Some cities and lawmakers are resisting crime-fighting tech owing to bias (偏见) and accuracy concerns. Police departments around the U.S. are asking citizens to trust them to use facial recognition software as a handy tool in their crime-fighting toolbox. But some lawmakers — and even some technology giants — are against it.
Take the western Massachusetts city of Springfield, where many residents are Latino or black. Springfield police say they have no plans to use facial recognition systems, but some City Council members are moving to block any future government use of the technology anyway.
At an October hearing on the subject, Springfield City Councilman, Orlando Ramos, defended the technology. “The facial recognition technology does not drop a net from the sky and put you to prison,” he said, noting that it could serve as a useful investigative tool. However, he doesn’t want to take any risks. “It would only lead to more racial discrimination.” he said, citing studies that found higher error rates for facial recognition software used to identify women and people with darker skins.
Similar debates across the country are highlighting racial issues and concerns about the technology’s accuracy. Axon, which supplies body-worn cameras nationwide, had already formed an artificial intelligence ethics board (伦理委员会)that concluded facial recognition technology isn’t yet dependable enough to justify its use on police cameras. Axon Chief Executive Rick Smith said, “Even if facial recognition software was perfectly accurate, the ability to track people raises privacy concerns. “Do we want everybody who walks near a police officer to get their face identified and logged in a database?” he said.
Nevertheless, Todd Pastorini, general manager at biometric forensics (生物取证) company DataWorks Plus, said it’s the “extremely effective” method of running images through photos to help identify a suspect. “Society and the public are going to get frustrated, if governments refuse to adopt a technology that keeps improving”, he said. In his eyes, facial recognition hits are just one part of an investigation.
1.What is Orlando Ramos’ attitude towards facial recognition?
A.Hopeful. B.Cautious. C.Ambiguous. D.Tolerant.
2.What is one focus of the debates about facial recognition?
A.Gender discrimination. B.Speed limit.
C.Accuracy rate. D.Steadiness control.
3.What does Rick Smith think of facial recognition?
A.It appears to cause prejudice. B.It brings about privacy concerns.
C.Its technology is reliable. D.Its accuracy needs improving.
4.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Facial recognition tool meets with resistance.
B.All the people disapprove of facial recognition.
C.Facial recognition is the only tool of investigation.
D.Governments should ban facial recognition.
A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she suffered severely by self-criticism.
This student, like many I teach, strongly believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. In her mind, “Nothing can stop me but myself”. So when these students fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are filled with self-blame, reasoning, “If my accomplishments are mine to control, my failures must be entirely my faults, too”, which makes it extremely difficult for them to move on.
We often owe young adults struggling with failure to their parents’ overprotection of them from discomfort. But there is another factor at play: a message transmitted by indulging (纵容的) parents who have falsely promised them that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it. However, the cruel reality of life is that you can do everything in your power — and still fail. Then what should be done to help?
Psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to spend time helping students find purpose, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature. Besides, instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we might all question a culture where one is considered lazy without full devotion. The point is to remind them that life has a way of sucker-punching (出其不意) us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.
1.What does the underlined phrase “by virtue of” in paragraph 2 mean?
A.in addition to B.in spite of C.by means of D.for fear of
2.The author believes that young adults find it hard to struggle with failure because __________.
A.they are not taught how to deal with difficulties
B.they are short of the ability to handle failure
C.they are under the protection of their parents
D.they are misled by their parents’ false message
3.What did psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to do?
A.To teach students how to avoid faults.
B.To lead students to set their truly loved goals.
C.To help students to discover a path to success.
D.To allow kids to blame themselves.
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Students don’t care about failure at all.
B.Students are sure to succeed if they try their best.
C.Students should bear all the failures on their own.
D.Students with positive attitudes can move on more easily.
Following Christmas dinner, my family was relaxing around the table. We had all enjoyed traditional turkey and sweet potatoes lightly shining with brown sugar. The good cooking smells still filled the air; and the oven remained warm. My sister, our chef, was enjoying the admiration.
My nephew, never one to sit still for long, began dribbling (运球) his basketball around the table. Upon nearing Dad, he stopped — almost uncertainly. With shaking wrinkled hands, Dad had reached out for the ball. The boy, confused, looked up and over at us.
