Questões de Inglês

TEXT

 

The end of life on Earth?

 

    It weighted about 10,000 tons, entered the
atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km/h and exploded
over a city with a blast of 500 kilotons. But on 15
February 2013, we were lucky. The metereorite that
[05] showered pieces of rock over Chelyabinsk, Russia, was
relatively small, at only about 17 metres wide. Although
many people were injured by falling glass, the damage
was nothing compared to what had happened in Siberia
nearly one hundred years ago, when a relatively small
[10] object (approximately 50 metres in diameter) exploded in
mid-air over a forest region, flattening about 80 million
trees. If it had exploded over a city such as Moscow or
London, millions of people would have been killed.
    By a strange coincidence, the same day that the
[15] meteorite terrified the people of Chelyabinsk, another
50m-wide asteroid passed relatively close to Earth.
Scientists were expecting that visit and know that the
asteroid will return to fly close by us in 2046, but the
Russian meteorite earlier in the day had been too small
[20] for anyone to spot.
    Most scientists agree that comets and asteroids
pose the biggest natural threat to human existence. It
was probably a large asteroid or comet colliding with
Earth which wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million
[25] years ago. An enormous object, 10 to 16 km in diameter,
struck the Yucatan region in Mexico with the force of 100
megatons. That is the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb
for every person alive on Earth today.
    Many scientists, including the late Stephen
[30] Hawking, say that any comet or asteroid greater than
20km in diameter that hits Earth will result in the
complete destruction of complex life, including all
animals and most plants. As we have seen even a much
smaller asteroid can cause great damage.
[35]    The Earth has been kept fairly safe for the last 65
million years by good fortune and the massive
gravitational field of the planet Jupiter. Our cosmic
guardian, with its stable circular orbit far from the sun,
sweeps up and scatters away most of the dangerous
[40] comets and asteroids which might cross Earth’s orbit.
    After the Chelyabinsk meteorite, scientists are now
monitoring potential hazards even more carefully but, as
far as they know, there is no danger in the foreseeable
future.
[45]    Types of space rocks
    • Comet – a ball of rock and ice that sends out a
tail of gas and dust behind it. Bright comets only appear
in our visible night sky about once every ten years.
    • Asteroid – a rock a few feet to several kms in
[50] diameter. Unlike comets, asteroids have no tail. Most
are to small to cause any damage and burn up in the
atmosphere.
    • Meteoroid – part of an asteroid or comet.
    • Meteorite – what a meteoroid is called when it
[55] hits Earth.

Taken from: http://learningenglishteens.britishcouncil.org  - Access on 29/06/2020

The passage “the damage was nothing compared to what had happened in Siberia nearly one hundred years ago” (lines 7 to 9) states that the incident occurred _______ a century ago.

Leia o texto a seguir para responder à questão de Inglês.

 

INDIGENOUS YOUTH OPEN UP ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THEIR COMMUNITIES

Young indigenous people from different parts of
Brazil share how they have engaged to protect and bring
information to their communities 

    The [1) novel] coronavirus pandemic aggravated pre-existing inequalities in Brazil and increased their negative impact on the most vulnerable people. Various indigenous populations, for instance, began to face new challenges. During a live-stream video chat organized by UNICEF, themed “Indigenous youth in the context of COVID-19”, young members of indigenous groups from all over Brazil expressed their concerns and talked about how the pandemic has affected their communities.

    In [2) their] testimonies, these young indigenous people’s biggest worry becomes clear: losing their elders. Since older persons are more likely to develop a more severe form of COVID-19, many tribe leaders fell victim to the disease. “Our elders are our books. They teach us everything. We need time with our elders”, explains the young Kanynari Apurinã. He is a member of the apurinã people, from the town of Lábrea, in the Amazonas State (Amazon Rainforest region) and a collaborator to the project “Vozes do Purus” (Purus Voices), which aims at keeping apurinã traditions alive through audiovisual productions.

    “This pandemic reminded us of the importance of forming new leaders - with new elders - because we felt the impact of COVID-19 through the loss of our leadership”, Rayanne Cristine says sadly. Rayanne is a member of the bare people, from Amazonas State. She is part of the Rede de Juventude Indígena (Indigenous Youth Network) and collaborates to the work of the Regional Indigenous Platform in tackling the COVID-19 in Latin America.

