?Shopping with your finger

By Katie Morley/王群艷（譯）

◆語篇導讀

英國一家超市成為世界上首個允許顧客在購物時使用指靜脈付款的超市。這一技術的原理是利用紅外線掃描將顧客手指的靜脈與其銀行卡相關聯(lián)。之后顧客便可以空手逛超市，只需花3秒鐘即可完成支付。

A UK supermarket has become the first in the world to let customers pay for goods using just the veins.

Customers at the Costcutter Store can now pay using their vein pattern to identify themselves.

It works by using infrared light to scan customers’finger veins and then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards.Customers’bank messages are then stored with Worldpay,in the same way you can store your card details when shopping online.Customers can then turn up in the supermarket with nothing on them but it takes just seconds to place your finger in a scanner each time you reach the supermarket checkout.

It comes as studies have found that the finger recognition,used widely on mobile phones,is easy to be hacked and can be copied even from the phone screens.

But Sthaler,the company behind the technology,states vein technology is the safest method as it cannot be copied or stolen.

Sthaler said lots of students were already using the system and it expected 3,000 students out of 13,000 to be members of this system by November.

The technology uses an infrared light to create a detailed map of the vein pattern in your finger.The person should be alive,meaning in the unlikely event a criminal hacks off someone’s finger,it would not work.Sthaler said it take just one minute to sign up to the system at first and,after that,it takes just seconds to finish your shopping.

Simon Binns,director of Sthaler,told the Daily Telegraph:“This makes payments so much easier for customers.”

◆詞語積淀

vein/veIn/n.靜脈；紋理

identify/aI'dentIfaI/v.識別；確認

infrared/,Infr?'red/adj.紅外線的

unique/ju'ni?k/adj.獨特的；唯一的

biometric/,baI?u'metrIk/adj.生物識別的；生物統(tǒng)計的

detail/'di?teIl/n.細節(jié)；詳情

recognition/,rek?ɡ'nI?n/n.識別；認識

hack/h?k/v.砍；非法獲取

criminal/'krImInl/n.罪犯

◆典句賞析

1....but it takes just seconds to place your finger in a scanner each time you reach the supermarket checkout.……但每次在超市結賬時，只要花幾秒鐘把手指放在掃描儀上。

it takes(sb.)some time to do sth.是固定句型結構，意為“（某人）做某事花了多少時間”，句中的it為形式主語，動詞不定式to do sth.才是真正的主語；each time意為“每次；每當”，引導的是時間狀語從句。

【即時嘗試】讀完這本小說花了我一個小時。

2.The technology uses an infrared light to create a detailed map of the vein pattern in your finger.該技術利用紅外光創(chuàng)建你手指靜脈的詳細圖像。

use sth.to do為固定句型結構，意為“用某物做某事”，其被動語態(tài)形式為be used to do，意為“某物被用作”。

【即時嘗試】我哥哥經(jīng)常用鋼筆寫信。

譯文助讀

英國一家超市成為世界上首個允許顧客購買商品時使用指靜脈付款的超市。

顧客現(xiàn)在可以在Costcutter商店通過靜脈特征驗證身份付款。

這一技術的原理是利用紅外光掃描顧客手指的靜脈，然后將這種獨特的生物識別地圖與顧客的銀行卡相關聯(lián)。顧客的銀行信息隨后將存儲到Worldpay的系統(tǒng)中，同樣地，網(wǎng)購時也是這樣留存銀行卡信息的。之后顧客便可以空手逛超市，但每次在超市結賬時，只要花幾秒鐘把手指放在掃描儀上。

此前的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在手機上廣泛應用的指紋識別技術很容易被黑客攻擊，甚至從手機屏幕上就可以復制指紋。

但支持此科技的Sthaler公司聲稱，靜脈識別技術是最安全的方法，無法被復制或竊取。

該公司表示，很多學生已經(jīng)使用該支付系統(tǒng)，預計截至11月全校13000名學生中將有3000人成為該系統(tǒng)的會員。

該技術利用紅外光創(chuàng)建手指靜脈的詳細圖像。支付者必須是活著的本人，這意味著一旦犯罪分子切下某人的手指去支付，那也是行不通的。Sthaler公司表示，你只需要花費一分鐘時間先在系統(tǒng)上注冊，之后每次在超市結賬時，只需幾秒鐘就能完成付款。

Sthaler公司總監(jiān)西蒙·賓斯對《每日電訊報》表示：“這項技術讓付款變得更簡單。”