Questões de Inglês

Fiction and local colourists

 

    William Dean Howells,  I in Ohio, was an effective advocate of a new realistic mode of fiction writing. At the start, Howells conceived of realism as a truthful portrayal of ordinary facets of life − with some limitations; he preferred comedy to tragedy, and he tended to be reticent to the point of prudishness. But Howells preferred novels he wrote after he encountered Tolstoy’s writings and was persuaded by them, as he said, to “set art forever below humanity.” In such later novels as Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), he chose characters not only because they were commonplace but also because the stories he told about them were commentaries upon society, government, and economics.

    Other American authors toward the close of the 19th century or slightly later were avowed followers of French naturalists led by Émile Zola. Theodore Dreiser, for instance, treated subjects that had seemed too daring to earlier realists and, like other Naturalists, illustrated his own beliefs by his depictions of characters and unfolding of plots. Holding that men’s deeds were “chemical compulsions,” he showed characters unable to direct their actions. Holding also that “the race was to the swift and the battle to the strong,” he showed characters defeated by stronger and more ruthless opponents.

    (Adapted from https://www.britannica.com)

According to the text,

Fiction and local colourists

 

    William Dean Howells,  I in Ohio, was an effective advocate of a new realistic mode of fiction writing. At the start, Howells conceived of realism as a truthful portrayal of ordinary facets of life − with some limitations; he preferred comedy to tragedy, and he tended to be reticent to the point of prudishness. But Howells preferred novels he wrote after he encountered Tolstoy’s writings and was persuaded by them, as he said, to “set art forever below humanity.” In such later novels as Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), he chose characters not only because they were commonplace but also because the stories he told about them were commentaries upon society, government, and economics.

    Other American authors toward the close of the 19th century or slightly later were avowed followers of French naturalists led by Émile Zola. Theodore Dreiser, for instance, treated subjects that had seemed too daring to earlier realists and, like other Naturalists, illustrated his own beliefs by his depictions of characters and unfolding of plots. Holding that men’s deeds were “chemical compulsions,” he showed characters unable to direct their actions. Holding also that “the race was to the swift and the battle to the strong,” he showed characters defeated by stronger and more ruthless opponents.

    (Adapted from https://www.britannica.com)

A alternativa que preenche corretamente a lacuna I é:

Atenção: A questão refere-se ao texto que vem a seguir.

 

Literatura e realidade

 

     Hoje está na moda dizer que uma obra literária é constituída mais a partir de outras obras, que a precederam, do que em função de estímulos diretos da realidade, pessoal, social ou física. Deve haver boa dose de verdade nisso. Todas as vezes, dizia Proust¹ , que um grande artista nasce, é como se o mundo fosse criado de novo, porque nós começamos a enxergá-lo conforme ele o mostra.

    Para o Naturalismo, a obra era essencialmente uma transposição direta da realidade, como se o escritor conseguisse ficar diante dela na situação de puro sujeito em face do objeto puro, registrando (teoricamente sem interferência de outro texto) as noções e impressões que iriam constituir seu próprio texto. Essa estética repousa na utopia da originalidade absoluta pela experiência imediata, que levava o escritor a desconfiar da influência mediadora de obras alheias.

    Mas nós sabemos que, embora filha do mundo, a obra é um mundo, e que convém antes de tudo pesquisar nela mesma as razões que a sustêm como tal. A sua razão específica é a disposição dos núcleos de significado, formando uma combinação singular, segundo a qual a realidade do mundo foi reordenada, transformada, desfigurada ou até posta de lado, para dar nascimento ao outro mundo que a obra constitui.

    Ver criticamente a obra é escolher um dos momentos do processo como plataforma de observação. Num extremo, é possível encará-la como uma duplicação da realidade, de maneira que o trabalho imitativo fique reduzido a um registro sem grandeza, pois se era para fazer igual, por que não deixar a realidade em paz? Já no outro extremo é possível ver a obra como um objeto manufaturado com arbítrio soberano, que alcança significação na medida em que nada tem a ver com a realidade. Mas seria melhor a visão que pudesse rastrear na obra o mundo como material de origem, para surpreender no processo vivo da montagem a singularidade da forma segundo a qual se dá a ver um mundo novo.

Obs.:1 Marcel Proust (1871-1922): romancista, ensaísta e crítico literário francês, autor de Em Busca do Tempo Perdido, publicada em sete volumes.

(Adaptado de: CANDIDO, Antonio. O discurso e a cidade. Rio de Janeiro: Ouro sobre azul, 2013, p. 107-108)

A melhor versão, em inglês, do trecho sublinhado em “Deve haver boa dose de verdade nisso.” é:

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Breaking down barriers

 

    Shuffling feet and the general buzz of conversation made lectures a trial for Gemma Long during her first degree. She suffers from sensory overload connected to her autism, which was only diagnosed after she graduated. But when she started a teacher-training course years later, she received access to software to help her cope with dyslexia and found it transformative.

    “I struggled to understand the point of lectures until I got that software,” recalls Long. “I didn’t realise how much useful information was in them. As someone who is hypersensitive to noise I spend most of my time in lectures trying to filter out the background noise, which means I miss much of what the lecturer is saying. Being able to audio record the lectures and listen back to them in a silent room meant I was finally able to digest the content.”

    Technology is breaking down barriers faced by students with disabilities. Online journal articles now mean that those with visual impairments can zoom in to read printed text or convert it to easier-to-read formats such as braille. Universities are also increasingly recording lectures which students can replay at their own pace, which benefits students with dyslexia or attention deficit disorder too.

    According to Alistair McNaught, a digital learning consultant, universities are increasingly tracking how students learn, and then directing them to the accessible resources most suited to their personal needs. McNaught appreciates the way assistive technologies can help all students — whether they have a disability or not — but stresses that it’s important for universities to get the basics right first. “Many higher and further institutions have inaccessible websites or inaccessible digital content. If the content is inaccessible, investments in assistive technology can be undermined at a stroke.”

    Universities just need to get better at promoting the support that’s already there,” says Gemma Long. “Making specialist software and training generally available, rather than confining it to disabled students, makes it more widely known, as well as removes stigma.” For someone like her, who received her diagnoses late, it would have been particularly helpful. To this end, the assistive technology network she founded to represent staff who support their disabled students with tech, will hold its first awards ceremony next month.

    Universities are slowly tackling the barriers for disabled students. There’s more yet to come: the prospect of virtual reality – particularly when it comes to fieldwork. “It can be incredibly difficult for a disabled student to get a wheelchair on to a salt marsh,” says Piers Wilkinson, a researcher in the area. “But if the learning aims are being immersed in an environment, and making discoveries, virtual reality can achieve that.”

(www.theguardian.com, 03.06.2019. Adaptado.)

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Breaking down barriers

 

    Shuffling feet and the general buzz of conversation made lectures a trial for Gemma Long during her first degree. She suffers from sensory overload connected to her autism, which was only diagnosed after she graduated. But when she started a teacher-training course years later, she received access to software to help her cope with dyslexia and found it transformative.

    “I struggled to understand the point of lectures until I got that software,” recalls Long. “I didn’t realise how much useful information was in them. As someone who is hypersensitive to noise I spend most of my time in lectures trying to filter out the background noise, which means I miss much of what the lecturer is saying. Being able to audio record the lectures and listen back to them in a silent room meant I was finally able to digest the content.”

    Technology is breaking down barriers faced by students with disabilities. Online journal articles now mean that those with visual impairments can zoom in to read printed text or convert it to easier-to-read formats such as braille. Universities are also increasingly recording lectures which students can replay at their own pace, which benefits students with dyslexia or attention deficit disorder too.

    According to Alistair McNaught, a digital learning consultant, universities are increasingly tracking how students learn, and then directing them to the accessible resources most suited to their personal needs. McNaught appreciates the way assistive technologies can help all students — whether they have a disability or not — but stresses that it’s important for universities to get the basics right first. “Many higher and further institutions have inaccessible websites or inaccessible digital content. If the content is inaccessible, investments in assistive technology can be undermined at a stroke.”

    Universities just need to get better at promoting the support that’s already there,” says Gemma Long. “Making specialist software and training generally available, rather than confining it to disabled students, makes it more widely known, as well as removes stigma.” For someone like her, who received her diagnoses late, it would have been particularly helpful. To this end, the assistive technology network she founded to represent staff who support their disabled students with tech, will hold its first awards ceremony next month.

    Universities are slowly tackling the barriers for disabled students. There’s more yet to come: the prospect of virtual reality – particularly when it comes to fieldwork. “It can be incredibly difficult for a disabled student to get a wheelchair on to a salt marsh,” says Piers Wilkinson, a researcher in the area. “But if the learning aims are being immersed in an environment, and making discoveries, virtual reality can achieve that.”

(www.theguardian.com, 03.06.2019. Adaptado.)

The term “tackling”, in the first sentence of the last paragraph, means

In the fragment from the fifth paragraph “rather than confining it to disabled students”, the underlined expression can be replaced, without any change in the meaning of the sentence, by