I’m having a hard time starting this article. According to research out of the University of Melbourne, that might be because I’m middle-aged and work too much. Economists determined that burning the midnight oil makes you, well, dumber.” Our study highlights that too much work can have adverse effects on cognitive functioning,” they conclude.

    Tell us something we didn’t know. Who hasn’t, at the end of a seemingly endless workweek, found themselves staring blankly at their computer screen or into space unable to remember what they had for lunch, let alone form a coherent thought about the task at hand?

      For some employees, of course – the average resident 2 physician or, these days, that “3 gig economy” worker who makes ends meet by banging away at multiple projects – long hours are a fact of modern working life. And there’s a cost. Medical researchers have shown that working too much can affect employees’ physical and mental health.

      So how much is too much? For people age 40 and older, working up to roughly 25 hours per week boosts memory, the ability to quickly process information and other aspects of cognitive function, according to the study, which drew on a longitudinal survey that tracks the well-being of 6,000 Australians. Beyond 25 hours a week, the middle-aged brain doesn’t work as well, the study indicates, noting that the findings apply to both men and women.

<http://tinyurl.com/j4os8ck> Acesso em: 24.08.2016. Adaptado.

     Eu, Robô (I, Robot) é uma coletânea de contos escritos por Isaac Asimov que procura descrever, sob o ponto de vista do autor, o hipotético aumento da presença e da atuação dos robôs na sociedade.

    Leia o texto, que apresenta uma entrevista com a personagem Susan Calvin, uma “robopsicóloga”, e responda à questão.

Susan Calvin had been born in the year 1982, they said, which made her seventy five now. Everyone knew that. Appropriately enough, U. S. Robot and Mechanical Men, Inc. was seventy-five also, since it had been in the year of Dr. Calvin’s birth that Lawrence Robertson had first taken out incorporation papers for what eventually became the strangest industrial giant in man’s history. Well, everyone knew that, too. (…)

She went back to her desk and sat down. She didn’t need expression on her face to look sad, somehow.

“How old are you?” she wanted to know.

“Thirty-two,” I said. 

“Then you don’t remember a world without robots. There was a time when humanity faced the universe alone and without a friend. Now he has creatures to help him; stronger creatures than himself, more faithful, more useful, and absolutely devoted to him. Mankind is no longer alone. Have you ever thought of it that way?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t. May I quote you?”

“You may. To you, a robot is a robot. Gears and metal; electricity and positrons. Mind and iron! Human-made! If necessary, human-destroyed! But you haven’t worked with them, so you don’t know them. They’re a cleaner, better breed than we are.”

(ASIMOV, I. I, Robot. Greenwich, Conn: Fawcett Publications,1950. p. 2-3.)

Leia o texto a seguir e responda a questão:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/hurricane-irma (acessado em 07 de setembro de 2017)

Barbuda, the first island to feel the force of Hurricane Irma was devastated by its high winds, with Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, saying 90% of buildings had been destroyed and 50% of the population of around 1,000 people left homeless. Critical facilities including roads and communications systems were ravaged, with the recovery effort set to take months or years. Some residents are expected to be evacuated to the larger sister island of Antigua – where damage was less severe – as part of relief efforts and ahead of the prospective arrival of Hurricane Jose this weekend. At least eight people were killed in St Martin, according to French officials. The number of victims on the Dutch half of the island, St Maarteen, is unknown. Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte says there has been “enormous material damage” to St Maarten. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier said he expected Irma-related damage to St Martin and another French overseas collectivity, Saint Barthélemy (St Barts), would be “considerable”. France’s overseas minister, Annick Girardin, was travelling to the Caribbean with emergency teams and supplies. The most recent island to be hit was Puerto Rico, where lashing winds and rains have left most of the population without power and tens of thousands without water. Images from the island showed flash flooding, and hospitals were forced to rely on generators. Irma is the worst hurricane to hit the island since 1928, when Hurricane San Felipe killed more than 2,700 people across Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Florida .More than two thirds of homes in Puerto Rico are without electricity, and 17% are without water, officials have said.. Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, warned that the arrival of Irma’s lifethreatening wind field and storm surge was imminent, and urged residents in coastal areas to leave immediately. About 250,000 people were ordered to evacuate, making it of the largest evacuations in US history as the National Hurricane Center (NHC) placed south Florida, including the southernmost counties of Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward, under a hurricane watch. Preparations were escalating at a furious pace as the storm’s forecast path narrowed in on the south-eastern portion of the state, home to 7 million residents. Philip Levine, the mayor of Miami Beach, ordered a mandatory evacuation of the barrier island beginning at daybreak on Thursday. “This is a nuclear hurricane,” he said. “I’ll do anything in my power to convince them to leave. Get off Miami Beach.”Scott warned that that effects of the storm could begin to be felt later on Friday, with the NHC predicting Irma’s full wrath would strike the south-east coast near Miami sometime late Saturday or early Sunday morning then move north.“Look at the size of the storm,” Scott said. “It’s huge, it’s wider than our entire state right now. If you are under an evacuation order do not wait. Leave and get out. We can rebuild your home but you can’t get your life back.”