FOR CATS, A BIG GULP WITH A TOUCH OF THE TONGUE

             It has taken four highly qualified engineers and a bunch of integral equations to figure it out, but we now know how cats drink. The answer is: very elegantly, and not at all the way you might suppose. Cats lap water so fast that the human eye cannot follow what is happening, which is why the trick had apparently escaped attention until now. With the use of high-speed photography, the neatness of the feline solution has been captured. The act of drinking may seem like no big deal for anyone who can fully close his mouth to create suction, as people can. But the various species that cannot do so - and that includes most adult carnivores - must resort to some other mechanism. Dog owners are familiar with the unseemly lapping noises that ensue when their thirsty pet meets a bowl of water. The dog is thrusting its tongue into the water, forming a crude cup with it and hauling the liquid back into the muzzle.
             Cats, both big and little, are so much classier, according to new research by Pedro M. Reis and Roman Stocker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined by Sunghwan Jung of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Jeffrey M. Aristoff of Princeton. Writing in the Thursday issue of Science, the four engineers report that the cat’s lapping method depends on its instinctive ability to calculate the balance between opposing gravitational and inertial forces. What happens is that the cat darts its tongue, curving the upper side downward so that the tip lightly touches the surface of the water.
             The tongue is then pulled upward at high speed, drawing a column of water behind it. Just at the moment that gravity finally overcomes the rush of the water and starts to pull the column down - snap! The cat’s jaws have closed over the jet of water and swallowed it. The cat laps four times a second - too fast for the human eye to see anything but a blur - and its tongue moves at a speed of one meter per second. Being engineers, the cat-lapping team next tested its findings with a machine that mimicked a cat’s tongue, using a glass disk at the end of a piston to serve as the tip. After calculating things like the Froude number and the aspect ratio, they were able to figure out how fast a cat should lap to get the greatest amount of water into its mouth. The cats, it turns out, were way ahead of them - they lap at just that speed. To the scientific mind, the next obvious question is whether bigger cats should lap at different speeds.


WADE, Nicholas. For cats, a big gulp with a touch of the tongue. Disponível em: Acesso em: 20 nov. 2010.

As questões de 4 a 6 referem-se às imagens e aos textos abaixo.



Texto A
Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has
the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and
that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice
before killing for fear of losing their own life.
The death penalty certainly "deters" the murderer who is executed. Strictly speaking, this is a form of
incapacitation, similar to the way a robber put in prison is prevented from robbing on the streets. Both as a
deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation, the death penalty helps to prevent future crime.

Disponível em: . Acesso em: 20 ago. 2010. (Adaptado).

Texto B
Before I get into comedic related issues, a quick statement on the death penalty (due to some Facebook chatter
on my page). I am against the death penalty in all cases. The recent revelation in Texas that an innocent man
was executed for arson and capital murder in 2004 for allegedly setting fire to his home, which killed his two
young children should be huge news. Can you imagine the man’s anguish (he never pleaded guilty)? But I am
against it even when the person is actually guilty (yes even if DNA and videotape corroborate it). I think it is
barbaric. China, parts of the Middle East and the U.S. are the world’s executors. No one else I believe.

Disponível em: . Acesso em: 20 ago. 2010. (Adaptado).

The questions from 26 to 29 refer to TEXT I
entitled Google Instant promises live search
results, by Maggie Shiels.

TEXT I