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President Joe Biden predicted Thursday that student loan borrowers will start receiving relief – which is currently on hold over a court challenge – within weeks, projecting confidence that his administration will win the challenge. “We’re going to win that case. I think in the next two weeks you’re going to see those checks going out”, Biden told a TV news correspondent.

The Biden administration started taking student debt forgiveness applications on October 14 and officials have said it could take weeks to process and grant relief. Eligible borrowers won’t be receiving actual checks. Instead, they will see up to a $ 20,000 reduction in their student debt balances. The Department of Education has told borrowers who are eligible for automatic debt relief, without filing an application, not to expect the debt cancellation before November 14.

A federal appeals court put a temporary hold on the administration’s student loan forgiveness program last week, which barred the government from canceling loans covered under the new policy while the court considers a challenge brought by six Republican-led states. The Biden administration is also facing lawsuits from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and conservative groups such as the Job Creators Network Foundation and the Cato Institute.

Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, first announced in August, aims to deliver debt relief to millions of borrowers before federal student loan payments resume in January after a nearly three-year, pandemic-related pause.

The President made his comments during an interview with a local TV station network during his visit to Syracuse, New York, to tout a new deal on semiconductor manufacturing. With less than two weeks until the midterm elections Biden took questions on the economy, his message to voters, and the stalled student debt relief program. President Joe Biden is canceling some federal student loan debt, making a once pie-in-the-sky idea a reality. The application officially opened Monday, allowing low- and middle-class federal student loan borrowers to apply for up to $ 20,000 in debt relief.

https: <www.edition.cnn.com> (adapted). 

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How being bilingual can boost your career

Whether you’re fresh out of college or a seasoned executive, insiders agree that fluency in a second language can not only help you stand out among prospective employers, it can also open doors to opportunities that those without foreign language skills might miss. 

In today’s global economy, the ability to communicate in another language has become a significant advantage in the workforce. Research has found that people who speak at least one foreign language have an average annual household income that’s $10,000 higher than the household income of those who only speak English. And about 17 percent of those who speak at least one foreign language earn more than $100,000 a year. 

A recent survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 headhunters in Europe, Latin America, and Asia say that being at least bilingual is critical for success in today’s business environment. And 66 percent of North American recruiters agreed that being bilingual will be increasingly important in the next 10 years. 

“In today’s global economy you really have to understand the way business is done overseas to maximize your potential. A second language equips you for that,” says Alister Wellesley, managing partner of a Connecticut-based recruiting firm. “If you’re doing business overseas, or with someone from overseas, you obtain a certain degree of respect if you’re able to talk in their native language.” 

Language skills can also be key for service industries. At the Willard InterContinental Washington, a luxury hotel a few blocks from the White House, a staff of about 570 represents 42 nations, speaking 19 languages. The Willard’s front-of-house employees such as the concierge speak at least two languages. Bilingualism is not an absolute requirement, but it is desirable, according to Wendi Colby, director of human resources. 

Workers with skills in a second language may have an edge when it comes to climbing Willard’s professional ladder. “The individual that spoke more languages would have a better chance for a managerial role, whatever the next level would be,” Colby says. “They are able to deal with a wide array of clients, employees.” 

So which languages can give you a leg up on the job market? Insiders agree the most popular – and marketable – languages are Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese, with a growing emphasis on Mandarin, given China’s booming economy. So let’s learn Mandarin!

“We see demand from a full range of industries,” says Wellesley. “Actually it depends on which company you’re working for and the country in which they’re located.” 

Adapted from: LATHAM-KOENIG, Christina & OXENDEN, Clive. American English File 5. 2nd edition. Oxford: OUP, 2018. 

Considere o fragmento inicial de um texto publicado na internet. Utilize-o para responder as questões 32, 33 e 34 a seguir.

A WHOLE NEW WORLD: A TWISTED TALE BY LIZ BRASWELL SHOWS US A WHOLE NEW AGRABAH

March 24, 2019

Madeleine

A Whole New World is the first book in the Twisted Tales series. At the time of writing, the series consists of five titles published over the past four years, with the sixth due in April 2019. Each of the novels is standalone, meaning you can read whichever stories intrigue you the most in whichever order you feel like. For reviewing purposes, I will be reading the full series in chronological order of publication, and I will be completely honest and spoiler-free in letting you know what I thought!

