Questões de Concurso
Sobre advérbios e conjunções | adverbs and conjunctions em inglês
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TEXT 2
Women in Computing
(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/19/1363705626950/women-at-computers-003.jpg accessed October 26th, 2015)
The Next Generation
Technology is rapidly evolving, but the low number of women in computer science and engineering remains stagnant and experts say that this could have major implications for the future.
“Computing is at the heart of everything,” says Dr. Telle Whitney, CEO of the Anita Borg Institute and co-founder of Grace Hopper Celebration. “To be missing half the population is a significant loss to our world.
In 2014, women made up only 22 percent of the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM) workforce. The number of Canadian women working in STEM fields has barely changed in the past three decades.
“Women look at the world a little differently than men and I think we have a huge opportunity to disrupt and play a big role in the technology space,” says Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO, an initiative that supports female entrepreneurs.[…]
(MACLEAN’S, October 12th, 2015, p. 1)
In line 3, “immediately" means soon after leaving.
What causes hunger?
The world produces enough to feed the entire global population of 7 billion people. And yet, one person in eight on the planet goes to bed hungry each night. In some countries, one child in three is underweight. Why does hunger exist? There are many reasons for the presence of hunger in the world and they are often interconnected. Here are six that we think are important.
Poverty trap
People living in poverty cannot afford nutritious food for themselves and their families. This makes them weaker and less able to earn the money that would help them escape poverty and hunger. This is not just a day-to-day problem: when children are chronically malnourished, or ‘stunted’, it can affect their future income, condemning them to a life of poverty and hunger. In developing countries, farmers often cannot afford seeds, so they cannot plant the crops that would provide for their families. They may have to cultivate crops without the tools and fertilizers they need. Others have no land or water or education. In short, the poor are hungry and their hunger traps them in poverty.
Lack of investment in agriculture
Too many developing countries lack key agricultural infrastructure, such as enough roads, warehouses and irrigation. The results are high transport costs, lack of storage facilities and unreliable water supplies. All conspire to limit agricultural yields and access to food. Investments in improving land management, using water more efficiently and making more resistant seed types available can bring big improvements. Research by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization shows that investment in agriculture is five times more effective in reducing poverty and hunger than investment in any other sector.
Climate and weather
Natural disasters such as floods, tropical storms and long periods of drought are on the increase – with calamitous consequences for the hungry poor in developing countries. Drought is one of the most common causes of food shortages in the world. In 2011, recurrent drought caused crop failures and heavy livestock losses in parts of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. In 2012 there was a similar situation in the Sahel region of West Africa. In many countries, climate change is exacerbating already adverse natural conditions. Increasingly, the world’s fertile farmland is under threat from erosion, salination and desertification. Deforestation by human hands accelerates the erosion of land which could be used for growing food.
War and displacement
Across the globe, conflicts consistently disrupt farming and food production. Fighting also forces millions of people to flee their homes, leading to hunger emergencies as the displaced find themselves without the means to feed themselves. The conflict in Syria is a recent example. In war, food sometimes becomes a weapon. Soldiers will starve opponents into submission by seizing or destroying food and livestock and systematically wrecking local markets. Fields are often mined and water wells contaminated, forcing farmers to abandon their land. Ongoing conflict in Somalia and the has contributed significantly to the level of hunger in the two countries. By comparison, hunger is on the retreat in more peaceful parts of Africa such as Ghana and Rwanda.
Unstable markets
In recent years, the price of food products has been very unstable. Roller-coaster food prices make it difficult for the poorest people to access nutritious food consistently. The poor need access to adequate food all year round. Price spikes may temporarily put food out of reach, which can have lasting consequences for small children. When prices rise, consumers often shift to cheaper, less-nutritious foods, heightening the risks of micronutrient deficiencies and other forms of malnutrition.
Food wastage
One third of all food produced (1.3 billion tons) is never consumed. This food wastage represents a missed opportunity to improve global food security in a world where one in 8 is hungry. Producing this food also uses up precious natural resources that we need to feed the planet. Each year, food that is produced but not eaten guzzles up a volume of water equivalent to the annual flow of Russia’s Volga River. Producing this food also adds 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, with consequences for the climate and, ultimately, for food production.
