A new smart phone system under development can locate you even when you’re inside a building, which GPS can't do. While the concept sounds powerful, it’s not yet clear how practical it might be.
The set-up, called SurroundSense, sends information from cameras and microphones—gear in the latest smart phones—to a server that produces a fingerprint of the location.
“You can’t tell much from any of the measurements individually, but when combined, the optical (光学的), acoustic (声学的) and motion information creates a unique fingerprint of the space,” said Ionut Constandache, a student in computer science.
The system distinguishes between two indoor spaces in this manner: It knows that a bar is likely to be dark and noisy and people move little, sit a lot, whereas a department store will be brightly lit, contain vibrant colors, and will see a lot of people moving up and down passages. The more the system is used, the more it learns about specific places.
More work is needed before the set-up would be ready for prime time, however. For now, it can’t work if a person’s cellphone is in a handbag or otherwise unable to employ the camera. Finally it would be best served if paired with phones that were worn on the wrist or hung around the neck. Batteries, too, are a problem.
Students on the research team went out across Durham, North Carolina, with their cellphones collecting data in different types of businesses. The students mirrored the actions of the selected customers so that they would not prejudice the measurements.
“We went to 51 different stores and found that SurroundSense achieved an average accuracy (精确性) of about 87 percent," Constandache said.
“As the system collects and analyzes more and more information about a particular site, the fingerprint becomes more precise,” said Romit Roy Choudhury, professor of computer engineering. “Not only is the ambience different at different locations, but also can be different at different time at the same location.”We can infer from the first paragraph that GPS .
| A．can find you wherever you are |
| B．can make too much loud noise |
| C．can only find outside things |
| D．isn’t really practical yet |
Why did students mirror the actions of the selected customers?
| A．To get a reasonable result. |
| B．To collect data in different ways. |
| C．To receive information about a particular site. |
| D．To learn more about specific places. |
The underlined word “ambience” in the last paragraph may mean .
| A．the fingerprint of the location |
| B．the character of a place |
| C．the existence of people |
| D．the area of store |
The main idea of the passage is about .
| A．comparing GPS with a smart cellphone |
| B．the development of cellphones |
| C．a cellphone knowing where you are |
| D．what kind of future cellphones face |
Perhaps the most famous theory, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks—we are not born with them. A baby has generally informed face features. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set the eyebrows by looking at those around—family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some areas of the United States look so much alike. New Englanders or Southerners have certain common face features that cannot be explained by genetics (遗传学). The exact shape of the mouth is not set at birth, it is learned after. In fact, the final mouth shape is not formed until well after new teeth are set. For many, this can be well into grown-ups. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country area where people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the South is the part of the country where the people smile most frequently. In New England they smile less, and in the western part of New York State still less. Many southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly, partly because people on Madison Avenue smile less than people on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. People in largely populated areas also smile and greet each other in public less than people in small towns do. Ray Birdwhistell believes that physical appearance _______.
| A．has little to do with culture | B．is ever changing |
| C．is different from place to place | D．has much to do with culture |
According to the passage, the final mouth shape is formed _______.
| A．as soon as one’s teeth are newly set | B．sometime after new teeth are set |
| C．around 15 years old | D．before birth |
Ray Birdwhistell can tell what area of the United States a person is from by _______.
| A．what he or she likes best | B．how he or she raises his or her eyebrows |
| C．how much he or she smiles | D．the way he or she talks |
I still remember the days when I was a youthful student in an engineering school. I lived a casual life, without caring about the future. I smoked, drank with friends and made girl friends. Little did I realize that casualness would certainly lead to loss.
Two years had passed and I was staring down a report card that highlighted FAIL in more than half the subjects. I didn’t care, at least not till my dad found out about it. You see, I studied in India and unlike the United States where the students are expected to finance their own education, my dad financed me.
Then came the day when my dad found out my habit of smoking. He lost his temper but he just told me, “Son, your allowance is cut in half from this moment on”. It hit me like a roundhouse kick (回旋踢) from Bruce Lee. I was jolted (震摇) out of my bones! I couldn’t comprehend how to pay off the debts that I had accumulated in college. I owed everybody money: the grocery store, the bars, the restaurants, my friends, etc. I was living a life filled with credit.
When I went back to college, I knew that if I don’t change the way I live my life I won’t be able to pay everybody off. So I decided to make some changes, drastic changes. I quit smoking, cut off from my friends who led me down the wrong road, starting hanging out in libraries and reading my engineering books.
