Tired of his staff always keeping checking emails and the sound of their smart phones, Paul Devoy decided to ban all phones, tablets and laptops from meetings. He says meetings have become much more productive.
It is true that the sound of the phones has a harmful effect on our ability to concentrate. One Standford University study shows that people who regularly deal with electronic alerts and messages do not pay attention or control their memory as well as those who concentrate on doing one thing at a time.
Mr Devoy introduced his ban on technology in meetings, but he says exceptions are made if important personal calls are expected.
''These things need to be reasonable, '' he says, adding he was surprised to find that his staff all accepted the ban and some were even enthusiastic about the ban.
Mr Devoy has gone a step further in his purge(清除)of technology. He has banned PowerPoint presentations from meetings, and finds that discussion now flows more freely.
Nena Chaletzos, leader and founder of online travel start-up Luxtripper, is also a supporter of tech-free meetings. She runs her company’s weekly meeting without phones or laptops. Instead, for the one-hour meeting, her team of eight are asked to bring along the A3 whiteboard they have each been given, on which they write meeting notes and action points. At the end of the meeting, everyone's actions for the week are agreed. The whiteboards are kept on show and tasks are erased as they are completed.
''I tell them to bring their ideas and brains to the meeting, not their technology, '' Ms Chaletzos says. Once the meeting went on for three hours, discussion is now so much more focused and productive that it can be kept to a strict 60 minutes, she says. At first, the staff worried about customers being unable to reach them, but Ms Chaletzos told them that all they needed was a warning. An unexpected result, she says, is that meetings are much more friendly and open.
Technology is still very much used at the start-up but only at the right time. For example, Ms Chaletzos' team use Slack, which has helped end the need for other meetings.
1.Why did Paul Devoy ban phones from meetings?
A.Because his staff wasted too much time on emails.
B.Because phones weakened his staff's ability to focus.
C.Because he doesn't like the sound of smart phones.
D.Because his staff are buried in their personal affairs.
2.A study from Stanford University is mentioned to ______.
A.introduce Nena Chaletzo's decision
B.prove the harm the sound of smart phones causes
C.show Paul Devoy's decision is right
D.give a similar story to the one mentioned above
3.If a person in Paul Devoy's company is allowed to answer personal calls during the meeting, ___.
A.the person must be Paul Devoy himself B.other staff will ask for the same right
C.something important must happen D.Paul Devoy will punish the person
4.After technology was banned from meetings, Paul Devoy's staff ______.
A.disagreed and stopped working B.were happy to observe the ban
C.thought that he would fail D.disappointed him a lot
A new web standard is expected to kill passwords, meaning users will no longer have to remember difficult logins for each and every website or service they use.
The Web Authentication (WebAuthn) standard is designed to replace the password with biometrics and devices that users already own, such as a security key, a smartphone, a fingerprint scanner or webcam. Instead of having to remember an increasingly long string of characters, users can authenticate their login with their body or something they have in their possession, communicating directly with the website via Bluetooth, USB or NFC.
''WebAuthn will change the way that people access the Web, '' said Jeff Jaffe, chief executive of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body that controls web standards. One example of how WebAuthn will work is that when a user visits a site they want to log into, they input a user name and then get an alert on their smartphone. Tapping on the alert on their phone then logs them into the website without the need for a password.
WebAuthn promises to protect users against phishing attacks and the use of stolen credentials as there will be nothing to steal, the authentication token is generated and used once by their specific device each time the user logs in.
''After years of increasingly severe data breaches and password credential theft, now is the time for service providers to end their dependency on vulnerable passwords and one-time-passcodes and adopt phishing-resistant FIDO Authentication for all websites and applications, '' said Brett McDowell, executive director of the FIDO Alliance, one of the bodies pushing the new standard.
WebAuthn should also help people use unique login details for each and every service they use, instead of using the same login and password for every site, which many people still do, leaving them vulnerable to further attacks if one site is hacked.
The W3C has moved WebAuthn to what's called the ''candidate recommendation'' stage – the penultimate step before it becomes an approved web standard – inviting sites and services to begin implementing it. The web standards body announced that Google, Microsoft and Mozilla had committed to supporting WebAuthn, meaning that all major web browsers short of Apple's Safari will implement the new standard.
''While there are many web security problems and we can't fix them all, relying on passwords is one of the weakest links. With WebAuthn's multi-factor solutions we are eliminating this weak link, '' said Jaffe.
Several sites and services already use similar methods to log in, including Google and Facebook, which can both be logged into using a USB security key. But a single cross-platform, cross-service standard ratified by the W3C will mean that many more sites and services will be able to kill the password as the defacto login method.
WebAuthn is the culmination of many years of work and the change will not happen overnight. But as it increasingly seems inevitable that our email or other online services will get hacked into, removing the password is an important step in improving online security and making using sites and services easier.
1.What's the purpose of the new Web Authentication standard?
A.To create a way to login in place of the traditional password.
B.To help users to improve the way of inventing the password.
C.To make people visit a site much faster and more smoothly.
D.To inform readers of a new tool against phishing attacks.
2.What does the underlined part ''which many people still do'' mean in Paragraph 6?
A.They change their passwords when using a computer system.
B.They use the same login and password on different websites.
C.They copy information from the web in the same way as before.
D.They worry about being attacked while surfing the Internet.
3.According to Jaffe, web security problems ______.
A.have been solved completely at present
B.are often connected with hacking and phishing
C.will disappear one day with the WebAthn
D.may probably be casted by unsafe passwords
4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?
A.WebAuthn is the important product through longtime efforts.
B.WebAuthn will change people's way of using computer sooner or later.
C.Emails are safer ways for people to send and receive information.
D.Removing passwords will surely end the risks caused by hacking.
India's richest man is rolling out a $20 billion mobile network that could bring lightning-fast Internet to hundreds of millions of people. Indian consumers are already celebrating the arrival of Mukesh Ambani's new Reliance Jio service, seizing on the billionaire's promise to deliver rock bottom prices and download speeds that will enable streaming video.
The 4G network, which reaches more than 80% of the country, officially went live Monday with a set of generous introductory offers. Indians will be able to use Jio for free until the end of 2016, and pay as little as 149 rupees ($2.25) a month for data after that. "Anything and everything that can go digital is going digital -- at an exponential rate," Ambani told investors last week at his company's annual general meeting. "Life is going digital."
Only one fifth of adults in India have access to the Internet. Few public Wi-Fi spots exist, and fast broadband connections require infrastructure that is rarely found in poorer urban areas, much less rural ones. But that is changing fast. If the Jio network succeeds, Ambani will be able to capitalize on a seismic shift that could see hundreds of millions of Indians come online in the coming years -- in most cases via a smartphone.
Google has installed free Wi-Fi at train stations across India, and Facebook tried to offer a free version of its platform. Many other international companies are also trying to share the great market in India. Ambani has invested billions constructing nearly 100,000 telecoms(电信)towers across India. He estimates that Jio already covers some 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages. By March 2017, his aim is to reach 90% of the population.
Building a national 4G network from scratch represents a major risk for Ambani, who got out of telecoms about 15 years ago after a dispute with his brother, Anil Ambani, who controls Reliance Communications. The brothers, who together are estimated to be worth $26 billion, have patched things up in recent years. Jio will be able to use radio frequencies owned by Reliance Communications.
Rival(对手)networks have responded to the launch of Reliance Jio with special offers of their own, making a price war a near certainty. Airtel has reduced its prices for 3G and 4G service by 80%, and Vodafone has boosted the amount of data in its plans by nearly 70%.
1.What's the main idea of the passage?
A.India's richest man supplies free service to streaming videos.
B.India's richest man gains the wealth of $20 billion.
