Questões de Inglês

PLUMP PUPS AND FAT CATS

 

    Author Steve Duno offers a seven-point weight-loss program for overweight pets in Plump Pups and Fat Cats (St. Martin’s Press, $14,95). Duno notes that more than 25 per cent of America’s dogs and cats are significantly overweight, and that over time, obesity can cause a host of health problems, including diabetes, hip and back ailments, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer. An animal behaviorist, Duno offers readers practical advice and solutions to their pets’ obesity, including adjustments in dietary habits, and exercise tailored to each breed.

Dog fancy Magazine, mai. 2000.

 

According to the text:

TEXT

 

    The World Health Organization has declared the Zika virus an international public health emergency, prompted by growing concern that it could cause birth defects. As many as four million people could be infected by the end of the year. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women against travel to about two dozen countries, mostly in the Caribbean and Latin America, where the outbreak is growing.

    The infection appears to be linked to the development of unusually small heads and brain damage in newborns. Some pregnant women who have been to these regions should be tested for the infection, the agency said.

    The possibility that the Zika virus causes microcephaly – unusually small heads and often damaged brains – emerged only in October, when doctors in northern Brazil noticed a surge in babies with the condition.

    It may be that other factors, such as simultaneous infection with other viruses, are contributing to the rise; investigators may even find that Zika virus is not the main cause, although right now circumstantial evidence suggests that it is.

    It is not known how common microcephaly has become in Brazil’s outbreak. About three million babies are born in Brazil each year. Normally, about 150 cases of microcephaly are reported, and Brazil says it is investigating nearly 4,000 cases. Yet reported cases usually increase when people are alerted to a potential health crisis.

Google Notícias

 

Durante os últimos meses, tivemos inúmeras manchetes alertando as pessoas sobre uma nova doença se espalhando nas Américas, com imagens chocantes das supostas vítimas: bebês nascidos com cabeças menores que o comum. Mulheres grávidas foram aconselhadas a não viajarem para os países infectados, e o mundo começou a se assustar com a ameaça de uma epidemia como a dos filmes de ficção.

 

Com base no artigo da revista New York Times, pode-se afirmar que

TEXT

 

    A dam from an open-pit mining complex burst on Thursday in southeastern Brazil, flooding a nearby community and enveloping homes and cars in sludge. Rescue teams descending from helicopters scoured the site for survivors.

    The authorities said Thursday night that they were trying to determine the number of casualties, with Brazilian news organizations reporting that at least one person had died. Union officials representing workers at the mine said they feared that as many as 15 people might have died after the dam burst.

    The episode in a district of Mariana, a city of 58,000 residents in Minas Gerais State, stunned a country that relies heavily on dams to produce electricity and on mining to generate export revenue. The dam operated by Samarco, a venture between BHP Billiton, the Australian commodities giant, and Vale, the Brazilian mining company, held residue from an open-pit iron ore mining operation.

    “We need rigor in determining what happened,” Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto, a prosecutor in Minas Gerais, told reporters on Thursday. “No dam bursts by chance.”

Google Notícias

 

A mais recente catástrofe ocorrida no Brasil foi o episódio de Mariana. Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto, quando diz “No dam bursts by chance.”, quis dizer:

CHEMICAL WARFARE

Adam Hadhazy

 

[1]   Venoms, the debilitating chemical cocktails animals unleash to defend themselves or obtain a meal, are subject to an evolutionary arms race. Those creatures that are targets of toxins eventually develop beneficial mutations, granting them some degree of resistance. In response, animals that emit venoms undergo changes so their poisons remain effective.

[2]   This action-reaction narrative of venom evolution is incomplete, however, as evolutionary biologists Kartik Sunagar and Yehu Moran of Hebrew University in Jerusalem have shown in a new study. They realized that many venom studies have focused on snakes and cone snails — comparatively "young" animal groups, evolutionarily speaking, only going back roughly 50 million years. Over these groups’ histories, their venomous arsenals have expanded considerably, bolstering the arms race analogy, also known as positive, or Darwinian, selection.

[3]   Sunagar and Moran cast a wider net, looking at over 3,500 gene families for venom production in newer and older animal groups. The ancient animal types included spiders, scorpions, centipedes, octopus, squid, jellyfish, and sea anemones.

[4]   The scientists found that these ancient animals exhibited surprisingly low levels of genetic variation in their venoms. Sunagar and Moran reasoned that the venoms of primordial creatures had undergone substantial negative, or purifying, selection — evolutionary pressure to keep their potently optimized toxins roughly the same. “Negative selection filters out certain mutations that alter structure or function,” explained Moran. For species in long-established ecological niches, it makes sense to maintain what works.

[5]   Evolution does favor more radical experimentation, though, when creatures enter new habitats and begin adapting to the novel environment. As they find their place in local food chains, venomous animals’ toxic pharmacopeia should undergo rapid diversification — the better to catch strange new prey and withstand the attacks of previously unencountered predators. Yet over time, these adapting species settle into tried-and-true formulae.