    The crucial role of communication

    [3) These young people identified that the loss of their leaders also happened due to lack of information about the COVID-19 disease]. This is why many of them have been dedicated to the creation of informative content in indigenous languages to help their communities, but also to call attention to the severe impacts of coronavirus on indigenous populations.

    "Besides caring for the elders, we work to raise awareness, so that people do not leave the community territory," says Kanynary. In his opinion, the access to information about the coronavirus and preventive measures is one of the greatest challenges that indigenous people face.

    Often, aside from poor internet connection, information is not available in indigenous languages, only in Portuguese. “We need to understand the technical words and translate them in a way that is easy for our community members to understand. This is a big concern because sometimes we try to explain something [regarding the pandemic] but the translated message comes out different from the original information. So, we must receive the information, translate it accurately and pass it on”.

    With the same objective in mind, Daniela Patricia, a young Tukano, from São Gabriel da Cachoeira town, in the Upper Rio Negro Indigenous Territory, State of Amazonas, joined the Rede de Jovens Comunicadores do Alto Rio Negro (Network of Young Communicators from the Upper Rio Negro) (Rede Wayuri). The Network produces and broadcasts podcast episodes in indigenous languages through WhatsApp, and creates a written bulletin that is circulated to the town residents.

    Before the pandemic, the communication channels already worked and brought news about spots in universities, politics and other local topics that directly affect indigenous peoples. After the pandemic outbreak in the region, relevant information about the new coronavirus was included to the agenda. “The radio has been very important for communities without access to the internet, it is a communication to inform young people in these communities of everything that is happening out here”, she says.

    In Bahia, Emerson Pataxó, a resident of Aldeia Cura Vermelha (indigenous people village), in the town of Santa Cruz Cabrália, also acts as an indigenous communicator for Mídia India. During the pandemic, the group created the quarentenaindigena.info website, which gathers pieces of news about the COVID-19 disease in indigenous communities across Brazil and case data, in addition to a dedicated fundraise initiative to tackle the virus in affected indigenous areas. With the funds raised, they provide food and hygiene products to these communities.

    “The website was an achievement, because traditional media do not bring enough information to understand the impact [of the pandemic] on our communities. We included the data that the mainstream media does not cover, we gathered this information with State Health Secretariats and Sesai [Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health], and we managed to build a platform that can be accessed by anyone”, he says.

    [...]

 

    Os jovens indígenas atribuem a perda de seus líderes

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EDUCATION AND COVID-19

 

    September 2020

    More than 1 billion children are at risk of falling behind due to school closures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19. To keep the world’s children learning, countries have been implementing remote education programs. Yet many of the world’s children – particularly those in poorer households – do not have internet access, personal computers, TVs or even radio at home, amplifying the effects of existing learning inequalities. Students lacking access to the technologies needed for home-based learning have limited means to continue their education. As a result, many face the risk of never returning to school, undoing years of progress made in education around the world.

    With school closures across 188 countries (as of April 2020), many of them are exploring alternative ways to provide continuous education using technologies such as Internet, TV, and radio. However, access to these technologies is limited in many low- and middle-income countries, especially among poor households.

    While more than 90 per cent of the countries adopted digital and/or broadcast remote learning policies, only 60 per cent did so for pre-primary education.

    Policy measures taken by the governments to ensure learning continuity through broadcast or digital media allowed for potentially reaching 69 per cent of schoolchildren (at maximum) in pre-primary to secondary education globally.

    31 per cent of schoolchildren worldwide (463 million) cannot be reached by the broadcast- and Internet-based remote learning policies either due to the lack of necessary technological assets at home, or because they were not targeted by the adopted policies.

    Online platforms were the most used means by the governments to deliver education while schools remain closed, with 83 per cent of countries using this method. However, this allowed for potentially reaching only about a quarter of schoolchildren worldwide.

    Television had the potential to reach the most students (62 per cent) globally.
    Only 16 per cent of schoolchildren could be reached by radio-based learning worldwide.

