Questões de Inglês

It’s less precise than Fahrenheit — but that’s what’s so great about it

 

A little over a decade ago, I moved to Montreal expecting, perhaps foolishly, that I would become fluent in French. It was a goal that proved elusive — I just couldn’t master the Quebecois accent, which was almost inscrutably nasal compared with the Parisian French I learned in high school. I stuttered through one quotidian exchange after another, painfully aware I was marking myself as a clumsy outsider. It was exhausting. Somewhat chastened, I gave up on French and turned my attention to a new language: Celsius.
I gravitated toward Celsius for the same reason I had wanted to learn French: to experience the world through a foreign filter. Besides, I didn’t really have a choice. Montreal is a bilingual city, but it uses just one temperature scale: Celsius. Of course, the same is true in every country aside from the United States and a few other global superpowers like the Cayman Islands and Belize. Using Fahrenheit in Canada was a sure way to brand myself not only as a recalcitrant American but also as a maniac.
My hope was to internalize Celsius, not just to learn it but to feel it in my American flesh. The first thing I did to acquaint myself with it was to memorize relative temperatures scattered throughout the scale so I could extrapolate from them. I was already aware, as most people are, that what I knew as 32 was 0, but I also came up with a few useful way stations: 10 in Celsius was 50 Fahrenheit; 21 was 70; 30 was 86. With this loose constellation of data points, I could safely guess that 15 degrees C, say, was about 60 degrees F, without constantly cross-referencing between the scales.
When I started walking around with Celsius in my head, I noticed that such minor gradations don’t really matter — it was hot, or it was cold, or it was neither. I would survive. There was something psychically soothing about that.
This was especially true in Montreal, that giant ice floe of an island whose winters are so brutal that Celsius often served, for me, as a kind of safeguard against overreaction. When I saw that it was -10 degrees C, for example, I somehow took comfort in the notion that that was really just 14 degrees F, even though each scale was measuring the same thing. The shield held for the most part, except on those rare mornings when the air temperature nose-dived to around 40 below, where Celsius and Fahrenheit finally collide.

When I moved back to the United States about seven years ago, I got an iPhone and changed my weather app to Celsius. It annoyed my friends, who thought I was being pretentious (I was). Still, I think there was more to it than that. Being around people who used Fahrenheit made me feel as if it were sort of extreme.
I don’t mean to be dramatic. I wasn’t losing my mind. Far from it. After years of compulsively checking the weather multiple times a day, what happened was I started trusting my instincts and abandoned the forecast altogether. Celsius, I came to realize, had put me in touch with nature; it had forced me to spend my time walking around feeling the temperature without feeling the scale I was using to gauge the temperature.
In my heathen state, I’ve come to believe that all temperature scales are, for daily reference, sort of useless, or at least unnecessary. They present the semblance of control over your immediate environment, and yet they also distance you from experiencing the world unfiltered by some random metric. The weather is much less worrisome, I’ve found, when you aren’t constantly taking its temperature.
Source: The NYT Magazine, Feb. 28, 2018.

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According to the e-card,

Level of Public Investment in Brazil Is the Worst in the Last 10 Years
09/11/2017
MAELI PRADO
MARIANA CARNEIRO
FROM BRASÍLIA
 

The public investment in Brazil reached the lowest level __(I)__ the last ten years, which has contributed to push down the G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) even more.
__(II)__ a strong effort to reduce expenditure and meet the fiscal target, the investments made by the federal government in the first seven months of this year have totaled R$ 16.3 billion (US$ 5 billion), nearly R$ 10 billion (US$ 3.1 billion) less in comparison __(III)__ the same period in 2016 and the lowest amount since 2008, when the series began to be recorded by the National Treasury.
This total includes public construction and the purchases of new facilities for government agencies, as well as materials for permanent use, such as computers.
Investments are natural candidates to be cut __(IV)___ times of adjustment, as more than 90% of public expenditure follows outlay rules and cannot be reduced without a change in legislation.

On the other hand, they are an important factor to stimulate the economy.

Manoel Pires, an economist _(V)__ FGV and former secretary of Economic Policy of the Dilma Rousseff administration, says that cutting investment has a strong impact __(VI)__ the activity - much more than the decline in expenses related to civil service or subsidies.
“When subsidies are increased, the effect __(VII)___ the activity is marginal. In the cases of expenses related to public servants’ wages, it is between 0.6 and 0.7 [percent] of the G.D.P. For investments, that number reaches between 1.4 and 1.6 [percent].”
In other words, for every R$ 1 (US$ 0.3) spent __(VIII)__ the government with investment, the G.D.P. increases by R$ 1.60 (US$ 0.5). If there is as cut, it has an opposite effect.

