Why I miss technology-free travel
(Monday, Dec 12, 2016. Josh Noel.)
I’ve been a travel writer for almost eight years, but here's the irony: I’m probably a worse traveler now. Back when I was freewheeling and in my early 20s, I’d get into my car every summer with an atlas, a bag stuffed with CDs and very little forethought about where I was headed. 
I’d be gone for two weeks to three months. The extent of the technology I carried was the portable disc player connected to my tape player by a snaking wire. I stayed in pristine riverside campgrounds, quiet roadside motels operated by charming gray-haired couples and on the couches of people I’d met earlier that day. Once I forced myself to pick up a hitchhiker, a peaceful-looking, hippie-type dude. It wasn’t the life-altering experience I’d hoped for; he just needed a ride to work at a restaurant 10 miles up the road. Another time I got to talking with a guy who said he wasn’t sure he’d be able to afford his next tank of gas. I gave him five bucks — all I could spare — and he gave me a pink crystal that he said had special powers or some such. I rode around with that crystal on my dashboard for 15 years until I gave it to a friend who was dying of cancer. I wanted her to have something meaningful to me, and that was it, secured by chance at an Oklahoma rest stop and hauled everywhere I went until it became hers.
I don’t travel so much anymore. As much as I’d like to say it’s because of having a family and a job and obligations weightier than whether to turn left or turn right, it has more to do with the shiny little machines in our pockets. When it comes to conquering the unknown, those shiny little machines can tell us everything about everything: the top 10 hotels, top 10 attractions, top 10 kid-friendly sushi places and the top 10 vegan-and-dog-friendly cafes with Wi-Fi and a pool table. Worse, we’ve mostly given up thinking about how we get from point A to point B. I have mistyped a couple of letters of a street name into Waze, and unquestioningly driven a route that I knew made no sense. But the shiny little machine says it is so! When I realized my mistake, I was furious not because I was going to be late or because I had wasted time, but because I had surrendered my critical thinking about how I got from point A to point B.
So as I can, I build unpredictability into my routine. I walk different ways to work, to the train, to the bus and around our neighborhood with my little son. When traveling, I demand unpredictability. Yes, the quickest route and top-ranked whatever is mighty attractive (especially the quickest route), but when I can build in time for wandering, I do it. When I can spend time finding my way by foot — no apps or phone maps 
— I do that. When I can leave a hotel room with only a minimal plan, I walk out the front door. I duck into a bar. I sip a beer that I can’t find back home. I chat with a local. I ask for a dinner recommendation. And I value that answer over the wisdom of the online crowd every time.
(Available: http://www.chicagotribune.com. Adapted.)
Wi-Fi and restaurants are examples of: 

How can we explain “will” in the following context: “If he sticks to his word about there being no plan B, the bilateral ceasefire will be lifted and the war will resume, our correspondent says.” 

Read the BBC news and choose the right statement:
The deal was signed last week by President Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez after nearly four years of negotiations. But it needed to be ratified by Colombians in order to come into force. Farc rebels had agreed to lay down their weapons after 52 years of conflict to join the political process. President Santos has previously warned that there is no plan B for ending the war, which has killed 260,000 people. With votes in from more than 99% of polling stations counted, 50.2% opposed the accord while 49.8% supported it - a difference of less than 63,000 votes out of 13 million ballots. Turnout was low at less than 40%. The surprise result means the peace process is now shrouded by uncertainty. It is a major setback to President Juan Manuel Santos, who since his election in 2010 had pledged to end a conflict blamed for displacing about eight million people. Less than a week ago, President Santos was celebrating with world leaders and Farc commanders the end of Latin America's last and longest-running armed conflict at a ceremony in the historic city of Cartagena. The rebels were making plans to lay down their weapons and become a political party within six months. But the president is now facing one of the most difficult moments in Colombia's recent history. If he sticks to his word about there being no plan B, the bilateral ceasefire will be lifted and the war will resume, our correspondent says. Opposition to the peace accord was led by influential former President Alvaro Uribe. He argued that the government was treating Farc too leniently. He said that if the 'no' vote prevailed, the government should go back to the negotiating table. Correspondents say that the government had been accused of taking victory for granted. 