    Globally, 3 out of 4 students who cannot be reached by the remote learning policies come from rural areas and/or belong to the poorest households.

    Considering these data, it is important that countries do not rely on any single remote learning channel to reach all children. Additionally, expanding access to Internet and other digital solutions for all children would be one key long-term priority to reduce learning vulnerabilities.

Source: https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/covid-19/

Analise as afirmativas relativas ao texto.

 

I) 60% dos países investiram em ensino remoto para pré-escola.
II) 69% das crianças no fim da vida escolar foram beneficiadas pelo ensino remoto.
III) 31% dos alunos não terão acesso ao ensino remoto, sendo um dos fatores, a não existência de ação política para isso.
IV) 83% dos países não adotaram plataformas como meio de intermediar as aulas para os alunos.
V) 16% dos alunos em idade escolar podem ser alcançados por aulas via rádio.

    Estão corretas, 

Leia o texto abaixo e responda à questão de Inglês.

 

EDUCATION AND COVID-19

 

    September 2020

    More than 1 billion children are at risk of falling behind due to school closures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19. To keep the world’s children learning, countries have been implementing remote education programs. Yet many of the world’s children – particularly those in poorer households – do not have internet access, personal computers, TVs or even radio at home, amplifying the effects of existing learning inequalities. Students lacking access to the technologies needed for home-based learning have limited means to continue their education. As a result, many face the risk of never returning to school, undoing years of progress made in education around the world.

    With school closures across 188 countries (as of April 2020), many of them are exploring alternative ways to provide continuous education using technologies such as Internet, TV, and radio. However, access to these technologies is limited in many low- and middle-income countries, especially among poor households.

    While more than 90 per cent of the countries adopted digital and/or broadcast remote learning policies, only 60 per cent did so for pre-primary education.

    Policy measures taken by the governments to ensure learning continuity through broadcast or digital media allowed for potentially reaching 69 per cent of schoolchildren (at maximum) in pre-primary to secondary education globally.

    31 per cent of schoolchildren worldwide (463 million) cannot be reached by the broadcast- and Internet-based remote learning policies either due to the lack of necessary technological assets at home, or because they were not targeted by the adopted policies.

    Online platforms were the most used means by the governments to deliver education while schools remain closed, with 83 per cent of countries using this method. However, this allowed for potentially reaching only about a quarter of schoolchildren worldwide.

    Television had the potential to reach the most students (62 per cent) globally.
    Only 16 per cent of schoolchildren could be reached by radio-based learning worldwide.

    Globally, 3 out of 4 students who cannot be reached by the remote learning policies come from rural areas and/or belong to the poorest households.

    Considering these data, it is important that countries do not rely on any single remote learning channel to reach all children. Additionally, expanding access to Internet and other digital solutions for all children would be one key long-term priority to reduce learning vulnerabilities.

Source: https://data.unicef.org/topic/education/covid-19/

    Muitos países adotaram o estudo remoto como medida para respeitar o isolamento social e manter as aulas acontecendo.

 

    Conforme o texto, tais medidas ampliam a desigualdade de aprendizagem, porque

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ANTARCTICA'S EFFECT ON SEA LEVEL RISE IN COMING CENTURIES

 

    There are two primary causes of global mean sea level rise - added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the expansion of sea water as it warms. The melting of Antarctica's ice sheet is currently responsible for 20 to 25 percent of global sea level rise.

    But _________ of a role will it play hundreds of years in the future?

    Scientists rely on precise numerical models to answer questions like this one. As the models used in predicting long-term sea level rise improve, so too do the projections derived from them. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have discovered a way to make current models more accurate. In doing so, they have also gotten one step closer to understanding what Antarctica's ice sheet - and the sea level rise that occurs as it melts - will look like centuries from now.

    "Unlike most current models, we included solid Earth processes - such as the elastic rebound of the bedrock under the ice, and the impact of changes in sea level very close to the ice sheet," said JPL's Eric Larour, first author of the study. "We also examined these models at a much higher resolution than is typically used - we zoomed in on areas of bedrock that were about 1 kilometer instead of the usual 20 kilometers."