A Whole New World by Liz Braswell follows an alternate plotline of what would have happened if, at the mouth of the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin had passed the magic lamp to the villain Jafar, granting him the power of the Genie… and the reign of Agrabah. This triggers the rise of a terrifying dictatorship, prompting a revolution on the streets of Agrabah led by slick army of Street Rats.

Did it show me the world? Most definitely. Was it shining, shimmering, splendid? Read on. (...)

WOW News Today. (adaptado)

      Characteristics of a good test

      In order to judge the effectiveness of any test, it is sensible to lay down criteria against which the test can be measured, as follows:

      Validity: a test is valid if it tests what it is supposed to test. Thus it is not valid, for example, to test writing ability with an essay question that demands specialist knowledge of history or biology — unless it is known that all students share this knowledge before they do the test.

      A particular kind of ‘validity’ that concerns most test designers is face validity. This means that the test should look, on the ‘face’ of it, as if it is valid. A test which consisted of only three multiple choice items would not convince students of its face validity however reliable or practical teachers thought it to be.

      Reliability: a good test should give consistent results. For example, if the same group of students took the same test twice within two days — without reflecting on the first test before they sat it again — they should get the same results on each occasion. If two groups who were demonstrably alike took the test, the marking range would be the same.

      In practice, ‘reliability’ is enhanced by making the test instructions absolutely clear, restricting the scope for variety in the answers. Reliability also depends on the people who mark the tests. Clearly a test is unreliable if the result depends to any large extent on who is marking it. Much thought has gone into making the scoring of tests as reliable as possible.

(Jeremy Harmer. The practice of English language teaching. 2007. Adaptado)

How monks helped invent sign language

      For millennia people with hearing impairments encountered marginalization because it was believed that language could only be learned by hearing the spoken word. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, for example, asserted that “Men that are deaf are in all cases also dumb.” Under Roman law people who were born deaf were denied the right to sign a will as they were “presumed to understand nothing; because it is not possible that they have been able to learn to read or write.”

      Pushback against such ideas began in the 16th-century, with the creation of the first formal sign language for the hearing impaired, by Pedro Ponce de León, a Spanish Benedictine monk. His idea to use sign language was not a completely new one. Native Americans used hand gestures to communicate with other tribes and to facilitate trade with Europeans. Benedictine monks had used them to convey messages during their daily periods of silence. Inspired by the latter practice, Ponce de León adapted the gestures used in his monastery to create a method for teaching the deaf to communicate, paving the way for systems now used all over the world.

      Building on Ponce de León’s work, another Spanish cleric and linguist, Juan Pablo Bonet, proposed that deaf people learn to pronounce words and progressively construct meaningful phrases. Bonet’s approach combined oralism – using sounds to communicate – with sign language. The system had its challenges, especially when learning the words for abstract terms, or intangible forms such as conjunctions like “for,” “nor,” or “yet.”

      In 1755 the French Catholic priest Charles-Michel de l’Épée established a more comprehensive method for educating the deaf, which culminated in the founding of the first public school for deaf children, in Paris. Students came to the institute from all over France, bringing signs they had used to communicate with at home. Insistent that sign language needed to be a complete language, his system was complex enough to express prepositions, conjunctions, and other grammatical elements.

      Épée’s standardized sign language quickly spread across Europe and to the United States. In 1814 Thomas Gallaudet went to France to learn Épée’s language system. Three years later, Gallaudet established the American School for the Deaf in his hometown in Connecticut. Students from across the United States attended, and they brought signs they used to communicate with at home.American Sign Language became a combination of these signs and those from French Sign Language.

      Thanks to the development of formal sign languages, people with hearing impairment can access spoken language in all its variety. The world’s many modern signing systems have different rules for pronunciation, word order, and grammar. New visual languages can even express regional accents to reflect the complexity and richness of local speech.

(Ines Anton Rayas. www.nationalgeographic.com. 28.05.2019. Adaptado)