I watched my father closely to see what he would do. The twinkle in his eyes shone brighter than any Christmas lights. Holding the ball and reaching forward with a playful smile, Dad bounced it and then caught it.
This action was repeated. Gently throwing the ball away, Dad began a game of catch. The ball continued to be passed through eager pairs of outstretched hands. Cries of “Over here!” rang through the warm kitchen. Dad’s active participation was remarkable to me, for he had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, which had robbed him of many memories and the recognition ability. Despite this, Dad clearly recognized the ball and what you could do with it.
In my younger years, playing with Dad was rare. To his credit, Dad worked hard and provided for us. He was very private and never showed nor shared much emotion; his game of choice was chess, which he did eventually teach me how to play. As an adult, I had become a caregiver as Dad declined. Connecting moments between father and son had been few and far between before he took the basketball.
I’m not sure how long we played catch. What I do know is that our game ended all too soon, and it was time to face the reality of dirty dishes piled high on countertops. The moment, though, will certainly last forever.
1.What can we know about the family’s Christmas dinner?
A.Dishes were cleaned up. B.All food was sugar-free.
C.It was a sweet moment. D.It was disturbed by the game.
2.Why was Dad’s active participation in the game remarkable to me?
A.He rarely played basketball. B.He had severe Alzheimer’s disease.
C.He had astonishing skills. D.He played with family members.
3.How was Dad getting along with kids in earlier years?
A.He often accompanied kids. B.He was willing to share feelings.
C.He forced kids to learn chess. D.He seldom interacted with kids.
4.What can be the best title for the passage?
A.A game of catch B.A devoted father
C.A dinner of reunion D.A bond between father and son
“Museum of the World” Travel Plan
Here’s the travel plan for some of the more unusual museums on our “Museum of the World” tour. I’ll send you the full itinerary (行程) next week. The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) (Boston, USA) shows what it describes as “art too bad to be ignored”. The museum hopes to bring the worst of art to the widest possible audience. As part of the visit, we’ll be shown some truly awful portraits, landscapes and sculptures.
The Devil’s Rope Museum (in Mclean, Texas) and The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum (in Lacrosse, Kansas) both claim to have the best barbed (有刺的) wire collections, telling the story of the wire’s role in the development of America. We’ll be visiting both of these.
The Washington Banana Museum (Auburn, Washington, USA) contains 4,000 objects related to the history of what the museum describes as “the world’s most perfect fruit.” During a guided tour around the museum, we’ll learn all sorts of interesting things, such as the fact that bananas were introduced to the USA in 1878 in the same exhibition as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and that banana is now the US’s number-one selling fruit.
The Hair Museum (Avanos, Turkey) is located in a cave in Cappadocia, in Central Anatolia. It contains 16,000 samples of people’s hair. You’ll be offered a chance to add your own hair to the collection. Later in the year, the museum manager selects 10 donors to attend a pottery workshop.
The Hair Museum(Avanos, Turkey)is located in a cave in Cappadocia, in Central Anatolia. It contains 16,000 samples of people’s hair. You’ll be offered a chance to add your own hair to the collection. Later in the year, the museum curator selects 10 donors to attend a pottery workshop. If you’re one of them, you’ll be invited to stay in his guest house.
1.What do these four Museums have in common?
A.They are all located in the USA. B.They accept exhibits donated by visitors.
C.They exhibit the things with a long history. D.They show some odd things around the world.
2.What does The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) show?
A.Complete collections of barbed wire.
B.A large number of samples of people’s hair.
C.Some really terrible but noticeable art works.
D.Some beautiful portraits drawn by famous people.
3.Why was Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone mentioned in paragraph 4?
A.To explain the origin of bananas.
B.To arouse visitors’ interest in the museum.
C.To emphasize the importance of the exhibition.
D.To compare the value of bananas and telephones.
The new garbage sorting regulation has taken effect in Shanghai starting July 1. Many citizens are still confused about the classification of the four different types of trash. Thankfully, authorities have released an official guideline to explain the new rules.
The guideline, published by the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau, provides a rather clear definition on the four kinds if waste: recyclable waste, harmful waste, household food waste and residual (剩余) waste.