Among predatory dinosaurs, few flesh-eaters were bigger, faster and nastier than the "tyrant lizard" of popular imagination, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. At least, that is what we have been led to believe. Now research suggests that, far from being the Ferrari of dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex, whose ferocious reputation has fascinated generations of schoolchildren, was in fact a cumbersome creature with a usual running speed of twenty-five kilometres an hour. This is a mere snail's pace compared with modern animals such as the cheetah. Unlike some of the predators of today's African savannah, which can change direction almost immediately, the dinosaur would have had to turn slowly or risk tumbling over. And while a human can spin forty-five degrees in a twentieth of a second, a Tyrannosaurus would have taken as much as two seconds, as it would have been hampered by its long tail. Thankfully, however, all its prey, such as triceratops, would have been afflicted with the same lack of speed and agility. The findings were reached after researchers used computer modelling and biomechanical calculations to work out the dinosaur's speed, agility and weight. They based their calculations on measurements taken from a fossil dinosaur representative of an average Tyrannosaurus and concluded the creatures probably weighed between six and eight tonnes. Calculations of the leg muscles suggest that the animal would have had a top speed of forty kilometres an hour, which is nothing compared to a cheetah’s one hundred kilometres an hour. It is sobering to reflect, though, that an Olympic sprinter runs at about thirty-five kilometres an hour, not sufficient to outrun a Tyrannosaurus, should Man have been around at that time!  
  
Mark the correct alternative: 

Human Trafficking in Romania

  Anti-mafia police have broken up a Romanian human trafficking gang, which forced dozens of kidnapped victims, including children, into beggary and slavery.    Authorities rescued five people from a village in central Romania and arrested 29 suspects thought to be part of the ring. A hunt is being conducted around the site, which is just 170 kilometers northwest of Bucharest. It's thought that there are more crime ring members at loose and as many as 40 victims overall.    The director for fighting organized crime and terrorism said some of the victims had been kidnapped from around public places such as railway stations since 2008 and had been fed only scraps of food by their masters. There's also suspicion that some of the victims were raped but that has not been verified. No other details about the victims or their whereabouts have been disclosed.  
Read the following statements: 
(i) Starting in 2008, a human trafficking gang began kidnapping people, including children, from public places in Romania.  (ii) The gang made these people became slaves.  (iii) Their masters treated them badly by feeding them only little food and possibly raping them.  (iv) Recently, police stopped this gang’s activity when they arrested 29 criminals and saved five of the victims.   According to the context, we can say that: 

The opposite of “mightier” in “The pen is mightier than the sword” is:

Mark the alternative that shows the correct matching, from top to bottom.

The modal verb in “A child might find it silly” signals:

In the first paragraph of Text II the writer assumes that, in relation to learning English through cartoons, the reader is:

The conversational tone of this text is obtained by:

The opening paragraph of Text II is an example of a(n):

Text II deals with using cartoons for English learning. Read the statements below and mark them as TRUE (T) or FALSE (F).

✓ Some cartoons target an adult audience.

✓ Cartoons are fanciful and worthless teaching tools.

✓ Interpreting cartoons may vary depending on viewer’s age.

The statements are, respectively:

The word “if’ in the sentence “Even if learners do not have direct access to the internet in their classrooms” signals a:

The verb phrase in “conventionaltools (blackboards,textbooks, cassette players) that are found in classrooms around the world” is in the:

“Like” in “Technologies like the internet” is a:

Theunderlinedphrase in“In this case, the role of technology can provide a significant addition to the other more conventional tools” refers to:

Text I informs that “there are numerous terms to describe the process of learning English”. Read the sentences and mark them as TRUE (T) or FALSE (F).
✓ “English as an additional language” applies to students in countries where English is the first language. ✓ The phrase “English as an additional language” is also used in places where English is not the official language. ✓ EFL refers to settings around the world where English is taught as a second language.
The statements are, respectively:

Why I miss technology-free travel
(Monday, Dec 12, 2016. Josh Noel.)
I’ve been a travel writer for almost eight years, but here's the irony: I’m probably a worse traveler now. Back when I was freewheeling and in my early 20s, I’d get into my car every summer with an atlas, a bag stuffed with CDs and very little forethought about where I was headed.                I’d be gone for two weeks to three months. The extent of the technology I carried was the portable disc player connected to my tape player by a snaking wire. I stayed in pristine riverside campgrounds, quiet roadside motels operated by charming gray-haired couples and on the couches of people I’d met earlier that day. Once I forced myself to pick up a hitchhiker, a peaceful-looking, hippie-type dude. It wasn’t the life-altering experience I’d hoped for; he just needed a ride to work at a restaurant 10 miles up the road. Another time I got to talking with a guy who said he wasn’t sure he’d be able to afford his next tank of gas. I gave him five bucks — all I could spare — and he gave me a pink crystal that he said had special powers or some such. I rode around with that crystal on my dashboard for 15 years until I gave it to a friend  who was dying of cancer. I wanted her to have something meaningful to me, and that was it, secured by chance at an Oklahoma rest stop and hauled everywhere I went until it became hers.          I don’t travel so much anymore. As much as I’d like to say it’s because of having a family and a job and obligations weightier than whether to turn left or turn right, it has more to do with the shiny little machines in our pockets. When it comes to conquering the unknown, those shiny little machines can tell us everything about everything: the top 10 hotels, top 10 attractions, top 10 kid-friendly sushi places and the top 10 vegan-and-dog-friendly cafes with Wi-Fi and a pool table. Worse, we’ve mostly given up thinking about how we get from point A to point B. I have mistyped a couple of letters of a street name into Waze, and unquestioningly driven a route that I knew made no sense. But the shiny little machine says it is so! When I realized my mistake, I was furious not because I was going to be late or because I had wasted time, but because I had surrendered my critical thinking about how I got from point A to point B.   So as I can, I build unpredictability into my routine. I walk different ways to work, to the train, to the bus and around our neighborhood with my little son. When traveling, I demand unpredictability. Yes, the quickest route and top-ranked whatever is mighty attractive (especially the quickest route), but when I can build in time for wandering, I do it. When I can spend time finding my way by foot — no apps or phone maps      — I do that. When I can leave a hotel room with only a minimal plan, I walk out the front door. I duck into a bar. I sip a beer that I can’t find back home. I chat with a local. I ask for a dinner recommendation. And I value that answer over the wisdom of the online crowd every time.
(Available: http://www.chicagotribune.com. Adapted.)
According to the text, apps and phone maps do NOT offer 

Still I Rise  You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Cause I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, with certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard, Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as asurprise, That I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I rise. Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise. I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise  I rise I rise... Maya Angelou (Fonte: <http://www.aaregistry.org/poetry/view/still-i-rise-maya-angelou>. Acesso em: 04/07/2016)

Mais do que nunca a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos tem sido amplamente discutida em vários países, assim como nos EUA e nos Brasil. O Poema de Maya Angelou aborda temáticas da luta afro-americana que também são pautas das lutas dos movimentos sociais brasileiros, dentre as temáticas abordadas no poema estão

A revolution in communication
When cell phones first became available in the 1980s, they were considered to be expensive playthings for business people. No one thought that they were going to change the world. People knew that the internet had the power to transform lives, but the expectation was that this would happen through the dissemination of personal computers. However, it is now predicted that by 2020, cell phones will have replaced laptops as the main point of access to the internet worldwide. So, why will more people be using cell phones than laptop computers in the future? One reason is that the price of even a fairly cheap laptop makes it inaccessible for a lot of people in developing countries. Computers rely on a regular power supply, which is a problem in many developing countries where outages are frequent, and internet connections unreliable. Cell phones, on the other hand, are cheap to buy (especially recycled ones), require little electricity for recharging, and have good access to the internet in most parts of the world via cell phone networks. It is therefore cell phones, rather than computers, which are revolutionizing life and communication in many developing countries.

How cell phones are transforming the developing world
NextDrop is an app which is now being used in rural parts of India. In many parts of the country, people rely on weekly or twice weekly deliveries of clean water. The problem is that villagers never know exactly when deliveries will take place, meaning that they waste time waiting by their village well for the water tanker to turn up. NextDrop is a simple app that sends automatic text messages to people notifying them when their next water delivery will be. It’s a simple idea which greatly improves people’s lives. Transferring money between countries can be tricky, and this causes problems for the thousands of people who work abroad and need to send money to their families back home. A piece of software called Boom allows Mexicans who work in the US to send money back to family members in Mexico through their cell phones. Once the link is established and the software is installed on both phones, money can be transferred using a simple text message. Cell phones are also bringing health benefits to developing countries. A project called TulaSalud in Guatemala uses cell phone technology to communicate with nurses in remote areas of the country, who are working to reduce the infant mortality rate. The software allows nurses access to their patients’ medical records wherever they are. The service provides free phone numbers that both nurses and patients can call to ask questions about health. Maria Neander is a nurse who works on the TulaSalud project. Before we had TulaSalud, patients’ medical records were only available the health center. When I went into the villages, I couldn’t take the records with me, so I didn’t know if a woman I was visiting had any health problems. Now I have all information I need my cell phone. It helps me monitor women during pregnancy, giving them a better chance of having a healthy baby. When I’m with a woman who is giving birth, I have phone numbers that I can use if there are any problems, so I can get help and advice about what to do. TulaSalud has definitely saved lives.
It’s correct to say that Maria Neander: