Questões de Inglês

Surfing event opens in Rio amid water pollution

Published by the Washington Post (the text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

Many ____ the world’s top surfers were ____ Rio de Janeiro ____ a major surfing competition that kicked ____ Tuesday amid persistent worries ____ the city’s polluted waters.

Kelly Slater of the United States and Brazilian star Gabriel Medina were among those competing at the Oi Rio Pro event, which is taking place on Rio’s Barra da Tijuca beach. The Barra neighborhood is one of the main sites for competitions at next year’s Olympics.

The surfing event’s main venue is near the spot where a raw sewage-filled lagoon empties into the Atlantic. The latest water quality report, issued Tuesday by the state environmental authority, said the area was inappropriate for swimming due to the concentration of fecal coliforms.

Rio has poor sewage treatment infrastructure and much of the sewage from the city of 12 million people empties untreated into its lakes, rivers and beach areas. Of the 32 water quality reports issued this year for Rio, only 8 found water in the area appropriate for swimmers.

Biologist and environmental activist Mario Moscatelli has warned that pollution could become particularly problematic during low tides at Barra da Tijuca, when the lagoon’s fetid waters spill out into the ocean.

Winds could potentially push the sewage along the beach, contaminating the competition site, said Moscatelli, who has been flying over the area for years as part of an environmental monitoring project. Recent photos taken by Moscatelli showed a brown stain spreading over much of Barra beach. The event’s organizer, the World Surf League, recently canceled a backup venue on the neighboring beach of São Conrado due to what the organization deemed “pollution issues”.

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press last week, World Surf League spokesman Dave Prodan said the organization was “confident that our primary site at Postinho, Barra da Tijuca, will deliver excellent conditions”.

Water quality has become a hot-button issue ahead of the 2016 Olympics, with state and local authorities repeatedly acknowledging they will not be able to fulfill a longstanding promise to clean up the city’s polluted waterways ahead of the games. Olympic sailing, canoeing, rowing and other aquatic competitions are slated to take place in the polluted waters, prompting worries about athletes’ health and safety.

The start of the competition at the surfing event coincides with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s meetings in Rio with local Olympic organizers as well as members of the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee.

The information provided in the text implies that President Dilma Rousseff is going to Rio for which of the following reasons?

Surfing event opens in Rio amid water pollution

Published by the Washington Post (the text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

Many ____ the world’s top surfers were ____ Rio de Janeiro ____ a major surfing competition that kicked ____ Tuesday amid persistent worries ____ the city’s polluted waters.

Kelly Slater of the United States and Brazilian star Gabriel Medina were among those competing at the Oi Rio Pro event, which is taking place on Rio’s Barra da Tijuca beach. The Barra neighborhood is one of the main sites for competitions at next year’s Olympics.

The surfing event’s main venue is near the spot where a raw sewage-filled lagoon empties into the Atlantic. The latest water quality report, issued Tuesday by the state environmental authority, said the area was inappropriate for swimming due to the concentration of fecal coliforms.

Rio has poor sewage treatment infrastructure and much of the sewage from the city of 12 million people empties untreated into its lakes, rivers and beach areas. Of the 32 water quality reports issued this year for Rio, only 8 found water in the area appropriate for swimmers.

Biologist and environmental activist Mario Moscatelli has warned that pollution could become particularly problematic during low tides at Barra da Tijuca, when the lagoon’s fetid waters spill out into the ocean.

Winds could potentially push the sewage along the beach, contaminating the competition site, said Moscatelli, who has been flying over the area for years as part of an environmental monitoring project. Recent photos taken by Moscatelli showed a brown stain spreading over much of Barra beach. The event’s organizer, the World Surf League, recently canceled a backup venue on the neighboring beach of São Conrado due to what the organization deemed “pollution issues”.

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press last week, World Surf League spokesman Dave Prodan said the organization was “confident that our primary site at Postinho, Barra da Tijuca, will deliver excellent conditions”.

Water quality has become a hot-button issue ahead of the 2016 Olympics, with state and local authorities repeatedly acknowledging they will not be able to fulfill a longstanding promise to clean up the city’s polluted waterways ahead of the games. Olympic sailing, canoeing, rowing and other aquatic competitions are slated to take place in the polluted waters, prompting worries about athletes’ health and safety.

