Questões de Inglês

TEXTO:

Jurassic fossil discovery

    A 150-million-year-old fossilized skull belonging to

a creature called a pliosaur has been unearthed along

the Jurassic Coast in Dorset in England.

    While dinosaurs roamed the land, pliosaurs terrorized

5 the oceans. These giant, crocodile-shaped creatures

were fearsome hunters, their immense jaws and

razor-sharp teeth made easy work of passing prey. Now

an 8ft-long skull has been found in Dorset by a local

fossil collector. And scientists say it could be one of the

10 biggest ever found, belonging to a creature that would

have measured up to 50ft long.

    Paleontologist Richard Forrest has been examining

the specimen. He says: ‘To get a whole skull like this is

like Christmas and Easter and everything rolled into one,

15 because we actually can see, yes this really was an

absolutely enormous animal, and realistically, probably

the most powerful predator that ever lived.’

    The fossilized skull has now been bought by Dorset

County Council using Heritage Lottery Funds. They plan

20 to eventually put it on public display.

MORELLE, Rebecca. Jurassic fossil discovery. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 30 maio 2010. 

TEXTO:

Record blow for teenage sailor

    A 16-year-old Australian girl is nearly home after

sailing around the world. But she may not have sailed

far enough to get the record as the youngest person to

make the journey.

5    After more than six months at sea Jessica Watson

is in the final stretch of her epic voyage around the globe.

She’s hoping to reach Sydney Harbor later this month a

couple of days shy of her seventeenth birthday.

    But although there’s no question that she’s

10 circumnavigated the globe, sailing experts say she hasn’t

gone far enough to claim the record of being the youngest

person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the

world.

    The influential Sail World website has praised her heroic

15 achievement but is a stickler for the rules of what it calls

“true circumnavigation”. To have achieved that, it says, 

the teenager should have sailed much farther north into

the Atlantic to a point in line with France, rather than

simply crossing the Equator and then returning south.

20    “We don’t want to take away from what the kid’s

done,” said the editor of the website “but it’s one thing to

be a hero and another to be a record holder. Had she

sailed three thousand seven hundred kilometers further

she could have made that boast.”

BRYANT, Nick. Record blow for teenage sailor. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 5 jun. 

TEXTO:

Record blow for teenage sailor

    A 16-year-old Australian girl is nearly home after

sailing around the world. But she may not have sailed

far enough to get the record as the youngest person to

make the journey.

5    After more than six months at sea Jessica Watson

is in the final stretch of her epic voyage around the globe.

She’s hoping to reach Sydney Harbor later this month a

couple of days shy of her seventeenth birthday.

    But although there’s no question that she’s

10 circumnavigated the globe, sailing experts say she hasn’t

gone far enough to claim the record of being the youngest

person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the

world.

    The influential Sail World website has praised her heroic

15 achievement but is a stickler for the rules of what it calls

“true circumnavigation”. To have achieved that, it says, 

the teenager should have sailed much farther north into

the Atlantic to a point in line with France, rather than

simply crossing the Equator and then returning south.

20    “We don’t want to take away from what the kid’s

done,” said the editor of the website “but it’s one thing to

be a hero and another to be a record holder. Had she

sailed three thousand seven hundred kilometers further

she could have made that boast.”

BRYANT, Nick. Record blow for teenage sailor. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 5 jun. 

TEXTO:

Earthquake science

    A team of scientists say they can explain why many

more people died in the earthquake in Haiti compared to

the much larger quake in Chile.

    The geophysicists, from the U.S. Geological Survey

5 and from Harvard University, said that strict building

regulations in Chile had undoubtedly saved lives. The

country has a long history of earthquakes and as a

consequence has some of the toughest building codes

in the world.

10    But Doctor Walter Mooney, who’s studied dozens

of earthquakes around the globe, said there were also

other factors behind the relatively low death toll: “First

and foremost, people are used to earthquakes in Chile

and so they did know that they have to evacuate from

15 dangerous structures. Secondly, this earthquake had a

slow and gradual build-up.They had some 20 or 30

seconds to look at each other, realize that the ground

shaking was crescendoing, and building up, and they

made the right decision in almost all cases by getting

20 out of the dangerous structures and running out into the

open area. Thus, education, and a bit of luck is the

answer to why so many people survived.”

