Questões de Concurso
Comentadas sobre vocabulário | vocabulary em inglês
Foram encontradas 2.466 questões
prosperity” in order to answer questions 28 to 30.
The perils of prosperity
Source: The Economist
April 27th 2006 (Adapted)
Midway through the first decade of the 21st century,
economic growth is pulling millions out of poverty. Growth,
so devoutly desired yet often so elusive for developing
countries, is occurring in China and India on a heroic scale.
Yet once affluence is achieved, its value is often questioned.
In the 1960s and 1970s, economists started worrying about
environmental and social limits to growth. Now Avner Offer,
professor of economic history at Oxford University, has
added a weighty new critique to this tradition.
“The Challenge of Affluence” accepts that the
populations of poor countries gain from growth, but says
that the main benefits of prosperity are achieved at quite
modest levels. Its central thesis is that rising living standards
in Britain and America have engendered impatience, which
undermines well-being. The fruits of affluence are bitter
ones, and include addiction, obesity, family breakdown and
mental disorders.
Read the text below which is entitled "The future of work" in
order to answer questions 21 to 24.
The future of work
Source: Newsweek
Jan 30th, 2006 (Adapted)
Many of the rich world’s notions about old age are dying.
While the streamlining effects of international competition
are focusing attention on the need to create and keep good
jobs, those fears will eventually give way to worries about
the growing shortage of young workers. One unavoidable
solution: putting older people back to work, whether they
like it or not. Indeed, cutting-edge European economies
like those of Finland and Denmark have already raised
their retirement ages, reversing the postwar trend toward
ever-earlier retirement. Others are under severe pressure
to follow suit, as both the European Commission and the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) have recently warned their members that their
future prosperity depends on a growing contribution from
the elderly.
This erosion of one of the cornerstones of the good
life – relaxed golden years – has not gone unremarked. In
the last year, Belgium, Italy and France have all been hit
with massive protests against pension reforms that would,
among other things, have raised the retirement age.
No texto, poring over significa
No texto, downplayed significa
By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 20, 2004
The Justice Department has begun looking closely at the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system to ensure that it meets the terms of an antitrust settlement reached with the company more than two years ago.
Renata Hesse, the Justice Department lawyer in charge of monitoring Microsoft’s compliance with the agreement, told a federal judge yesterday that the government wants to look at the software, code-named Longhorn, early enough in its development so that it is not presented as a “fait accompli” that would be easy to change.
Microsoft, which has delayed Longhorn’s rollout, has not said when it will be released as the successor to Windows XP, the current version of the personal-computer operating system. Several industry analysts have predicted introduction of Longhorn in 2006 or possibly 2007, which is when the antitruste settlement is scheduled to expire.
The new operating system probably will showcase na aggressive push by Microsoft on several fronts, including technology for Internet searching, managing multiple homeentertainment devices, and virus scanning and other security measures. The company also has been expanding its efforts to become an industry standard-setter in ...... digital entertainment is protected from illegal copying.
Some of these moves will pit the company against competitors with similar products and will again shine a spotlight on Microsoft’s well-honed strategy of bundling more and more programs into its operating system.
It was the bundling strategy that led to Microsoft’s antitrust troubles. Bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser into Windows all but squashed competition from Netscape Communications Inc.’s Navigator browser, which was the Market leader but often had to be downloaded separately.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/articles/A6285 2-2004jul19.html?referrer=email)
No texto, looking closely (1 o parágrafo, 1 a linha) significa
to 24:
Unpicking the fiscal straitjacket
Never has a straitjacket seemed so ill-fitting or so
insecure. The euro area's "stability and growth pact"
was supposed to stop irresponsible member states
from running excessive budget deficits, defined as 3%
of GDP or more. Chief among the restraints was the
threat of large fines if member governments breached
the limit for three years in a row. For some time now,
no one has seriously believed those restraints would
hold. In the early hours of Tuesday November 25th,
the euro's fiscal straitjacket finally came apart at the
seams.
The pact's fate was sealed over an extended
dinner meeting of the euro area's 12 finance
ministers. They chewed over the sorry fiscal record of
the euro's two largest members, France and
Germany. Both governments ran deficits of more than
3% of GDP last year and will do so again this year.
Both expect to breach the limit for the third time in
2004. Earlier this year, the European Commission,
which policies the pact, agreed to give both countries
an extra year, until 2005, to bring their deficits back
into line. But it also instructed them to revisit their
budget plans for 2004 and make extra cuts. France
was asked to cut its underlying, cyclically adjusted
deficit by a full 1% of GDP, Germany by 0.8%. Both
resisted.
Nov 27th, 2003
The Economist Global Agenda