The text states that

Level of Public Investment in Brazil Is the Worst in the Last 10 Years
09/11/2017
MAELI PRADO
MARIANA CARNEIRO
FROM BRASÍLIA
 

The public investment in Brazil reached the lowest level __(I)__ the last ten years, which has contributed to push down the G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) even more.
__(II)__ a strong effort to reduce expenditure and meet the fiscal target, the investments made by the federal government in the first seven months of this year have totaled R$ 16.3 billion (US$ 5 billion), nearly R$ 10 billion (US$ 3.1 billion) less in comparison __(III)__ the same period in 2016 and the lowest amount since 2008, when the series began to be recorded by the National Treasury.
This total includes public construction and the purchases of new facilities for government agencies, as well as materials for permanent use, such as computers.
Investments are natural candidates to be cut __(IV)___ times of adjustment, as more than 90% of public expenditure follows outlay rules and cannot be reduced without a change in legislation.

On the other hand, they are an important factor to stimulate the economy.

Manoel Pires, an economist _(V)__ FGV and former secretary of Economic Policy of the Dilma Rousseff administration, says that cutting investment has a strong impact __(VI)__ the activity - much more than the decline in expenses related to civil service or subsidies.
“When subsidies are increased, the effect __(VII)___ the activity is marginal. In the cases of expenses related to public servants’ wages, it is between 0.6 and 0.7 [percent] of the G.D.P. For investments, that number reaches between 1.4 and 1.6 [percent].”
In other words, for every R$ 1 (US$ 0.3) spent __(VIII)__ the government with investment, the G.D.P. increases by R$ 1.60 (US$ 0.5). If there is as cut, it has an opposite effect.

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Four reasons why I won’t buy the iPhone X
The iPhone X fails to impress me in many ways. Although it’s the most impressive device Apple has built, it does have a number of flaws that are big enough to convince me to stay away from it and get a competing Android handset instead.
_______(I)_________, plenty of publications _______(II)_________ all the great features of Apple’s new flagship including its large bezel-less display, upgraded processor, and the addition of wireless charging. It’s extremely easy to get caught up in all the excitement, but if you take a step back and have an honest look at the new device, you’ll quickly realize that the iPhone X isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
It definitely has its faults, which we’ll take a closer look at in this post. Here are four reasons why I won’t buy the iPhone X.

 

1. It doesn’t have the X factor
The iPhone X is packed with the latest technology. It has a dual-camera setup on the back, a bezel-less display, a powerful chipset, and also supports wireless charging. The problem is that these things aren’t really new, as they are already present on a number of Android smartphones.
The truth is that the new iPhone lacks the X factor, which is at least one unique feature that would make it stand out from the crowd. Just look at the Android world: the Galaxy S8 has the curved display, the Note 8 comes equipped with the S Pen, Motorola’s high-end handsets have Moto Mods and the Shatter Shield display, and the OnePlus 5 has Dash Charge. These features give the devices a competitive edge over their rivals and can really influence consumers’ purchasing decisions.

 

2. It’s way too expensive
Samsung took the wraps off the Galaxy Note 8 last month that shocked the public with its high price tag of $929. However, starting at $999, the new iPhone almost makes the Note 8 look like a bargain.
It’s the most expensive iPhone to date and based on what it brings to the table compared to the competition, it’s kind of hard — almost impossible — to justify its high price. To have a better idea of just how expensive the iPhone X is, compare it with some of the other high-end smartphones on the market nowadays.

 

3. There’s no fingerprint scanner on board
Apple’s business strategy seems a bit weird. Instead of adding features to its devices, the company is actually removing them. After ditching the headphone jack last year, the tech giant is back with another bold move: the iPhone X doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner.
The security feature that has become standard on most high-end and mid-range smartphones is replaced by Face ID, which is Apple’s new face recognition technology. To unlock the iPhone, you have to lift it up to your face, make sure the camera is pointing at you, and then swipe up. Unlocking with a scan of the finger is much quicker and easier.

 

4. It doesn’t look sexy
Let’s face it, design is important — no one wants an ugly smartphone. While I wouldn’t call the iPhone X ugly, I also wouldn’t call it good-looking. The overall design of the device could be described as bland. It definitely doesn’t stand out from the crowd, and is, to be honest, a bit boring.
The first thing I have a problem with is the notch on the top that houses the camera, the proximity sensor, and so forth. I’d rather see a slightly larger bezel on top like on the Note 8 or V30, as it just looks a lot more stylish in my opinion. Aside from that, there really aren’t a lot of bad things to say about the front of the smartphone. I do like the screen-to-body ratio that makes the large device a lot more compact.
www.androidauthority.com

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