A team from the U. K.'s National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine examined 14 lean and overweight men and analyzed their metabolic (新陈代谢) health. The participants were either assigned
Harmful waste, as the name suggests, includes various poisonous materials like used batteries, light bulbs, out-of-date medicines, paint and pesticides.
Household food waste — which is translated to "wet trash” in Chinese — refers to food leftovers, rotten food, pet food, fruit peels, remains of TCM herbs (中药) and flowers.
Paper, plastic, glass, metal and textiles (纺织品) are counted as recyclable waste.
The definition of residual waste is a little confusing. Anything that is not listed above belongs to this category.
As specific as the new guideline is, residents still have a hard time sorting trash correctly and are finding it challenging to memorize them all. For instance, both plastic bottles and bubble tea or coffee cups are plastic materials. However, the former falls to the category of recyclable waste and the latter belongs to residual waste. To save the hassle, some netizens have come up with their own way to sort trash.
"We should do this from a pig's angle," commented one netizen. "Those edible (可食用) for pigs are household food waste. Those even pigs don't want to eat are residual waste. If a pig consumes something and dies of it, then something must be harmful waste. Those that can be sold and the money we gain can be used to purchase pigs are recyclable waste."
The new regulation came into effect on July 1. Those who do not sort their trash properly will be fined RMB200.
1.What do the old coats that you want to throw away belong to?
A.Harmful waste. B.Wet trash.
C.Recyclable waste. D.Residual waste
2.What is the common point of "wet trash"?
A.They can be broken down easily. B.They all come from plants.
C.They all have bad smells. D.They all have poisonous materials.
3.What is the tone of the netizen like?
A.Serious. B.Humorous.
C.Delightful. D.Uncertain.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.The four sorts of garbing are forbidden in Shanghai.
B.Shanghai garbage sorting enforcement begins.
C.people are still confused about garbage sorting.
D.The netizens in Shanghai support the garbage sorting policy.
Research published in the journal High Temperature found that an hour-long soak in hot water produced similar blood sugar responses to 60 minutes of moderate physical activity.
Sound too good to be true? While the research on these effects is still initial (初步)，there is a plausible explanation for this.
"It seems that activities that increase heat shock proteins (热体克蛋) may help to improve blood sugar control and offer an alternative to exercise," the lead study author Steve Faulkner wrote. “These activities—such as soaking in a hot tub or taking a sauna (桑拿) — may have health benefits to people who are unable to exercise regularly. to an hour- long session of cycling or an hour-long session in a 40℃bath.
The scientists discovered that both groups were better able to control their blood sugar levels in the 24 hours following their soak were approximately 10 percent lower than those of the participants who exercised.
Researchers say this implies that “passive heating" (a means of rising your body temperature) could assist in lowering blood sugar levels. Passive heating can affect proteins in the body called heat shock proteins, which helps regulate blood sugar. People with diabetes (糖尿病) tend to have lower levels of heat shock proteins. Passive heating can raise these levels.
It's critical to point out a few limitations of the study. For starters, the experiment only monitored men, so it's difficult to say if the same effect would happen in women. It also only included 14 volunteers, which was an extremely small sample size. More research needs to be conducted before scientists can come to any official conclusion. And, of course, you should still continue exercising regularly.
That being said, the study does offer some more promising insights (见解) into the healing effects of hot water.
1.What does the underlined word “plausible” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A.Strange. B.Ridiculous.
C.Reasonable. D.Confusing.
2.What can we know about the research by the U. K.'s team?
A.Cycling made no difference to blood sugar levels.
B.People with diabetes usually have higher levels of heat shock proteins.
C.14 lean and 14 overweight men were involved in the research.
D.A 24-hour tracking and monitoring was carried out after the one-hour activities.
3.How should scientists improve this study?
A.By extending the study period.
B.By changing the research method.
C.By including women in the research.
D.By adding more scientists involved in the investigation.
4.Which of the following best expresses the author's main point of view?
A.When you run a fever you get passive heating.
B.Passive heating can raise levels of heat shock proteins.
C.The research is of significance in spite of some imperfection.
D.You need either a hot bath or regular exercise to keep healthy.
