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With Brazil in Turmoil, Rio Counts Down to Olympics

By REBECCAR. RUIZAPRIL27, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO- Brazil's president is facing impeachment. The country's economy is in sharp decline. Bodies of water that will be used for Olympic competitions are polluted, and global public health officials are trying to tamp down the Zika virus epidemic.

With less than 100 days before the Olympic Games come to South Amarica for the first time, Rio de Janeiro faces more than the usual challenges that bedevil host cities, like delayed stadium construction and transportation concerns. (Rio has those, too.) The mood here, however, is hardly one of panic. Officials in charge of executing the Summer Games say they feel insulated from Brazil's turmoil at this late stage. The Olympics, after all, tend to exist in their own bubble, elaborately coordinated to ensure that the multibillion-dollar operation goes off smoothly. "The machine is in place, and it's relatively stable," Ricardo Leyser, Brazil's sports minister, said in an interview this week. "My biggest concern isn't any individual issue. lt's the small demands that all come at once."

Local organizers are beginning to lay colorful comforters patterned with the silhouettes of cartoon cyclists, fencers and swimmers - on the twin beds in the athletes' village. They are monitoring the growth of 14-month-old grass that will be transplanted to Maracanã, the storied soccer stadium that will also be used for the opening and closing ceremonies. They are pulling trash from Guanabara Bay, where the Games' sailing events will be held; mopping up standing water to minimize mosquito breeding; and ramping up a round-the-clock security operation - all while publicly expressing little worry about the unrest encircling them.

On Wednesday, with the handoff of the Olympic flame in Greece and the start of a journey that in little more than a week will bring it to Brazil, the official countdown to the Aug. 5 opening ceremony began. 

ln Rio, the race to be ready is intensifying, with construction workers here still laboring on mass transit projects that were key promises seven years ago in the city's bid to host the Games. Costing several billion dollars, those projects include a new subway line and express bus lanes that connect the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca to the rest of the city, which is expected to swell with more than half a million visitors.

As the value ofthe Brazilian real has drastically declined overthe last year, some have expressed doubt that the transit projects will materialize beyond the sleek, modernist weather shelters that have been built at various stations. At a news conference Wednesday, the city's secretary of transportation said the new routes would be ready i n ti me but did not specify when. To the vast majority of people watching the Games on television, however, such infrastructure may not matter.

The permanent venues for competitions here are mostly complete - all but those for tennis and track cycling - and athletes from around the world have competed in dozens of test events in Rio in recent months. "lt's about the filling of the cake," Mr. Leyser said. "lt's not about the stadiums; it's about the scoreboards."

As ofthe latest counts, 62 percent ofthe 5.7 million tickets on the market had been sold - roughly half of the total tickets for the Olympics - and 24 percent of tickets available for the Paralympics had been sold. But compareci with past Olympics, the buyers of those tickets may be disproportionately international, saidAndrew Parsons, the presidentofthe Brazilian Paralympic Committee.

For some Brazilians, the country's political and economic crises have cast a shadow on the celebration. President Dilma Rousseff's ouster looks increasingly likely amid a sweeping graft scandal, and those in line to succeed her have their own controversies hanging overthem.

Questions of corruption have extended to Olympics planning, particularly after a businessman who worked on many Olympic projects in Rio was convicted of corruption and money laundering related to separata contracts. Mr. Leyser said that the questions centered on irregularities at the Deodoro event site and that no publicofficial had been accused ofwrongdoing. "lt's more an administrativa issue than a corruption scheme," he said. "lt's basically a question ofthe numbers." Mr. Leyser called the devaluation of Brazil's currency an opportunity because it increases the buying power of foreign money coming into Brazil forthe Games.

But not everyone sees the event as a boon to the country. Shirlei Alves, who lives in the Santa Marta favela of Rio, criticized the government for spending on the Olympics in the face of Brazil's problems.

"The world is just getting worse here," Ms. Alves said, noting that she was without medication and electricity. "The government is making a mistake. l'd like if they'd take a better look at the poor people and not help people who are already rich." Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio, said Wednesday that the city had a "comfortable financial situation" and had spent on stadium construction 1 percent ofwhat it spent on health education. "I know people are skeptical," Mr. Paes said, citing the "huge deliverables" for the Olympics. "Of course the situation here has been difficult. But there is a commitment of the Brazilian state to deliverthe Olympics."

Perhaps the most vexing issue for local organizers-the one that may stir anxiety among athletes and spectators - is the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects and temporary paralysis. Zika is of greater concern outside Rio, in the far north part of Brazil, but the World Health Organization has declared the virus a global public health emergency and has advised pregnant women notto travei anywhere in Brazil.

"The Olympics is a pretty effective way of taking whatever disease is local and making it global," said Ashish K. Jha, director ofthe Global Health lnstitute at Harvard.

Some scientists have suggested that by the time the Olympics start in August - wintertime in Brazil, when mosquitoes are less numerous - the virus might be more prevalent in the southern United States.

"Zika's been spreading effectively on its own, but there's very good reason to think the Olympics will accelerate the spread," Dr. Jhasaid.

But the virus poses a unique problem because it isso far beyond the contrai of local organizing officials, and so many questions about it remain unanswered. Few athletes have publicly expressed concern, but it is unclear how many might withdraw as the Games draw closer.

"At this point you just keep going," David Wallechinsky, an Olympics historian, said. "You have to continue as if everything's going to be fine. These are real concerns - Zika, the water quality. But even if Dilma is forced out of office, it's not going to stop the Olympics."

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      It’s been a long time since attending school consisted of hauling in a large pile of books and sitting still looking at the teacher all day. Students these days are online, connected and digitally savvy. But are we making the most of this? One Hertfordshire school certainly is.

      Back in 2013, Hobletts Manor Junior School in Hemel Hempstead received its Oftsed report. Though it was very good, the report suggested the school could be outstanding if its pupils were able to use their ICT skills in more subjects. At the time, the school had a similar IT setup to most other UK primary schools: one ICT suite with limited pupil access. This, says head teacher Sally Short, made it difficult to embed technology across the curriculum in the ways they would like. But with the help of the school’s ICT coordinator and year 4 teacher Alice Baker, the local authority and PC World Business, Mrs Short came up with a shortlist of requirements to bring the school and its teaching style properly into the digital age.

      From ordering to installation, the process took just four weeks and at the end of it the school had a whole host of innovative tech, including an interactive 70inch Smart table, which works like a giant iPad. Miss Baker devised an interactive activity about the Egyptians and, she says, things like this have made a huge difference to learning. Because more than one person can interact with the Smart table, Mrs Short says her own teaching style has changed: “Before, lessons were purely teacher-led. It’s opening doors we didn’t even know existed and having an amazing impact.” The students were also each given their own Windows 8-enabled tablet; one child was so excited about this that he even burst into tears. The digital natives needed just one session to experiment and they were off. Miss Baker laughs: “They even teach me how to use the kit sometimes.” It might seem as though increased technology decreases concentration but, says Miss Baker, “Pupils are so much more engaged when they’re using the tablets, even if they’re just checking their answers on them.”

      The tech has also allowed the children to be more independent in their learning, but there are security measures in place to ensure Miss Baker has control over content and activity. Miss Baker has Acer Class Management software installed on her tablet. This allows her to see what all the students are doing on their tablets, and also enables her to share slideshows and websites. Handily, she can even lock their screens. At the same time, the entire school network has been upgraded. Pupils and teachers can now access a Wi-Fi connection in the outdoor learning area and there are plans afoot to allow them to use their tech in the nearby woodland and garden. The school is carefully monitoring the impact of the new technology, and has been making careful comparisons on the students’ progress. The teachers hope, too, that the tech will have a positive impact on attendance as students become increasingly engaged in lessons. “Following the installation, we surveyed pupils to gauge their perceptions on technology,” says Miss Baker, “Pupils who have been able to take advantage of the tools provided by PC World Business said that they felt technology was really important and that they will use it when they grow up. Perhaps most importantly, all the students in the class agreed that the technology has helped them learn.”

                                                                      (Available in: www.telegraph.co.uk. Adapted.) 

Refugee judokas searching for peace while fighting for their Olympic dream in Rio 

        More than two and a half years after they came to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the World Judo Championships, two refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still here, in pursuit of an extraordinary Olympic dream. When teams from more than 200 countries march into the Maracanã Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Games on 5 August, Popole Misenga and Yolanda Mabika intend to be among them, walking behind the Olympic flag. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will mount a unique team of refugee athletes which will compete in Rio. It has been a long journey from central Africa and from a war that has claimed an estimated 5.4 million lives. Mabika, now 28, cannot hold back the tears when she remembers the brothers and sisters she has not seen since 1998, when she was evacuated from her home town to the country’s capital, Kinshasa. It was there, as a child, that she first took up judo. Misenga’s mother was murdered when he was just six years old. The young child wandered for days in the Congolese rainforest before he too was rescued and taken to Kinshasa. Like his compatriot, he soon took to judo, a sport which the Congolese government saw as an ideal way of giving some structure to the lives of the country’s countless orphans. In 2010, Misenga won a bronze medal at the under-20 African Judo Championship. But Misenga and Mabika said training conditions were excessively rigorous, with losing judokas beaten and locked in cells. At the 2013 World Judo Championship, Misenga took the opportunity to begin a better life. After escaping from the team hotel, a couple of days later Misenga found himself in the favela community of Cinco Bocas in northern Rio, home to most of the city’s Congolese community of some 900 people. He sent Mabika a message and she also decided to stay. Life in northern Rio has not always been easy for the judokas. It has been a story of odd jobs and informal employment.The two athletes are now training three times a week at the Instituto Reação. The learning curve has been steep. Geraldo Bernardes, the veteran coach of the Brazilian team in four Olympic Games, says that Misenga and Mabika were initially far too aggressive in training. “They were used to being punished and mistreated when they lost,” Geraldo explains. “I had to tell them that training and fighting are different things.”

        Misenga told rio2016.com that he had adjusted to his new surrounds: “I have learnt a lot on the technical side. I can feel in my body that I have learnt what was missing before in my judo.” Their coach says the two judokas are rough diamonds and are still making up for the lost time in their training. Brazil has a strong tradition in the sport and both athletes are hoping that by refining their skills in the country they will make the cut when the IOC decides which athletes (from a shortlist of 43) will form part of Team Refugee in June. In the meantime, both Misenga and Mabika are enjoying their new lives in Rio. The Instituto Reação and the local Estácio de Sá university have given them the opportunity to learn Portuguese, maths and other subjects. Neither of the two judokas has any plan to leave the new home town that has given them so much.

(Available in: http://www.rio2016.com. Adapted.)

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Trial with migrants

        The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is against migration there. He says that the EU risks losing another country if the migration is not stopped. Nine men were sentenced to nearly a year in jail; however, they were released at the judge’s discretion due to time already served. One of the group was kept behind bars after receiving a three-year sentence for issuing instructions to the rioters through a loudspeaker. After the trial, a United Nations spokesman said that he was worried that a country would criminalize people who are fleeing war zones.

(www.ondemandnews.com – Adaptado)

O texto a seguir apresenta lacunas numeradas das quais foram omitidas uma ou mais palavras. Assinale a alternativa que apresenta a palavra ou expressão que completa corretamente cada uma das lacunas numeradas, tanto quanto à correção gramatical como quanto ao sentido e à estruturação do texto.

What is Communicative Language Teaching?

   Not long ago, when American structural linguistics and behaviorist psychology were the prevailing influences in language teaching methods and materials, second/foreign language teachers talked about communication in terms of four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. 41  skill categories were widely accepted and provided a ready-made framework for methods manuals, learner course materials, and teacher education programs. Speaking and writing were collectively 42 as active skills, reading and listening as passive skills.

    Today, listeners and readers no longer are regarded as passive. They are seen as active participants in the negotiation of 43 . Schemata, expectancies, and top-down/bottom-up processing are among the terms now used to capture the necessarily complex, interactive nature of this negotiation. Yet full and widespread understanding of 44 as negotiation has been made difficult by the terms that came to replace the earlier active/passive dichotomy. The skills needed to engage in speaking and writing activities were described subsequently as productive,  45   listening and reading skills were said to be receptive. While certainly an improvement over the earlier active/passive representation, the terms “productive” and “receptive” fall short of capturing the interactive nature of communication.

    The inadequacy of a four-skills model of language use is now recognized. And the  46  of audiolingual methodology are widely acknowledged. There is general acceptance of the complexity and interrelatedness of skills in both  47  and oral communication and of the need for learners to have the experience of communication, to participate in the negotiation of meaning rather than memorizing and repeating words and sentences. Newer, more comprehensive theories of language and language behavior have  48  those that looked to American structuralism and behaviorist psychology for support. The expanded, interactive view of language behavior they offer presents a number of  49  for teachers. Among them, how should form and function be integrated in an instructional sequence? What is an appropriate norm for learners? How is it determined ?What is an error? And what, if anything, should be done when one  50 ? How is language learning success to be measured? Acceptance of communicative criteria entails a commitment to address these admittedly complex issues.

(Communicative Language Teaching for the Twenty-First Century, by Sandra J. Savignon in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, by Marianne Celce-Murcia (ed.). Adaptado)