C.India's richest man offers free Wi-Fi to the whole country.
D.India's richest man provides 1 billion people with free 4G.
2.What difference would the Jio network make?
A.One fifth of the adults in India would lose the Internet they now use.
B.People in poorer areas would set up more infrastructure.
C.Most Indians' online experience would be greatly changed.
D.The rich Indians would share their own Wi-Fi with others.
3.Which statement about the Indian network is TRUE?
A.It's a market that many tech industry giants want to take up.
B.It's a market where Google failed in making much money.
C.It's a market where Facebook has already taken up for years.
D.It's a market that Ambani has been controlling with his brother.
4.What do the underlined words ''patched things up'' in the fifth paragraph mean?
A.Been broken apart from each other.
B.Stopped quarreling with each other.
C.Had something to do with each other.
D.Kept in touch with each other.
Last summer, more than 12,000 fans packed London's Wembley Arena. Thousands more watched online. They shouted and cheered. Were they watching soccer? No, they were watching esports, or competitive PC gaming.
Millions of people in the United Kingdom play PC games for fun. Some of them have become professionals, playing games as their full-time job. The prize at the Wembley event totaled 3 million pounds.
It's not easy being a professional gamer, though. They practice for 10 or more hours a day, five or six days a week. They do exercises like typing something and then trying to type it faster and faster. They also study videos of other players and plan ways to beat them.
Many people who play games also enjoy watching them. They often watch games on video sites like Twitch and YouTube, and in the UK there's even a TV channel showing esports 24 hours a day. Matches can be exciting to watch. Just like in other sports, there are close games, last-minute victories and creative strategies. Sometimes online viewers can interact with the players through instant messaging. For example, some pros (支持者) rename characters in the game with the names of their biggest supporters.
But are esports really sports? Are the players athletes? It's easy to say, ''No way. '' After all, professional gamers don't need to run, jump or throw a ball. At the moment, the UK government classifies esports as a kind of game, not as a sport.
But many people think that esports are sports. They say that players do need physical skills, especially hand-eye coordination, quick reflexes (反应能力), accuracy and timing. If darts (掷镖游戏) and snooker (斯诺克) are classified as sports, then perhaps esports should be too. In fact, the governments of China and South Korea do classify esports as sports, and pro gamers will soon be able to compete for medals at the 2022 Asian Games.
For many esports fans and players, though, the most important thing is that esports are growing in popularity and prestige (声望). If esports are not important at the moment, they probably will be soon.
1.What are the first four paragraphs mainly about?
A.The fun of playing esports.
B.The popularity of esports in the UK.
C.How to start a career as a professional esports gamer.
D.How esports are different from traditional sports.
2.According to the text, why do some people believe esports are sports?
A.It takes players time and energy to learn them.
B.They excite people as much as other sports do.
C.They share rules and strategies with other sports.
D.Players need to develop physical skills to perform well.
3.What is the author's attitude toward the future of esports?
A.Optimistic. B.Negative.
C.Doubtful. D.Unconcerned.
假定你是李华，你校交换生Chris熟悉中国文化，喜欢看动漫。春节档动漫电影《姜子牙（Legend of Deification）》即将于1月25日上映。请你根据以下提示，用英语给Chris写一封电子邮件，邀请他一起观看首映。
1. 提出邀请并简述原因；
2. 约定见面时间和地点；
3. 提出观影后活动建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头及结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Chris,
How is everything?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes.
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写岀修改后的词。
注意：1.毎处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不记分。
My senior high school life is almost over. Although exciting about entering college, I can't help miss those good old days so much that I feel sad. I'm unwilling to say goodbye to everyone and everything I am familiar. However, I come to realize nature never. stood still. Different seasons come and go. Plants and animals die mid new one come to life. We, like everything in nature, has to adapt to the changes. Before knowing it, I am a kind of calm. Now I'd like to recall the most wonderful things which have happened, and accept happy whatever is to happen.
