阅读理解。
It’s 10 pm. You may not know where your child is, but the chip does.
The chip will also know if your child has fallen and needs immediate help. Once doctors arrive,
the chip will also be able to tell them which drugs are not suitable for little Johnny or Janie. At the
hospital, the chip will tell doctors his or her complete medical history. And of course, when you
arrive to pick up your child, settling the hospital bill with your health insurance policy will be a simple
matter of waving your own chip-the one embedded in your hand.
To some, this may sound unbelievable. But the technology for such chips is no longer the stuff
of science fiction. And it may soon offer many other benefits besides locating lost children or elderly
patients. It could be used as credit cards and people won’t have to carry wallets anymore.
On the other hand, some are already wondering what this sort of technology may do to the sense
of personal privacy and liberty.
“Any technology of this kind could result in abuse of personal privacy,” says Lee Tien, senior
staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “If a kid can be tracked, do you want other
people to be able to track your kid? It’s a double-edged sword.”
Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. in Palm Beach, Florida, says it has recently applied to the Food
and Drug Administration for permission to begin testing its device in humans. About the size of a
grain of rice, the microchip can be encoded (编码) with bits of information and embedded in humans
under a layer of skin. When scanned by a nearby reader, the embedded chip gives the data.
Most embedded chip designs are so-called passive chips, which give information only when
scanned by a nearby reader. But active chips-such as the proposed Digital Angel of the future-will
give out information all the time. And that means designers will have to develop some sort of power
source that can provide a continuous source of energy, yet be small enough to be embedded with
the chips.
In addition to technical problems, many suspect that all sorts of legal and privacy issues would
have to be cleared as well.
1. By using the example in the first two paragraphs, the author wants to tell us that .
A. chips are usually used to locate lost children
B. chips are more convenient than credit cards
C. chips will soon be useful in many aspects of daily lives
D. chips will bring out the issue of abuse of personal privacy
2. What is the attitude of Lee Tien towards the chips?
A. Negative.
B. Indifferent.
C. Arbitrary(随意的).
D. Cautious.
3. One of the features of the device considered by Applied Digital Solutions is .
A. duration(持续时间)
B. capacity
C. safety
D. purpose
4. Which of the following statements about Digital Angel is NOT true?
A. Digital Angel will include at least a chip and a power source.
B. Digital Angel will soon be produced and replace passive chips.
C. Digital Angel will be embedded in humans under a layer of skin.
D. Digital Angel will give information without being scanned by a reader.
5. It is indicated in the passage that chip producers have to consider the following issues EXCEPT .
A. financial problems
B. technical problems
C. legal problems
D. privacy problems
