Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
     honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
     a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
     eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
 5    folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
     Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
     gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
     meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
     an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
 10    one.
          Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
     the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
     the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
     population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
 15    skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
     creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
     Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
     "Android science."
          Besides the justification for making robots
 20    anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
     environments with architectural features such as stairs,
     Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
     humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
     natural communication. "Appearance is very important
 25    to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
     says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
     media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
     our future is to interact naturally with people."
          Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
 30    aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
     computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
     for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
     Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
     Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
 35    to understand more about ourselves.
          To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
     Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
     cognitive science research can use the robot to study
     human perception, communication and other faculties.
 40    This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
     as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
     collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
     humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
     standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
 45    neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
     to implement processes that support it in the android."
          One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
     his artificial creations on real people. He began research
     four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
 50    casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
     mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
          Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
     people's comfort zones. Because the android's
     appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
 55    differences in motion and responses will make it seem
     strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
     overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
     natural way it moves.
          Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
 60    authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
     thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
     he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
     teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
     Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
 65    Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
     answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

          What are the best energy sources? "Best" depends
     on many factors - how the energy is being used, where
     it is being used, what energy sources are available,
     which sources are most convenient and reliable, which
5   are easiest to use, what each costs, and the effects on
     public safety, health, and the environment. Making smart
     energy choices means understanding resources and their
     relative costs and benefits.
          Some energy sources have advantages for specific
10  uses or locations. For example, fuels from petroleum
     are well suited for transportation because they pack a
     lot of energy in a small space and are easily transported
     and stored. Small hydroelectric installations are a good
     solution for supplying power or mechanical energy close
15  to where it is used. Coal is widely used for power
     generation in many fast-developing countries - including
     China, India, and many others - because domestic
     supplies are readily available.
          Efficiency is an important factor in energy costs.
20  How efficiently can the energy be produced, delivered,
     and used? How much energy value is lost in that process,
     and how much ends up being transformed into useful
     work? Industries that produce or use energy continually
     look for ways to improve efficiency, since this is a key to
25  making their products more competitive.
          The ideal energy source - cheap, plentiful, and
     pollution-free - may prove unattainable in our lifetime,
     but that is the ultimate goal. The energy industry is
     continuing to improve its technologies and practices, to
30  produce and use energy more efficiently and cleanly.
          Energy resources are often categorized as
     renewable or nonrenewable.
          Renewable energy resources are those that can be
     replenished quickly - examples are solar power,
35  biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind power, and
     fast-reaction nuclear power. They supply about seven
     percent of energy needs in the United States; the other
     93 percent comes from nonrenewables. The two largest
     categories of renewable energy now in use in the U.S.
40  are biomass - primarily wood wastes that are used by
     the forest products industry to generate electricity and
     heat - and hydroelectricity.
          Nonrenewable energy resources include coal, oil,
     natural gas, and uranium-235, which is used to fuel
45  slow-reaction nuclear power. Projections of how long a
     nonrenewable energy resource will last depend on many
     changeable factors. These include the growth rate of
     consumption, and estimates of how much of the remaining
     resources can be economically recovered. New exploration
50  and production technologies often increase the ability of
     producers to locate and recover resources. World
     reserves of fossil energy are projected to last for many
     more decades - and, in the case of coal, for centuries.

