Questões de Inglês - Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension para Concurso

Foram encontradas 6.218 questões

Q3028595 Inglês
Text I: 'Quiet quitting' isn't really quitting


    Clocking out at 5 p.m. on the dot, only doing your assigned daily tasks, limiting chats with colleagues and not working overtime. These are the distinctive features of "quiet quitting," a term coined to describe how people are approaching their jobs and professional lives differently to manage burnout.

    The phrase, which isn't actually intended to lead to a resignation, exploded into the popular lexicon in 2022 when a TikTok video went viral. The creator, Zaid Khan, said in the video "I recently learned about this term 'quiet quitting,' where you're not outright quitting your job, but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond." Nonetheless, “quiet quitting” is a misnomer, at least according to Karen K. Ho, a freelance business and culture reporter. She said that the term doesn't account for the fact that people are watching their grocery bills, fuel costs and housing prices go up, often without so much as a salary increase. "You're literally stagnating as a result of not earning more, not being promoted – and that's why a lot of people are leaving jobs," she completed.

   While the words "quiet quitting" are loaded, evoking images of a slacker or ne'er-do-well for some, others say that the approach frees up time to spend with family and friends or to take care of oneself. In short, it's a renewed commitment to life beyond the workplace. On the other hand, the term “quiet quitting” has also received criticism, even from those who generally favor the idea behind it.

   However, while the term "quiet quitting" may be a new invention, the mentality behind it is not. The phrase "work to rule," for example, describes a labor action in which employees strictly perform the work laid out in their contract, without taking on additional work. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a major economic movement, The Great Resignation, which saw people leaving their jobs or switching professions in droves, as they re-evaluated their relationship with work during a lifechanging health crisis.

  A May 2022 survey by RBC Insurance suggested that more than one-third of recently retired Canadians aged 55-75 had retired sooner than they planned. Another third decided to retire sooner because of the pandemic. Moreover, Statistics Canada reported that the third quarter of 2021 saw a 60% increase in job vacancies compared to pre-pandemic levels in the country.

    Both Quiet Quitting and The Great Resignation indicate a marked cultural shift from the early and mid-2010s when "hustle culture" paved the way to "grinding" and "girl-bossing" – two ideas that prioritized work over everything else, with the belief that such effort made employees more desirable to managers, therefore helping them climb up the corporate ladder faster and generating more income.

    In addition, it is important to highlight that employees have been re-evaluating how much time they spend commuting, working overtime and generally investing in low-pay, low-reward jobs. It seems they have realized that they work in systems where they are constantly immersed in a hustle culture – which has been repeatedly shown to be only beneficial for corporations and their managers, through bonuses, through increased productivity, through increased revenue and profits and the like.

    Furthermore, some employees are advocating for policies, benefits and working conditions that strengthen work-life balance. But critics say it doesn't work as well as it should, with a glaring loophole that allows employers to take advantage by vaguely wording their policies.


Adapted from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quiet-quitting-workerdisengagement-1.6560226 Last Updated: August 25, 2022
Right after bringing up that “quiet quitting” got criticism, the text:
Alternativas
Q3028594 Inglês
Text I: 'Quiet quitting' isn't really quitting


    Clocking out at 5 p.m. on the dot, only doing your assigned daily tasks, limiting chats with colleagues and not working overtime. These are the distinctive features of "quiet quitting," a term coined to describe how people are approaching their jobs and professional lives differently to manage burnout.

    The phrase, which isn't actually intended to lead to a resignation, exploded into the popular lexicon in 2022 when a TikTok video went viral. The creator, Zaid Khan, said in the video "I recently learned about this term 'quiet quitting,' where you're not outright quitting your job, but you're quitting the idea of going above and beyond." Nonetheless, “quiet quitting” is a misnomer, at least according to Karen K. Ho, a freelance business and culture reporter. She said that the term doesn't account for the fact that people are watching their grocery bills, fuel costs and housing prices go up, often without so much as a salary increase. "You're literally stagnating as a result of not earning more, not being promoted – and that's why a lot of people are leaving jobs," she completed.

   While the words "quiet quitting" are loaded, evoking images of a slacker or ne'er-do-well for some, others say that the approach frees up time to spend with family and friends or to take care of oneself. In short, it's a renewed commitment to life beyond the workplace. On the other hand, the term “quiet quitting” has also received criticism, even from those who generally favor the idea behind it.

   However, while the term "quiet quitting" may be a new invention, the mentality behind it is not. The phrase "work to rule," for example, describes a labor action in which employees strictly perform the work laid out in their contract, without taking on additional work. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a major economic movement, The Great Resignation, which saw people leaving their jobs or switching professions in droves, as they re-evaluated their relationship with work during a lifechanging health crisis.

