain signal is still not as accurate as scanning someone’s fingerprint, and initially requires sticking diodes (二极管) on your head in order to get a read. That’s ok, according to Zhanpeng Jin, assistant professor at Binghamton University and coauthor of the study, because brainprint isn’t going to be mass-produced any time soon. He says the researchers foresee its use at places such as the Pentagon, where the number of authorized users is small, and they don’t need to be continuously verified the way you do to access your mobile device or email.

Better keep your memory sharp, at least a little while longer.

1. In paragraph 5, “one-off identification” refers to the identification that _______.

A．happens as part of a regular series	B．interacts with intelligent objects
C．can be verified continuously	D．needs repeated verification

2. According to Sarah Laszlo, _______.

A．fingerprints can be canceled once stolen	B．brainprints are theft-proof and resettable
C．attackers can steal and replace brainprints	D．users have the authority to cancel brainprints

3. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A．brainprints will sharpen users’ memory	B．brainprints will become easier to be measured
C．brainprints will receive narrow application	D．brainprints will eventually replace fingerprints

4. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

A．Brainprints: A New Way to Replace Passwords

B．Brainprints: A Unique Device to Identify Codes

C．Brainprints: A Quicker Way to Access Your Email

D．Brainprints: A Securer Device to Identify Brain Signals

2 . Farms of the Future

Skyscrapers(摩天大楼) are the ultimate symbol of urban life. By 2050, almost 80 percent of the earth’s population could live in cities. The human population could increase to 9.1 billion people yet the amount of land available for farming will be the same.     1    

Vertical farms, where farmers could grow crops in environmentally friendly skyscrapers, could be the solution. In spite of concerns over high costs, experts want to make these urban farms a reality and use these skyscrapers to grow crops.     2    

Vertical farms would have many advantages, experts say. The food would be grown with minimal effects on the environment. Unlike traditional farming, vertical farming would not force animals out of their habitats by taking over large areas of land, nor would it pollute the air with the use of heavy farming equipment.     3     These have been well recognized.

Growing prosperity has led to many people demanding that all foods are available all year round. Indoor farming could produce crops constantly and crops would not suffer from weather-related problems like drought or flooding. In addition, the use of agricultural chemicals for controlling insects would be minimal.

    4     They point out that although crops growing in a tall glass building would get natural sunlight during the day, it wouldn’t be enough. The plants closest to the windows would grow much more quickly than the plants further inside. The plants growing away from the windows may not produce as many or as high quality vegetables.     5     They would need additional light sources.

Experts agree that the new farming practices are needed to support the planet’s need for more and more food at affordable costs, both to the farmer and to the consumer. Vertical farms may be a small-scale answer, but the best ideas could be yet to come.

A．Still, there are some people who are critical of vertical farms.

B．That is where vertical farms are often needed for year-round crops.

C．So how to meet the increasing food needs of our planet could be a big problem.

D．For these reasons, natural light cannot be a workable solution for vertical farms.

E．Vertically grown food is grown in environmentally controlled conditions in big cities.

F．Those farms would also reduce the cost and negative effects of transporting food over distances.

G．They believe that we can increase the food production by changing our thinking from out to up.