In: http://www.classroom-energy.org/teachers/energy_tour/pg5.html

The oil and natural gas industry has developed and
applied an impressive array of innovative technologies to
improve productivity and efficiency, while yielding
environmental benefits. According to the U.S. Department
of Energy, "the petroleum business has transformed itself
into a high-technology industry."
State-of-the-art technology allows the industry to
produce more oil and natural gas from more remote
places - some previously unreachable - with significantly
less adverse effect on the environment. Among the
benefits: increased supply to meet the world's growing
energy demand, reduced energy consumption at oil and
natural gas facilities and refineries, reduced noise from
operations, decreased size of facilities, reduced
emissions of pollutants, better protection of water
resources, and preservation of habitats and wildlife.
With advanced exploration and production
technologies, the oil and gas industry can pinpoint
resources more accurately, extract them more efficiently
and with less surface disturbance, minimize associated
wastes, and, ultimately, restore sites to original or better
condition.
Exploration and production advances include
advanced directional drilling, slimhole drilling, and 3-D
seismic technology. Other segments of the industry have
benefited from technological advances as well. Refineries
are becoming highly automated with integrated process
and energy system controls; this results in improved
operational and environmental performance and enables
refineries to run harder and produce more products safer
than ever before. Also, new process equipment and
catalyst technology advances have been made very
recently to meet new fuel regulations requiring very low
levels of sulfur in gasoline and diesel.
Technology advances such as these are making it
possible for the oil and natural gas industry to grow in
tandem with the nation's energy needs while maintaining
a cleaner environment. The industry is committed to
investing in advanced technologies that will continue to
provide affordable and reliable energy to support our
current quality of life, and expand our economic horizons.
For example, we are researching fuel cells that may
power the vehicles of tomorrow with greater efficiency
and less environmental impact. We are investigating ways
to tap the huge natural gas resources locked in gas
hydrates. Gas hydrates are common in sediments in
the ocean's deep waters where cold temperatures and
high pressures cause natural gas and water to freeze
together, forming solid gas hydrates. Gas hydrates could
be an important future source of natural gas for our nation.
Some of our companies are also investigating
renewable energy resources such as solar, wind,
biomass and geothermal energy. By conducting research
into overcoming the many technological hurdles that limit
these energy resources, they hope to make them more
reliable, affordable and convenient for future use. Although
the potential for these energy resources is great,
scientists do not expect them to be a significant part of
the nation's energy mix for many decades. For this
reason, the industry must continue to invest in
conventional resources such as oil and natural gas. We
will need to rely on these important energy resources for
many decades to come.

Your answers to questions 28 to 30 must be based on
the text below entitled "The real medicine":

The real medicine
Source: Newsweek (adapted)
Oct 17th 2005

People who survive a heart attack often
describe it as a wake-up call. But for a 61-year old
executive I met recently, it was more than that. This
man was in the midst of a divorce when he was
stricken last spring, and he had fallen out of touch
with friends and family members. The executive´s
doctor, unaware of the strife in his life, counseled him
to change his diet, start exercising and quit smoking.
He also prescribed drugs to lower cholesterol and
blood pressure. It was sound advice, but in combing
the medical literature, the patient discovered that he
needed to do more. Studies suggested that his risk of
dying within six months would be four times greater
if he remained depressed and lonely. So he joined
a support group and reordered his priorities, placing
relationships at the top of the list instead of the bottom.
His health has improved steadily since then, and so
has his outlook on life. In fact he now describes his
heart attack as the best thing that ever happened to
him. "Yes, my arteries are more open," he says. "But
even more important, I´m more open."

Your answers to questions 25 to 27 must be based on the
text below entitled "Flight of the French":

Flight of the French
Source: Newsweek (adapted)
Sept 26th/Oct 3rd 2005

The Belgians call them "fiscal refugees", but these
refugees wear Chanel. They are runaways from high
taxes in France. Officially, France has lost, on average,
one millionaire or billionaire tax payer per day for tax
reasons since 1997, when the government started trying
to track capital flight. Privately, economists say the
number is much higher. "The statistic is stupid," holds
French economist Nicolas Baverez. "It's as if, to count
contraband, you only counted what people declared at
the border."
While much of Europe has revised its tax codes, France's
fiscal inertia is virtually begging its rich to leave. Holding dear
its commitment to égalité and fraternité, France has bucked
the trend in the European Union, where most member states
have dropped the wealth tax since the mid-1990s. France
went the opposite way in 1997 by abolishing a cap that limited
the wealth-tax bill, which kicks in at incomes over 720,000
euros to 85% of a taxpayer's income. The result: some pay
more taxes than they earn in income.

Your answers to questions 21 to 24 must be based on the
text below entitled "A dip in the middle":

A dip in the middle
Source: The Economist (adapted)
Sep 8th 2005

Income tax has been paid in Britain for more
than two centuries. First introduced by William Pitt the
Younger to finance the war against Napoleonic France,
it is the Treasury´s biggest source of revenue, raising
30% of tax receipts. It arouses strong political emotions,
regarded as fair by some because it makes the rich pay a
bigger share of their income than the poor, but unfair by
others because it penalizes enterprise and hard work.
During the past 30 years, income tax has been
subject to sweeping changes, notably the cut in the top
rate from 98% to 40% under Margaret Thatcher between
1979 and 1988. Now another Conservative politician,
George Osborne, is floating a radical reform to match
that earlier exploit. The shadow chancellor announced
on September 7th that he was setting up a commission
to explore the possible introduction of a flat income tax
in Britain.
Introducing a flat income tax into Britain would
involve two main changes. At present, there are three
marginal tax rates. These three rates would be replaced
by a single rate, which would be considerably lower than
the current top rate. At the same time there would be an
increase in the tax-free personal allowance, currently
worth 4,895 pounds.

