Questões de Inglês

[1] Txting: frNd or foe?

If I ........ a pound for every time I heard

someone predicting a language disaster

because of a new technological development,

[5] I would be a very rich man. If I were a time

traveller, my bank balance would have started

to grow with the arrival in the Middle Ages of

printing, thought by many to be the invention

of the devil. It would have increased with the

[10] telegraph, telephone and broadcasting. And I

would have been able to retire on the profits

from text messaging.

All the popular beliefs about texting are

wrong. It isn’t just used by the young

[15] generation: the vast majority of texts

circulating in cyberspace are among adults,

especially by and to institutions.

Only ........ very tiny part of text messaging

uses a distinctive orthography. The

[20] abbreviations are not a totally new

phenomenon. Young people don’t use them in

essays, nor in exam scripts. And research is

piling up that text messaging helps rather

than hinders literacy. Texting has, indeed,

[25] added a new dimension to language use, but

its long-term impact on existing varieties of

language is negligible. It is not a disaster.

The popular impression is quite the

opposite. People think that the written

[30] language seen on mobile phone screens is

new and alien. It has been labelled “textese”,

“slanguage”, and a “digital virus”. It has been

described as foreign and “outlandish”.

However, ........ most striking characteristic

[35] of text messages is the combination of

standard and non-standard features. Although

many texters like to be different and enjoy

breaking linguistic rules, they also know they

need to be understood. There is no point in

[40] paying for a message if it breaks so many

rules that it ceases to be intelligible. There is

always ........ unconscious pressure to use the

standard orthography.

Adapted from: CRYSTAL, David. Txting: frNd or foe? The Linguist, v. 47, n. 06, Dec. 2008/Jan 2009. Available at: <http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/ Internet16.pdf>. Access on: Sept 09, 2012.

[1] Txting: frNd or foe?

If I ........ a pound for every time I heard

someone predicting a language disaster

because of a new technological development,

[5] I would be a very rich man. If I were a time

traveller, my bank balance would have started

to grow with the arrival in the Middle Ages of

printing, thought by many to be the invention

of the devil. It would have increased with the

[10] telegraph, telephone and broadcasting. And I

would have been able to retire on the profits

from text messaging.

All the popular beliefs about texting are

wrong. It isn’t just used by the young

[15] generation: the vast majority of texts

circulating in cyberspace are among adults,

especially by and to institutions.

Only ........ very tiny part of text messaging

uses a distinctive orthography. The

[20] abbreviations are not a totally new

phenomenon. Young people don’t use them in

essays, nor in exam scripts. And research is

piling up that text messaging helps rather

than hinders literacy. Texting has, indeed,

[25] added a new dimension to language use, but

its long-term impact on existing varieties of

language is negligible. It is not a disaster.

The popular impression is quite the

opposite. People think that the written

[30] language seen on mobile phone screens is

new and alien. It has been labelled “textese”,

“slanguage”, and a “digital virus”. It has been

described as foreign and “outlandish”.

However, ........ most striking characteristic

[35] of text messages is the combination of

standard and non-standard features. Although

many texters like to be different and enjoy

breaking linguistic rules, they also know they

need to be understood. There is no point in

[40] paying for a message if it breaks so many

rules that it ceases to be intelligible. There is

always ........ unconscious pressure to use the

standard orthography.

Adapted from: CRYSTAL, David. Txting: frNd or foe? The Linguist, v. 47, n. 06, Dec. 2008/Jan 2009. Available at: <http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/ Internet16.pdf>. Access on: Sept 09, 2012.

[1] Advice Gratis to Certain Women – By a Woman

O, my strong-minded sisters, aspiring to vote,

And to row with your brothers, all in the same boat,

When you come out to speak to the public your mind,

[5] Leave your tricks, and your airs, and your graces behind!

For instance, when you by the world would be seen

As reporter, or editor (first-class, I mean),

I think – just to come to the point in one line –

What you write will be finer, if 'tis not too fine.

[10] Pray, don't let the thread of your subject be strung

With "golden," and "shimmer," "sweet," "filter," and "flung;"

Nor compel, by your style, all your readers to guess

You've ........ looking up words Webster marks obs.

And another thing: whatever else you may say,

[15] Do keep personalities out of the way;

Don't try every sentence to make people see

What a dear, charming creature the writer must be!

Don't mistake me; I mean that the public's not home,

You must do as the Romans do, when you're in Rome;

[20] I would have you be womanly, while you are wise;

'Tis the weak and the womanish tricks I despise.

'Tis a good thing to write, and to rule in the state,

But to be a true, womanly woman is great:

And if ever you come to be that, 'twill be when

[25] You can cease to be babies, nor try to be men!