    Doctor Mooney contrasted that with the Haitian

quake, which split open the hard rock beneath the capital

25 Port Au Prince within seconds. Buildings collapsed

instantly, giving people no time to escape.

    Despite the relatively low loss of life in Chile,

Dr Mooney said the country must learn from this disaster,

particularly with regards to building along the coast. Many

30 of those who died were killed not by the quake, but by

the tsunamis that followed it, which swept away coastal

villages.

    And the geophysicists said that even if Chile took

precautions, it would remain highly vulnerable to

35 earthquakes. They said that the north of the country was

a particular worry. It hasn’t suffered a big quake for around

a hundred years and is probably due for one soon, they

said.

LONG, Gideon. Earthquake science. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 6 jun. 2010. 

TEXTO:

Earthquake science

    A team of scientists say they can explain why many

more people died in the earthquake in Haiti compared to

the much larger quake in Chile.

    The geophysicists, from the U.S. Geological Survey

5 and from Harvard University, said that strict building

regulations in Chile had undoubtedly saved lives. The

country has a long history of earthquakes and as a

consequence has some of the toughest building codes

in the world.

10    But Doctor Walter Mooney, who’s studied dozens

of earthquakes around the globe, said there were also

other factors behind the relatively low death toll: “First

and foremost, people are used to earthquakes in Chile

and so they did know that they have to evacuate from

15 dangerous structures. Secondly, this earthquake had a

slow and gradual build-up.They had some 20 or 30

seconds to look at each other, realize that the ground

shaking was crescendoing, and building up, and they

made the right decision in almost all cases by getting

20 out of the dangerous structures and running out into the

open area. Thus, education, and a bit of luck is the

answer to why so many people survived.”

    Doctor Mooney contrasted that with the Haitian

quake, which split open the hard rock beneath the capital

25 Port Au Prince within seconds. Buildings collapsed

instantly, giving people no time to escape.

    Despite the relatively low loss of life in Chile,

Dr Mooney said the country must learn from this disaster,

particularly with regards to building along the coast. Many

30 of those who died were killed not by the quake, but by

the tsunamis that followed it, which swept away coastal

villages.

    And the geophysicists said that even if Chile took

precautions, it would remain highly vulnerable to

35 earthquakes. They said that the north of the country was

a particular worry. It hasn’t suffered a big quake for around

a hundred years and is probably due for one soon, they

said.

LONG, Gideon. Earthquake science. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 6 jun. 2010. 

TEXTO:

Earthquake science

    A team of scientists say they can explain why many

more people died in the earthquake in Haiti compared to

the much larger quake in Chile.

    The geophysicists, from the U.S. Geological Survey

5 and from Harvard University, said that strict building

regulations in Chile had undoubtedly saved lives. The

country has a long history of earthquakes and as a

consequence has some of the toughest building codes

in the world.

10    But Doctor Walter Mooney, who’s studied dozens

of earthquakes around the globe, said there were also

other factors behind the relatively low death toll: “First

and foremost, people are used to earthquakes in Chile

and so they did know that they have to evacuate from

15 dangerous structures. Secondly, this earthquake had a

slow and gradual build-up.They had some 20 or 30

seconds to look at each other, realize that the ground

shaking was crescendoing, and building up, and they

made the right decision in almost all cases by getting

20 out of the dangerous structures and running out into the

open area. Thus, education, and a bit of luck is the

answer to why so many people survived.”

    Doctor Mooney contrasted that with the Haitian

quake, which split open the hard rock beneath the capital

25 Port Au Prince within seconds. Buildings collapsed

instantly, giving people no time to escape.

    Despite the relatively low loss of life in Chile,

Dr Mooney said the country must learn from this disaster,

particularly with regards to building along the coast. Many

30 of those who died were killed not by the quake, but by

the tsunamis that followed it, which swept away coastal

villages.

    And the geophysicists said that even if Chile took

precautions, it would remain highly vulnerable to

35 earthquakes. They said that the north of the country was

a particular worry. It hasn’t suffered a big quake for around

a hundred years and is probably due for one soon, they

said.

LONG, Gideon. Earthquake science. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 6 jun. 2010.