Based on the text below, answer the question.

Slash and burn Brazil's rainforest is going up in smoke. Again. 

As Brazil'S skyscrapers and silos rose, it seemed the most impressive quality of this 21st-century Latin American powerhouse was its ability to grow without trashing the environment. Just last year, Brasilia was boasting about a steep decline in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, a feat that President Dilma Rousseff trumpeted as "impressive, the fruit of social change." What would she say now? 

After nearly a decade of steady decline, forest cutting has spiked again in the world's largest rainforest. The nonprofit Amazon watchdog organization, Imazon, released a study reporting that deforestation at the hands of farmers and ranchers jumped 90 percent in the 12 months since April of last year. And since burning always follows felling, another 88 million tons of carbon dioxide and other gases hit the atmosphere—a 62 percent increase on the year. 

For decades, Brazilians were told that ruin in the Amazon was the price of development. But recent research has imploded that assumption. A paper published by the National Academy of Sciences shows that continued deforestation threatens not just the trees but the progress and riches their removal were thought to guarantee. The paper bolsters an old theory by Brazilian climate scientist Eneas Salati, who argued that the Amazon actually produces half its own rainfall. The takeaway: remove too much of the forests and the Amazon could dry out. And more than the jungle is at stake. Reduced rainfall from forest cutting could dry up the water that powers hydroelectric dams, thus slashing Brazilian power-generating capacity by 40 percent by midcentury. It could also rob the food larder, cutting soybean productivity by 28 percent and beef production by 34 percent. 

Brasilia quickly countered the environmental skeptics by saying that these are unofficial figures, noting that the National Space Institute is still crunching the satellite data. The government is still basking in last year's numbers: only 4,600 square kilometers of forests felled, a fraction of the 27,700 square kilometers lost in 2004. But the Rousseff administration would do well to heed the smoke signals. Even Brasilia admits that Brazil's continued rise to glory turns on the country's ability to stay green.

(Adapted from http://thedailybeast.com/newswek/2013/06/05)

Based on the text below, answer the question.

Facebook deserted by millions of users in biggest markets 

Facebook has lost millions of users per month in its biggest markets. In the last six months, Facebook has lost nearly 9m monthly visitors in the US and 2m in the UK. Studies suggest that its expansion in the US, UK and other major European countries has peaked. In the last month, the world's largest social network has lost 6m US visitors, a 4% fall, according to analysis firm Socialbakers. In the UK, 1.4m fewer users visited in March, a fali of 4.5%. Users are also turning off in Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Japan, where Facebook is extremely popular. 

Alternative social networks have seen surges in popularity with younger people. Instagram, the photo-sharing site, got 30m new users in the 18 months before Facebook bought the business. Path, the mobile phone-based social network founded by former Facebook employee Dave Morin, which only allows its users to have 150 friends, is gaining 1m users a week. 

Facebook is still growing fast in South America. Monthly visitors in Brazil were up to 6% in the last month to 70m, according to Socialbakers, whose Information is used by Facebook advertisers. India has seen a 4% rise to 64m - still only a fraction of the country's population, so there is room for more growth. 

As Facebook itself has warned, the time spent on its pages from those sitting in front of personal computers is decreasing fast because people now prefer to use their smartphones and tablets. Although smartphone minutes have doubled in a year, to 69 a month, that growth may not compensate for dwindling desktop usage. 

Facebook will tell investors about its performance for the quarter. Wall Street expects revenues of about $1.44bn, an increase from $1.06bn a year ago. Shareholders will want to know how fast the number of mobile Facebook users is growing, and whether advertising revenues are increasing at the same rate. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has created a series of new initiatives designed to appeal to smartphone users. One initiative, Facebook Home, is software that can be downloaded onto Android phones to feed news and photos from friends - and advertising - directly to the owner's locked home screen.

(Adapted from http://www.guardian.com.uk)

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                                  What is organized crime?

      Organized crime was characterised by the United Nations, in 1994, as: “group organization to commit crime; hierarchical links or personal relationships which permit leaders to control the group: violence, intimidation and corruption used to earn profits or control territories or markets; laundering of illicit proceeds both in furtherance of criminal activity and to infiltrate the legitimate economy; the potential for expansion into any new activities and beyond national borders; and cooperation with other organized transnational criminal groups.” 

       It is increasingly global. Although links between, for example, mafia groups in Italy and the USA have existed for decades, new and rapid means of communication have facilitated the development of international networks. Some build on shared linguistic or cultural ties, such as a network trafficking drugs and human organs, which links criminal gangs in Mozambique, Portugal, Brazil, Pakistan, Dubai and South Africa. Others bring together much less likely groups, such as those trafficking arms, drugs and people between South Africa, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia, or those linking the Russian mafia with Colombian cocaine cartels or North American criminal gangs with the Japanese Yakuza. Trafficked commodities may pass from group to group along the supply chain; for instance heroin in Italy has traditionally been produced in Afghanistan, transported by Turks, distributed by Albanians, and sold by Italians.

Organized crime exploits profit opportunities wherever they arise. Globalization of financial markets, with free movement of goods and capital, has facilitated smuggling of counterfeit goods (in part a reflection of the creation of global brands), internet fraud, and money-laundering. On the other hand, organized crime also takes advantage of the barriers to free movement of people across national borders and the laws against non-medicinal use of narcotics: accordingly it earns vast profits in smuggling migrants and psychoactive drugs. Briquet and Favarel have identified deregulation and the “rolling back of the state” in some countries as creating lacunae that have been occupied by profiteers. The political changes in Europe in the late 1980s fuelled the growth in criminal networks, often involving former law enforcement officers. Failed states, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sierra Leone, have provided further opportunities as criminal gangs smuggle arms in and commodities out, for example diamonds, gold, and rare earth metals, often generating violence against those involved in the trade and in the surrounding communities. Finally, there are a few states, such as the Democratic Republic of Korea and Burma and Guinea-Bissau (once described as a narco-state) where politicians have been alleged to have played an active role in international crime.

       Organized criminal gangs have strong incentives. Compared with legitimate producers, they have lower costs of production due to the ability to disregard quality and safety standards, tax obligations, minimum wages or employee benefits. Once established, they may threaten or use violence to eliminate competitors, and can obtain favourable treatment by regulatory authorities either through bribes or threats.

                                                                               (www.globalizationandhealth.com. Adaptado)

                            WHY IS HANDWRITING IMPORTANT?

 Jotting down a shopping list, writing a birthday card, taking down a phone message, completing a form at the bank ….handwriting is part of our daily lives. It is on show to others and may be used to make judgments about us.

Writing has a very long history. It began as simple pictographs drawn on a rock, which were then combined to represent ideas and developed into more abstract symbols. Just like our writing today, early symbols were used to store information and communicate it to others.

In recent years, modern technology has dramatically changed the way we communicate through writing. However, despite the increased use of computers for writing, the skill of handwriting remains important in education, employment and in everyday life.Time devoted to the teaching and learning of letter formation in the early years will pay off. Legible writing that can be produced comfortably, at speed and with little conscious effort allows a child to attend to the higher-level aspects of writing composition and content. This is important when assessments are based on written work, particularly in time-limited written examinations, which remain as a major form of assessment for many formal qualifications. Without fast and legible handwriting, students may miss out on learning opportunities and under-achieve academically.

Beyond formal education, most employment situations will involve at least some handwriting and many require the communication of critical information (e.g. medical notes, prescriptions).

Thus, handwriting with pen and paper still has an important role from early childhood through our adult lives, but more and more, people are shifting from paper to electronic modes of communication. Interestingly though, many personal computers now have handwriting recognition capability so that handwriting as means of interacting with computers is becoming more pervasive. It seems, therefore, that even in this modern age, handwriting remains an important skill for communication.

Disponível em:<http://www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/handwrinting/why-is-handwriting-important> . Acesso em 29 mai.2013 

Violence Prevention Among Young People in Brazil

   Crime and violence have increased dramatically in Brazil in recent decades, particularly in large urban areas, leading to more intense public debate on causes and solutions. The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights. Having security means living without fearing the risk of violation of one’s life, liberty, physical integrity or property. Security means not only to be free from actual risks, but also to be able to enjoy the feeling of security. In this respect, human rights are systematically undermined by violence and insecurity.

      UNESCO expects to play a primary role in supporting actions of social inclusion to help in the prevention of violence, especially among young people. The attributes and resources to be found in the heart of the Organization’s different areas will be grouped around this objective.

     Violence is seen as a violation of fundamental human rights, as a threat to the respect for the principles of liberty and equality. An approach focused on the access to quality education, to decent jobs, to cultural, sports and leisure activities, to digital inclusion and the protection and promotion of human rights and of the environment will be implemented as a response to the challenge of preventing violence among youths. Such approach should also help in creating real opportunities for young people to improve their life conditions and develop their citizenship.

(www.unesco.org. Adaptado)