1、科普阅读51篇1.As data and identity theft becomes more and more common, the market is growing for biometric（生物测量）technologieslike fingerprint scansto keep others out of private e-spaces. At present, these technologies are still expensive, though.Researchers from Georgia Tech say that they have come up wit
2、h a low-cost device（装置）that gets around this problem: a smart keyboard. This smart keyboard precisely measures the cadence（节奏）with which one types and the pressure fingers apply to each key. The keyboard could offer a strong layer of security by analyzing things like the force of a user's typing
3、 and the time between key presses. These patterns are unique to each person. Thus, the keyboard can determine people's identities, and by extension, whether they should be given access to the computer it's connected toregardless of whether someone gets the password right.It also doesn't
4、require a new type of technology that people aren't already familiar with. Everybody uses a keyboard and everybody types differently.In a study describing the technology, the researchers had 100 volunteers type the word “touch”four times using the smart keyboard. Data collected from the device c
5、ould be used to recognize different participants based on how they typed, with very low error rates. The researchers say that the keyboard should be pretty straightforward to commercialize and is mostly made of inexpensive, plastic-like parts. The team hopes to make it to market in the near future.
6、1. Why do the researchers develop the smart keyboard? A. To reduce pressure on keys. B. To improve accuracy in typing C. To replace the password system. D. To cut the cost of e-space protection.2. What makes the invention of the smart keyboard possible？ &nbs
7、p; A. Computers are much easier to operate. B. Fingerprint scanning techniques develop fast. C. Typing patterns vary from person to person. D. Data security measures are guaranteed.3. What do the researchers expect of the smart keyboard？all 1o soisgitieoco oll. A. It'
8、ll be environment-friendly. B. It'll reach consumers soon. C. It'll be made of plastics. D. It'll help speed up typing.4. Where is this text most likely from? A. A diary. B. A guidebook
9、; C. A novel. D. A magazine.2.Sleep, considered a luxury by many, is essential for a person's wellbeing. Researchers have found that insufficient sleep and tiredness increase a person's risk of developing severe medical conditions, such as obesity (being very overweight), high blood s
10、ugar levels, and heart disease. Now, a new study has found that getting sufficient sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.Jeffrey Gross, the university science professor who led the research, was not trying to find the relationship between sleep and grades when he handed out smart w
11、atches to the 100 students in his chemistry class. Instead, the professor hoped the wrist-worm devices, which track a person's physical activity, would show a connection between exercise and academic achievement.While Gross's data showed no relationship between these two factors, the study f
12、ound something surprising. As the researchers were analyzing their data, they noticed that there was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep a student got and their results in the course's 11 quizzes, three midterm tests, and the final exam. Even more interesting, it was
13、 not sufficient for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Instead, it's the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.The time students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in early hours of the morning perfo
14、rmed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher-performing student. "When you go to bed matters," Gross says, "If you go to bed at 10, or 12, or 1 at night, and sleep for seven hours, your performance is the same. But if you go to bed after 2, your performance start
15、s to go down even if you get the same seven hours. So, quantity isn't everything."Perhaps the most interesting was the huge impact that small differences in sleep patterns had on the students' grades. The overall course grades for students averaging six and a half hours of sleep each ni
16、ght were 25% lower than students who averaged just one hour more sleep. Similarly, students who varied their bedtime by even one hour each night had grades that dropped 45% below those with more regular bedtimes.Who knew getting A's just required some extra ZZZ's?1. Based on his original obj
17、ectives, which best describes Professor Gross's research findings?A. Accidental.B. Complete.C. Convincing.D. Doubtful.2. Who were the people taking part in the study?A. Middle school chemistry students.B. Volunteers from different universities.C. Professor Gross's own students.D. University
18、student athletes.3. How did Professor Gross's team measure academic performance?A. Making the students wear a special watch.B. Using students' university entrance test results.C. Giving the students regular after class quizzes.D. Using the students' normal test and quiz grades.4. Based o
19、n the study's findings, who is likely to perform best academically.A. A person who has a good night's sleep the night before an important test.B. A person whose normal bedtime varies between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m.C. A person who sleeps from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day.D. A person who sleeps for a
20、 total of 7 hours each night.3.Tourism is often about seeking deeper emotional and personal connections with the world around us. Not all travel experiences, however, need to take place in the real world. With the evolution of virtual reality (VR) technology, tourism will increasingly become a combi
21、nation of physical and virtual worlds. VR may even remove the need to travel entirely.But can a VR experience really equal a real world one? Many experts believe it can. Studies have shown that our brains have an inbuilt VR-like mechanism that enables us to live imagined experiences. Much of our wak
22、ing life is spent thinking about either the past or the future. This is known as "mind wandering". During these events we're not paying attention to the current world around us. Instead, we're recalling memories, or creating and processing imagined futures.When engaged in mind wand
23、ering, our brains process these mental images using the same pathways used to receive inputs from the real world. So, the imagined past or future can create emotions and feelings similar to how we react to everyday life. VR can create these same feeling.While critics might argue that a virtual exper
24、ience will never match reality, there are several ways VR tourism could make a positive contribution. Firstly it could help protect sensitive locations from over-tourism. In recent years famous sites such as Maya Bay in Thailand, and Cambodia's Angkor Wat Temples have had to limit the number of
25、visitors because of their negative impact. These places are now producing their own VR experiences that will allow tourists to pass through virtual models of the sites.Virtual reality may also allow people back in time, to experience historical events, visit ancient cities, and even to walk among di
26、nosaurs.Finally, in a world where many people suffer from stress and depression due to overwork, virtual tourism may provide a cheap and convenient way for people to take brief holidays to otherwise unreachable destinations and recharge their batteries, without ever leaving their homes.It sounds lik
27、e science fiction but it's already happening. As virtual technology improves and as people continue to demand new and interesting experiences, expect more virtual tourism, both in combination with the real world and instead of it.1.What is driving the development of virtual tourism?A. Companies
28、seeking to make more money. B. Improvements in virtual reality technology.C. People's demand for more shared experiences. D. People's deeper understanding of the physical world.2.Which of the following best describes "mind wandering"?A. The brain processes
29、 which help people think VR is real.B. The way the brain processes inputs from the real world.C. Brain activities focusing on past or future events.D. Experiences coming from a person's imagination.3.What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refer to?A. Science fiction. B.
