Questões de Inglês

Chimps and orangutans may experience midlife crises

By Ian Sample, science correspondent 19 November, 2012

 

  There comes a time in some men’s lives when the days seem darker, death more certain, and the only sensible response is to blow the life savings on a sportscar.

  Radical and often ill-advised changes in lifestyle are typical for the midlife crisis but, if it is more than a myth, then humans may not be the only animals to experience it.

  Now an international team of scientists claims it has found evidence for a slump in well-being among middle-aged chimpanzees and orangutans. The lull in happiness in the middle years, they say, is the ape equivalent of the midlife crisis.

  The findings of the study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the midlife crisis may have its roots in the biology humans share with our closest evolutionary cousins.

More than 500 apes were included in the study in three  separate groups. The first two groups were chimpanzees, with the third made up of orangutans. “In all three groups we find evidence that well-being is lowest in chimpanzees and orangutans at an age that corresponds more or less to midlife in humans,” Weiss said.

  Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at Oxford University, was sceptical about the findings. “What can produce a sense of well-being that varies across their lifetimes like this? It’s hard to see anything in an ape’s life that would have that sort of pattern. They’re not particularly good at seeing far ahead into the future; that’s one of the big differences between them and us.”

   But Weiss believes the findings could point to a deeper understanding of the emotional crisis some men may experience. “If we want to find the answer to the question of what’s going on with the midlife crisis, we should look at what is similar in middle-aged humans, chimps and orangutans,” he said.

Available at: http://www.onestopenglish.com. (Adapted)

I. Weiss thinks the study can help to understand what happen to human being when reaches the middle aged.
II. The results of the study will be published soon in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
III. The research intended to find out whether the primates suffer from a crisis when they\'re middle aged.
IV. The study showed that gorillas don\'t suffer from a midlife crisis.
V. The researchers are skeptical about the findings.
VI. The results show that only human being reaches a middle aged crisis.

Mark the correct answer:

Finnegans Wake becomes a hit book in China

By Jonathan Kaiman in Beijin

 

  After spending eight years translating the first third of James Joyce's famously opaque novel Finnegans Wake into Chinese, Dai Congrong assumed it was a labour of love rather than money. The book's language is thick with multilingual puns and brazenly defies grammatical conventions.

  So the 41-year-old professor at Shanghai's Fudan University was incredulous when the translation became a surprise bestseller in China after hitting shelves last month. Backed by an elaborate billboard ad campaign, the first volume of "Fennigen de Shouling Ye" sold out its first run of 8,000 copies and reached number two on a prestigious bestseller list in Shanghai, second only to a biography of Deng Xiaoping. Sales of 30,000 are considered "cause for celebration" according to Chinese publisher Gray Tan, so 8,000 in a month has made Joyce a distinctly hot property.

  "At first I felt very surprised, and I feel very surprised now still," says Dai. "I thought my readers would be scholars and writers, and it wouldn't be so popular."

  Dai ventures that Chinese readers may appreciate Joyce's rumination on the cyclical nature of history, the relationships between his male and female characters, and the sheer challenge of interpreting his prose. She describes translating Joyce's famous stream-of-consciousness writing style as an enormous challenge.

  "The things I lost are mostly the sentences, because Joyce's sentences are so different from common sentences," she says, adding that she often broke them up into shorter, simpler phrases – otherwise, the average reader "would think  that I just mistranslated Joyce. So my translation is more clear than the original book."

  Yet she took great pains to remain as faithful to the original as possible. "For example, there was a phrase in Finnegans Wake that said 'sputtering hand', which might mean shaky. If I translated it as 'shaky hand', that would be OK – in Chinese it's a good sentence. However, I just translated it as 'sputtering hand'. Sputtering and hand cannot be put together in Chinese grammar, but I put the two together anyway."

  "Finnegans Wake made me believe that Joyce is a writer who is never satisfied with what he's already accomplished," she continues. "His spirit is very strong." That is one thing they have in common.

KAIMAN, Jonathan. Available at: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/finnegans-wakechina- james-joyce-hit (Adapted).

Why the translator affirms that her translate is “more clear than he original book”?

Finnegans Wake becomes a hit book in China

By Jonathan Kaiman in Beijin

 

  After spending eight years translating the first third of James Joyce's famously opaque novel Finnegans Wake into Chinese, Dai Congrong assumed it was a labour of love rather than money. The book's language is thick with multilingual puns and brazenly defies grammatical conventions.

  So the 41-year-old professor at Shanghai's Fudan University was incredulous when the translation became a surprise bestseller in China after hitting shelves last month. Backed by an elaborate billboard ad campaign, the first volume of "Fennigen de Shouling Ye" sold out its first run of 8,000 copies and reached number two on a prestigious bestseller list in Shanghai, second only to a biography of Deng Xiaoping. Sales of 30,000 are considered "cause for celebration" according to Chinese publisher Gray Tan, so 8,000 in a month has made Joyce a distinctly hot property.

  "At first I felt very surprised, and I feel very surprised now still," says Dai. "I thought my readers would be scholars and writers, and it wouldn't be so popular."

  Dai ventures that Chinese readers may appreciate Joyce's rumination on the cyclical nature of history, the relationships between his male and female characters, and the sheer challenge of interpreting his prose. She describes translating Joyce's famous stream-of-consciousness writing style as an enormous challenge.

  "The things I lost are mostly the sentences, because Joyce's sentences are so different from common sentences," she says, adding that she often broke them up into shorter, simpler phrases – otherwise, the average reader "would think  that I just mistranslated Joyce. So my translation is more clear than the original book."

  Yet she took great pains to remain as faithful to the original as possible. "For example, there was a phrase in Finnegans Wake that said 'sputtering hand', which might mean shaky. If I translated it as 'shaky hand', that would be OK – in Chinese it's a good sentence. However, I just translated it as 'sputtering hand'. Sputtering and hand cannot be put together in Chinese grammar, but I put the two together anyway."

  "Finnegans Wake made me believe that Joyce is a writer who is never satisfied with what he's already accomplished," she continues. "His spirit is very strong." That is one thing they have in common.

KAIMAN, Jonathan. Available at: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/finnegans-wakechina- james-joyce-hit (Adapted).

According to the text, judge the sentences below:

I. Dai Congrong didn’t expect to have so many readers, she translated Finnegans Wake for love rather than money.

II. Joyce’s multilingual puns were the biggest challenge to the translator.

III. Dai Congrong’s version is better than Joyce’s one. IV. Dai Congrong translated Finnegans Wake ipsis litteris.

V. Jonathan Kaiman belives Joyce and Congrong have both very strong spirit.

Mark the CORRECT answer:

Choose the alternative that best completes this dialog.

 

Deanna: I don’t believe it. How could you lie to

me?

William: Wait, listen to me. I can explain.

Deanna: There’s nothing to explain. You were

having dinner with another woman.

William: Yes, because I bought us a new house.

Deanna: What?

William: She’s a real estate agent. Her name is

Sarah and I’ve just bought a house from her. It

was supposed to be a surprise.

Deanna: Oh, gosh… I feel so stupid.

William: So do I, but ______________________

In “Tough new election laws aimed at forcing voters in many states to show photo identification at polling places have been blocked or delayed, delighting opponents who claim they were among a variety of partisan attempts to keep minorities from voting. Supporters of the measures nevertheless predict they will prevail in the long run. And court battles continue in some states even as the Nov. 6 election date draws near”. 

Washington Post By Associated Press, Published: October 17, 2012.
 

The link word nevertheless can be correctly replaced by:

Which sentence above is incorrect?