  A May 2022 survey by RBC Insurance suggested that more than one-third of recently retired Canadians aged 55-75 had retired sooner than they planned. Another third decided to retire sooner because of the pandemic. Moreover, Statistics Canada reported that the third quarter of 2021 saw a 60% increase in job vacancies compared to pre-pandemic levels in the country.

    Both Quiet Quitting and The Great Resignation indicate a marked cultural shift from the early and mid-2010s when "hustle culture" paved the way to "grinding" and "girl-bossing" – two ideas that prioritized work over everything else, with the belief that such effort made employees more desirable to managers, therefore helping them climb up the corporate ladder faster and generating more income.

    In addition, it is important to highlight that employees have been re-evaluating how much time they spend commuting, working overtime and generally investing in low-pay, low-reward jobs. It seems they have realized that they work in systems where they are constantly immersed in a hustle culture – which has been repeatedly shown to be only beneficial for corporations and their managers, through bonuses, through increased productivity, through increased revenue and profits and the like.

    Furthermore, some employees are advocating for policies, benefits and working conditions that strengthen work-life balance. But critics say it doesn't work as well as it should, with a glaring loophole that allows employers to take advantage by vaguely wording their policies.


Adapted from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/quiet-quitting-workerdisengagement-1.6560226 Last Updated: August 25, 2022
Based on the text, mark the statements below as True (T) or False (F).

( ) By referring to “quiet quitting” as a misnomer, Karen K. Ho means that the ups and downs of everyday life do not make viral trends on TikTok.

( ) According to Zaid Khan, the idea behind “quiet quitting” is to lead people to completely quit their jobs.

( ) In a nutshell, “quiet quitting” is a renewed commitment to life beyond the workplace.


The statements are, in the order presented, respectively:
Alternativas
Q3025812 Inglês

        Responsible state fiscal policy requires more than just balancing the current year’s budget. It must also include ensuring that the budget is on a sustainable path. Otherwise, policymakers cannot have the lasting impact they hope for. This risk is especially high in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Record budget surpluses, driven largely by federal pandemic aid, empowered states to adopt historically large tax cuts and spending increases from 2021 to 2023.


        State leaders must be able to assess whether their decisions will be affordable over the long term or will jeopardize their ability to solve state problems or even sustain programs and services in the future. Unfortunately, the nature of state budget processes discourages such long-term thinking. State policymakers devote much of their time to developing, enacting, and implementing annual or biennial budgets, a prime opportunity to achieve immediate policy goals.


        One key strategy for changing this short-term focus is for states to use long-term budget assessments and budget stress tests to regularly measure risks, anticipate potential shortfalls, and identify ways to address impending challenges. Long-term budget assessments project revenue and spending several years into the future, and stress tests estimate the size of temporary budget shortfalls that would result from recessions or other economic events and gauge whether states are prepared for these events.


Internet: <https://www.pewtrusts.org> (adapted).



Considering the ideas conveyed in the previous text, as well as its linguistic aspects, judge the following item. 


Without harming the meaning and the correctness of the text, the word “ensuring” (second sentence of the text) could be correctly replaced with to make sure.  

Alternativas
Q3025663 Inglês

Read the text to aswer the question.


The enduring joy of Golden Girls: a wildly sassy sitcom that will always cheer you up


 A comedic masterclass with the best sitcom theme song of all time, Golden Girls pulled back the curtains on ageing and dealt with big-ticket issues.


    A zinger-infused maelstrom of shoulder pads, pastels and perms. Rattan furniture, DayGlo linen and Formica. There’s such a distinctive look, feel and vibe to The Golden Girls, the iconic sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1992, scooping up 68 Emmy nominations and 11 wins in the process. The brainchild of producer Susan Harris, the show spawned several acclaimed spinoffs and became an enduring work of high camp in the process.

    The premise? Three older women decide to live together: the stern, witty ex-teacher Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), the sweet but fantastically dense Rose Nylund (Betty White) and southern hornbag Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). At first it’s a matter of convenience, but before long, they become fast friends. During the pilot they’re joined by a fourth: Dorothy’s mother Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), a nitpicky little shrew whose ability to cockblock our heroines saw her gradually become the Scrappy-Doo of the house. (Don’t @ me, Goldies, you know I’m right.)

    For a comedy that primarily took place within a Floridian kitchen, The Golden Girls boasted some serious talent. The four leads were all astoundingly adept at their craft.

    The golden girls themselves proved that the family you make is sometimes stronger than the one you’re born with. Dorothy, Rose and Blanche feel, at times, aged out of their previous lives. Careers, spouses, the world: all seem to be pushing them away. But the girls are proof that you can – and should – forge new bonds, even if it seems like your old life is done for. That you can make a new family, even if your old one rejects you.