The start of the competition at the surfing event coincides with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s meetings in Rio with local Olympic organizers as well as members of the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee.

Which one of the following alternatives reports information provided in the text?

Surfing event opens in Rio amid water pollution

Published by the Washington Post (the text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

Many ____ the world’s top surfers were ____ Rio de Janeiro ____ a major surfing competition that kicked ____ Tuesday amid persistent worries ____ the city’s polluted waters.

Kelly Slater of the United States and Brazilian star Gabriel Medina were among those competing at the Oi Rio Pro event, which is taking place on Rio’s Barra da Tijuca beach. The Barra neighborhood is one of the main sites for competitions at next year’s Olympics.

The surfing event’s main venue is near the spot where a raw sewage-filled lagoon empties into the Atlantic. The latest water quality report, issued Tuesday by the state environmental authority, said the area was inappropriate for swimming due to the concentration of fecal coliforms.

Rio has poor sewage treatment infrastructure and much of the sewage from the city of 12 million people empties untreated into its lakes, rivers and beach areas. Of the 32 water quality reports issued this year for Rio, only 8 found water in the area appropriate for swimmers.

Biologist and environmental activist Mario Moscatelli has warned that pollution could become particularly problematic during low tides at Barra da Tijuca, when the lagoon’s fetid waters spill out into the ocean.

Winds could potentially push the sewage along the beach, contaminating the competition site, said Moscatelli, who has been flying over the area for years as part of an environmental monitoring project. Recent photos taken by Moscatelli showed a brown stain spreading over much of Barra beach. The event’s organizer, the World Surf League, recently canceled a backup venue on the neighboring beach of São Conrado due to what the organization deemed “pollution issues”.

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press last week, World Surf League spokesman Dave Prodan said the organization was “confident that our primary site at Postinho, Barra da Tijuca, will deliver excellent conditions”.

Water quality has become a hot-button issue ahead of the 2016 Olympics, with state and local authorities repeatedly acknowledging they will not be able to fulfill a longstanding promise to clean up the city’s polluted waterways ahead of the games. Olympic sailing, canoeing, rowing and other aquatic competitions are slated to take place in the polluted waters, prompting worries about athletes’ health and safety.

The start of the competition at the surfing event coincides with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s meetings in Rio with local Olympic organizers as well as members of the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee.

Based on the information provided in the text, where does much of Rio’s untreated sewage end up?

Surfing event opens in Rio amid water pollution Published by the Washington Post (the text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

Many ____ the world’s top surfers were ____ Rio de Janeiro ____ a major surfing competition that kicked ____ Tuesday amid persistent worries ____ the city’s polluted waters.

Kelly Slater of the United States and Brazilian star Gabriel Medina were among those competing at the Oi Rio Pro event, which is taking place on Rio’s Barra da Tijuca beach. The Barra neighborhood is one of the main sites for competitions at next year’s Olympics.

The surfing event’s main venue is near the spot where a raw sewage-filled lagoon empties into the Atlantic. The latest water quality report, issued Tuesday by the state environmental authority, said the area was inappropriate for swimming due to the concentration of fecal coliforms.

Rio has poor sewage treatment infrastructure and much of the sewage from the city of 12 million people empties untreated into its lakes, rivers and beach areas. Of the 32 water quality reports issued this year for Rio, only 8 found water in the area appropriate for swimmers.

Biologist and environmental activist Mario Moscatelli has warned that pollution could become particularly problematic during low tides at Barra da Tijuca, when the lagoon’s fetid waters spill out into the ocean.

Winds could potentially push the sewage along the beach, contaminating the competition site, said Moscatelli, who has been flying over the area for years as part of an environmental monitoring project. Recent photos taken by Moscatelli showed a brown stain spreading over much of Barra beach. The event’s organizer, the World Surf League, recently canceled a backup venue on the neighboring beach of São Conrado due to what the organization deemed “pollution issues”.

In a statement emailed to The Associated Press last week, World Surf League spokesman Dave Prodan said the organization was “confident that our primary site at Postinho, Barra da Tijuca, will deliver excellent conditions”.