The Office of Weights and Measures promotes uniformity in U.S. weights and measures laws, regulations, and standards to achieve equity between buyers and sellers in the marketplace. This enhances consumer confidence, enables U.S. businesses to compete fairly at home and abroad, and strengthens the U.S. economy.
OWM partners with the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM), an organization of State and local weights and measures officials and representatives of business, industry, consumer groups, and Federal agencies, to develop U.S. standards in the form of uniform laws, regulations, and methods of practice. OWM serves as the U.S. representative to the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) to bring efficiency and cost savings to U.S. manufacturers and other stakeholders doing business overseas, through the promotion of harmonized international standards and regulatory practices.
OWM ensures traceability of state weights and measures standards to the International System of Units (SI); develops procedures for legal metrology tests and inspections, and conducts training for laboratory metrologists and weights and measures officials. OWM provides guidance on the model weights and measures laws and regulations adopted by the NCWM and coordinates the development and publication of key NCWM publications.
It is estimated that sales of products or services impacted by weights and measures laws in the United States represent approximately 50 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. Industry sectors potentially affected by the decisions of the NCWM include retail food sales, other retail sales, petroleum products, transportation, and chemicals.
The NIST Office of Weights and Measures analyzes weights and measures training needs, obtains input from the weights and measures community, designs and delivers training for laboratory metrologists and weights and measures officials, measures the impact and effectiveness of training to ensure ongoing continual improvement, and consults with the weights and measures community to ensure ongoing professional development.
(Available in: http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd.)
Read text III and answer questions 60 to 70:
Text III
The use of music and songs in the EFL classroom
There are quite a lot of positive sides of learning English via
the medium music. First of all it is a very positive way of
learning English. Music is a part of our everyday life and
especially young people are very familiar with music. If the
5 teacher provides the possibility of a positive access to a new
topic, the kids will learn the new things easier and with more
fun and readiness. I am sure that the one or the other pupil
turns out to be a little “music-expert”. This can strengthen the
self-consciousness of students who are not so good at other
10 areas because now they have the opportunity to show what
they know about a special artist or band. Another pro of
teaching language by using songs and music is that it is
something different for the students – it is an alternation to
the common methods of language learning, because it is not
15 only interested in input. Learning with music speaks more than
other language-learning-methods to the audio-channel of the
learner, which has the positive effect of training listening and
comprehending language which is modified in terms of
intonation, pronunciation and articulation. Music in the
20 classroom can also be arranged in corporation with teachers of
other subjects, so that kids have the opportunity to use and
practise the new knowledge in more than one subject.
Teachers of English could not only work together with teachers
of music, but also with teachers of German, religion, ethics and
25 history. There is a variety of different thematic blocks which
can be taught with the help of songs, for example cultural or
social studies, to name only two areas.
However, using music and songs as a method of language
teaching can also have negative effects. Not every student likes
30 singing, acting or working with music and songs. Some find it
embarrassing and childish, especially older students. If the
majority of a class consists of students who feel like that about
working with music and songs in the classroom, the teacher
should be aware of the problem that it will be hard to motivate
35 the pupils. It can also be that some pupils protest and even
refuse to do several activities given by the teacher. […] Another
problem for teachers is the question of the right choice of
songs. Nowadays the kids are crazy about music which is called
“Death Metal”, “Hip Hop” or “Acid House”. So, many teachers
40 think that it is hard to fill the pupils of today with enthusiasm
by using Oldies.
Despite the fact that there are more positive effects of
learning a second language with songs and music than negative
ones, most teachers look at this method with mixed emotions.
45 Some are of the opinion that this is no real teaching and a
waste of time with some senseless activities. This is not true, of
course. Out of my own pupil-experience I can say that I have
learned quite a lot with the help of songs. I have acquired not
only a plenty of new words and vocabulary, but also several
50 idioms and many ways to express feelings.
