阅读理解
Imagine browsing a website when an attractive ad for lingerie catches your eye. You don't click on it, merely smile and go to another page. Yet it follows you, putting up more racy pictures, perhaps even the offer of a discount. Finally, annoyed by its persistence, you frown. "Sorry for taking up your time," says the ad, and promptly stops further disturbance. Creepy. But making online ads that not only know you are looking at them but also respond to your emotions will soon be possible, thanks to the power of image-processing software and the common existence of tiny cameras in computers and mobile devices.
Uses for this technology would not, of course, be confined to advertising. But advertisers are among the first to embrace the idea in earnest. Advertising firms already film how people react to ads, usually in an artificial setting. The participants' faces are studied for positive or negative feelings. A lot of research has been done into ways of categorizing the emotions behind facial expressions. Some consumer-research companies also employ cameras to track eye movements so they can be sure what their subjects are looking at. This can help determine which ads attract the most attention and where they might be placed for the best effect on a web page.
One of the companies doing such work, Realeyes, which is based in London, has been developing a system that combines eye-spying webcams with emotional analysis. Mihkel Jaatma, who founded the company in 2007, says that his system is able to detect a person's mood by plotting the position of facial features, such as eyebrows, mouth and nostrils, and employing clever programs to interpret changes in their alignment—as when eyebrows are raised in surprise, say. Add eye-movement tracking, hinting at which display ads were overlooked and which were studied for any period of time, and the approach offers precisely the sort of quantitative data brand managers yearn for.
At present the system is being used on purpose-built websites with, for instance, online research groups testing the effect of various display ads. The next step is to make interactive ads. Because they can spot the visual attention given to them, as well as the emotional state of the viewer, these ads could change their responses.
As similar technologies become widespread, privacy concerns will invariably increase. People would need to give consent to their webcams being used in this way, Mr. Jaatma admits. One way to persuade Internet users to grant access to their images would be to offer them discounts on goods or subscriptions to websites.
Uses for this technology would not, of course, be confined to advertising. But advertisers are among the first to embrace the idea in earnest. Advertising firms already film how people react to ads, usually in an artificial setting. The participants' faces are studied for positive or negative feelings. A lot of research has been done into ways of categorizing the emotions behind facial expressions. Some consumer-research companies also employ cameras to track eye movements so they can be sure what their subjects are looking at. This can help determine which ads attract the most attention and where they might be placed for the best effect on a web page.
One of the companies doing such work, Realeyes, which is based in London, has been developing a system that combines eye-spying webcams with emotional analysis. Mihkel Jaatma, who founded the company in 2007, says that his system is able to detect a person's mood by plotting the position of facial features, such as eyebrows, mouth and nostrils, and employing clever programs to interpret changes in their alignment—as when eyebrows are raised in surprise, say. Add eye-movement tracking, hinting at which display ads were overlooked and which were studied for any period of time, and the approach offers precisely the sort of quantitative data brand managers yearn for.
At present the system is being used on purpose-built websites with, for instance, online research groups testing the effect of various display ads. The next step is to make interactive ads. Because they can spot the visual attention given to them, as well as the emotional state of the viewer, these ads could change their responses.
As similar technologies become widespread, privacy concerns will invariably increase. People would need to give consent to their webcams being used in this way, Mr. Jaatma admits. One way to persuade Internet users to grant access to their images would be to offer them discounts on goods or subscriptions to websites.
单选题
6.The imagined situation in Paragraph 1 introduces______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】推断题。由题干中的关键词Paragraph 1可迅速锁定信息至文章第一段。该段前五句话描述了一个想象的情景：人们在浏览网页时，页面出现了一个奇特的广告，它能觉察到人们对广告的情绪浮动并能做出相应的反应。第六句话是作者对此的评价——这简直不可思议(Creepy)。接下来第七句话是对这一想象中的情景进行描述和解释：这种广告是一种不仅仅知道用户正在查看，同时还能根据用户的情绪做出反应的广告，并且由于图像处理软件的强大作用和微型摄像头的广泛存在，这种奇特的广告将会很快成为现实。由此可知，D项“一种可以识别人的情绪变化的新技术”符合文意，为正确答案。
单选题
7.According to Paragraph 2, the study of people's emotional responses to ads______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节题。由题干中的关键词Paragraph 2可迅速锁定信息至文章第二段。该段第三至五句话介绍了人们对广告的情绪反应的研究：广告公司录制了在模拟场景中(in an artificial setting)人们对于广告的不同反应，并对参与者表达积极或消极情绪时的面目表情进行了研究。结合第一段中的信息(根据人的情绪做出反应的广告)，可推知，广告商是想通过研究人的情绪开发出这种广告，以便获得更好的广告效果。B项符合文意，故为正确答案。
单选题
8.The emotional analysis by Realeyes company mainly focuses on______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干中Realeyes company这一关键词，可迅速将信息锁定至文章第三段。该段介绍了Realeyes公司所开发的一个新系统。首句指出，该公司一直在研发一种将眼球监测网络摄像头与情绪分析相结合的系统。接下来第二句具体指出该系统所具有的功能，能够通过标示眉毛、嘴和鼻孔等面部位置，并运用智能程序识别其位置的变化来识别人的情绪(detect a person’s mood by plotting the position of facial features)，故可推断出该公司对情绪的分析主要是通过标示人的面部特征来进行的，C项符合文意，为正确答案。
单选题
9.Interactive ads are featured by
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】推断题。根据题干的关键词Interactive ads(互动式广告)可迅速将信息定位至文章第四段。该段第一、二句指出，目前该系统正被用于各种为特定目的而建立的网站，而下一步就是要制作互动式广告。接着第三句对互动式广告进行了说明：由于这类广告能捕捉到人们的视觉关注以及浏览者的情绪状态，因此它们可以做出相应的反应(these ads could change their responses)。由此可推知，捕捉到浏览者对其的视觉关注和情绪是互动式广告作出相应反应的两个前提条件，同时也是互动式广告的特殊之处，故A项正确。
单选题
10.As for the new technology, use of webcams would be forbidden when______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】细节题。根据题干中的关键词，可迅速将信息定位至文章最后一段。该段首句指出，随着此类技术的广泛使用，对于个人的隐私将倍受关注。接着第二句指出Jaatma先生也表示，以这种方式使用网络摄像头必须得到当事人的同意(People would need to give consent to their webcams being used in this way)，由此可知，如果当事人不同意，这种网络摄像头则会被禁用，B项符合此意，故为正确答案。