Questões de Inglês

Before Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, sea trash was not a global headliner. However, as hundreds of objects sighted off the Australian coast as possible aircraft debris turn out to be discarded fishing equipment, cargo container parts, or plastic shopping bags, a new narrative is emerging in the hunt for the missing plane: There is more garbage out there than you think. Most of it is plastic. And marine life ingests it, with catastrophic consequences. Kathleen Dohan, a scientist at Earth and Space Research in Seattle, Washington, plotted the movement of debris in a time-lapse video that shows where objects dropped into the ocean will end up in ten years. The objects migrate to regions known as garbage patches. The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have two patches each, north and south. The Indian Ocean’s garbage patch is centered roughly halfway between Africa and Australia. The term “patch” suggests this floating detritus is packed together in an oceanic version of a landfill. Instead, these “patches” are actually huge zones where debris accumulates but floats free, circulating continuously. So it’s possible for sailing ships and other small boats to inadvertently sail into a garbage patch region and encounter rubbish. About 90 percent of the debris in all five garbage patches is plastic, says Marcus Eriksen, a marine scientist and founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, which works to reduce pollution from disposable plastics. “This is relatively new if you think about plastic. Only since the 1950s have consumers used plastics. Now, a half-century later, we are seeing an abundant accumulation of microplastics from all single-use, throwaway plastics like bags, bottles, bottle caps, kitchen utensils. I have pulled cigarette lighters from hundreds of bird skeletons.”

(Adapted from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140404-garbage-patch-indian-ocean-debris-malaysian-plane/ ?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20140407news-malpla&utm_campaign=Content. Accessed on: April 6th 2014.)

Before Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, sea trash was not a global headliner. However, as hundreds of objects sighted off the Australian coast as possible aircraft debris turn out to be discarded fishing equipment, cargo container parts, or plastic shopping bags, a new narrative is emerging in the hunt for the missing plane: There is more garbage out there than you think. Most of it is plastic. And marine life ingests it, with catastrophic consequences. Kathleen Dohan, a scientist at Earth and Space Research in Seattle, Washington, plotted the movement of debris in a time-lapse video that shows where objects dropped into the ocean will end up in ten years. The objects migrate to regions known as garbage patches. The Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have two patches each, north and south. The Indian Ocean’s garbage patch is centered roughly halfway between Africa and Australia. The term “patch” suggests this floating detritus is packed together in an oceanic version of a landfill. Instead, these “patches” are actually huge zones where debris accumulates but floats free, circulating continuously. So it’s possible for sailing ships and other small boats to inadvertently sail into a garbage patch region and encounter rubbish. About 90 percent of the debris in all five garbage patches is plastic, says Marcus Eriksen, a marine scientist and founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, which works to reduce pollution from disposable plastics. “This is relatively new if you think about plastic. Only since the 1950s have consumers used plastics. Now, a half-century later, we are seeing an abundant accumulation of microplastics from all single-use, throwaway plastics like bags, bottles, bottle caps, kitchen utensils. I have pulled cigarette lighters from hundreds of bird skeletons.”

(Adapted from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140404-garbage-patch-indian-ocean-debris-malaysian-plane/ ?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20140407news-malpla&utm_campaign=Content. Accessed on: April 6th 2014.)

Read the text below and answer following four question according to it.

Why bilinguals are smarter
SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age. Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
Adaptado de: <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-ofbilingualism. html?WT.mc_id=D-NYT-MKTG-MOD-31048-0502- HD&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c= > Acessado em 25 de abril de 2015.

Read the text below and answer following four question according to it.

Why bilinguals are smarter
SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age. Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
Adaptado de: <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-ofbilingualism. html?WT.mc_id=D-NYT-MKTG-MOD-31048-0502- HD&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_c= > Acessado em 25 de abril de 2015.

Man With Severed Spinal Cord Walks Again After Cell Transplant

A man paralyzed for two years is now walking again, albeit with a frame, after a transplant to his spine.

In 2010, Darek Fidyka was repeatedly stabbed, rendering him paralyzed from the chest down. Fortunately, however, his nose was unscathed.

Olfactory ensheathing glia (OEGs) surround olfactory axons, the nerve fibers that conduct electrical charges from the nose to the brain to allow us to smell. What makes them of interest to spinal patients is that OEGs maintain their capacity to promote new neurons into adulthood.

This capacity for regrowth has inspired spinal researchers frustrated by the fact that the mammalian central nervous system does not regenerate axons. The idea is that if OEGs are transplanted into the spinal cord at the point of injury, damaged axons will start to restore themselves.

After the attack Fidyka was put on an intensive exercise and physiotherapy program, without success. After two years, he was selected as the subject for the OEG transplant trial. Cells from one of his olfactory bulbs were cultured for two weeks before being transplanted through 100 microinjections around the scar site.

BBC TV program Panorama was invited to film his response to the treatment. At first, despite five hours of exercise, five times a week, Fidyka showed no response, but at the three month mark he noticed that his left thigh was putting on muscle. After six months he was able to take faltering steps with the assistance of leg braces and parallel bars.

As the program prepares to go to air, Fidyka is able to walk on his own with the help of a walking frame. Some bladder, bowel and sexual function has also returned. Progress continues, and Fidyka told the BBC, "I think it's realistic that one day I will become independent."

Adaptado de: http://www.iflscience.com/health-andmedicine/nasal-leads-paralyzed-man-walk  Acessado em 21 de outubro de 2014.

Man With Severed Spinal Cord Walks Again After Cell Transplant

A man paralyzed for two years is now walking again, albeit with a frame, after a transplant to his spine.

In 2010, Darek Fidyka was repeatedly stabbed, rendering him paralyzed from the chest down. Fortunately, however, his nose was unscathed.

Olfactory ensheathing glia (OEGs) surround olfactory axons, the nerve fibers that conduct electrical charges from the nose to the brain to allow us to smell. What makes them of interest to spinal patients is that OEGs maintain their capacity to promote new neurons into adulthood.

This capacity for regrowth has inspired spinal researchers frustrated by the fact that the mammalian central nervous system does not regenerate axons. The idea is that if OEGs are transplanted into the spinal cord at the point of injury, damaged axons will start to restore themselves.

After the attack Fidyka was put on an intensive exercise and physiotherapy program, without success. After two years, he was selected as the subject for the OEG transplant trial. Cells from one of his olfactory bulbs were cultured for two weeks before being transplanted through 100 microinjections around the scar site.

BBC TV program Panorama was invited to film his response to the treatment. At first, despite five hours of exercise, five times a week, Fidyka showed no response, but at the three month mark he noticed that his left thigh was putting on muscle. After six months he was able to take faltering steps with the assistance of leg braces and parallel bars.

As the program prepares to go to air, Fidyka is able to walk on his own with the help of a walking frame. Some bladder, bowel and sexual function has also returned. Progress continues, and Fidyka told the BBC, "I think it's realistic that one day I will become independent."

Adaptado de: http://www.iflscience.com/health-andmedicine/nasal-leads-paralyzed-man-walk  Acessado em 21 de outubro de 2014.