(From http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/122444/the-use-of-music-and-songs-in-theefl-classroom)
The adverb in “Nowadays the kids are crazy about music” (line 38) refers to
Choose the alternative which presents the correct words that are missing in the text:
Read text II and answer the question:
Teaching English as a foreign language teacher: job description
Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) involves teaching adults and children whose first or main language is not English. This can be done in the UK or abroad and the students may be learning English for either business or leisure reasons.
Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) is also a widely used term and often means the same thing as TEFL. It’s sometimes specifically used to refer to teaching English to people who are living in the UK but who do not speak English as a first language. These students are most commonly refugees and immigrants and need to learn the language in order to help them settle into the UK society.Their courses are often government funded.
Teaching English as a second language (TESL) or teaching English as an additional language (TEAL) may also be terms that are used but they generally all refer to the same thing - teaching English to someone whose native language is not English.
Teachers of English as a foreign language can work in a variety of settingswith different age ranges. This can include commercial language schools, schools and institutions of further and higher education throughout the UK and overseas. Some may also teach in industry, while others are self-employed. Classes are usually taught in English, evenwith beginners. Teaching English as a foreign language teacher: job description
Adapted from: < www.prospects.ac.uk/case-studies-working- abroad>
The fragment “in recent years” (l.8) is chronologically connected with “a few years ago” (l.2).
By Jonathan Mahler Sep 27, 2013
So Spain has decided to haul Lionel Messi into court for tax evasion, which strikes me as completely insane on pretty much every level.
You may remember the story from a few months back: The greatest soccer player in the world and his father were accused of setting up
a bunch of shell companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on royalties and other licensing income.
Messi - who makes an estimated $41 million a year, about half from sponsors - reached a settlement with Spain’s tax authorities earlier
this summer, agreeing to pay the amount he apparently owed, plus interest. The matter was settled, or so it seemed. Messi could go
back to dazzling the world with his athleticism and creativity.
Only it turns out that Spain wasn’t quite done with Messi. His adopted country - Messi is Argentine but became a Spanish citizen in 2005
- is now considering pressing criminal charges against him.
Cracking down on tax-evading footballers has become something of a trend in Europe, where players and clubs have been known to
launder money through “image-rights companies” often set up in tax havens. When you need money - and Europe needs money - go to
the people who have it, or something like that. Over the summer, dozens of Italian soccer clubs were raided as part of an investigation
into a tax-fraud conspiracy. A number of English Premier League clubs were forced last year to pay millions of pounds in back taxes.
No one likes a tax cheat, and there’s little doubt that widespread tax fraud has helped eat away at the social safety net in Spain and
elsewhere, depriving schools, hospitals and other institutions of badly needed funds. But Europe is not going to find the answers to its
financial problems in the pockets of some professional soccer players and clubs.
Messi’s defense, delivered by his father, seems credible enough to me. “He is a footballer and that’s it,” Messi’s father Jorge said of his
soccer-prodigy son. “If there was an error, it was by our financial adviser. He created the company. My mistake was to have trusted the
adviser.” Even if Messi is legally responsible for the intricate tax dodge he is accused of having participated in, it’s pretty hard to believe
that he knew much about it.
More to the point, Lionel Messi is probably Spain’s most valuable global asset. What could possibly motivate the Spanish government to
want to tarnish his reputation, especially after he’s paid off his alleged debt? After four years of Great-Depression level unemployment,
have anxiety and despair curdled into vindictiveness?
Here’s another explanation: Maybe this whole case has less to do with money than it does with history. Maybe it’s no coincidence that
the target of the Spanish government’s weird wrath happens to play for FC Barcelona, which is, after all, "mes que un club." It's a symbol
of Catalan nationalism - and a bitter, longtime rival of Spain’s establishment team, Real Madrid.
Too conspiratorial? Prove it, Spain. Release Cristiano Ronaldo’s tax return.
(Adapted form http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/why-is-spain-really-taking-lionel-messi-to-tax-court-.html)
2. This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
3. They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. (…)
4. The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving. (…)
5. The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it. (…)
6. Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.
7. Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/thebenefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=0. Acesso: 04/02/2013)
The words globalized (paragraph 01), considered (paragraph 02), blessing (paragraph 03), and like (paragraph 04), are respectively presented in text as:
TEXT 5:
Conheça nossos planos