Questões de Inglês

Read the comic strip below and choose the most appropriate answer.

The comic strip is

Read the text below and answer the question.

Understanding Lupus

If you or a family member has been diagnosed with or are being evaluated for possible lupus, you will want to know as much as you can about the disease.

What is Lupus

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs ("foreign invaders," like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues ("auto" means "self") and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.
• Lupus is also a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better). Lupus can range from mild to life-threatening and should always be treated by a doctor. With good medical care, most people with lupus can lead a full life.
• Lupus is not contagious, not even through sexual contact. You cannot "catch" lupus from someone or "give" lupus to someone.
• Lupus is not like or related to cancer. Cancer is a condition of malignant, abnormal tissues that grow rapidly and spread into surrounding tissues. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as described above.
• Lupus is not like or related to HIV (Human Immune Deficiency Virus) or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In HIV or AIDS the immune system is underactive; in lupus, the immune system is overactive.
• It is believed that 5 million people throughout the world have a form of lupus.
• Lupus strikes mostly women of childbearing age (15-44). However, men, children, and teenagers develop lupus, too.
• Women of color are 2-3 times more likely to develop lupus; people of all races and ethnic groups can develop lupus.

What Causes Lupus

Genes

No gene or group of genes has been proven to cause lupus. Lupus does, however, appear in certain families, and when one of two identical twins has lupus, there is an increased chance that the other twin will also develop the disease. These findings, as well as others, strongly suggest that genes are involved in the development of lupus.

Environment

While a person’s genes may increase the chance that he or she will develop lupus, it takes some kind of environmental trigger to set off the illness or to bring on a flare. Examples include:
• ultraviolet rays from the sun; ultraviolet rays from fluorescent light bulbs;

• sulfa drugs, which make a person more sensitive to the sun; diuretics; sun-sensitizing tetracycline drugs such as minocycline; penicillin or other antibiotic drugs; an infection ; a cold or a viral illness; exhaustion; an injury; emotional stress, such as a divorce, illness, death in the family, or other life complications; anything that causes stress to the body, such as surgery, physical harm, pregnancy, or giving birth.

Although many seemingly unrelated factors can trigger the onset of lupus in a susceptible person, scientists have noted some common features among many people who have lupus, including: exposure to the sun; an infection; being pregnant; giving birth; a drug taken to treat an illness

Hormones

Hormones are the body’s messengers and they regulate many of the body’s functions. In
particular, the sex hormone estrogen plays a role in lupus. Men and women both produce
estrogen, but estrogen production is much greater in females. Many women have more lupus
symptoms before menstrual periods and/or during pregnancy, when estrogen production is high.
This may indicate that estrogen somehow regulates the severity of lupus. However, it does not
mean that estrogen, or any other hormone for that matter, causes lupus.

What are the Symptoms of Lupus

Because lupus can affect so many different organs, a wide range of symptoms can occur. These symptoms may come and go, and different symptoms may appear at different times during the course of the disease. The most common symptoms of lupus, which are the same for females and males, are:
• extreme fatigue (tiredness); headaches; painful or swollen joints; fever; anemia (low numbers of red blood cells or hemoglobin, or low total blood volume); swelling (edema) in feet, legs, hands, and/or around eyes ; pain in chest on deep breathing (pleurisy); butterfly-shaped rash across cheeks and nose ; sun- or light-sensitivity (photosensitivity)
• hair loss; abnormal blood clotting; fingers turning white and/or blue when cold (Raynaud’s phenomenon); mouth or nose ulcers.

Many of these symptoms occur in other illnesses besides lupus. In fact, lupus is sometimes called "the great imitator" because its symptoms are often like the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders, fibromyalgia, diabetes, thyroid problems, Lyme disease, and a number of heart, lung, muscle, and bone diseases.

(Taken and adapted from the website http://www.lupus.org)

We read that many situations can trigger the Lupus.

 

Read the problems below and based on the text, choose the situation that cannot cause Lupus.

Read the text below and answer the question.