    The scientists found that projections for the next 100 years are within 1 percent of previous projections for that time period; however, further into the future, they observed some significant differences.

    "We found that around the year 2250, some of these solid Earth processes started to offset the melting of the ice sheet and the consequent sea level rise," Larour said. In other words, they actually slowed the melting down.

    The team noted that a hundred years even further into the future - by 2350 - this slowdown means that the melting of the ice sheet is likely to contribute 29 percent less to global sea level rise than previous models indicated.

    "One of the main things we learned was that as grounded ice retreats inland, the bedrock under it lifts up elastically," said Erik Ivins, a co-author of the study. "It's similar to how a sofa cushion decompresses when you remove your weight from it. This process slows down the retreat of the ice sheet and ultimately the amount of melting."

     _________ this sounds like good news, the scientists say it's important to keep it in perspective. "It's like a truck traveling downhill that encounters speed bumps in the road," said Larour. "The truck will slow down a bit but will ultimately continue down the hill" - just as the ice sheet will continue to melt and sea level will continue to rise.

    The breakthrough of this study, he added, was to "reach resolutions high enough to capture as many of these 'speed bumps' as possible and determine their effects in Antarctica while also modeling sea level rise over the entire planet."

    The study, titled "Slowdown in Antarctic Mass Loss from Solid Earth and Sea-Level Feedback," was published today in Science..

Disponível em: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2869/antarcticas-effect-on-sea-level-rise-in-coming-centuries/. Acesso em: 23 mai 2019. (Adaptado)

A conjunção que completa corretamente a segunda lacuna é:

Leia o texto abaixo e responda à questão de Inglês.

ANTARCTICA'S EFFECT ON SEA LEVEL RISE IN COMING CENTURIES

 

    There are two primary causes of global mean sea level rise - added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the expansion of sea water as it warms. The melting of Antarctica's ice sheet is currently responsible for 20 to 25 percent of global sea level rise.

    But _________ of a role will it play hundreds of years in the future?

    Scientists rely on precise numerical models to answer questions like this one. As the models used in predicting long-term sea level rise improve, so too do the projections derived from them. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have discovered a way to make current models more accurate. In doing so, they have also gotten one step closer to understanding what Antarctica's ice sheet - and the sea level rise that occurs as it melts - will look like centuries from now.

    "Unlike most current models, we included solid Earth processes - such as the elastic rebound of the bedrock under the ice, and the impact of changes in sea level very close to the ice sheet," said JPL's Eric Larour, first author of the study. "We also examined these models at a much higher resolution than is typically used - we zoomed in on areas of bedrock that were about 1 kilometer instead of the usual 20 kilometers."

    The scientists found that projections for the next 100 years are within 1 percent of previous projections for that time period; however, further into the future, they observed some significant differences.

    "We found that around the year 2250, some of these solid Earth processes started to offset the melting of the ice sheet and the consequent sea level rise," Larour said. In other words, they actually slowed the melting down.

    The team noted that a hundred years even further into the future - by 2350 - this slowdown means that the melting of the ice sheet is likely to contribute 29 percent less to global sea level rise than previous models indicated.

    "One of the main things we learned was that as grounded ice retreats inland, the bedrock under it lifts up elastically," said Erik Ivins, a co-author of the study. "It's similar to how a sofa cushion decompresses when you remove your weight from it. This process slows down the retreat of the ice sheet and ultimately the amount of melting."

     _________ this sounds like good news, the scientists say it's important to keep it in perspective. "It's like a truck traveling downhill that encounters speed bumps in the road," said Larour. "The truck will slow down a bit but will ultimately continue down the hill" - just as the ice sheet will continue to melt and sea level will continue to rise.

    The breakthrough of this study, he added, was to "reach resolutions high enough to capture as many of these 'speed bumps' as possible and determine their effects in Antarctica while also modeling sea level rise over the entire planet."

    The study, titled "Slowdown in Antarctic Mass Loss from Solid Earth and Sea-Level Feedback," was published today in Science..

Disponível em: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2869/antarcticas-effect-on-sea-level-rise-in-coming-centuries/. Acesso em: 23 mai 2019. (Adaptado)

A expressão que completa a primeira lacuna corretamente é: