The best alternative to fill in the dashed blank in line 3 is

The extract above deals with

The dotted blank in line 4 can be filled in with:

The prepositions that adequately fill in the dashed blanks in lines 1, 2, 4 and 6 are, respectively

French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal says people should stop eating Nutella because it is harming the environment.
Her boeuf isn't with the delectable spread's chocolate or hazelnut components, but with the fact that it contains palm oil. Demand for this commodity has driven destruction of tropical forests around the world, especially in Oceania. (From NEWSWEEK, 17/06/2015)
According to French Ecology Minister Ségolène Roya

Observe the following statements about the text:
I. When teaching writing to children, telling them that they’ll have an audience is not very important. II. The easiest activity to teach is reading, because the strategies are well known by children. III. Grammar concepts are better understood when taught separately, apart from texts.
Which ones are INCORRECT?

Consider the statements about the word ‘yet’ (l.02):
I. Without affecting the meaning, it could be adequately replaced by ‘and then’. II. It is classified as a conjunction. III. It could be removed without affecting the meaning.
Which ones are INCORRECT?

If ‘approach’ (l.01) were in the plural, how many other words would be necessary to change?

Analyse if the pronouns and its reference are correctly indicated.
I. ‘them’ (l.32) refers to ‘This process’ (l. 31). II. ‘we’ (l.36) refers to ‘all learning styles’ (l.36). III. ‘them’ (l.40) refers to ‘grammar concepts’ (l.39). IV. ‘they’ (l.40) refers to ‘Children’ (l.39).
Which ones are correct?

Observe the sentence below and analyse the following statements:
“Pupils can choose from an exciting array of reading material” (l.26-27).
I. ‘can’ could be replaced by ‘are going to’ without affecting the meaning. II. The question form of the sentence is “Do pupils can choose from an exciting array of reading material?”. III. To form a negation, you only need to insert the word ‘no’ after ‘can’.
Which ones are INCORRECT?

Consider the following changes proposed:
I. Replacement of ‘purpose’ (l.10) by ‘intention’. II. Omission of ‘explicitly’ (l.17). III. Replacement of ‘stick’ (l.37) by ‘thrust’.
Which ones are correct?

Read the text and answer the questions:
In San Antonio, Texas, there is a purple house. This house is the home of Sandra Cisneros. Ms. Cisneros is a Mexican-American writer. She is famous for her interesting stories. The house has a porch with a pink floor. The rooms are green, pink and purple. There are many books and colorful paintings. Many other house near Ms. Cisnero’s house are white or beige, so her house is very different. Some of her neighbors think her house is very colourful, but Ms. Cisneros loves it.

O texto fala sobre:

“In a helpful survey article, Weinstein and Mayer (1986) defined Learning Strategies (LS) broadly as ‘behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning’ which are ‘intended to influence the learner's encoding process.’ Later, Mayer (1988) more specifically defined LS as ‘behaviors of a learner that are intended to influence how the learner processes information.’ These early definitions from the educational literature reflect the roots of LS in cognitive science, with its essential assumptions that human beings process information and that learning involves such information processing. Clearly, LS are involved in all learning, regardless of the content and context. LS are thus used in learning and teaching math, science, history, languages and other subjects, both in classroom settings and more informal learning environments”. (Adapted from: TESL Journal)

According to the article, we can conclude that…

Read the article.
One day young – on babies and moms
Motherhood may be a pressing subject for modern British women, but the realities of giving birth for the first time remains deeply misunderstood in British culture. Throughout the ages, motherhood has been depicted as merely beautiful and uncomplicated, or as compromised by other, more complex feelings. This misconception drove London-based photographer Jenny Lewis to create her ongoing series One Day Young. She, for the past seven years, has taken photographs of new mothers and their babies in London, UK. Lewis photographs mothers at the very start of parenthood. “I wanted to concentrate on the first 24 hours, when a woman’s body is still engulfed by hormones, to capture the unrelenting physicality of the moment, straight from the battlefield,” she says. Adapted from BBC

Mark the right affirmation about the article.

Our Kids Don’t Belong in School By Bridget Samburg | Boston Magazine | September 2015

When Milva McDonald sent her oldest daughter to Newton public school kindergarten in 1990, she was disturbed by what she saw. The kids were being tracked, even at that young age. And then there were the endless hours the small children spent sitting at their desks. It felt unnatural. In the real world, you wouldn’t be stuck in a room with people all the same ages with one person directing them, she thought.
During that single year her daughter was in the school system, McDonald saw enough to convince her that she could do better on her own. That would be no small feat: Newton’s public schools have long been rated as among the best in the state (in our Greater Boston rankings this year, they’re 10th.). But she’d always worked part time—she’s now an online editor—and she was fortunate that she could maintain a flexible schedule. So she yanked her daughter out of school, and over the next two decades homeschooled all four of her children—including her youngest, Abigail Dickson, who’s now 16.
McDonald’s first homeschool rule was to throw out the book and let her children guide their learning, at their own pace. In lieu of a curriculum or published guides, McDonald improvised, taking advantage of the homeschooling village that had sprouted up around her. One mother ran a theater group, a dad ran a math group, and McDonald oversaw a creative-writing club. Their children took supplementary classes at the Harvard Extension School and Bunker Hill Community College. “I wanted them to be in charge of their own education and decide what they were interested in, and not have someone else telling them what to do and what they were good at,” she says.
And by any measure, it’s working. McDonald’s daughter Claire—the third of her four children to be homeschooled—will enter Harvard College as a freshman this fall.

