Questões de Inglês

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    Could adopting a new name improve your fortune? Some Chinese communities think so

    One afternoon in April, Mandy Pang’s worst fears came true. She was summoned onto a Zoom with her boss on short notice. Due to the economic downturn from the pandemic, she was being made redundant at her marketing job.

    Angry and hurt, the 29-year-old Hong Konger went back home and began brooding over memories from her previous jobs, and the “bad luck” that seemed to be holding her hostage. A month later, still looking for work, Pang decided she knew what she had to do: change her legal name in a bid to shake off her bad luck and improve her future prospects.

    She says, “My mother’s friend told me that the new name can help me fend off ‘petty people’” – those who have a negative influence over her life.

    In traditional Chinese culture, the meaning behind names has always carried huge importance. Chinese communities across East Asia believe a name can affect one’s luck in every aspect of their lives, from health and romance to finances and academic performance. As the pandemic continues to hit the economy hard, people like Pang who find themselves out of work are not only polishing their CVs, but also heading to fortune tellers for advice on whether a new name might change their futures.

    “Chinese people believe that there are 10 things that decide their destiny,” says Lee Shing chak, one of Hong Kong’s most well-known feng shui practitioners. “Other than one’s timing of birth or doing good deeds, one’s name is believed to be one of the factors in the equation.”

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

    Could adopting a new name improve your fortune? Some Chinese communities think so

    One afternoon in April, Mandy Pang’s worst fears came true. She was summoned onto a Zoom with her boss on short notice. Due to the economic downturn from the pandemic, she was being made redundant at her marketing job.

    Angry and hurt, the 29-year-old Hong Konger went back home and began brooding over memories from her previous jobs, and the “bad luck” that seemed to be holding her hostage. A month later, still looking for work, Pang decided she knew what she had to do: change her legal name in a bid to shake off her bad luck and improve her future prospects.

    She says, “My mother’s friend told me that the new name can help me fend off ‘petty people’” – those who have a negative influence over her life.

    In traditional Chinese culture, the meaning behind names has always carried huge importance. Chinese communities across East Asia believe a name can affect one’s luck in every aspect of their lives, from health and romance to finances and academic performance. As the pandemic continues to hit the economy hard, people like Pang who find themselves out of work are not only polishing their CVs, but also heading to fortune tellers for advice on whether a new name might change their futures.

    “Chinese people believe that there are 10 things that decide their destiny,” says Lee Shing chak, one of Hong Kong’s most well-known feng shui practitioners. “Other than one’s timing of birth or doing good deeds, one’s name is believed to be one of the factors in the equation.”

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    One of the main points of the advancement of science is being guided by the human curiosity, uncompromised with concrete results and free from any kind of tutelage or guidance. Scientific production driven simply by this curiosity has been able to open new frontiers of knowledge, to make us wiser and, in the long run, to generate value and more quality of life for human beings.

    By its methods and instruments, science allows us to analyze the world around us and see beyond what the eyes can see. The scientific and technological enterprise of the human being throughout its history is, undoubtedly, the main responsible for everything that humanity had just built up. His achievements are present since the domain of fire to the immense potential derived from modern science of information, passing by the animals’ domestication, the rise of modern agriculture and industry and, of course, by the spectacular improvement in the quality of life of all humanity in the last century.

    In addition to human curiosity, another very important way of scientific advancement is the solution of problems that afflict humanity. Living longer and healthier, working less and having more available time for leisure, reducing the distances that separate us from other human beings - whether through more communication channels or better means of transport - are some of the challenges and human aspirations to which, for centuries, the science and technology have contributed.

    A person born in the late 18th Century, he/she would most likely die before reaching the age of 40. Someone born today in a developed country is expected to live more than 80 years and, although inequality is high, even in the poorest countries anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy today is more than 50 years. Science and technology are the key factors in explaining the reduction in mortality from various diseases, such as infectious diseases, for example, and the consequent increase in human longevity.

Texto Adaptado. Disponível em: https://www.ipea.gov.br/cts/pt/central-de conteudo/artigos/artigos/116-a-ciencia-e-a-tecnologia como-estrategia-de-desenvolvimento. Acesso em: 15 dez. 2020.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

    One of the main points of the advancement of science is being guided by the human curiosity, uncompromised with concrete results and free from any kind of tutelage or guidance. Scientific production driven simply by this curiosity has been able to open new frontiers of knowledge, to make us wiser and, in the long run, to generate value and more quality of life for human beings.

    By its methods and instruments, science allows us to analyze the world around us and see beyond what the eyes can see. The scientific and technological enterprise of the human being throughout its history is, undoubtedly, the main responsible for everything that humanity had just built up. His achievements are present since the domain of fire to the immense potential derived from modern science of information, passing by the animals’ domestication, the rise of modern agriculture and industry and, of course, by the spectacular improvement in the quality of life of all humanity in the last century.

    In addition to human curiosity, another very important way of scientific advancement is the solution of problems that afflict humanity. Living longer and healthier, working less and having more available time for leisure, reducing the distances that separate us from other human beings - whether through more communication channels or better means of transport - are some of the challenges and human aspirations to which, for centuries, the science and technology have contributed.

    A person born in the late 18th Century, he/she would most likely die before reaching the age of 40. Someone born today in a developed country is expected to live more than 80 years and, although inequality is high, even in the poorest countries anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancy today is more than 50 years. Science and technology are the key factors in explaining the reduction in mortality from various diseases, such as infectious diseases, for example, and the consequent increase in human longevity.

Texto Adaptado. Disponível em: https://www.ipea.gov.br/cts/pt/central-de conteudo/artigos/artigos/116-a-ciencia-e-a-tecnologia como-estrategia-de-desenvolvimento. Acesso em: 15 dez. 2020.

Read Passage 2 carefully, and then answer the question.

PASSAGE 2

ARKANSAS SCHOOLS PLAN FOR COMPLETE VIRTUAL LEARNING OPTIONS THIS FALL

by Parris Kane 
Wednesday, July 1st 2020 

[1] Arkansas School for Mathematics Sciences and Arts: 
    The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and Arts, or ASMSA, announced their completely virtual 
option Monday for students and their families who are not ready to fully participate in in-person classed due to 
the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Students' needs were expressed via a survey of returning and incoming 
[5] students and parents, as well as other communication methods. "Every ASMSA student lives on campus as part 
of our residential experience as part of this very specialized and unique community of learning," said Director 
Corey Alderdice, "We thought it was incredibly important to give those students and families a choice in case 
they really weren't just yet ready to resume a residential experience." ASMSA students completed the spring 
2020 semester via remote instruction, primarily through "asynchronous learning" with weekly meetings between 
[10] students and instructors taking place via video. According to Alderdice, fall 2020 online classes will be a blend of 
synchronous and asynchronous learning with multiple sessions per week conducted live via Zoom video 
conferencing. The course options will be available across disciplines, but limited in number. ASMSA looked at 
what courses were the most popular and essential for students, especially new students, to find a small, subset 
of courses that could have the greatest impact for the greatest number of potential students. "Our online option 
[15] for families this year builds on ASMSA's 20 years of experience in distance education and digital learning, going 
back to 1999. Previously, that's been directed across the state, but now it's working to serve our core audience," 
Alderdice said.

Adapted from: https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-schools-plan-for-complete-virtual-learning-options-this-fall. Accessed on 27 Jun. 2019.

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(Disponível em: PHD Comics: Upgrade. Phdcomics.com. Acesso em 15 dez. 2020)