Text 4 (for questions 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46)

                                                                       Social networks

Going into the small room at the end of the corridor, Roberta sat down _______ ¹ the computer. It was the computer she had bought when her old one’s hard disk had started to go wrong. Her new computer was a laptop with a lot of extra features and she needed it for her online work _______ ² her students. Roberta had started to worry that her students would be bored unless she used modern technology in her teaching.

She turned_______ ³ the switch at the back of her computer. She looked at the email messages waiting for her answer, but she ignored them. Then she looked at the homework posted on a special site she created for the students, but she didn’t feel like correcting it. Instead she went to her favorite social network site and looked at the news about her friends. She sent messages to her favorite people and she had many online conversations _______ ⁴ teaching and other things. She posted some new messages on her own web page and then watched a film clip on a video site which her friend had told her about.

_______ ⁵ now, it was late and she realized that she had spent too much time talking to her friends online. She was very tired. She would have to do all her work in the morning.

(HARMER, J. Essential Teacher Knowledge: core concepts in English language teaching, p. 42. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2012. Adaptado.)

Choose the best alternative.

O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 28 a 32.

Popular hot drink 'lowers blood glucose levels in weeks - and could help prevent diabetes and silent killers'

(1º§) Drinking more green tea made significant improvements to health - a finding which surprised US researchers. They believe the brew could offset risk factors that are linked to metabolic syndrome.

(2º§) Metabolic syndrome, according to the NHS, is the medical term for a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension) and obesity. Therefore, people are more likely to have metabolic syndrome if they are overweight, and have poor or high levels of cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar.

(3º§) However, the new study, by Ohio State University, suggests green tea could improve all these factors. And in turn, it could slash the odds of deadly complications related to metabolic syndrome - coronary heart disease and stroke. A group of 40 people were recruited for the study. For one part of the study, they took green tea supplements for 28 days.

(4º§) The gummy sweets contained the compound catechinsdose and was the equivalent of five cups of green tea. ___ another 28 days, they had dummy pills, according to the findings published in Current Developments in Nutrition. In both parts of the experiments they ate a diet that was low in fruit and veg to make sure any positive results could be attributed to green tea, and not a healthy diet.

(5º§) The results showed that fasting blood glucose levels for all participants were significantly lower during the green-tea phase. Poo samples showed fewer markers of gut inflammation, and "leaky gut" was reduced. Leaky gut, or gut permeability, is when the gut lining has cracks or holes in, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream and cause inflammation.

(6º§) This is thought to be an "initiating factor for obesity and insulin resistance, which are central to all cardiometabolic disorders", according to Richard Bruno, senior study author and professor of human nutrition. He said: "If we can improve gut integrity and reduce leaky gut, the thought is we'll be able to not only alleviate low-grade inflammation that initiates cardiometabolic disorders, but potentially reverse them."

(7º§) All the participants - half healthy and half with metabolic syndrome - saw benefits, an unexpected finding for the research team. Prof Bruno said: "What this tells us is that within one month we're able to lower blood glucose ___ both people with metabolic syndrome and healthy people.

(8º§) "The lowering of blood glucose appears to be related to decreasing leaky gut and decreasing gut inflammation - regardless of health status." But Prof Bruno added: "We did not attempt to cure metabolic syndrome with a one-month study. "But based on what we know about the causal factors behind metabolic syndrome, there is potential for green tea to be acting at least in part ___ the gut level to alleviate the risk for either developing it or reversing it if you already have metabolic syndrome."

(9º§) Most often, doctors will tell people at risk of metabolic syndrome to improve their lifestyle habits - eat healthier and exercise more. "Unfortunately, we know most persons can't comply with lifestyle modifications for various reasons," Prof Bruno said. Green tea isn't as popular in the Western world as it is in the East, where it has origins in China.

(10º§) It's touted as a healthy drink because studies have found evidence it helps with weight loss, heart disease risk and even cancer. But the findings aren't very strong and are often observational, have small sample sizes or other limitations.

(adapted) https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/19350396/green-tea-lowers-bloodglucose-levels-prevent-silent-killers/

Text

The Psychology of Computer Games

These days, everyone is playing computer games: whether on their PC, games console, or smartphone.

In the busy modern world, we rarely have total control of our lives. .....(1)..... . Some computer games provide an antidote to this because they let players create and control the whole world. One example is Civilization, where players build a modern society from nothing. In earlier versions of the game, creator Sid Meier introduced a crisis. Some games included a moment where the player’s civilization collapses. The players then had to overcome these new difficulties to rebuild their civilization again from the beginning. In reality, the majority of players simply ignored the collapse. Most people just returned to an older version of the game. They had saved it for this purpose. People like computer games because it gives them total control.

In most computer games, you only learn one skill at a time. .....(2)..... . Once you have mastered this skill, you progress to the next level. Unlike real life, computer games give you plenty of time to learn. You aren’t immediately asked to do something too difficult. Users have control of the situation and that is very motivating.

This learning needs to work for everyone. In the game World of Warcraft, a player operates an avatar .................. himself or herself in an online fantasy world. The beginning of the game is easy, and .................. getting over the first challenges quickly, this gives players a feeling of achievement. However, the game is enormous. People who persevere with difficult tasks will learn a lot of new skills and explore areas that are inaccessible .................. beginners. Both beginners and experts can become immersed .................. a huge artificial world.

Most games are repetitive, and games designers need to find ways to stop people from becoming distracted and giving up. There are two ways of doing this. The first is the random reward where players win a surprise prize. .....(3)...... . In the real world, most people don’t notice when we do good things, but games are different.

Furthermore, games use clever AI (artificial intelligence). If you are inexperienced and play a soccer computer game against the computer, the computer could always win. Using AI, the computer adjusts its level of ability to equal the player. This means the human opponent always has a chance to win, and it keeps players interested in the game.

Winning isn’t everything, however. In computer games, failure is fun if the final screen shows an entertaining end for the character. Some players lose a game just to see what happens.

.....(4)..... . The virtual world is both more entertaining and less stressful than reality.

Many criticize computer games as just a waste of time. In fact, computer games are one of the greatest learning tools ever invented. Look at their uses in other fields. Flight simulators teach pilots how to cope with many difficult situations, which would be impossible any other way. A flight simulator is just a more sophisticated form of a computer game.

Leia o texto a seguir e responda às questões 45, 46 e 47.

(Título omitido propositadamente)

Often when mentoring, in a one-to-one session, it will be clear that the mentee’s worst critic is the one they see very regularly – daily, in fact. Often when they are tired and stressed. Often when they are at a low point. It’s the one they look (1)________ the mirror.

I mean most of the time, the worst critic lives inside people’s head. It might be the criticism that you heard at school or college. It might be the voice of so-called friends. It might be a parent or guardian, sibling or perfect cousin. You can’t always shut those voices up. No matter how much you want to. You can, however, recognise that they are internal voices and cultivate a strategy to counteract them.

If you can have an internal critic, you can also have an internal cheerleader. One technique is to give yourself advice that you would give your best friend in that situation. If you’re worrying about not being good (2)________ something, what would you say to your best friend in that state? You’d probably tell them that it would be alright, they’ll sail through it, that you believe (3)________ them. If you can do it for your best friend, you can do it for yourself.

Adapted from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article.