TEXT III

(Source: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Book)

Here are six reviews on Green Book:

1.

The screenplay essentially turns Shirley into a black man who thematically shapeshifts into whoever will make the story appealing to white audiences - and that’s inexcusable.

Lawrence Ware New York Times

2.

Green Book is effective and affecting while being careful to avoid overdosing its audience on material that some might deem too shocking or upsetting.

James Berardinelli ReelViews

3.

In a world that seems to get uglier every day, this movie’s gentle heart and mere humanity feel like a salve.

Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly

4.

A bizarre fish-out-of-water comedy masquerading as a serious awards-season contender by pretending to address the deep wound of racial inequality while demonstrating its profound inability, intellectually and dramatically, to do that.

Kevin Maher Times (UK)

5.

Sometimes life is stranger than art, sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes life imitates art. If life starts imitating hopeful art - that’s uplifting. That’s the goal of art, as I see it. “Green Book” uplifts.

Mark Jackson Epoch Times

6.

There’s not much here you haven’t seen before, and very little that can’t be described as crude, obvious and borderline offensive, even as it tries to be uplifting and affirmative.

A.O. Scott New York Times

(Source: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/green_book/reviews/)  

New Public Management Model

        The new public management model, which emerged in the 1980s, represented an attempt to make the public sector more business-like as well as to improve the efficiency of the Government, borrowed ideas and management models from the private sector. It emphasized the centrality of citizens who were the recipient of the services or customers to the public sector.

        New public management system also proposed a more decentralized control of resources. It explored other service delivery models so as to achieve better results, including a quasi-market structure where public and private service providers competed with each other in an attempt to provide better and faster services.

        The Core Themes for the New Public Management were:

1. A strong focus on financial control, value for money and increasing public sector efficiency;

2. A command and control mode of functioning, identifying and setting targets and continuous monitoring of public sector performance;

3. Introducing audits and controls at professional level, using transparent means to review public worker performance, setting benchmarks, using protocols to ameliorate public sector worker professional behaviour;

4. Greater customer orientation and responsiveness and increasing the scope of roles played by non-public sector providers;

5. Deregulating the labor market, replacing collective agreements to individual rewards packages combined with short term contracts;

6. Introducing new forms of corporate governance, introducing a board model of functioning and concentrating the power to the strategic core of the organization.

(www.managementstudyguide.com/new-public-management.htm. Adaptado.)

Read the following text and answer question.

Importance of Aquaculture 

Aquaculture involves the art, science and business of breeding aquatic animals and plants in fresh or marine waters for human use. It also extends to the marketing of such organisms in a controlled environment. It is a kind of agriculture, and therefore, it requires inputs such as clean water and nutrients. It also requires storage for harvested produce, transportation and marketing facilities.

Inputs often depend on the species that are farmed. Species lower on the aquatic food chain usually require less input, as they feed on microorganisms and are fine in just clean water. More inputs like fish or fishmeal, cereals, or grains are required, as we get higher on the food chain with species like salmon or tuna.

All over the world, the demand for seafood has increased because people have learned that seafood as part of regular diets are healthier and help fight cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s and many other major illnesses.

Aquaculture will add to wild seafood, and make it _______ and accessible to all.

Aquaculture business provides tax and royalty revenue to local governments. Besides, there is also potential revenue from exports. 

(Adapted from: https://goo.gl/qcbcfY. Access: 01/25/2018)

Read the following text and answer question.

Introduction to global food loss and food waste

Food losses and food waste are quickly becoming a top global issue, because while there are millions of families with children starving, others are living in abundance, with many others carelessly throwing food away. Many of us have wasted food in one way or the other, but the real food losses and waste matter is ______ than just consumer food waste.

From farming fields and storage places, through transportation, processing, market places, down to consumption places such as homes, schools, restaurants and workplaces, more than half of all food produced globally go to waste. This is a tragedy!

In developing countries, it takes a lot of man-power to produce food. In more advanced countries, machines and technology are used, but the drain on energy, destruction of vegetative lands, the use of chemicals and ______ impact on the environment are phenomenal. Putting all that together, it is clear that a major problem has emerged and we are all in a position to help in one way or the other.

(Adapted from: https://goo.gl/ySEn3F. Access: 01/23/2018) 

The Pros and Cons of Nuclear Power

Since the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, a debate has been raging (1) the future of atomic energy. Consequently, the safety risks have been well publicized in the global media. But do the risks outweigh the damage that could be done to the planet because of our ongoing addiction to fossil fuels?

