At the dawn of the 20th century in the United States of America,
the use of electricity-powered vehicles seemed to be:

Question

Text I
Shock of the old: Believe it or not, battery-powered vehicles
have been around since Victorian times.
   The history of the electric car is surprisingly enraging. If you
imagine early electric vehicles at all (full disclosure: I didn’t until
recently), it will probably be as the quixotic and possibly dangerous
dream of a few eccentrics, maybe in the 1920s or 1930s, when
domestic electrification became widespread. It’s easy to imagine
some stiff-collared proto-Musk getting bored of hunting and
affairs, eyeing his newly installed electric lights speculatively, then
wreaking untold havoc and mass electrocutions. The reality is
entirely different.
   By 1900, a third of all cars on the road in the US were electric;
we’re looking at the history of a cruelly missed opportunity, and it
started astonishingly early. The Scottish engineer Robert Anderson
had a go at an electric car of sorts way back in the 1830s, though
his invention was somewhat stymied by the fact rechargeable
batteries were not invented until 1859, making his crude carriage
something of a one-trick pony (and far less useful than an actual
pony).
   It’s debatable whether or not Scotland was ready for this brave
new world anyway: in 1842, Robert Davidson (another Scot, who
had, a few years earlier, also tried his hand at an electric vehicle)
saw his electric locomotive Galvani “broken by some malicious
hands almost beyond repair” in Perth. The contemporary
consensus was that it was attacked by railway workers fearful for
their jobs.   Despite this unpromising start, electric vehicles had entered
widespread commercial circulation by the start of the 20th
century, particularly in the US. Electric cabs crisscrossed
Manhattan, 1897’s bestselling US car was electric and, when he
was shot in 1901, President McKinley was taken to hospital in an
electric ambulance. London had Walter Bersey’s electric taxis, and
Berlin’s fire engines went electric in 1908; the future looked bright,
clean and silent.
   By the 1930s, however, the tide had definitively turned against
electric, cursed by range limitations and impractical charging times
while petrol gained the upper hand thanks partly – and ironically –
to the electric starter motor. The Horseless Age magazine, which
vehemently backed the petrol non-horse, would have been
delighted. There was a brief resurgence of interest in the late
1960s, when the US Congress passed a bill promoting electrical
vehicle development, but nothing much actually happened until
the Nissan Leaf sparked interest in 2009. Electric still isn’t quite
there yet, battling infrastructure and battery problems that might
have been familiar to Anderson and friends.
Adapted from The Guardian, Tuesday 24 October 2023, p. 6
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/shock-of-the-old/2023/oct/24/all At the dawn of the 20th century in the United States of America,
the use of electricity-powered vehicles seemed to be: Alternativa A: stalling. Ou Alternativa B: abating. Ou Alternativa C: dragging. Ou Alternativa D: slumping.  Ou Alternativa E: blossoming.

Qconcursos · Accepted Answer

Alternativa [E] blossoming. Alternativa correta: E – blossoming

1. Tema central da questão
A questão aborda a interpretação de texto com foco em vocabulário contextual, pedindo que o aluno identifique o termo que melhor representa a situação dos veículos elétricos no início do século XX nos EUA. É uma habilidade recorrente em provas de concurso, pois avalia compreensão global do texto e conhecimento de vocabulário.

2. Resumo teórico
Para interpretar corretamente, é preciso entender o significado dos verbos apresentados e analisar o contexto histórico descrito pelo texto. O parágrafo relevante menciona que, por volta de 1900, "a third of all cars on the road in the US were electric", ou seja, um terço dos carros já era elétrico. Expressões como “widespread commercial circulation” e exemplos positivos reforçam o auge daquele momento.

3. Justificativa da alternativa correta
Blossoming significa “florescendo”, “desabrochando”, ou seja, algo que está em crescimento e expansão. No texto, veículos elétricos estavam, de fato, se popularizando rapidamente nos EUA no início do século XX, com ampla adoção, mostrando otimismo em relação ao futuro. Fontes como o Cambridge Dictionary confirmam esse sentido para "blossom".

4. Análise das alternativas incorretas

A – stalling: Significa “empacando”, “parando”. O texto aponta crescimento, não parada.
  B – abating: Significa “diminuindo”, “enfraquecendo”. Não corresponde ao momento de ascensão descrito.
  C – dragging: “Arrastando-se”, passando por dificuldades. O contexto é de sucesso, não de lentidão.
  D – slumping: “Caindo”, “em declínio”. Só ocorre posteriormente, não no início do século XX.

5. Estratégias de interpretação
Sempre observe palavras-chave no trecho original (“a third of all cars”, “widespread commercial circulation”) e relacione o vocabulário das alternativas ao sentido positivo ou negativo do contexto. Cuidado com pegadinhas: termos como “stalling” ou “dragging” podem confundir se o aluno não perceber o momento histórico exato a que o enunciado se refere.

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