V. Read the following text and answer the questions after it.

WAR-CHALKING

Back in the Depression, hobos would draw chalk marks on the walls of houses to show where a generous stranger lived. A top hat meant “kind gentleman lives here”; a cross meant “religious talk will get you a meal”.

This summer, the British designer Matt Jones created a new set of hobo symbols for the Internet age. Jones is a fan of “Wi-Fi” short for “wireless fidelity”), the new technology that lets you take your broadband connection and broadcast it around your home or office. Wi-Fi signals can travel more than 1,000 feet, which means that your private connection often leaks out into the street. If you’re feeling generous, you can leave it “open” for anyone passing by to use. … Presto: free high-speed access!

The only problem is that Wi-Fi radio signals are invisible. You might be near a node right now. But how can you tell?

Easy. You look for one of Jones’s symbols scrawled on the wall. If you see two back-to-back half-circles, it means some geek has discovered an open node nearby.

Within weeks of Jones’s invention, war-chalking … took off. The Schlotzsky’s Deli chain began war-chalking its restaurants, and the state of Utah announced it would mark up its conference rooms. Wireless companies, in contrast, reacted with alarm: Nokia called war-chalking “theft, plain and simple”, and some cable companies have sent warning letters to users who openly share their Internet connection.

Yet the growth of Wi-Fi seems unstoppable. Consider it a lesson from the hobos: in a world full of generous strangers, sometimes there really is such a thing as a free lunch.

Notes

war-chalking – járdára, falra vagy más felületre való jelek felrajzolása a legközelebbi kommunikációs hálózatok elhelyezkedéséről (legfőképp Internethez való hozzáférhetőséggel)

geek – (sl.) stréber

broadband connection – szélessávú kapcsolat

to scrawl – firkál, csúnyán ír

theft – lopás

to leak out – kiszivárog

node – csomópont

top hat – cilinder, kürtőkalap

to take off – sikeresnek lenni

hobo – csavargó, vándorló

free lunch – ingyen löncs

high-speed access – nagysebességű hozzáférhetőség

Questions

1. Why did hobos leave chalk marks for the other hobos on houses during Depression?

2. How far can Wi-Fi signals travel?

3. What does this mean for anyone near your building with a laptop?

4. What symbol do people leave on walls when they discover a free Wi-Fi connection?

5. Why did restaurants and hotels war-chalk their buildings?

6. How did telecommunication companies react to the war-chalking phenomenon?

VI. Read the text about Internet cheats. Make notes about it. Discuss it with your group mates. Cheating.Com

These days lots of students use the Internet for help with their homework and assignments, and there is no doubt that the Web has become a valuable academic tool. But now that cutting and pasting is so easy, there can often be a fine dividing line between using the Net for research and plagiarising material directly from it. There are even some unscrupulous sites (often called ‘paper mills’) that offer students ready-made downloadable essays on a number of popular topics – usually for a payment. Bur most teachers are now aware of Internet plagiarism, and there is even a variety of software that schools can use to detect it. But teachers can often spot plagiarists simply by following their own suspicions. For example:

▪ a high-school student turns in an essay using language and ideas more suitable for a university student.

▪ a weak student suddenly turns in an outstanding essay.

▪ the same work occurs in a number of different students’ assignments.

▪ the essay doesn’t quite fit the question or title that the teacher has set the class

▪ American students produce essays written in British English, or vice versa.

The price of plagiarism can be high, especially in the USA, where it is not uncommon for students to be expelled, particularly at college level.

VII. Find words in the text Cheating.com to complete the table.

Activity	Verb	Person who does it
plagiarism (=copying something directly without admitting it)	to pl…	pl…