Water quality has become a hot-button issue ahead of the 2016 Olympics, with state and local authorities repeatedly acknowledging they will not be able to fulfill a longstanding promise to clean up the city’s polluted waterways ahead of the games. Olympic sailing, canoeing, rowing and other aquatic competitions are slated to take place in the polluted waters, prompting worries about athletes’ health and safety.

The start of the competition at the surfing event coincides with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s meetings in Rio with local Olympic organizers as well as members of the Swiss-based International Olympic Committee.

 

According to the text, why has the organizer decided not to use São Conrado beach as a backup place for the event?

Brazil cotton deal perpetuates an unhealthy status quo of subsidies

Published by The Washington Post (The text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

1. When is a victory for the United States not a victory for the American taxpayer? When it’s an international agreement like the one the Obama administration has just reached to settle a long-running dispute with Brazil over cotton subsidies. The roots of that dispute lie in this country’s history of showering federal funds on crop producers, including cotton growers. That particular business received $32.9 billion from Washington between 1995 and 2012, according to the Environmental Working Group, largely through programs that had the effect of rewarding farmers for increasing production. The extra supply dampened 9 prices on the world market, so, in 2002, Brazil complained to the World Trade Organization, which ruled that US cotton subsidies were indeed “trade-distorting” and authorized Brazil to retaliate against US exports. The United States avoided sanctions — not by reforming its programs but by agreeing in 2010 to pay Brazil’s cotton farmers $147.3 million per year.

 

2. In short, the US government bought off Brazil’s cotton farmers so that it could keep on buying off its own. Under the new settlement, announced Wednesday, Brazil agreed to drop its case at the WTO and to forgo any new ones during the five-year term of the farm bill Congress enacted last year. In return, the United States agreed to trim the modest US cotton export credit subsidy program and, most important, to pay Brazil one last dollop of taxpayer cash, in the amount of $300 million.

 

3. This is good news to the extent that it fortifies US-Brazil relations on the eve of a new presidential term in that country and that it spares US exporters from the threat of Brazilian retaliation, which could have reached a total of $829 million per year. Yet, in essence, the new deal perpetuates the unhealthy status quo whereby the United States pays Brazil ____ the right ____ continue propping _____ a domestic cotton industry that can ____ should learn to compete ____ its own.

Which is the correct sequence of the five words missing in the third paragraph?

Brazil cotton deal perpetuates an unhealthy status quo of subsidies

Published by The Washington Post (The text below has been slightly modified to better suit the exam)

 

1. When is a victory for the United States not a victory for the American taxpayer? When it’s an international agreement like the one the Obama administration has just reached to settle a long-running dispute with Brazil over cotton subsidies. The roots of that dispute lie in this country’s history of showering federal funds on crop producers, including cotton growers. That particular business received $32.9 billion from Washington between 1995 and 2012, according to the Environmental Working Group, largely through programs that had the effect of rewarding farmers for increasing production. The extra supply dampened 9 prices on the world market, so, in 2002, Brazil complained to the World Trade Organization, which ruled that US cotton subsidies were indeed “trade-distorting” and authorized Brazil to retaliate against US exports. The United States avoided sanctions — not by reforming its programs but by agreeing in 2010 to pay Brazil’s cotton farmers $147.3 million per year.

 

2. In short, the US government bought off Brazil’s cotton farmers so that it could keep on buying off its own. Under the new settlement, announced Wednesday, Brazil agreed to drop its case at the WTO and to forgo any new ones during the five-year term of the farm bill Congress enacted last year. In return, the United States agreed to trim the modest US cotton export credit subsidy program and, most important, to pay Brazil one last dollop of taxpayer cash, in the amount of $300 million.

 

3. This is good news to the extent that it fortifies US-Brazil relations on the eve of a new presidential term in that country and that it spares US exporters from the threat of Brazilian retaliation, which could have reached a total of $829 million per year. Yet, in essence, the new deal perpetuates the unhealthy status quo whereby the United States pays Brazil ____ the right ____ continue propping _____ a domestic cotton industry that can ____ should learn to compete ____ its own.

Based on the information given in the text, who did the US government buy off?