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Benefits of a Bilingual Brain

¹ Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two passive parts, listening and reading. While a balanced bilingual has near equal abilities in two languages, most bilinguals around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions. But recent advances in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. 

² It's well known that the brain's left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split. The fact that language involves both types of functions has led to the critical period hypothesis. According to this theory, children learn languages more easily because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left. If this is true, learning a language in childhood may give you a more holistic grasp of its social and emotional contexts. 

³ Conversely, recent research showed that people who learned a second language in adulthood exhibit less emotional bias and a more rational approach when confronting problems in the second language than in their native one. But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some remarkable advantages, such as higher density of the grey matter that contains most of your brain's neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The strong workout a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer's and dementia by as much as five years.

Source: Adapted from “Benefits of a bilingual brain” (Video), by Mia Nacamuli for TED-ed, 2015. Available on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmOLN5zBLY with subtitles.

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TEXTO IV 

From Rockets to Ball Bearings, Pentagon Struggles to Feed War Machine: The flow of arms to Ukraine has exposed a worrisome lack of production capacity in the United States that has its roots in the end of the Cold War. By Eric Lipton

March 24, 2023,

Disponível em: www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Navy admiral had a blunt message for the military contractors building precision-guided missiles for his warships, submarines and planes at a moment when the United States is dispatching arms to Ukraine and preparing for the possibility of conflict with China. 

“Look at me. I am not forgiving the fact you’re not delivering the ordnance we need. OK?” Adm. Daryl Caudle, who is in charge of delivering weapons to most of the Navy’s East Coast-based fleet, warned contractors during an industry gathering in January. “We’re talking about warfighting, national security, and going against a competitor here and a potential adversary that is like nothing we’ve ever seen. And we can’t dillydally around with these deliveries.”

His open frustration reflects a problem that has become worryingly apparent as the Pentagon dispatches its own stocks of weapons to help Ukraine hold off Russia and Washington warily watches for signs that China might provoke a new conflict by invading Taiwan: The United States lacks the capacity to produce the arms that the nation and its allies need at a time of heightened superpower tensions.

 Industry consolidation, depleted manufacturing lines and supply chain issues have combined to constrain the production of basic ammunition like artillery shells while also prompting concern about building adequate reserves of more sophisticated weapons including missiles, air defense systems and counter-artillery radar.

The Pentagon, the White House, Congress and military contractors are all taking steps to address the issues.

Procurement budgets are growing. The military is offering suppliers multiyear contracts to encourage companies to invest more in their manufacturing capacity and is dispatching teams to help solve supply bottlenecks. More generally, the Pentagon is abandoning some of the costcutting changes embraced after the end of the Cold War, including corporate-style just-in-time delivery systems and a drive to shrink the industry.

Dutch government bans phones in schools The Dutch government has announced a ban ______01 mobile phones, tablets, and smartwatches in classrooms starting ______02 January 1, 2024.

The aim is to reduce distractions ______03 lessons and promote better concentration and studying opportunities for students. ______04, devices

_______________05 if they are specifically required for digital skills lessons, for medical reasons, or students with disabilities.

Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf ______06 that ______07 mobile phones are a significant part of ______08 lives, they are not suitable for the classroom, and scientific research ______09 this view.

The ban is the result of an agreement between the ministry, schools, and related organizations. Schools have the flexibility to implement the ban in their way, but if the desired outcomes ______10 achieved by the summer of 2024, legal rules ______11 enforced.

Source: https://www.newsinlevels.com/products/dutch government-bans-phones-in-schools-level-3/. 

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New generation of Indigenous activists battle to save the Amazon

Campaigners in Brazil use drones to document work of self-defence teams trying to stop environmental destruction caused by illegal mining

Batista, who belongs to South America's Macuxi people, is part of a new generation of Indigenous journalists helping chronicle an age-old battle against outside aggression. For centuries, non-Indigenous writers and reporters have flocked to the rainforest region to tell their version of that ancestral fight for survival. Now, a growing cohort of Indigenous communicators are telling their own stories, providing first-hand dispatches from some of the Amazon's most inaccessible and under-reported corners.

"It's dangerous work and we suffer a lot when we're out in the field," said Batista, one of about 26,000 inhabitants of Raposa Serra do Sol, Brazil's second most populous Indigenous territory. "But it really gives me strength because I'm showing the reality of our lives to the world."

"It's my job to monitor the territory: to see who's coming in and who is leaving, to find areas being invaded, and to defend the territory because we cannot live without it," said Batista, who was trained by a local Indigenous association, the Conselho Indígena de Roraima, as part of an initiative called Rede Wakywai, which means "our news" in the local Wapichana language.

The Guardian