[6]   The researchers call this model of venom evolution “two-speed,” with the venoms of old species evolving slowly and those of the new species evolving quickly. “Our analysis of numerous toxin families, covering the ample scope of the animal kingdom, has revealed a striking contrast between the evolution of venom in ancient and evolutionarily young animal groups,” said Sunagar.

Adapted from Natural History, February 2016.

According to the information in the article, Kartik Sunagar and Yehu Moran

CHEMICAL WARFARE

Adam Hadhazy

 

[1]   Venoms, the debilitating chemical cocktails animals unleash to defend themselves or obtain a meal, are subject to an evolutionary arms race. Those creatures that are targets of toxins eventually develop beneficial mutations, granting them some degree of resistance. In response, animals that emit venoms undergo changes so their poisons remain effective.

[2]   This action-reaction narrative of venom evolution is incomplete, however, as evolutionary biologists Kartik Sunagar and Yehu Moran of Hebrew University in Jerusalem have shown in a new study. They realized that many venom studies have focused on snakes and cone snails — comparatively "young" animal groups, evolutionarily speaking, only going back roughly 50 million years. Over these groups’ histories, their venomous arsenals have expanded considerably, bolstering the arms race analogy, also known as positive, or Darwinian, selection.

[3]   Sunagar and Moran cast a wider net, looking at over 3,500 gene families for venom production in newer and older animal groups. The ancient animal types included spiders, scorpions, centipedes, octopus, squid, jellyfish, and sea anemones.

[4]   The scientists found that these ancient animals exhibited surprisingly low levels of genetic variation in their venoms. Sunagar and Moran reasoned that the venoms of primordial creatures had undergone substantial negative, or purifying, selection — evolutionary pressure to keep their potently optimized toxins roughly the same. “Negative selection filters out certain mutations that alter structure or function,” explained Moran. For species in long-established ecological niches, it makes sense to maintain what works.

[5]   Evolution does favor more radical experimentation, though, when creatures enter new habitats and begin adapting to the novel environment. As they find their place in local food chains, venomous animals’ toxic pharmacopeia should undergo rapid diversification — the better to catch strange new prey and withstand the attacks of previously unencountered predators. Yet over time, these adapting species settle into tried-and-true formulae.

[6]   The researchers call this model of venom evolution “two-speed,” with the venoms of old species evolving slowly and those of the new species evolving quickly. “Our analysis of numerous toxin families, covering the ample scope of the animal kingdom, has revealed a striking contrast between the evolution of venom in ancient and evolutionarily young animal groups,” said Sunagar.

Adapted from Natural History, February 2016.

In paragraph 3, the phrase “Sunagar and Moran cast a wider net” most likely refers to which of the following?

NEW YEAR, NEW FEAR

 

[1]   As the New Year’s fireworks went up in German cities, a brief panic seized Munich, which had information about planned terrorist attacks at two railway stations. Those never occurred. But, much less noticed at first, a different sort of crime was occurring in Cologne and, to a lesser extent, in Hamburg and Stuttgart.

[2]   While partiers [foliões] gathered on the square between Cologne’s cathedral and railway station, a large group of young men, later described by the police as “looking North African or Arabic”, also massed there. Some threw fireworks into the crowd to cause panic. Then the men formed rings around individual women, so that police and onlookers could not see inside each huddle. According to over 100 women who subsequently filed complaints, the men groped the women sexually, while others stole their mobile phones, wallets or purses. One woman was raped.

[3]   Oddly, the Cologne police reported the following day that the festivities had been relaxed and peaceful. Only after scores of women came forward did the country react with rage. The interior and justice ministers promised to employ the full force of the law—even as the police had to admit that they as yet had no information to make individual arrests. Angela Merkel, the chancellor, called the assaults “disgusting” and demanded justice “without regard to origin or background”.

[4]   The assaults tapped into deep fears at a tense time, as Germany struggles with record numbers of refugees—more than 1 million in 2015, largely from Arab countries. Populist politicians were quick to infer a connection. Frauke Petry, boss of the xenophobic Alternative for Germany, blamed the outrage on the “terrible consequences of a catastrophic asylum and migration policy”.

[5]   There is no evidence yet that any of the criminals were refugees, as Cologne’s mayor, Henriette Reker, emphasised. Ms Reker personifies the conflicts straining German society. She ran for office as a non-partisan candidate with a liberal and welcoming attitude toward migrants. For that, a neo-Nazi extremist stabbed her at a campaign event in October. (She was elected the next day, while still in a coma.) If it is confirmed that some of the muggers, molesters and rapists were asylum-seekers, the damage to what is left of Germany’s “Welcome Culture” could be severe.

Adapted from The Economist, January 9, 2016.

Which of the following is most supported by the information in the article?