Dissertativa 5 - 2ª Fase - Dia 4 - IME 2008

LEIA O TEXTO A SEGUIR E RESPONDA ÀS QUESTÕES 4, 5, 6 E 7. 

Wi-Fi? Why Worry? (Adapted from BBC, Apri1 2007)
Scare stories about the dangers of wireless networks lack
credibility, argues Bill Thompson 

1 Students at Canada’s Lakehead University have to be careful how
they connect to the internet because Wi-Fi is banned on large
parts of lhe campus.
2 University president Fred Gilbert, whose academic interests
include wildlife management, environmental studies and natural
resources science, is worried about the health impact of the 2.4
GHz radio waves used by wireless networks. 
3 Last year he decided to adopt the precautionary principle and
refused to allow Wi-Fi in those areas that have what he calls
“hard wire connectivity” until it is proved to be safe.
4 Mr Gilbert believes that “microwave radiation in the frequency
range of Wi-Fi has been shown to increase permeability of the
blood-brain barrier, cause behavioural changes, alter cognitive
functions, activate a stress response, interfere with brain waves,
cell growth, cell communication, calcium ion balance, etc., and
cause single and double strand DNA breaks”. 
5 Unfortunately the science says he is wrong, and his students are
suffering as a result. 
Smog talk 
6 While the heating effects of high exposures to electromagnetic
radiation can be damaging, the power levels of wireless
connections are much lower than the microwave ovens and
mobile phones which share the frequency range, and treating
them in the same way is the worst sort of scaremongering.
7 Yet Mr Gilbert is not alone.
8 In 2003 parents sued a primary school in Chicago because it had
dared to provide children with easy access to computing resources
over a wireless network. 
9 And there are a number of pressure groups, campaigning
organisations and ill-informed individuals who believe that
wireless networks pose a threat to health and want to see them
closed down.
10 Now it seems they have been joined by the editor of the UK
newspaper the Independent on Sunday, which this weekend filled
its front page with a call for research into the “electronic smog”
that is permeating the nation’s schools and damaging growing
children’s brains. 
11 An accompanying editorial with the even-handed headline “hightech horrors” called for an official inquiry, while the article
outlining the perceived dangers asked “Is the Wi-Fi revolution a
health time bomb?” 
12 The answer, of course, is “no”. 
13 That will not stop the newspaper stoking up a wave of opposition
to one of the most liberating technologies to have come out of the
hi-tech revolution, limiting children’s access to networked
computers at schools and even blocking plans to develop
municipal wireless networks in our towns and cities. 
14 If the journalists were really concerned about the dangers of radio
frequency electromagnetic radiation on the sensitive brains of the
young, they should be calling for the closure of TV and radio
transmission towers rather than asking us to turn off our Wi-Fi
laptops. 
15 The modulated frequencies that carry Radio 4 and ITV into our
homes are just as powerful as the wireless networks, and a lot
more pervasive. 
16 And my wireless network is only carrying data when I’m online,
while Radio 3 burbles all day long, possibly exciting electrons in
my brain and causing headaches. 
17 Then there is the danger from photons of visible light streaming
down onto us as we work, since these carry more energy than
microwaves and could surely do more damage. 
18 Perhaps we should demand that our children work in the dark.

Retire do parágrafo indicado uma palavra ou expressão que seja o sinônimo da expressão dada em cada item. 

5.1. parágrafo 6 – to have something in common:                             
5.2. parágrafo 9 – are risky:                             
5.3. parágrafo 10 – request:                             
5.4. parágrafo 14 – instead of:                             
5.5. parágrafo 17 – harm: