单选题 "Lie detectors", those controversial assessors of truth, are making their way into everyday life.
Insurance companies use them to help catch people filing fraudulent claims. Suspicious spouses use hand-held versions to judge whether their significant others are cheating. Interrogators for the U.S. government use them to double-check analyses of who might be terrorists.
Polygraphs, which have been used for decades, have been joined by new systems that purportedly (据称) analyze a person's voice, blush, pupil size and even brain waves for signs of deception. The devices range from costly experimental devices that use strings of electrodes or thermal imaging to $19.95 palm-sized versions.
No studies have ever proven that lie detectors wore Many show that they assess truth as accurately as a coin flip; in other words, not at all. Still, some people have come to depend on them.
"It helps me to live in a world of reality," said Saul, 36, a Manhattan resident who bought the $3000 device from a local spy shop.
The recent proliferation of lie detectors has reignited a decades-old debate over the ethics and politics of when and how they should be used and whether such important questions as guilt or innocence should be left to machines. Mankind has looked for centuries for a physical indicator that would expose a liar.
The Romans studied the entrails (内脏) of suspected liars. In China, rice was shoved into the mouths of interviewees to measure how dry they were. The drier the mouth, the more likely the person was lying, it was thought. Other cultures tried various chemical concoctions (计策), but they worked no better than chance.
Especially since Sept.11, law enforcement agencies consider lie detection systems critical to their investigations. The CIA, FBI and Defense Department have spent millions of dollars on them. In an unusual plea made soon after the terrorist attacks, the government asked for the public's help in building counterterrorism technologies, among them a portable polygraph.
In the United States, there is a double standard when it comes to the use of polygraphs. Although the so-called lie detector is considered an important law enforcement tool, polygraph data are inadmissible as evidence in a court of law. The U.S. Supreme Court forbade private companies from using them to screen job applicants, but allowed the government to use them for the same purpose.
As debate about polygraphs' rages, the devices are being phased out in favor of voice analyzers, which are more portable and easier to use.
The federal government officially says it does not use these voice lie detectors. Still, the voice technology has its true believers, among them more than 1200 police departments nationwide, traveler's check issuers, and tens of thousands of consumers.

单选题 Lie detectors are making their way into everyday's life because people think ______.
A. they are accurate B. they help to assess truth
C. they are portable D. they are affordable

单选题 Examples of Romans and Chinese indicates that ______.
A. compared with other cultures, Romans and Chinese are cruel
B. studies of the entrails are more accurate than putting rice into interviewees' mouths
C. rice used to function as a lie detector
D. these physical indicators could not truly expose a liar

单选题 Which of the following statement is true according to the passage?
A. Like a coin flip, lie detectors can assess truth accurately.
B. Polygraph data can be adopted as evidence in a court of law.
C. Still there is a debate over whether lie detectors should be used to decide a person's innocence or guilt.
D. The federal government forbids using lie detectors in important issues.

单选题 After Sept.11, lie detectors ______.
A. has become increasingly important in law enforcement agencies
B. has been weakened in investigations because the system is considered inaccurate
C. has aroused a hot debate in the U.S. government
D. has become popularized in most fields of people's life, such as traveler's check issuers, and tens of thousands of consumers

单选题 Which of the following statements shows the writer's attitude?
A. Lie detectors sometimes are helpful in people's daily life, because they would expose a liar and present the truth.
B. The U.S. Supreme Court should allow private companies using lie detectors to screen job applicants.
C. Lie detectors are no better than the physical indicators because all of them lack scientific support.
D. The U.S. government promotes the wide use of lie detectors.