Questões ENEM de Inglês - Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension

The record industry
The record industry is undoubtedly in crisis, with labels laying off employees in continuation. This is because CD sales are plummeting as youngsters prefer to download their music from the Internet, usually free of charge.
And yet it's not all gloom and doom. Some labels are in fact thriving. Putumayo World Music, for example, is growing, thanks to its catalogue of ethnic compilation albums, featuring work by largely unknown artists from around the planet.
Putumayo, which takes its name from a valley in Colombia, was founded in New York in 1993. It began life as an alternative clothing company, but soon decided to concentrate on music. Indeed its growth appears to have coincided with that of world music as a genre.
Speak Up. Ano XXIII, n° 275 (fragmento).
A indústria fonográfica passou por várias mudanças no século XX e, como consequência, as empresas enfrentaram crises. Entre as causas, o texto da revista Speak Up aponta

Movie: Hijras - The Third Gender

Director: Devika Urvashi Bhisé

Duration: 29 minutes

Hijras are the outcastes of Indian society and live on its fringes. These eunuchs (originally only castrated males) were once employed by sultans and maharajas to guard the women in their harems. Now shunned by society, they are treated with less respect than the Dalits, or untouchables. Considered neither men nor women, Hijras have no constitutional rights. Currently, there is an ongoing debate in India regarding whether or not they should be granted the status of a third gender.

Most hijras are genetically born as men, but believe they are women within. The rest are hermaphrodites with some abnormality in genitalia. For those born men, becoming a hijra is a painful process that involves removing the entire genitalia in a secret ceremony that is often undergone without any anesthetic.

Currently, most hijras have only three ways in which they can make a living: prostitution, begging, and as performing shamans removing bad luck and/or spells from suspicious Indian households. Sex work is one of the only options for hijras because there are few employment opportunities available to them. Hijras are most commonly seen knocking on car windows, begging for money at stoplights. Although hijras are feared for their dissimilarities, they are also revered for their alleged mystical abilities. Most Indian families seek their blessings during any auspicious ceremony such as a birth, a wedding, or the building of a new house.

As pariahs of society, they are subjected to prejudice that is often translated into verbal abuse, humiliation, extreme discrimination, and violence in public as well as private venues. I have documented a short film to create awareness of the plight of this segment of society and allow their voices to be heard. I was privileged to share this community's inner life and have tried to capture its stark reality as a friend rather than a voyeur. The filming took place from June 2008 to September 2008 in various cities and locations in India.

Disponível em: www.engendered.org. Acesso em: 25 fev. 2012.

O filme Hijras - The Third Gender tem como objetivo chamar atenção para a situação vivida por um segmento da sociedade indiana, os hijras. De acordo com o que se captura dessas vozes no filme e do que se lê no texto, esse segmento reivindica

Tirinhas são construídas a partir de contextos sociais e podem promover reflexões diversas. Essa tirinha provoca no leitor uma reflexão acerca da

Cyberbullying is harassment through electronic means such as telephone text messages, social media such as Facebook and Twitter or online blogs and bulletin boards. In normal bullying, students are given a daily break from the torment as bully and victim each go to their separate homes. But for victims of cyberbullying, there is no reprieve, as the abuse enters into their private lives. In the US, there are at least 44 states that have anti-bullying laws on the books. While only six of them use the actual word “cyberbullying”, 31 others have laws that specifically mention “electronic harassment”.

Prosecution in the UK is a little more difficult. While all schools are required to have anti-bullying policies in place, cyberbullying itself is not named as a criminal offence. Offenders in the UK would have to be charged under various other laws, including the Protection from Harassment Act of 2003. This makes prosecution much more difficult.

Authorities agree that in order to stop cyberbullying, there has to be parental involvement. Parents need to be vigilant about their children’s access to technology. They should monitor their children’s use of social media, especially children under the age of 14. Bullies are not going to simply disappear, but parents can go a long way in protecting their children from being bullied.

Go! English, ano II, n. 14 (fragmento).

De acordo com o texto, nos Estados Unidos, alguns estados têm leis específicas para assédio via meios eletrônicos. Já no Reino Unido, a instauração de processos contra praticantes de cyberbullying é mais difícil porque

The art of happiness

Nearly every time you see him, he’s laughing or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He’s the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and an increasingly popular speaker and statesman. Why is he so popular? Even after spending only a few minutes in his presence you can’t help feeling happier. If you ask him if he’s happy, even though he’s suffered the loss of his country, the Dalai Lama will give you an unconditional yes. What’s more, he’ll tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that “the very motion of our life is towards happiness”. How to get there has always been the question. He’s tried to answer it before, but he’s never had the help of a psychiatrist to get the message across in a context we can easily understand.

LAMA, D.; CUTLER, H. The Art of Happiness: a handbook for living. Putnam Books, 1998.

Pelo título e pela sinopse do livro de Lama e Cutler, constata-se que o tema da obra é