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考研英语阅读理解有一部分是截取自报刊文章，因此考生在复习备考的过程中要注意提高报刊文章的阅读能力，把握时事阅读。下面新东方在线小编分享历年真题同源的30篇报刊文章，附有注释和解析，希望考生认真阅读，提高对此类文章的阅读能力和增加相关词汇量。
考研英语阅读真题同源报刊文章30篇（21）
Biometrics gets down to business
For many people, "biometrics" conjures up images of a Big Brotherish
surveillance society. But tell them they could save a few precious seconds at
the supermarket checkout just by waving their fingers over a scanner, and they
will sign up in their millions.
After more than a decade of hype, biometrics-the use of body measurements
such as eye scans or fingerprints to determine or verify identity-is finally
taking off. And all it took to convince the public of its merits, it seems, was
the promise of shorter queues or a few extra loyalty points. In the past year
there has been an explosion in the commercial use of biometrics, utterly
eclipsing the uphill efforts of various governments to introduce identity cards
and passports that store electronic signatures derived from facial images,
fingerprints or eye scans.
For a long time it was assumed that biometrics would be a governmentled
technology, says Sapna Capoor, an analyst at Frost and Sullivan, a consultancy.
But in the past couple of years this has quietly started to change. "There has
been a group of biometrics vendors who have shifted away from working with
governments and focused instead on commercial products," she says.
One reason for this shift is that the technology has matured, says Michael
Thieme of the International Biometric Group, an industry body based in New York.
In the past many biometric technologies would not work on a broad section of the
population. Some types of biometric scanners worked well in the laboratory, but
ran into problems in realworld environments when scanning children, old people,
people with small or sweaty hands, bricklayers or subjects with eye conditions.
But the technology has since improved and is considerably more inclusive, says
Mr Thieme.
New regulations in the financial sector have also boosted adoption, says
Mark Upson, the boss of BioPassword in Issaquah, Washington, whose company has
more than 400,000 onlinebanking users enrolled in its keystrokedynamics
security scheme. In a bid to tighten security and reduce online fraud and
identity theft in online banking, America’s Federal Financial Institutions
Examination Council is pressing banks to adopt "two factor" authentication, says
Mr Upson. Previously, account holders had to provide only a single means of
identity verification, such as an account number and password. Twofactor
systems rely not just on something you know, however, but also on something you
have, such as an electronic token, or something you are, in the form of a
biometric.
Those in the industry believe the banking and retail approaches to
biometrics-one of which puts security above convenience, the other convenience
above security-will eventually converge, opening up new applications in the
process.
As governments grapple with schemes to introduce biometric passports and
identity cards, companies are pushing ahead with biometrics on their own. And
what is perhaps even more surprising than the commercial adoption of the
technology is the speed and willingness with which the public is embracing it.
This is unlikely to be because people trust big companies more than they trust
governments. Instead, it is because the commercial applications of biometrics
tend to place a greater emphasis on the benefits to the customer, so providing
incentives for adoption. As governments start to foist biometrics on their
citizens, they would do well to bear this in mind.
A recent survey found that air passengers would welcome biometric checkin
procedures at airports if it meant less queuing. People will embrace biometrics,
it seems, provided there’s something in it for them.
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发表于 2017-8-6 15:51:14
