Question

    The human face is a remarkable piece of work. The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognize each other and is vital to the formation of complex societies. So is the face’s ability to send emotional signals, whether through an unconscious red face or the artifice of a false smile. People spend much of their waking lives reading faces, for signs of attraction, hatred, trust and fraud. They also spend plenty of time trying to hide true feelings or intentions.

Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers’ attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters. In China, it confirms the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile. Apple’s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the home screen.

Set against human skills, such applications might seem incremental(增值的). Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the Internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode(编码) them. Although faces are unique to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, interfere with something that is private. And yet the ability to record, store and analyze images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to opinions of privacy, fairness and trust.

Start with privacy. One big difference between faces and other biometric data, such as fingerprints, is that they work at a distance. Anyone with a phone can take a picture for facial-recognition programs to use. Facebook's bank of facial images cannot be used by others, but the Silicon Valley giant could obtain pictures of visitors to a car showroom, say, and later use facial recognition to serve them ads for cars. Law-enforcement agencies now have a powerful weapon in their ability to track criminals, but at enormous potential cost to citizens’ privacy.

The face is not just a name-tag. It displays a lot of other information—and machines can read that, too. Again, that promises benefits. Some firms are analyzing faces to provide automated diagnoses of rare genetic conditions, far earlier than would otherwise be possible. Systems that measure emotion may give autistic(孤独症的) people a grasp of social signals they find difficult.

1.Which of the following statement about facial recognition is true according to the passage?

A. It is widely applied by Chinese in many fields.

B. It is applied to track worshippers by American churches.

C. It has been applied by Apple to unlock home screen.

D. It is applied to catch thieves by police.

2.What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?

A. Flight and the Internet surely transform human abilities.

B. Facial recognition will cause fundamental changes to minds.

C. Facial expressions are not only unique but also public.

D. Facial recognition has just the same effects as other breakthroughs.

3.From the last two paragraphs, we can infer that __________.

A. the face is superior to other biometric data

B. people can keep a balance between face and privacy

C. the face has shown many benefits especially in medicine

D. fingerprints is a powerful weapon in tracking criminals

4.What is the best title of the passage?

A. Human facial expressions B. Reading faces

C. Scientific breakthroughs D. Nowhere to hide

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。本文谈论了人脸识别技术。

1.细节理解题。根据第二段In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers’ attendance;可知，在美国，教堂使用人脸识别来追踪教徒做礼拜的出席情况而不是追踪教徒本身，B项错误；根据Apple’s new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen. 可知，苹果的新款iPhone预计将用这一技术来解锁屏幕，这项技术还没有实施，故排除C项。根据in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters.可知，在英国，零售商用它来辨认有扒窃前科的顾客，不是警察用来抓小偷，故排除D项。根据In China, it confirms the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile.可知，在中国人脸识别被用于验证网约车司机的身份、让游客刷脸进景点、让顾客微微一笑就能刷脸买单等多个领域，故选A项。

2.主旨大意题。根据第三段And yet the ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to notions of privacy, fairness and trust.可知，低成本、快速、大量地记录、存储和分析人脸图像的能力终有一天会使隐私、公平和信任等观念发生根本性的改变。第三段主要强调的也是这点，故选B项。

3.推理判断题。根据最后一段The face is not just a name-tag. It displays a lot of other information—…. to provide automated diagnoses of rare genetic conditions, such as Hajdu-Cheney syndrome, far earlier than would.可知，人脸识别除了可以表明身份，它还显示了许多其他信息，这同样带来了一些益处。一些公司正通过分析脸部特征来自动诊断罕见遗传疾病，比如Hajdu-Cheney综合症，和其他可能的手段相比，早早就发现了病情。这说明人脸别技术有很多好处（比如表明身份，用于医学领域），特别是在医学方面，可以帮助诊断病情，故选C项。

4.主旨大意题。这篇文章主要讲述了人脸识别技术，D项Nowhere to hide（无处可藏）最贴近人脸识别技术的特点和作用，故选D项。A项Human facial expressions（人类面部表情）在文中没有提及到，B项Reading faces（解读面部表情），文章只是提及到了科技正迅速赶上人类研读脸孔的能力，不是主要内容；文章也没有提及人脸识别技术是一项科学突破，综合分析D项最切题。