One year later, I went from a miserable failure to a magna cum laude (优等成绩). Life was never the same again. This incident made me know that anything is possible if you take action and do something about it, however small or large. Even today it still motivates me when I feel that I’m about to lose or give up. It reminds me that I can do it!The author wrote this text with the purpose of ________.
| A．introducing his university life to the teenage readers |
| B．encouraging those lazy students to study hard at school |
| C．showing you can overcome any difficulty if you take action |
| D．calling on the readers not to develop bad habits in college |
The author didn’t care about his study until _______.
| A．he entered the engineering school | B．he was in heavy debt he couldn’t bear |
| C．he decided to give up smoking | D．his allowance was cut in half |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means that the author ________.
| A．paid off his debt and life wasn’t hard for him any more |
| B．removed his bad habits and didn’t lead a casual life |
| C．never hung out with his friends but studied all day |
| D．began to live a happy life due to his good grades |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Students tended to earn money for college expenses in America. |
| B．The author did well in making good friends in the school. |
| C．The author made great progress with the help of his friends. |
| D．Students were encouraged to do part-time jobs in Indian schools. |
你将阅读的是一篇关于鲨鱼袭击的文章。有五处段落从文章中被取出了。请从A-F这六个选项中选出正确的选项填入空格中。选项中有一项是多余选项。
When I was eight, my parents, my younger brother, Stewart, and a girl called Margo Edwards, who was at school with us, went on holiday to Mozambique. One day, we took out a small rowing boat with an outboard motor on it, and went fishing on a lagoon at a place called San Martina.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, there was this disturbance in the water. I remember at first everyone thought it was a dolphin, but it wasn't leaping in and out of the water, and before long we could see this grey fin moving purposefully towards us.
It then circled around our rowing boat, and I remember my father saying: 'Well, I think that's a shark . . .'
My mother was screaming, and father was shouting obscenities at this thing, which he was to bash (痛击) back with one of the oars. I had never seen my parents in obvious terror before, and that's something which never leaves you.
My mother clutched the three of us around her. I remember she had a navy blue robe, with huge starfishes and sunflowers on it, and us three kids gratefully huddled together inside it.
As soon as we were in the fishing boat there was this almost hysterical laughter, and I remember feeling very cold, and being unable to stop trembling.
We all talked about it continually, too, and probably made out we were far braver than we were. And there was lots of re-enactment(表演). I remember that we made mud pools. One of us would be crawling along, playing the shark, and the others screaming and shouting: 'Kill the shark'.
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| E. Eventually, people in a fishing boat heard us screaming, and came alongside, and a fisherman tied our boat up to his. He was very careful, or he seemed to be, and he and my father handed first us kids, and then mother, through to his boat, and our rowing boat was towed behind. |
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| F. This monster started bashing our boat, which began rocking from side to side. We were just terrified because the boat was by now rocking so much we thought we were going to be tipped into the water and bitten up by this thing. I remember assuming that we were going to die. |
When you think of the tremendous technological progress we have made, it’s amazing how little we have developed in other respects. We may speak scornfully of the poor old Romans because they enjoyed the seemingly excited killing that went on in their arenas（竞技场）. We may despise them because they mistook these goings on for entertainment. We may forgive them because they lived 2000 years ago and obviously knew no better. But are our feelings of superiority（优越）really justified? Are we any less blood-thirsty? Why do boxing matches, for instance, attract such universal interest? Don’t the audience who attend them hope they will see some violence? Human beings remain as bloodthirsty as ever they were. The only difference between ourselves and the Romans is that while they were honest enough to admit that they enjoyed watching hungry lions tearing people apart and eating them alive, we find all sorts of arguments to defend sports which should have been banned long ago.
It really is incredible that in this day and age we should still allow hunting or bull-fighting, that we should be prepared to sit back and watch two men punch each other in a boxing ring, that we should be relatively unmoved by the sight of one or a number of racing cars crashing and bursting into flames. Any talk of ‘the sporting spirit’ is merely hypocrisy（虚伪）. People take part in violent sports because of the high rewards they bring. Audience are willing to pay vast sums of money to see violence. A world heavyweight championship match, for instance, is front page news. Millions of people are disappointed if a big fight is over in two rounds instead of fifteen. They feel disappointment because they haven’t experienced the exquisite pleasure of witnessing continuous violence.