Even environmentalists don’t have the answer. They are split over nuclear (2) , and its pros and cons. Some say it is neither safe nor economical because it produces potentially (3) radioactive waste, and reactors are so costly to build. However, others believe nuclear energy is a necessary evil. They say we should continue using it until (4) energy sources, like wind turbines and solar panels, can meet global demand. Supporters also argue that nuclear energy helps cut down on carbon emissions from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas, which are linked to global warming and pollute the environment. They say this is because nuclear reactors produce a tiny fraction of the carbon dioxide generated by burning coal.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle for atomic energy to overcome is its image problem. Despite industry claims of a strong safety record, critics remain unconvinced because each reactor annually produces up to 30 tons of nuclear waste, which can continue to be radioactive and hazardous for thousands of years. Furthermore, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 left the public with vivid images of the impact of a nuclear meltdown, including deformed babies, mutated vegetables, and abandoned towns.

While nuclear reactors may continue to be installed in some countries for decades to come, after Fukushima others have decided to rethink their energy policies. For example, the German government has revealed plans for a “green” renewable energy plan, even though it has relied on nuclear power for up to 23 percent of its consumption in the past. It has been announced that all seventeen nuclear power plants would be phased out by 2022. The policy will also promote energy-saving measures encouraging people to insulate their homes, recycle, and reduce waste. Experts argue it could be a risky strategy because Germany doesn’t have natural gas or oil supplies, and coal supplies have been depleted.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, there is just one nuclear plant at Angra dos Reis. Nuclear power represents only three per cent of Brazil’s energy production. After sharp oil price rises in the 1970s, the country’s leaders anticipated future energy supply problems. So they concentrated on developing alternative energy sources including biofuel, hydroelectric schemes, and wind power. 

This approach seems to be working because by May 2012 plans to build more nuclear reactors were shelved by Brazilian officials. The move was welcomed by environmental lobby groups, which had feared a potential ecological catastrophe in case of an accident. If a big country like Brazil, which is the tenth largest energy consumer in the world, can survive and improve its economy without much nuclear power, maybe others can do so, too.

Cow Threat

Cows are walking machines. They transform materials (grass, hay, water, and feed) into finished products (milk, beef, leather, and so on).

As any factory, cows produce waste. Solid waste is eliminated through the rear end of these ‘complex machines’, and it is used as fertilizer.

The fermentation process in their four stomachs produces gas. These walking machines have two chimneys: one in the front end, and other in the rear end. Gaseous emissions through the front end chimney are called burps. Cows burp a lot. Every minute and half these burps release methane gas. Methane is dangerous to the planet because it contributes to the greenhouse effect.

The world population is growing very fast. That means there are more people eating beef. Consequently, there is more cattle – more walking machines – producing more methane gas.

This is the problem, but very few people want to change their eating habits. What about you? 

Read the text about a tribute to Franz Kafka for the question

Google Doodle celebrates Franz Kafka’s 130th birthday with ‘The Metamorphosis’ tribute Google has created a ‘doodle’ in tribute to Franz Kafka on the 130th anniversary of the Germanlanguage novelist’s birth.

The doodle is based on Kafka’s 1915 novella ‘The Metamorphosis’ – considered by many to be one of the most important works of fiction of the 20th Century – and shows the character Gregor Samsa walking into a room in the guise of a large insect.

In the much-celebrated work, Samsa is a travelling salesman who transforms into an insect overnight. The rest of novella focuses on his struggle to come to terms with his new existence and the burden it places on his family.

Kafka was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family on 3 July 1883 in Prague, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He originally trained as a lawyer but began writing short stories in his spare time - eventually coming to consider it his calling – despite only a handful of his works being published during his lifetime.

Regarded as one of the 20th Century’s most influential authors, Kafka’s works are dominated by unreliable narrators who often tell dark tales of existentialist difficulties.

Kafka’s notoriously difficult relationship with his father Hermann is believed to have strongly influenced his work – with The Metamorphosis itself thought to be based upon Kafka’s own fears of insignificance and repulsiveness to his own family.

From: HALL, John. Available at:<http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-doodlecelebrates-franz-kafkas-130th-birthday-with-the-metamorphosis-tribute-8685557.html>.