READ TEXT I AND ANSWER QUESTIONS 21 TO 25:

TEXT I

The integral approach strategies adopted by
Favela-Bairro consist of proposals of integrated and
participative actions. The path that goes from welfare
to work should combine programs and services for
human and social development with labor and incomegeneration
opportunities. To be viable, however, social
promotion interventions should be focused on
geographical areas with a high concentration of poverty,
specifically on the poorest families.
An intersectoral decentralized and participative
approach can produce synergetic effects capable of
providing greater impact for poverty and inequality
reduction policies, and capable of contributing to their
sustainability.
Although Favela-Bairro has been based on the idea
of integrated urban infrastructure interventions, initially
the program did not incorporate all the basic components
of an integral approach strategy. These components
were gradually incorporated into its design as a result
of the participatory process and the transformations
that occurred in the municipal administration.
Favela-Bairro is the result of an evolving process
that resulted in the creation of a typical integral
development model with a territorial base that
incorporates life-cycle perspectives.
Rio de Janeiro inhabitants, either living in favelas
or not, recognize the importance of the Favela-Bairro
program. A public opinion poll carried out in 2003 asked
cariocas (as Rio residents are called) to choose from
a list of governmental programs the one to which the
next mayor should give priority. Favela-Bairro was
chosen in first place in all three rounds of the survey.
The same institute asked respondents about the most
important project for the city, and again Favela-Bairro
ranked first: 26.1 percent of respondents have elected
Favela-Bairro as more important than programs such
as minimum income, popular restaurants, and even
essential works in major city roads.

(www.worldbank.org on September 10, 2005)

Your answers to questions 23 to 27 must be based
on the review below, which is entitled "Illusions of
Empire: Defining the New American Order".

Illusions of Empire: Defining the New
American Order
Source: www.foreignaffairs.org
March/April 2004 (Adapted)

In his book The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism,
Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, Chalmers
Johnson advances the disturbing claim that the United
States' Cold War-era military power and far-flung base
system have, in the last decade, been consolidated in a
new form of global imperial rule. The United States,
according to Johnson, has become "a military
juggernaut intent on world domination."
Driven by a triumphalist ideology, an
exaggerated sense of threats, and a self-serving
military-industrial complex, this juggernaut is tightening
its grip on much of the world. The Pentagon has
replaced the State Department as the primary shaper of
foreign policy. Military commanders in regional
headquarters are modern-day proconsuls, warriordiplomats
who direct the United States' imperial reach.
Johnson fears that this military empire will corrode
democracy, bankrupt the nation, spark opposition, and
ultimately end in a Soviet-style collapse.

Read the text below in order to answer questions 26
to 30:

Anthony Harrington, American Ambassador in
Brazil
From 1999 through 2001

"Because I departed my post less than a year
ago, the changes have been neither entirely
monumental nor unforeseen. Most prominently
perhaps, Brazil has faced the effects of the severe
economic challenges of neighboring Argentina,
together with an international slow-down. Two
things stand out in this regard: first, Brazil is
weathering the storm better than most observers
anticipated, primarily because Brazil, under
President Cardoso, has already implemented
much of the key reform with which others are
struggling. Secondly, Brazil is uniquely positioned
and well-disposed to play a constructive role in
helping its neighbor through this storm.
Otherwise, I am pleased that Presidents Bush
and Cardoso are off to a positive start in their
relationship, beginning with an early visit in
Washington before I left Brasilia and another good
meeting recently".

Read the text below in order to answer questions 16
to 20:

Brazil-UK Relations

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso paid a brief visit to the United Kingdom
on 27-28 October 2001, accepting a last minute
invitation by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a
private meeting. The two leaders met at
Chequers, Buckinghamshire, and were joined by
former American President Bill Clinton.
During the meeting, Blair and Cardoso had
the opportunity to discuss current global affairs
issues such as the ongoing international
campaign against terrorism, the forthcoming
World Trade Organization meeting in Doha and
the reform of the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking to the press before departing for
France, President Cardoso stated that during the
meeting they had agreed on the need for
immediate reform of the UN Security Council so
that the "fate of countries is not decided by a small
group of nations, as it is today".