30、Virtual technology. C. Virtual tourism. D. The real world.4.What is the purpose pf the passage?A. To describe the advantages of VR tourism. B. To give suggestions for reducing over-tourism.C. To encourage people to develop VR technology. D. To argue VR tourism will
31、replace the real world travel.4.Both honeybees and ants are social insects that live in groups called colonies. They survive by means of their collective intelligence. Their decision-making power is distributed throughout the group; that is, no one ant or bee makes decisions for the group. Instead,
32、they work together. As Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, says, "Ants aren't smart. Ant colonies are." The same is true for bee colonies. Although bees and ants are quite different physically, they have a lot in common in terms of their social behavior. Specifically
33、, honeybees and ants have similar roles within the colony, both have communication systems, and both have the capacity for learning.Ants communicate by using chemicals called pheromones, which can alert others to danger or to a food source. For example, when worker ants find a promising source, they
34、 let the rest of the colony know how to find it by leaving a trail of pheromones on the way back to the colony. The other ants pick up the message using their sense of smell. Bees, on the other hand, use movement to communicate with each other. Worker bees send messages to each other by means of a &
35、quot;dance". Different speeds and movements send different messages. For example, when worker bees called scouts go out to find a new home for the colony, they return and do a dance for the other worker bees that indicates the location of the new home and how suitable it is. The faster the scou
36、ts dance, the better the new location is.Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning. One Chinese study found that bees can be trained to learn and remember a route to a food source. The researchers also found that bees can be taught to recognize hidden objects and use the concepts of "same
37、ness" and "difference" to accomplish certain tasks. Ants take this one step further. Recent American research has shown that ants not only have the ability to learn, but also can teach their foraging skills to other younger ants. They observed that older ants accompany young ants in s
38、earch of food and teach them the route and how to avoid obstacles.As we can see, the social behavior of honeybees and ants is quite similar. Both coordinate complex actions and accomplish crucial survival tasks by cooperating in groups consisting of many individuals. Unintelligent as the may be as i
39、ndividuals, as groups they often show amazing brilliance as they go about their everyday activities.1.What do ants and bees have in common?A. They live in similar-sized colonies.B. They make use of collective intelligence.C. They have small leadership groups that make all decisions.D. They use the s
40、ame methods to communicate with each other.2.What does the speed of a bee's dance indicate?A. The quality of a new colony location. B. The distance to a neighboring colony.C. The discovery of a new food source. D. The di
41、rection to a potential food source.3.In paragraph 3, how does the author demonstrate the idea that Honeybees and ants are both capable of learning? A. By using statistics. B. By explaining reasons.C. By referencing opinions. D. By presenting stud
42、y findings.4. What is the benefit of collective intelligence?A. It allows the colony to reproduce more rapidly. B. It improves work cooperation within the colony.C. It reduces the division of labour among members. D. It enables individuals to teach each other new skills.5.
43、For many years, Bruce Bexler dreamed of going where no human had gone before. He wanted to cut a path through unexplored lands and discover rare, exotic species.That might sound like an impossible dream, but Bexler turned it into a reality.In December 2015, he and a team of Australian and Ameri
44、can scientists ventured into an isolated tropical rain forest on the island of New Guinea. They were the first people ever to enter the mist-covered region. “As time was limited, we were dropped in by helicopter. Once we were on the ground, there were no trails anywhere; it was really hard to g
45、et around,” Bexler says.Within minutes of landing, the team spotted a black chicken-like bird with strange orange skin hanging from its neck. The scientists soon determined that the unusual creature was a type of honeyeater the first new bird species to be sighted on New Guinea in 60 years.The honey
46、eater wasnt the only surprise for the scientists. They discovered more than 40 previously unknown plant and animal species 13 birds of paradise, 20 frogs, four butterflies, and five palms. “We were like kids in a candy store,” Bexler recalls. “Everywhere we looked, we saw amazing things we had never
47、 seen before.”The newfound species didnt shy away from the scientists. Two long-nosed echidnas primitive egg-laying mammals let the visitors pick them up and take them back to camp to study them. An echidna looks like a hedgehog and is also called a spiny anteater.Bexler thinks the animals werent sc
48、ared because they had never seen humans before. “In almost all parts of New Guinea, animals are hunted for food, and because of this, they are very cautious of people,” he explains. “This area gives scientists a place where they can go to study the behaviours of animals that have not yet learned to
49、be afraid of people.”Scientists believe the area is probably the largest untouched forest in Asia. Local people called Kwerba hunt and collect plants from the outer-edges of the forest but told Bexler that not even their ancestors had gone so far into the woods. The wooded area is approximately
50、 a 10-day walk from the nearest village.Bexler and his team did not have enough time during the expedition to study the area completely. They hope to return and expect to record many more undiscovered species. “We just scratched the surface,” Bexler says. “Anyone who goes there will come back with a mystery.”1. Which word best describes Bruce Bexler?A. Adventurous. B. Cautious. C. Optimistic.D.Thorough. 2. What does Bruce Bexler mean in Paragraph 5 when he says the scientists “were like kids in a candy store”?A. They didnt have enough food and were hungry.B. They
