Questões de Inglês

By Thomas Edison´s own account he was good for four, maybe five hours a night. When asked once if he was afraid of anything, Thomas Edison replied "I am afraid of the dark." He died with all the lights burning in his New Jersey home.

Disponível em: <http://techland.time.com>; <http://news.discovery.com>. Acesso em: dez. 2013 (adaptado).

De acordo com o texto, conclui-se que Thomas Edson

Why we are losing the battle to save wildlife

The first ever World Wildlife Day this week provided few reasons to celebrate. What’s going wrong?

By Paula Kahumbu

 

 

Last year the UN General Assembly voted to declare March 3rd World Wildlife Day, “to celebrate the fantastic diversity of life on earth” and “remind us of the urgency and responsibility to care for and protect it”. This date is also the anniversary of the creation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973.

In recent articles on this blog I have described some positive developments in Kenya’s ongoing battle against wildlife crime. The Kenyan Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Keriako Tobiko, chose this day to announce a further significant move: the setting up of a fully-fledged and specially trained Wildlife Crimes Prosecution Unit.

More good news this week came from Nepal, which announced a full year of zero poaching of rhinos, tigers and elephants for period ending in February 2014. “A national level commitment is key to encouraging complementing efforts, right down to the grassroots, in order to address this biggest threat to wildlife” said Megh Bahadur Pandey, Director General of Nepal’s National Parks.

But there has been plenty of bad news too. Last week on the blog I reported the shameful decision of a Ugandan court to return 2.9 tonnes of smuggled ivory to the traffickers.

Overall the state of Africa’s wildlife looks bleak. Elephant ivory trafficking is at an all time high and populations are declining almost everywhere. Tanzania’s elephant population has declined by 66% since 2009. Rhino Poaching is also rising, with over 1,000 rhino killed in Africa in 2012. Rhinos are now extinct western Africa.

The immediate threat to wildlife in Africa is from illegal trafficking of wildlife products. This is now a huge global business, controlled by organised crime. The reasons why the battle against the traffickers is being lost are simple to describe, but hard to put right.

Disponível em: <http://www.theguardian.com/>. Acesso em: 05 mar. 2014. (fragmento).

 

After reading the text “Why we are losing the battle to save wildlife”, one can infer that the main objective of the author was to

Fido Has a Drinking Problem

By Victoria Bekiempis

 

On a recent weekend at Miami's storied Biltmore Coral Gables - a landmarked luxury resort that, in online promotional materials, boasts of "hand-painted frescos on barrel-vaulted ceilings, brilliant travertine floors, fine marble columns" as well as a Moorish tower, spa, golf course, and 85-foot decorative waterfall - a pack of dogs got together for brunch.

The canine diners - a griyo that included a bichon frise, several Yorkshire terriers and some mixed breeds - sat in high chairs at tables with white tablecloths as waiters served them wine. Wine for dogs, that is.

"They just lick it all up," Laly Albalate, owner of Doggie Bag Café, a restaurant, boutique and pet party company in Miami tells Newsweek. "It's a delicious libation."

Albalate's decision to serve Yappy Hour Vineyard's vintage - a nonalcoholic meat gravy produced by the California company and sold in wine bottles - is part of the recent trend in pet pampering. Adult-themed beverages for animals have been a growing trend in the pet product industry over the past few years. Dogs have gone from playing the part of faithful companion to drinking buddy. Think Sideways meets Beethoven.

"They are treats, and should not make up the main part of your pet's daily diet," Dr. Tina Wismer, medical director at the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, wrote in an e-mail to Newsweek.

Disponível em: <http://mag.newsweek.com/>. Acesso em 14 fev. 2014 (adaptado).

O texto apresenta uma matéria sobre um hotel de luxo, o “Miami\'s Biltmore Coral Gables”, que tem se destacado, porque oferece

Church in Wales votes Yes to women bishops

Bishop of Bangor: 'I’m absolutely over the moon. This is a real step forward for the Church in Wales'

 

Women will be allowed to become bishops in the Church in Wales following a landmark vote. The bill, tabled by the Bishop of St Asaph the Rt Rev Gregory Cameron and seconded by Bishop of Bangor the Rt Rev Andy John, was finally accepted by the church’s governing body after a previous vote failed by just three votes in 2008.

Bishop John said last night: “I’m absolutely over the moon. This is a real step forward for the Church in Wales. To have lost would have sent a terrible message to young people and the nation as a whole. I think we should have done this a long time ago.”

The decision now puts pressure on their English counterparts to follow suit - given that Scotland and Northern Ireland allow female bishops.

A schedule would now be drawn up by the bench of bishops to find a way to allow those opposed to women bishops to remain within the church.

However, Father Ben Andrews, from Barry, said it could be difficult for some people to stay in the church if women bishops were allowed.

He said: “The bishop’s role is to hold the diocese together, and for those of us who in good conscience cannot accept the sacramental ministry of a woman bishop means we cannot be in communion with that bishop.

Disponível em: <http://www.dailypost.co.uk/>. Acesso em: 16 fev. 2014 (adaptado).

According to the text about the bill voted by the members of the Church in Wales, it is possible to say that it represents

I. a gain in women`s fights for equal rights.
II. a backlash, among the priests in Wales, against women bishops.
III. an outrage for some British bishops and priests.
IV. a threat for the Anglican Church in Scotland.
V. an insubordination among female members of the Church.

Assinale a alternativa que contém somente afirmativas corretas.

Once more, with feeling

An artificial hand that provides sensations to its user

 

 

ONE of the few upsides of war is that it often gives technology a boost. A notable beneficiary of this is the science of prosthetic limbs. The various conflicts of the past decade have produced a steady stream of soldiers returning with missing arms and legs, and spurred efforts to improve mechanical replacements for them.

As a result, modern prosthetic limbs can move around much more fluidly, and sport features such as individually controllable fingers. Artificial arms and legs have been developed that are attached to the severed nerves in an amputee’s stump, and can thus be moved the way natural limbs are, simply by thinking about it. Scientists have even made some progress in the other direction— transmitting sensory information from a prosthesis back to a user’s brain.

The most impressive example so far is described in a paper in Science Translational Medicine, in which Stanisa Raspopovic of the BioRobotics Institute at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in Pisa, and his colleagues explain how they built an artificial hand that can transmit the sensation of touch back to its user’s brain.

Disponível em: <http://www.economist.com/>. Acesso em: 16 fev. 2014 (fragmento).

 

Based on the text, it is possible to state that

I. artificial limbs can now be controlled by the brain.
II. wars have financed research in the area of Biorobotics.
III. soldiers with missing arms and legs have benefited from wars.
IV. the sensation of touch is now possible for owners of artificial hands.
V. advances in prosthetic limbs are promising concerning movements of fingers.

Assinale a alternativa que contém somente afirmativas corretas.

A contração won’t presente na fala de Calvin (“I won’t get the ‘A’ I deserve!”) é composta pelos termos