Questões de Inglês

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Escaping from destruction

 

    Almost 80 years ago Snowdonia, a mountainous region in northwestern Wales, United Kingdom, prepared to keep a welcome in the hillside for some of the world’s most treasured paintings. Across Europe the advancing Nazis had already looted or destroyed millions of pounds worth of art. As bombs fell on London and a German invasion seemed inevitable, attention turned to how to protect the National Gallery’s collection. In 1940, Winston Churchill famously said of the nation’s art treasures: “Hide them in caves and cellars, but not one picture shall leave this island.”

    Experts scoured the UK for a hiding place — until they found Manod Quarry. Manod Mountain had been a working quarry¹ for over a century. Its excavations created a cavernous space at the heart of the mountain, and covered with hundreds of feet of slate and granite it was virtually impregnable to bombing. Also, its very remoteness made it easier to keep the mission top secret.

    Suzanne Bosman, author of The National Gallery in Wartime, explains that moving almost 2,000 works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Turner proved to be quite an undertaking. “Cold, damp quarries aren’t really good storage places for priceless works of art, so before they were moved in, six air-tight climate-controlled brick huts were built inside the mountain,” she explained. “In fact the conditions in which they were stored at Manod were considerably better than those in which they were exhibited at the National Gallery before the war, and the evacuation taught staff a lot about preservation, even after the war”, says Bosman.

    The largest paintings were packed in specially designed “elephant cases” and transported by road. The smaller paintings were transported in Post Office vans and delivery trucks in order to avoid attracting attention. However, Ms Bosman said, it did not always run that smoothly. “Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I is a monster, at 12ft by 9.5ft, and in its case, loaded on the back of the truck, it was considerably taller. On the approach to the quarry there is a tight S-bend, just where the road passes under the arch of a railway bridge. I liken it to trying to get a sofa around a corner on the stairs; there was enough height, but only if you could hit precisely the right angle.”

     Nowadays the quarry is in a poor state of repair and access is strictly controlled. Inside you can still see the marks on the wall where the paintings hung, and the floor is littered with the hygrometers and thermometers which would have controlled every aspect of the conditions. It’s such a shame that very few people will get to see it in the future. We’ve let a piece of our national heritage slip away.

 

(This article was inspired by a question from reader Doug Cormack who got
in touch to ask how the National Gallery’s collection came to be evacuated
to Wales during the war, and whether the paintings would ever come back
to Wales for a commemorative exhibition.)

(Neil Prior. www.bbc.com, 19.05.2019. Adaptado.)

 

¹quarry: an open excavation, usually for obtaining building material.

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Light and the body clock: the key to a good night’s sleep?

 

    The cycle of sleep and wakefulness is one of the key human behaviours. We spend about a third of our lives asleep and cannot survive without it. When asleep, our brain memorises and processes information. Our body clears toxins and repairs itself, allowing us to function properly when awake. Even short-term sleep deprivation significantly affects our wellbeing. One study suggested that after 17-19 hours of staying awake, performance on cognitive tasks may be similar to having had too much to drink.

    These effects worsen over time. But while scientists have long understood the importance of getting enough sleep, the key part played by light exposure can sometimes be overlooked. The reason light is so important is that it sets our body clock via specialised light sensors within the eye. Our eye detects the light and dark cycle within our environment and adjusts the body’s rhythm so that the internal and external day coincide. This is so powerful that people who have very severe eye damage can find their body clock is thrown off, leading to sleep problems.

    Today, many of us miss out on these environmental cues as we work inside. We have become a light deprived species, and this has far reaching consequences for the quality of our sleep, and consequently our wellbeing.

    Further research and greater awareness in this area could help individuals to make informed choices about prioritising their own sleep and getting enough sunlight. It could also influence the way that policies are developed by governments, educational institutions and workplaces. Minimising light exposure before you go to bed, and trying to get as much morning light as possible, are simple steps that could help most people to regulate and improve their sleep.

(Russell Foster. www.bbc.com, 19.05.2019. Adaptado.)

De acordo com o último parágrafo, é recomendável que as pessoas

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Light and the body clock: the key to a good night’s sleep?