Why should we ban violent sports if people enjoy them so much? You may well ask. The answer is simple: they are uncivilized. For centuries man has been trying to improve himself spiritually and emotionally—though with little success. But at least we no longer tolerate the sight madmen imprisoned in cages, or public punishment of any of the countless other barbarous (野蛮的) practices which were common in the past. Prisons are no longer the harsh forbidding places they used to be. Social welfare systems are in operation in many parts of the world. Big efforts are being made to distribute wealth fairly. These changes have come about not because human beings have suddenly improved, but because positive steps were taken to change the law. The law is the biggest instrument of social change that we have and it may exert great civilizing influence. If we banned dangerous and violent sports, we would be moving one step further to improving mankind. We would recognize that violence is unworthy of human beings.It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s opinion of nowadays’ human beings is ________________
| A．not very high. | B．high. | C．scornful. | D．neutral |
Why does the author mention the old Romans in this article?
| A．To reveal that the old Romans first started violent sports. |
| B．To prove that the old Romans were not civilized. |
| C．To show human beings in the past knew nothing better. |
| D．To indicate human beings today are as bloodthirsty as the old Romans. |
How many dangerous sports does the author mention in this passage?
| A．Three. | B．Four. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
What does the author want to illustrate in this article?
| A． By banning the violent sports, we human beings can improve ourselves. |
| B． By banning the dangerous sports, we can improve the law. |
| C． We must take positive steps to improve social welfare system. |
| D． Law is the main instrument of social change. |
The idea of “law” exists in every culture. All societies have some kind of law to keep order and to control the interactions of people with those around them. The laws of any culture tell people three things: what they can do (their right), what they must do (their duties), and what they may not do. In addition, there are usually specific types of punishment for those who break the law.
Although all societies have laws, not all have the same idea of justice—which is “right” and “wrong” and how “wrong” should be punished. In most Western cultures, it is thought that punishing criminals will prevent them from committing other crimes. Also, it is hoped that the fear of punishment will act as a deterrent(威慑) that prevents other people from committing similar crimes; in other words, people who are considering a life of crime will decide against it because of fear of punishment. In most non-Western cultures, by contrast, punishment is not seen as a deterrent. Instead, great importance is placed on restoring balance in the situation. A thief, for example, may be ordered to return the things he has stolen instead of, as in Western societies, spending time in prison.
Another difference in the concept of justice lies in various societies’ ideas of what laws are. In the West, people consider “laws” quite different from “customs”. There is also a great contrast between “sins” (breaking religious laws) and “crimes” (breaking laws of the government). In many non-Western cultures, on the other hand, there is little separation of customs, laws, and religious beliefs; in other cultures, these three may be quite separate from one another, but still very much different from those in the West. For these reasons, an action may be considered a crime in one country, but be socially acceptable in others. For instance, although a thief is viewed as a criminal in much of the world, in a small village where there is considerable communal（公共的） living and sharing of objects, the word thief may have little meaning. Someone who has taken something without asking is simply considered an impolite person.
Most countries have two kinds of law: criminal and civil. People who have been accused of acts such as murder or theft are heard in the criminal justice system, while civil justice deals with people who are believed to have violated others’ rights. The use of the civil system reflects the values of the society in which it exists. In the United States where personal, individual justice is considered very important, civil law has become “big business.” There are over 600,000 lawyers in the United States, and many of them keep busy with civil lawsuits; that is, they work for people who want to sue others. If a man falls over a torn rug in a hotel and breaks his arm, for instance, he might decide to sue the hotel owners so that they will pay his medical costs. In a country like Japan, by contrast, there is very little use of the civil justice system. Lawsuits are not very popular in Japan, where social harmony is even more important than individual rights, and where people would rather reach agreement outside court. The main point of paragraph 1 is that____.
| A．all societies, Western or non-Western, have some kind of law to keep order. |
| B．most countries in the world have two kinds of law “criminal and civil ” |
| C．there are usually specific types of punishment for those who break the law. |
| D．the laws of any culture dictate people’s rights, duties and what they are not supposed to do |
Which is TRUE in most Western cultures?
| A．Punishment has double functions. |
| B．A thief may be referred to as an impolite person. |
| C．Punishment is not regarded as a deterrent. |
| D．There is lots of communal living and sharing of objects. |
Which statement is NOT true according to the article?
| A．In the West, people think laws and customs are rather different. |
| B．In the West, there is little difference between “sins” and “crimes”. |
| C．An action that is considered a crime in one country may be socially acceptable in another. |
| D．There is far less use of the civil justice system in Japan than in the United States. |
Which of the following cases are not heard in the criminal justice system?
| A．Robbing a pedestrian. | B．Kidnapping people for ransom. |
| C．Breaking into a bank. | D．Failing to pay back the money. |
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