Adaptado de: CAREY, Phoebe. Advice Gratis to Certain Women. In: RATTINER, Susan (ed.). Great Poems by American Women: An Anthology. Mineola: Dover Thrift, 1998. p. 72.

[1] Advice Gratis to Certain Women – By a Woman

O, my strong-minded sisters, aspiring to vote,

And to row with your brothers, all in the same boat,

When you come out to speak to the public your mind,

[5] Leave your tricks, and your airs, and your graces behind!

For instance, when you by the world would be seen

As reporter, or editor (first-class, I mean),

I think – just to come to the point in one line –

What you write will be finer, if 'tis not too fine.

[10] Pray, don't let the thread of your subject be strung

With "golden," and "shimmer," "sweet," "filter," and "flung;"

Nor compel, by your style, all your readers to guess

You've ........ looking up words Webster marks obs.

And another thing: whatever else you may say,

[15] Do keep personalities out of the way;

Don't try every sentence to make people see

What a dear, charming creature the writer must be!

Don't mistake me; I mean that the public's not home,

You must do as the Romans do, when you're in Rome;

[20] I would have you be womanly, while you are wise;

'Tis the weak and the womanish tricks I despise.

'Tis a good thing to write, and to rule in the state,

But to be a true, womanly woman is great:

And if ever you come to be that, 'twill be when

[25] You can cease to be babies, nor try to be men!

Adaptado de: CAREY, Phoebe. Advice Gratis to Certain Women. In: RATTINER, Susan (ed.). Great Poems by American Women: An Anthology. Mineola: Dover Thrift, 1998. p. 72.

[1] Advice Gratis to Certain Women – By a Woman

O, my strong-minded sisters, aspiring to vote,

And to row with your brothers, all in the same boat,

When you come out to speak to the public your mind,

[5] Leave your tricks, and your airs, and your graces behind!

For instance, when you by the world would be seen

As reporter, or editor (first-class, I mean),

I think – just to come to the point in one line –

What you write will be finer, if 'tis not too fine.

[10] Pray, don't let the thread of your subject be strung

With "golden," and "shimmer," "sweet," "filter," and "flung;"

Nor compel, by your style, all your readers to guess

You've ........ looking up words Webster marks obs.

And another thing: whatever else you may say,

[15] Do keep personalities out of the way;

Don't try every sentence to make people see

What a dear, charming creature the writer must be!

Don't mistake me; I mean that the public's not home,

You must do as the Romans do, when you're in Rome;

[20] I would have you be womanly, while you are wise;

'Tis the weak and the womanish tricks I despise.

'Tis a good thing to write, and to rule in the state,

But to be a true, womanly woman is great:

And if ever you come to be that, 'twill be when

[25] You can cease to be babies, nor try to be men!

Adaptado de: CAREY, Phoebe. Advice Gratis to Certain Women. In: RATTINER, Susan (ed.). Great Poems by American Women: An Anthology. Mineola: Dover Thrift, 1998. p. 72.

[1] An Amazonian tribe has been discovered

that has no concept of time or dates.

The Amondawa people of Brazil do not

even have words for "time", "week", "month"

[5] or "year", said Chris Sinha, of the University

of Portsmouth.

He argues that it is the first time scientists

have been able to prove time is not a deeply

entrenched universal human concept, as

[10] previously thought.

According to Professor Sinha we can now

say without doubt that there is at least one

language and culture which does not have a

concept of time as something that can be

[15] measured, counted or talked about in the

abstract, which doesn't mean that the

Amondawa are "people outside time": they

live in a world of events, rather than seeing

events as being embedded in time.

[20] There are no words for such concepts as

"next week" or "last year", only divisions of

day and night and rainy and dry seasons. It

was also found nobody in the community has

an age. …….. , they change their names to

[25] reflect their life-stage and position within their

society. For example, a little child will give up

his or her name to a newborn sibling and take

on a new one.

Professor Sinha said: "We have so many

[30] metaphors for time and its passing - we think

of time as a 'thing' - we say 'the weekend is

nearly gone', 'she's coming up to her exams',

'I haven't got the time', and so on, and we

think such statements are objective, but they

[35] aren't. We've created these metaphors and

they have become the way we think. The

Amondawa don't talk like this and don't think

like this, unless they learn another language.

For these fortunate people time isn't money,

[40] they aren't racing against the clock to

complete anything, and nobody is discussing

next week or next year. You could say they

enjoy a certain freedom".

Adaptado de: Daily Mail, 20 mai 2011. Disponível em: <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1389070/Amazon-Amondawa-tribe-age-words-like-month-year-dont-exist.html#ixzz25dEZL89p>. Acesso em: 05 set. 2012.