考研英语阅读理解中的文章，很多来自一些外刊杂志方面的题材。接下来，北京文都考研网为扩宽2020考研学子的知识面，整理了考研英语经济学人外刊:行走的方式(上)，供考生参考。
2020考研英语经济学人外刊:行走的方式(上)
Love the way you walk
爱上你走路的方式
The way people walk can be used for ID and health checks
人们走路的方式可用于身份识别和健康检查
A lot can be learnt from monitoring footsteps
对脚步进行监控，从中可以学到很多东西
Listen carefully to the footsteps in the family home, especially if it has wooden floors unmuffled by carpets, and you can probably work out who it is that is walking about.
仔细聆听家中的脚步声，特别是对于没有铺地毯的木地板，你就能知道是谁在走动。
The features most commonly used to identify people are faces, voices, fingerprints and retinal scans.
最常用于识别人们身份的特征是面部、声音、指纹和视网膜扫描。
But their “behavioural biometrics”,such as the way they walk, are also giveaways.
但是他们的 "行为特征识别", 比如他们走路的方式, 也是可以利用的。
Researchers have, for several years, used video cameras and computers to analyse people’s gaits, and are now quite good at it.
多年来，研究人员一直使用摄像机和计算机来分析人们的步态，目前对此已经相当擅长了。
But translating such knowledge into a practical identification system can be tricky—especially if that system is supposed to be covert.
但是将这些知识转化为实际的识别系统可能会很棘手 - 特别是如果该系统被认为应该是隐蔽的。
Cameras are often visible, are fiddly to set up, require good lighting and may have their view obscured by other people.
摄像机通常是可见的、需要繁琐的设置、需要良好的照明，并且可能会被其他人遮挡。
So a team led by Krikor Ozanyan of the University of Manchester, in England and Patricia Scully of the National University of Ireland, in Galway have been looking for a better way to recognise gait.
因此，一个由英格兰曼彻斯特大学的Krikor Ozanyan和爱尔兰国立大学的Patricia Scully领导的团队一直在寻找一种更好的识别步态的方法。
Their answer: pressure-sensitive mats.
他们的回答是：压敏垫。
In themselves, such mats are nothing new.
这些垫子本身并不是什么新东西。
They have been part of security systems for donkeys’ years.
他们多年来一直是安全系统的一部分。(Donkeys’ years是英式俚语，意为：很久很久;好多年，相当于a long time or ages)
But Dr Ozanyan and Dr Scully use a sophisticated version that can record the amount of pressure applied in different places as someone walks across it.
但 Ozanyan博士和 Scully博士使用了一个复杂的版本，当有人走过它时，可以记录对不同地方施加的压力。
These measurements form a pattern unique to the walker.
这些测量形成了行走者所独有的模式。
Dr Ozanyan and Dr Scully therefore turned, as is now commonplace for anything to do with pattern recognition, to an artificial-intelligence system that uses machine learning to disentangle and recognise such patterns.
因此，Ozanyan博士和Scully博士目前转向了一种人工智能系统，这种系统利用机器学习来解开和识别这种模式。
It seems to work.
它似乎奏效。
In a study published earlier this year the two researchers tested their system on a database of footsteps trodden by 127 different people.
在今年早些时候发表的一项研究中，两位研究人员在一个由127个不同的人所踩踏的足迹组成的数据库中测试了他们的系统。
They found that its error rate in identifying who was who was a mere 0.7%.
他们发现，该系统识别谁是谁的错误率仅为0.7%。
And Dr Scully says that even without a database of footsteps towork with the system can determine someone’s sex (women and men, with wide and narrow pelvises respectively, walk in different ways) and guess, with reasonable accuracy, a subject’s age.
Scully博士说，即使没有足够的足迹数据库，也可以确定某人的性别(女性和男性分别有宽和窄的骨盆，以不同的方式行走)，并以合理的准确度猜测受试者的年龄。
A mat-based gait-recognition system has the advantage that it would work in any lighting conditions—even pitch-darkness.
基于垫子的步态识别系统的优点是，它能在任何照明条件下工作, 甚至是在漆黑一片的环境中。
And though it might fail to identify someone if, say, she was wearing stilettos and had been entered into the database while wearing trainers, it would be very hard to fool it by mimicking the gait of an individual who was allowed admission to a particular place.
尽管该系统有可能没识别出某人，比如她是穿着运动鞋录入系统的，而此时穿着高跟鞋(注：这样系统可能无法识别出她);但是想要通过模仿一个被允许进入某个特定地方的人的步态来骗过它是非常困难的。
[重难点词汇]
fiddly ['fɪdli] adj. 需要手巧的，要求高精度的
obscure [əb'skjʊr] adj. 昏暗的，朦胧的;晦涩的，不清楚的;隐蔽的;不著名的，无名的 vt. 使…模糊不清，掩盖;隐藏;使难理解
sophisticate [sə'fɪstɪkɪt] vt. 弄复杂;使变得世故;曲解 n. 久经世故的人;精通者 vi. 诡辩
disentangle [,dɪsɪn'tæŋɡl] vi. 解决;松开;解开纠结;解决(纠纷) vt. 解开;松开;使解脱
以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研英语经济学人外刊:行走的方式(上)”，希望对备考2020考研英语的考生有所帮助!祝2020考研顺利!
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