The average computer user has between 5 and 15 username and password combinations to log in different kinds of accounts. Some demand you use a specific number of symbols and digits, while others require you to change your password every 60 days. The feeling of confusion resulting from memorizing the login information has grown so common that it actually has a name: password fatigue (疲劳).

Having to remember so many different passwords is annoying, but it can also be dangerous. Because it is virtually impossible to remember a unique password for each of these accounts, many people leave handwritten lists of usernames and passwords on or next to their accounts. 【小题1】 While these practices make it easier to remember login information, they also make it easier for thieves to hack into accounts.

Single Sign-On(SSO) confirmation and password management software can help solve this problem. 【小题2】 The SSO software then automatically logs the user in to other accounts within the system. SSO software is typically used by large companies, schools or libraries.

【小题3】 If a user loses or forgets the password required to log in to SSO software, the user will then lose access to all of the applications linked to the SSO account. Users who rely on password management software face the same problems.

Although most websites or network systems allow users to recover or change lost passwords by providing email addresses or answering a prompt (提示), this process can waste time and cause further frustration. What is more, recovering a forgotten password is only a temporary solution. 【小题4】

Some computer scientists have suggested computers rely on biometrics (生物测定学). 【小题5】 The use of biometrics raises questions concerning privacy and can also be expensive to practice.

Software engineers and computer security experts are still searching for the cure to password fatigue. Until they find the perfect solution, however, everyone will simply have to rely on the password system currently in place.

These days when someone says a computer has a bug (小虫子) in it, usually they mean that there’s a problem with one of its programs. Maybe your computer crashed when you were in the middle of a game.【小题1】

But back in the early days of computers, a woman named Grace Hopper was part of a team that discovered the very first computer bug.

【小题2】 She had been invited to help program a new computer, the job of which was to quickly deal with the math problems ships used to find their way.【小题3】 Then it translated the patterns of holes into the math problems it was supposed to solve.

One afternoon in 1947 Hopper and her team were running a program. But the computer wasn’t giving them the right results.【小题4】 They finally ended up taking the computer apart, looking for problems. What did they find? It was a moth (飞蛾)! The moth was blocking some of the holes in the paper—【小题5】 Some people think Hopper was the first person to use the word “debug” to mean “get rid of the problems in a computer”.