Understanding Lupus

If you or a family member has been diagnosed with or are being evaluated for possible lupus, you will want to know as much as you can about the disease.

What is Lupus

Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body). In lupus, something goes wrong with your immune system, which is the part of the body that fights off viruses, bacteria, and germs ("foreign invaders," like the flu). Normally our immune system produces proteins called antibodies that protect the body from these invaders. Autoimmune means your immune system cannot tell the difference between these foreign invaders and your body’s healthy tissues ("auto" means "self") and creates autoantibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue. These autoantibodies cause inflammation, pain, and damage in various parts of the body.
• Lupus is also a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better). Lupus can range from mild to life-threatening and should always be treated by a doctor. With good medical care, most people with lupus can lead a full life.
• Lupus is not contagious, not even through sexual contact. You cannot "catch" lupus from someone or "give" lupus to someone.
• Lupus is not like or related to cancer. Cancer is a condition of malignant, abnormal tissues that grow rapidly and spread into surrounding tissues. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, as described above.
• Lupus is not like or related to HIV (Human Immune Deficiency Virus) or AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In HIV or AIDS the immune system is underactive; in lupus, the immune system is overactive.
• It is believed that 5 million people throughout the world have a form of lupus.
• Lupus strikes mostly women of childbearing age (15-44). However, men, children, and teenagers develop lupus, too.
• Women of color are 2-3 times more likely to develop lupus; people of all races and ethnic groups can develop lupus.

What Causes Lupus

Genes

No gene or group of genes has been proven to cause lupus. Lupus does, however, appear in certain families, and when one of two identical twins has lupus, there is an increased chance that the other twin will also develop the disease. These findings, as well as others, strongly suggest that genes are involved in the development of lupus.

Environment

While a person’s genes may increase the chance that he or she will develop lupus, it takes some kind of environmental trigger to set off the illness or to bring on a flare. Examples include:
• ultraviolet rays from the sun; ultraviolet rays from fluorescent light bulbs;

• sulfa drugs, which make a person more sensitive to the sun; diuretics; sun-sensitizing tetracycline drugs such as minocycline; penicillin or other antibiotic drugs; an infection ; a cold or a viral illness; exhaustion; an injury; emotional stress, such as a divorce, illness, death in the family, or other life complications; anything that causes stress to the body, such as surgery, physical harm, pregnancy, or giving birth.

Although many seemingly unrelated factors can trigger the onset of lupus in a susceptible person, scientists have noted some common features among many people who have lupus, including: exposure to the sun; an infection; being pregnant; giving birth; a drug taken to treat an illness

Hormones

Hormones are the body’s messengers and they regulate many of the body’s functions. In
particular, the sex hormone estrogen plays a role in lupus. Men and women both produce
estrogen, but estrogen production is much greater in females. Many women have more lupus
symptoms before menstrual periods and/or during pregnancy, when estrogen production is high.
This may indicate that estrogen somehow regulates the severity of lupus. However, it does not
mean that estrogen, or any other hormone for that matter, causes lupus.

What are the Symptoms of Lupus

Because lupus can affect so many different organs, a wide range of symptoms can occur. These symptoms may come and go, and different symptoms may appear at different times during the course of the disease. The most common symptoms of lupus, which are the same for females and males, are:
• extreme fatigue (tiredness); headaches; painful or swollen joints; fever; anemia (low numbers of red blood cells or hemoglobin, or low total blood volume); swelling (edema) in feet, legs, hands, and/or around eyes ; pain in chest on deep breathing (pleurisy); butterfly-shaped rash across cheeks and nose ; sun- or light-sensitivity (photosensitivity)
• hair loss; abnormal blood clotting; fingers turning white and/or blue when cold (Raynaud’s phenomenon); mouth or nose ulcers.

Many of these symptoms occur in other illnesses besides lupus. In fact, lupus is sometimes called "the great imitator" because its symptoms are often like the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders, fibromyalgia, diabetes, thyroid problems, Lyme disease, and a number of heart, lung, muscle, and bone diseases.