Back in the ’90s, McDonald was considered a homeschooling pioneer; now she’s joined by a growing movement of parents who are abstaining from traditional schooling, not on religious grounds but because of another strong belief: that they can educate their kids better than the system can. Though far from mainstream (an estimated 2.2 million students are home-educated in the U.S.), secular homeschooling is trending up. Last year, 277 children were homeschooled in Boston, more than double the total from 2004; in Cambridge the number was 46. (In surrounding towns, the numbers are growing, too: During the 2013–2014 school year, Arlington had 55; Somerville, 36; Winthrop, 5; Brookline, 11; Natick, 36; Newton, 33; and Watertown, 24.)
There’s enough momentum that major cultural institutions—from the Franklin Park Zoo and the New England Aquarium to the Museum of Fine Arts and MIT’s Edgerton Center—now regularly offer classes for homeschoolers. Tellingly, even public school systems are becoming more accommodating. In Cambridge, for example, homeschoolers have the option to attend individual classes in the district’s schools. Some take math or science classes and participate in sports—last year, one homeschooler took music and piano lessons. Carolyn Turk, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning at Cambridge Public Schools, says she’s seeing more of this “hybrid” approach than in the past. “In Cambridge we look at homeschooling as a choice,” she says. “Cambridge is a city of choice.”

The Boston Public Schools, meanwhile, have begun to view homeschooling as one of the many laboratories in which it can explore new teaching methods. “These people are looking to do instructive, nontraditional education. It’s all different types of people from all incomes,” says Freddie Fuentes, the executive director of educational options for Boston Public Schools. Fuentes, who personally helps parents with academic plans, finds that many homeschooling parents want “very deep, expeditionary learning” for their children. “A lot of them are looking at innovative ways of learning,” he says. “We as a school system need to think about innovation and the cutting edge.”

In other words, homeschooling is arriving here in a very Boston-like way: It’s aspirational, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and innovative.

(http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/article/2015/08/25/homeschooling-in-boston/)


According to the text, parents are opting for homeschooling because they think

McDonald’s is one of the most famous brands in the world. It is the world’s largest chain of hamburger restaurants with 31,000 eateries. It operates in 119 countries, serving 47 million customers a day. The company employs over 1.5 million people. The business began in 1940 when brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant. In 1948, they introduced the "Speedee Service System" which started the modern fast-food phenomenon. The golden arches trademark was introduced in 1962. McDonald’s has rarely been out of the headlines for controversies over its unhealthy menus and working conditions. The term "McJob" was added to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary in 2003, meaning "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement". 
Source: http://www.businessenglishmaterials.com/mcdonalds.html
 Regarding the use of referents underlined on the text, choose the best alternative:

Older and Better     Many people opt ____________ newer homes because they are cleaner, bigger and often have more amenities. But new research shows old houses ____________ old neighborhoods may be better for your health.   University of Utah researchers found that people who live in older, more walkable neighborhoods are ____________ lower risk for overweight and obesity. The study, to be published in the September issue of The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, tracked the body mass index ____________ nearly a half million Salt Lake County residents in Utah. They found that neighborhoods built before 1950 tended ____________ offer greater overall walkability because they had been designed for pedestrians. Newer neighborhoods often were designed primarily to facilitate car travel, the researchers noted.   “It’s difficult for individuals to change their behavior,” said Ken Smith, co-author of the study and professor of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah. “But we can build environments that promote healthy behavior.”   Dr. Smith and colleagues used census data as well as height and weight information obtained from the drivers’ license records of 453,927 Salt Lake County residents between the ages of 25 and 64. They found that men, on average, weighed ten pounds less if they lived in a walkable neighborhood versus a neighborhood less conductive to walking. The average women weighed six pounds less.   “The data show that how and where we live can greatly affect our health,” Dr. Smith said. “Neighborhoods with higher fractions of residents who walk to work tell us that something beneficial about neighborhood is promoting health.”   The research offers a blueprint for communities on better ways to design new developments to encourage healthful living. And for people shopping for homes, the lesson is to think about not just the house itself but whether the neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly, with sidewalks, bikes and walking paths, low traffic and amenities like coffee shops or convenient stores that are within walking distance.   Last fall, Stanford Medicine Magazine also looked at the effect neighborhoods have on health. Researchers there found that among people who were trying to be more active, living in walkable neighborhoods dramatically improved their odds of exercising for at least two-and-a-half hours week. In one study of people who lived in walkable neighborhoods achieved their goals, compared to just 30 percent of those who lived in pedestrian-unfriendly areas.    Read these sentences and, according to the text, decide if they are true ( T ) or false ( F ). 
(   ) People prefer newer homes because they are better for your health.  (   ) The risk of gaining weight diminishes if you live older, more walkable neighborhoods.  (   ) More residents in Salt Lake County live in neighborhoods built before 1950.  (   ) Ken Smith believes that changing one’s behavior is hard to do.  (   ) Teenagers’ data were not taken into consideration in the research carried on by DR. Smith and his colleagues. 
Choose the alternative which presents the correct sequence:

“Children and teenagers shouldn't be allowed to do what they want. Parents have their rights, too, says Wayne Short, a famous British psychologist. In his opinion, children who have too much freedom will become “difficult” adolescents. Mr. Short believes that modern parents must take old-fashioned attitudes and guide their children’s behavior so that they become adolescents who respect other people`s rights – including their own parents.
Among other things, the British psychologist thinks that parents mustn’t fear telling adolescents off if they are not behaving properly either at home or at school. Also, parents have the right to phone teachers to find out whether their teenage son or daughter has been missing classes recently. In fact, parents must be on the alert for any strange attitude their children might take.
Some recent interviews with parents show they are very much worried that their teenage sons and daughters might become troublemakers. Speaking to a magazine reporter, William Wavy (62) said that his son, Phil, did not want to work or study when he was younger. Wavy added that, when Phil turned twenty, things got much worse. One night, the father found out that his son had stolen a car and had been taken to a police station. “I simply got desperate and tried to help my son”, says William. He managed to take his son home, but a few days later the police called again. Phil had been arrested for robbing a house. This time William did not raise a finger and Phil is doing time in a state prison.
Should Willian have tried to free his son again? Did he do the right thing? These are questions which will remain unanswered for some time. Willian now feels that it may have been his son’s upbringing that went wrong. He says that he should have searched his son’s bedroom and got to know his friends. But he also feels that now he has the right to live in peace and that his son must be held responsible for his own acts.
In the sentence “In his opinion, children who have too much freedom Will become ‘difficult’ adolescents”, Will suggests:

Teenage drinking and drug-taking
The Guardian newspaper in the UK invited people to send in their opinions about the phenomenon of young teenagers turning to drink and drugs. Below is a selection of  ome of those opinions: 
 I'm 27. Since the age of about 13 I've been drinking and smoking. Why? Let me attempt to answer. My generation's culture is accelerating at a pace never before experienced. We have instant solutions to everything. We want information - we log onto the net. We want to contact someone - we have our mobile phone. We want entertainment - we turn on the TV or the games console. With so many ways to instantly gratify ourselves is it any wonder than when things aren't going so well we turn to the quickest solution: drink and drugs? 
Andrea, Manchester
I am sickened by teenagers who blame society for their drinking habits. These kids say that society doesn't provide enough for them and that they are bored and that's why they turn to drink and drugs. Well, I grew up in a rural village that had absolutely nothing: no bars, cinemas, sports centres, youth clubs - NOTHING! But we didn't take drugs and I had my first drink when I was 17. Boredom is no excuse. 
G. Winterbottom, Greenwich
Let's remember how influential TV can be. Inevitably TV shows things that look good on the screen. This means they focus on people doing crazy things, being hip and generally acting like a true party animal. Filming university lecturers talking about good books is no way to attract a mass audience. Repeatedly kids are bombarded with images implying that life is about excitement and craziness - a message that entails a total disregard for the virtues that stop adult society falling apart. This must make young people nowadays much more demanding than kids in the past, and it must make them much more likely to look for easy ways of forgetting the thoroughly unexciting demands of adult life. 
Yazoo, Brazil
All 14-year-olds want to do is go out and do exactly what the 18 year olds are doing. I am constantly hearing tales from my friend's 14-year-old sister about how she's been sick in a club. She thinks it's great, and says it's what everybody does. She also tells me that the most popular radio station in the UK has a program on Saturday morning where teenagers regularly phone in and talk to the DJ about how drunk they got the previous night. Everybody just laughs. 
Andrew, Birmingham
If your future is going to consist of fifty or sixty years stuck in a tedious 9 to 5 job like a rat on a treadmill, chemicals are the way to go. 
Naz, UK
When I was young I turned to drink for the following reasons: I always felt like an outsider. Teachers and adults never valued my thoughts and contributions, I was a second class citizen because of my age. Yet when I went out at the weekend and drank I forgot all about that, and for a few hours I felt on top of the world. 
Alan, New Zealand
In Holland there isn't this idea that sex, drink and drugs (at least soft drugs) are something bad. The whole system is more relaxed and people are much more open about these issues. Of course there are problems but I don't think the solution is stricter legislation. Britain has much stricter legislation and the problems there are far worse. Take teenage pregnancies as an example. The age of consent for sex in the UK is 16, whereas in Holland it is 12, and we have the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe. 
Helga, Amsterdam
(http://fullspate.digitalcounterrevolution.co.uk/archive/drugs2.html)
The text presents people’s opinions on the consumption of alcohol and drugs by young adolescents. Most of these people try to give a reason for the young adolescents’ drinking habits and drug use but