The phrase “wreaking […] havoc” (1st paragraph) is similar in
meaning to:

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 The phrase “wreaking […] havoc” (1st paragraph) is similar in
meaning to: Alternativa A: stifling grief. Ou Alternativa B: feigning mirth. Ou Alternativa C: seeking respite. Ou Alternativa D: creating mayhem. Ou Alternativa E: enduring stillness.

Qconcursos · Accepted Answer

Alternativa [D] creating mayhem. Alternativa correta: D — creating mayhem.

Tema central (Sinônimos em contexto): A questão cobra o reconhecimento do sentido da expressão wreak(ing) havoc no texto e a escolha de um sinônimo equivalente. Em provas, isso exige vocabulário, leitura por contexto e atenção a collocations (palavras que costumam vir juntas).

Resumo teórico:
• wreak = causar, infligir (algo negativo).
• havoc = grande confusão, caos, devastação.
• Logo, wreak havoc = causar grande caos/estrago. Um sinônimo natural é create mayhem (“criar bagunça/caos extremo”).

Fontes de referência: Cambridge Dictionary: “wreak havoc = to cause great damage” (link); Merriam-Webster: “wreak = to cause the infliction of (damage)” (link); Oxford Learner’s: “havoc = a situation with a lot of damage/confusion” (link).

Justificativa da alternativa D: No texto, a imagem é de alguém “causando estragos/caos” (inclusive “mass electrocutions”), o que se alinha diretamente a creating mayhem (criar desordem/caos violento). O par “wreak” (causar) + “havoc” (caos/estrago) é uma collocation clássica que aponta para “criar caos”.

Análise das incorretas:
• A - stifling grief: “reprimir a tristeza”. Não envolve causar caos; refere-se a emoção interna, não a danos externos.
• B - feigning mirth: “fingir alegria”. É simulação de um estado emocional positivo, sem relação com destruição/desordem.
• C - seeking respite: “buscar alívio/descanso”. Ideia de pausa e descanso, oposto de provocar estragos.
• E - enduring stillness: “suportar a quietude”. Quietude é calma; semântica oposta a caos/comoção.

Estratégias de prova:
• Identifique collocations: “wreak” costuma vir com “havoc/destruction/damage”.
• Use o contexto: “havoc” perto de consequências graves sugere “causar caos”.
• Elimine antônimos e campos semânticos diferentes (emoções internas, descanso, quietude).
• Observe a forma verbal: “wreaking” (gerúndio) indica ação de causar algo, não de sentir ou suportar.

Mnemônico rápido: Wreak = “WR-eak” ≈ “WReck” (quebrar/estragar) → Wreak havoc = causar estrago/caos.

Conclusão: A expressão pede a ideia de causar caos; por isso, a escolha correta é D - creating mayhem.

Gostou do comentário? Deixe sua avaliação aqui embaixo!

🚀 Quer mais performance?

🚀 Quer mais performance?

The phrase “wreaking […] havoc” (1st paragraph) is similar i...

Gabarito comentado

Clique para visualizar este gabarito

Comentários

Clique para visualizar este comentário

Resumos relacionados

Advérbios e conjunções em inglês para concursos públicos

Artigos (Articles) em inglês: uso em concursos públicos

Questões de assuntos semelhantes

Provas relacionadas