    The Golden Girls pulled back the curtains on ageing, showing the ways in which old people can be flawed, passionate, monumentally stupid, brave – even at times, almost heroically horny. And it did so with an almost reckless willingness to be as wildly funny as it possibly could.

    The show ended up doing what many sitcoms do: use antagonism as heat to push the plot forward. It takes truly hack writers to defend needless antagonism as the only source of fuel to propel a story (I’m looking at you, post-Sorkin West Wing). The last two seasons of The Golden Girls aren’t terrible, but Sophia morphs from an old lady without boundaries to an ancient sociopathic prankster. But even with this odd acceleration towards a caricatured sitcom event horizon, the show still manages to roll out the hits. The two-part finale, written by Mitch Hurwitz (the creator of Arrested Development) and starring Leslie Nielsen as Dorothy’s love interest, ranks as some of the best in the show’s history.

    It also has – and I cannot stress this enough – the best sitcom theme song in the history of sitcom theme songs. In 2023, there are few things that will haul you out of whatever psychic muck you find yourself in than whacking on an episode of The Golden Girls. I promise you, once the credits roll, you’ll find yourself lying on the lanai in your mind, feeling somehow much lighter than you did before.


(The Guardian 2024, The Guardian website. Accessed: 06 February 2024. Available: <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/aug/02/goldengirls-tv-sitcom-enduring-joy-dorothy-rose-betty-white-blanche>. Adapted.)

According to the author’s opinion, which character suffers from caricaturisation toward the end of the show? 
Alternativas
Q3025662 Inglês

Read the text to aswer the question.


The enduring joy of Golden Girls: a wildly sassy sitcom that will always cheer you up


 A comedic masterclass with the best sitcom theme song of all time, Golden Girls pulled back the curtains on ageing and dealt with big-ticket issues.


    A zinger-infused maelstrom of shoulder pads, pastels and perms. Rattan furniture, DayGlo linen and Formica. There’s such a distinctive look, feel and vibe to The Golden Girls, the iconic sitcom that ran from 1985 to 1992, scooping up 68 Emmy nominations and 11 wins in the process. The brainchild of producer Susan Harris, the show spawned several acclaimed spinoffs and became an enduring work of high camp in the process.

    The premise? Three older women decide to live together: the stern, witty ex-teacher Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), the sweet but fantastically dense Rose Nylund (Betty White) and southern hornbag Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan). At first it’s a matter of convenience, but before long, they become fast friends. During the pilot they’re joined by a fourth: Dorothy’s mother Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), a nitpicky little shrew whose ability to cockblock our heroines saw her gradually become the Scrappy-Doo of the house. (Don’t @ me, Goldies, you know I’m right.)

    For a comedy that primarily took place within a Floridian kitchen, The Golden Girls boasted some serious talent. The four leads were all astoundingly adept at their craft.

    The golden girls themselves proved that the family you make is sometimes stronger than the one you’re born with. Dorothy, Rose and Blanche feel, at times, aged out of their previous lives. Careers, spouses, the world: all seem to be pushing them away. But the girls are proof that you can – and should – forge new bonds, even if it seems like your old life is done for. That you can make a new family, even if your old one rejects you.

    The Golden Girls pulled back the curtains on ageing, showing the ways in which old people can be flawed, passionate, monumentally stupid, brave – even at times, almost heroically horny. And it did so with an almost reckless willingness to be as wildly funny as it possibly could.

    The show ended up doing what many sitcoms do: use antagonism as heat to push the plot forward. It takes truly hack writers to defend needless antagonism as the only source of fuel to propel a story (I’m looking at you, post-Sorkin West Wing). The last two seasons of The Golden Girls aren’t terrible, but Sophia morphs from an old lady without boundaries to an ancient sociopathic prankster. But even with this odd acceleration towards a caricatured sitcom event horizon, the show still manages to roll out the hits. The two-part finale, written by Mitch Hurwitz (the creator of Arrested Development) and starring Leslie Nielsen as Dorothy’s love interest, ranks as some of the best in the show’s history.

    It also has – and I cannot stress this enough – the best sitcom theme song in the history of sitcom theme songs. In 2023, there are few things that will haul you out of whatever psychic muck you find yourself in than whacking on an episode of The Golden Girls. I promise you, once the credits roll, you’ll find yourself lying on the lanai in your mind, feeling somehow much lighter than you did before.


(The Guardian 2024, The Guardian website. Accessed: 06 February 2024. Available: <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/aug/02/goldengirls-tv-sitcom-enduring-joy-dorothy-rose-betty-white-blanche>. Adapted.)

According to the text, all the alternatives below about the series finale are correct, EXCEPT: 
Alternativas
Respostas
26: E
27: B
28: E
29: B
30: B