Poor Things – Emma Stone transfixes in Lanthimos’s thrilling carnival of oddness

(Available at: www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/14/poor-things-review-yorgos-lanthimos-emma-stonefrankenstein – text specially adapted for this test).

Read Text I to answer the question.

TEXT I

“One very active research tradition in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) attempts to establish causal relationships between environmental factors and learning. These include the type and quantity of input, instruction and feedback, and the interactional context of learning (Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991). A second very influential line of research and theory in SLA that came to fruition during the 1980s investigates the possible role of universal grammar (UG) in SLA (Eubank 1991b, White 1989). In the Chomskyan tradition, UG refers not to properties of language as the external object of learning but to innate properties of mind that direct the course of primary language acquisition. One question asked within this tradition has been whether or not second language this tradition learners still “have access” to UG, but it is assumed that UG principles are not accessible to learner awareness for any kind of conscious analysis of input. It is possible that SLA is the result of UG (a deep internal factor) acting upon input (an external factor), as proposed by White (1989), but what seems to be left out of such an account is the role of the learner's conscious mental processes.” […]

Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annual-review-of-applied-linguistics/ (adapted)

Text 1

Youth and Adult Literacy in Brazil:

learning from practice

The Concept of functional ILLITERACY

[…] A person is considered functionally literate ..................... he or she is capable ................. using reading and writing skills ........................ meet the demands of his or her social context, using them to continue learning and developing over their lifetimes. With the expansion of the access to schooling beyond literacy, the focus was shifted to the quality of the educational process offered to all. The issue here is not simply whether people know how to read or write, but what they are capable of doing with those skills. This means that, besides the issue of illiteracy, a social problem that still persists in Brazil, there is also the issue of functional illiteracy; in other words, the inability to effectively use reading and writing skills in the various areas of social life after a certain number of years of schooling. According to census criteria, individuals with less than 4 years of schooling are considered functionally illiterate. […]

Source: https://unesdoc.unesco.org

Read the text and answer the question. 

What is a consumer society?

A consumer is a person who buys things, and a consumer society is a society that encourages people to buy and use goods. Some people think that a consumer society provides people with better lives. People in consumer societies tend to live more comfortably. They eat a wider variety of food. They go to restaurants more often. They also buy a lot of products, maybe more than they need. Products such as TVs, cell phones, and computers used to be luxuries. Today people can buy these things more easily than ever before. The market for these goods is growing faster all the time. Consumer societies encourage people to buy bigger and better products. For example, “smarter” phones come out every year. In a consumer society, people are often buying newer and more advanced products. This creates a lot of waste. Nowadays, many people are thinking more seriously about the effects of consumer societies on the environment, and they are trying to become more responsible consumers. (https://www.eltngl.com/assets/downloads/grex_pro 0000000538/grex2_su8.pdf).

Comet Fragment Explodes in Dark Skies Over Spain and Portugal     

(Available at: www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/science/comet-fireball-portugal-spain.html – text specially adapted for this test).

READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTTO ANSWER QUESTION.

TEXT 4 

According to the Brazilian National Education Guidelines and Framework Law enacted in 2017, English language teaching is mandatory from the sixth year of elementary school until the last years of high school. However, the curriculum does not guarantee that all Brazilian students will receive English teaching. In 2013, Data Popular, a Brazilian research institute, drafted a report for the British Council analyzing the problems concerning knowledge of English in Brazil. The report claims that the low level of English proficiency amongst Brazilians reflects the educational opportunities available in the country […]. 

To understand the reasons why English teaching does not seem efficient for all students, it is important to highlight the English language teaching provision in Brazil. Formal English teaching in Brazil takes place in four different contexts: English schools, bilingual schools, regular private schools, and public schools. In general, people who wish to learn English believe that effective learning occurs only in private English schools or bilingual schools because the structure (the teaching methods and the quality of support materials) is more likely to provide successful learning. The focus in those institutions is on oral expression. Learners have more exposure to the target language because classes are taught entirely in English, and teachers are usually well trained to comply with that requirement. In addition, groups are smaller, so students can receive personal support and enjoy a comfortable learning environment, not to mention access to multimedia resources. 

(Adapted from: https://academic.oup.com/eltj/75/1/103/6169556)

READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTTO ANSWER QUESTION.

TEXT 3

“The sudden spike of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has had and continues to have a transformative impact on various domains, including education. The advent of AI-powered large language models [LLM], such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, will significantly enhance the way English as a foreign language (EFL) is taught and learned. This article explores the versatile applications of ChatGPT as a valuable tool in any EFLteacher's toolkit, specifically focusing on material development and assessment. The demand for effective EFLteaching and learning strategies has been steadily on the rise for years due to globalization and the widespread adoption of English as the lingua franca for international communication. Consequently, the integration of technology in language education has become crucial in addressing the diverse needs of EFL learners and teachers. ChatGPT, a cutting-edge LLM, holds considerable promise in revolutionizing EFLeducation, as it combines advanced natural language processing capabilities with a realistic instantaneous humanlike interaction. This article aims to provide some potential benefits of utilizing ChatGPT in EFL education. First, we examine how ChatGPTcan be employed in material development, streamlining the process of creating engaging and contextually relevant resources tailored to the needs of individual learners, as well as other more general uses. Second, we explore the role of ChatGPT in text assessment, highlighting the fact that, unlike humans, it has the potential of offering real-time, personalized feedback on learners' performance, thereby enhancing the overall learning experience. It is worth noting that this article as well as the applications suggested in it are based on the latest ChatGPT4 and not the older ChatGPT3.5.”

(Adapted from: https://langedutech.com/letjournal/index.php/let/article/view/48 )

Read TEXT 1 for question:

TEXT1 

Available at: www.comicstriparchive.com/Beetle_Bailey/ (adaptado)

Crazy Horse

    Crazy Horse (Tasunke Witko, 1840-1877) was an Oglala Lakota Sioux warrior and warband leader considered among the greatest defenders of Sioux lands against the forces of the US government in the 19th century. He is one of the most famous Native American figures in history and among the Sioux's most honored heroes. Although he is often referred to as a "chief", Crazy Horse was actually a "Shirt Wearer" – a kind of "subchief" – who carried out the decisions of the council and also served as a war chief of a given band of warriors. Even so, Crazy Horse inspired such devotion in his followers that he was regarded as a "chief" and is referenced as such by others.

    His name, Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), is accurately translated as "His Crazy Horse" or "His Horse is Crazy" and was his father's and grandfather's name, seemingly referencing a horse that behaved erratically. According to Black Elk, however, the name correlated to Crazy Horse's famous vision in which he saw his horse dancing as though "made only of shadow" in a strange or "crazy" way.

    Crazy Horse dedicated himself to opposing the US military as early as 1854 following the Grattan Fight (Grattan Massacre) and the subsequent massacre of Little Thunder's camp in 1855 by Colonel William S. Harney. He continued his resistance over the next eleven years and was named a "Shirt Wearer" in 1865. He fought in the Battle of Plate River Bridge (1865), Red Cloud's War (1866-1868), the Battle of the Rosebud (1876), and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876). His last full-scale engagement with US forces was the Battle of Wolf Mountain in January 1877.

World History Encyclopedia. Adaptation.