(Taken and adapted from the website http://www.lupus.org)

It is true to say about Lupus that

Read the text below and answer question.

 

Will we ever grow replacement hands?

 

Over the past few weeks on the BBC News website we have looked at the potential for bionic body parts and artificial organs to repair the human body. Now we take a look at "growing-your-own".

There is a pressing need. A shortage of available organs means many die on waiting lists and those that get an organ must spend a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection.

The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells to grow new body parts avoids the whole issue of rejection as well as waiting for a donor.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, US, has made breakthroughs in building bladders and urethras.

• Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell.

• Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit.

• Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

• Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.

"We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex," Dr Atala told the BBC.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16679010 June 2012.

Mark the CORRECT alternative according to the text:

Read the text below and answer question.

 

Will we ever grow replacement hands?

 

Over the past few weeks on the BBC News website we have looked at the potential for bionic body parts and artificial organs to repair the human body. Now we take a look at "growing-your-own".

There is a pressing need. A shortage of available organs means many die on waiting lists and those that get an organ must spend a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs to avoid rejection.

The idea is that using a patient's own stem cells to grow new body parts avoids the whole issue of rejection as well as waiting for a donor.

Dr Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, US, has made breakthroughs in building bladders and urethras.

• Flat structures, such as the skin, are the simplest to engineer as they are generally made up of just the one type of cell.

• Tubes, such as blood vessels and urethras, which have two types of cells and act as a conduit.

• Hollow non-tubular organs like the bladder and the stomach, which have more complex structures and functions.

• Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.

"We've been able to implant the first three in humans. We don't have any examples yet of solid organs in humans because its much more complex," Dr Atala told the BBC.

Adapted from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16679010 June 2012.

Analyze the following setence from the text:

 

“Solid organs, such as the kidney, heart and liver, are the most complex to engineer. They are exponentially more complex, have many different cell types, and more challenges in the blood supply.”

 

The expressions in bold print “the most complex” and “more complex” are examples of superlative and comparative structures. Select the alternatives that provide other examples of superlative and comparative sentences:

 

I. It has been selected as the best hospital in the state.

II. The treatment was highly expensive and extra medication was necessary.

III. The treatment is more effective on younger patients.

IV. Most of the time the effects of the medication are hard to notice.

INSTRUCTION: Answer question in relation to text.

 

TEXT

 

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful

 

    At work, as in life, attractive women get a lot of
the breaks. Studies have shown that they are more
likely to be promoted than their plain-Jane colleagues.
Because people tend to project positive traits onto
[5] them, such as sensitivity and poise, they may also
be at an advantage in job interviews. But research
by two Israelis suggests otherwise.
    These researchers looked at what happens
when job hunters include photos with their curricula
[10] vitae (CV), as is the norm in much of Europe and
Asia. They sent fictional applications to over 2,500
real-life vacancies. For each job they sent two very
similar résumés, one with a photo, one without. For
men, the results were as expected. Hunks were more
[15] likely to be called for an interview if they included a
photo. Ugly men were better off not including one.
However, for women this was reversed. Attractive
females were less likely to be offered an interview if
they included their photo.
[20]    At first they considered that people assume
beautiful women to be stupid. However, the photos
had also been rated on how intelligent people
thought each subject looked; there was no correlation
between perceived intellect and physical beauty. So
[25] the cause of the discrimination must lie elsewhere.
Human Resource (HR) departments tend to be staffed
mostly by women. Indeed, 93% of those tasked with
selecting whom to invite for an interview were female.
The researchers unavoidable – and unpalatable
[30] – conclusion is that old-fashioned jealousy led the
women to discriminate against pretty candidates.

(Source: The Economist – Mar 31st 2012, adapted)

The words “unavoidable” (line 29) and “unpalatable” (line 29) are formed by adding the prefix “un-” to “avoidable” and to “palatable”, in order to give them the opposite meaning.

 

The alternative where this did not occur is