 

    The cycle of sleep and wakefulness is one of the key human behaviours. We spend about a third of our lives asleep and cannot survive without it. When asleep, our brain memorises and processes information. Our body clears toxins and repairs itself, allowing us to function properly when awake. Even short-term sleep deprivation significantly affects our wellbeing. One study suggested that after 17-19 hours of staying awake, performance on cognitive tasks may be similar to having had too much to drink.

    These effects worsen over time. But while scientists have long understood the importance of getting enough sleep, the key part played by light exposure can sometimes be overlooked. The reason light is so important is that it sets our body clock via specialised light sensors within the eye. Our eye detects the light and dark cycle within our environment and adjusts the body’s rhythm so that the internal and external day coincide. This is so powerful that people who have very severe eye damage can find their body clock is thrown off, leading to sleep problems.

    Today, many of us miss out on these environmental cues as we work inside. We have become a light deprived species, and this has far reaching consequences for the quality of our sleep, and consequently our wellbeing.

    Further research and greater awareness in this area could help individuals to make informed choices about prioritising their own sleep and getting enough sunlight. It could also influence the way that policies are developed by governments, educational institutions and workplaces. Minimising light exposure before you go to bed, and trying to get as much morning light as possible, are simple steps that could help most people to regulate and improve their sleep.

(Russell Foster. www.bbc.com, 19.05.2019. Adaptado.)

De acordo com o segundo e o terceiro parágrafos,

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Light and the body clock: the key to a good night’s sleep?

 

    The cycle of sleep and wakefulness is one of the key human behaviours. We spend about a third of our lives asleep and cannot survive without it. When asleep, our brain memorises and processes information. Our body clears toxins and repairs itself, allowing us to function properly when awake. Even short-term sleep deprivation significantly affects our wellbeing. One study suggested that after 17-19 hours of staying awake, performance on cognitive tasks may be similar to having had too much to drink.

    These effects worsen over time. But while scientists have long understood the importance of getting enough sleep, the key part played by light exposure can sometimes be overlooked. The reason light is so important is that it sets our body clock via specialised light sensors within the eye. Our eye detects the light and dark cycle within our environment and adjusts the body’s rhythm so that the internal and external day coincide. This is so powerful that people who have very severe eye damage can find their body clock is thrown off, leading to sleep problems.

    Today, many of us miss out on these environmental cues as we work inside. We have become a light deprived species, and this has far reaching consequences for the quality of our sleep, and consequently our wellbeing.

    Further research and greater awareness in this area could help individuals to make informed choices about prioritising their own sleep and getting enough sunlight. It could also influence the way that policies are developed by governments, educational institutions and workplaces. Minimising light exposure before you go to bed, and trying to get as much morning light as possible, are simple steps that could help most people to regulate and improve their sleep.

(Russell Foster. www.bbc.com, 19.05.2019. Adaptado.)

In the excerpt from the second paragraph “can sometimes be overlooked”, the underlined word can be replaced, with no change in meaning, by

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

 

Light and the body clock: the key to a good night’s sleep?

 

    The cycle of sleep and wakefulness is one of the key human behaviours. We spend about a third of our lives asleep and cannot survive without it. When asleep, our brain memorises and processes information. Our body clears toxins and repairs itself, allowing us to function properly when awake. Even short-term sleep deprivation significantly affects our wellbeing. One study suggested that after 17-19 hours of staying awake, performance on cognitive tasks may be similar to having had too much to drink.

    These effects worsen over time. But while scientists have long understood the importance of getting enough sleep, the key part played by light exposure can sometimes be overlooked. The reason light is so important is that it sets our body clock via specialised light sensors within the eye. Our eye detects the light and dark cycle within our environment and adjusts the body’s rhythm so that the internal and external day coincide. This is so powerful that people who have very severe eye damage can find their body clock is thrown off, leading to sleep problems.

    Today, many of us miss out on these environmental cues as we work inside. We have become a light deprived species, and this has far reaching consequences for the quality of our sleep, and consequently our wellbeing.

    Further research and greater awareness in this area could help individuals to make informed choices about prioritising their own sleep and getting enough sunlight. It could also influence the way that policies are developed by governments, educational institutions and workplaces. Minimising light exposure before you go to bed, and trying to get as much morning light as possible, are simple steps that could help most people to regulate and improve their sleep.

(Russell Foster. www.bbc.com, 19.05.2019. Adaptado.)

No trecho do segundo parágrafo “But while scientists have long understood”, a palavra sublinhada expressa