Questões de Inglês

Bribery, the act of promising, giving, receiving, or agreeing to receive money or some other item of value with the corrupt aim of influencing a public official in the discharge of his official duties. When money has been offered or promised in exchange for a corrupt act, the official involved need not actually accomplish that act for the offense of bribery to be complete.

Although bribery originally involved interference with judges, its definition has since been expanded to include actions by all sorts of government officials, from the local to the national level, and to cover all public employees. Special provisions also have been enacted in various jurisdictions to punish the bribing of voters, jurors, witnesses, and other lay participants in official proceedings. Some codes also penalize bribery in designated classes of private or commercial transactions.

(Adapted from: BRIBERY. In: Britannica Online. Enciclopaedia Britannica, 2014. Web, 2014. Source: . Accessed on: Oct. 9th. 2014.)

Considering the language used in the editorial cartoon and the encyclopedic entry, choose the correct alternative.

Bribery, the act of promising, giving, receiving, or agreeing to receive money or some other item of value with the corrupt aim of influencing a public official in the discharge of his official duties. When money has been offered or promised in exchange for a corrupt act, the official involved need not actually accomplish that act for the offense of bribery to be complete.

Although bribery originally involved interference with judges, its definition has since been expanded to include actions by all sorts of government officials, from the local to the national level, and to cover all public employees. Special provisions also have been enacted in various jurisdictions to punish the bribing of voters, jurors, witnesses, and other lay participants in official proceedings. Some codes also penalize bribery in designated classes of private or commercial transactions.

(Adapted from: BRIBERY. In: Britannica Online. Enciclopaedia Britannica, 2014. Web, 2014. Source: . Accessed on: Oct. 9th. 2014.)

According to the definition of “bribery” in encyclopedic entry, choose the correct alternative.

Something happened between the private journal we kept locked in our drawer and the portable video camera. For example, in June 2001 I led a group of Dartmouth alumni on a cruise to see a total solar eclipse in Africa. On board were a crowd of “eclipse groupies”, people who go around the world chasing eclipses. Once you see one you can understand why. A total solar eclipse is a deeply moving experience that awakens a primal connection with nature, linking us to something bigger and truly awesome about the world. It needs total commitment and focus of all senses. Yet, as totality approached, the ship’s deck was a sea of cameras and tripods, as dozens of people prepared to photograph and videotape the four-minute- -long event.

Instead of fully engaging with this most spectacular natural phenomenon, people chose to look at it from behind their cameras. I was shocked. There were professional photographers onboard and they were going to sell/give pictures away. But people wanted to take their pictures and videos anyway, even if they weren’t going to be half as good. The gadget is the eye through which they choose to see reality. What cellphones plus social media have done is to make the archiving and the sharing of images amazingly easy and efficient. The reach is much wider and the gratification (how many “likes” a photo or video gets) is quantitative. Lives become a shared social event.

Now, there is a side of this that is fine, of course. We celebrate meaningful moments and want to share with those we care about. The problem starts when we stop fully participating in the moment because we have this urge to record it.

Without trying to sound too nostalgic (but sounding), there is nothing like eye-to-eye contact or the sharing of an experience through the real act of engaging in a conversation with friends and family. The gadgets are awesome, of course. But they should not define the way we live – only complement it.

(Adapted from: GLEISER, M. Should We Live Life, Or Capture It? In NPR, 2014. Accessed on: http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/ 10/01/352915256/should-we-live-life-or-capture-it?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr& utm_term= nprnews&utm_content=202401. Accessed on: Oct. 1st. 2014.)

About the author’s opinion, according to the text, consider the following statements.

 

I. Nowadays, people forget to enjoy life as it happens, and prefer to watch it on screen.

II. Recording devices capture important moments and must be used to promote personal interaction.

III. There is a modern necessity of having one’s life shared on social media that can be measured by the number of pictures uploaded.

IV. The exposure of events of private life in social media is criticized as people may be living their lives for others to see.

 

Choose the correct alternative.

When I first arrived in Brazil in 1992, it was never my intention to stay. My first months in Brazil were extremely difficult. Everything was different. Probably the thing that shocked me the most was the poverty, I lived in a rich neighborhoods surrounded by favelas. The owner of the house where I lived instructed me shortly after I arrived that when someone clapped their hands outside the fence to get attention and then asked for food, I was to ignore them. The first day I was alone I broke the rule. Who was I to deny a hungry person a cup of water and a slice of bread? On the second day, more people arrived asking for food. By the third day, lines had begun to form outside our gate. That night my host took me aside and wanted me to explain why I had disobeyed his instructions. The maid had informed him that there was a rumor circulating round the favela that a foreigner was living in his house giving away free food. Twenty years ago the communications system in Brazil was extremely bad. When a telegram arrived from New Zealand informing me the applications for the fishing inspector position I was seeking had opened, it was already past the date of inscription. I was very irritated, but things soon changed when I met a girl. After five years of commuting between Brazil and New Zealand, we married. When you marry a Brazilian, you do not just marry your spouse you marry the whole extended family. In some respects, this can be cool because you become a part of a large group, but at times it can be a little frustrating. You just need to sneeze and you can be sure that within a few hours some third cousin of my wife’s will be on the phone asking me if it is true that I am dying of pneumonia. It is extremely difficult to be alone here.

(Adapted from: Kiwi never alone in Brazil. Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/home-sweet-expat-home/ 9875411/Kiwi-never-alone-in-Brazil. Accessed on: March 29th 2014.)

Based on the text, consider the following statements.

 

I. In the phrase “shortly after I arrived”, the adverb “shortly” indicates a small length of distance.

II. The expression “In some respects” can be substituted without change in meaning by “respectfully”.

III. In the sentence “a foreigner was living in his house”, the word “his” indicates that the house belongs to a man.

IV. The phrase “The maid had informed” is in the past perfect tense, which indicates a previous action in the past.

 

Choose the correct alternative.

The cartoon addresses a common concern modern society faces nowadays, which is

Based on the editorial cartoon, consider the following statements.

 

I. Verbal conversation is getting less and less frequent these days.

II. The use of the phone during dinner is an expected behavior.

III. The use of the phone during meals should be encouraged.

IV. People must be engaged in all forms of communication.

 

Choose the correct alternative.