Questões de Inglês

TEXT

 

  With the objective of promoting literacy all over the world, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created, on September 8, the International Literacy Day. Nevertheless, five decades later, estimates point to a worldwide total of 738 million persons who cannot read or write. In Brazil, they were 13 million in 2015, according to data from the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad 2015).

PNAD shows that the illiteracy rate (percentage of illiterate persons by age group in the total number of persons in the same group) fell from 11.5%, in 2004, to 8%, in 2015. Illiteracy is more concentrated in the Northeast Region, where the rate reaches 16.2%, way above the figure in the South, 4.1%. Older groups record higher illiteracy rates: 25.7% among persons aged 65 and over, versus 0.8% in the group aged 15 to 19.

One of the solutions to change this situation is the Youth and Adult Education Program (Peja), attended by 26,230 students in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone, according to the Municipal Secretariat of Education. “Peja has a diversity of students”, says Fatima Valente, director of the Youth and Adult Education Municipal Reference Center (Creja). Due to that diversity, our classes fulfill different needs. “We do not have working students, we have workers who study. That’s why our schedule cannot be the same as in regular education”.

These programs have helped change the lives of many people, like Luciana Muniz, age 35, and Antônio Alves, age 65, both Peja students. Luciana states that having no education has been very humiliating. “At church I could never take part in Bible reading, and that made me sad”. Today she is very active in Church, wishes to keep on studying, to graduate in Gastronomy and dreams of opening up her own company. Antônio, in turn, quit studying to work in crops at the age of 7, and now says he will not stop again. “I study at home too. My wife finds it funny that I’m always holding a book. I can even read the small print on TV.”

(Fragment available on http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/informal_logic/article)

Choose the CORRECT alternative which brings a term that cannot replaces crops:

Read the text carefully.

 

New Sema4 DNA test screens your child for 193 genetic diseases
Rich Haridy | February 8th, 2018

 

    A DNA test has just been launched allowing parents to screen their newborn babies and children for a variety of childhood-onset diseases. Offered by genomic testing company Sema4, the test involves gathering a DNA sample via a simple cheek swab that is then mailed back to the company for sequencing.
    Newborns in the United States are currently screened for around 34 genetic conditions. This new test, the Sema4 Natalis, is designed to identify 193 different disorders that are all designated as childhood-onset diseases.
    "Until now, families have been likely to be caught off-guard by these early-onset diseases, and prognosis is often poor by the time symptoms have manifested," says CEO of Sema4, Eric Schadt. "Thanks to breakthroughs in science and medicine, we can now identify babies at risk for these broader set of diseases and deliver interventions – sometimes as simple as vitamin supplements – in time to make a real difference."
    Sema4 suggests that all conditions covered by the test have associated medical interventions, meaning the results have directly actionable outcomes either through medication or dietary interventions. The test also screens for variants in 10 genes associated with side effects or sensitivity to 38 different commonly prescribed medications. The company suggests this information can help guide parents and doctors in avoiding incorrect doses or adverse effects from medications.
    These kind of DNA tests are often engulfed in controversy, as simply testing positive for a genetic mutation doesn't necessarily mean one will actually develop the associated condition. While Sema4 would suggest this information helps parents care for their children in the best possible way, critics claim these tests can lead to unnecessary medical tests and anxiety in parents.
    "You put parents in a terrible position, because they don't know if they should wait until the child is sick to do in some cases draconian treatments," geneticist Laura Hercher told MIT Technology Review.
    In a clear attempt to get ahead of these ethical concerns Sema4 has joined up with a network of doctors and genetic counselors to help guide parents through the test results. Included in the US$649 test price is one consultation with a genetic counselor following the delivery of the results.
    While direct-to-consumer genetic testing is a burgeoning market, ¹these tests are still generally required to go through a doctor to help make sure patients understand the consequences of their results. Every order placed through Sema4 is reviewed by a doctor in order to fulfil the federal requirements for this kind of personal genetic testing.
    Last year, 23andme became the first direct-to-consumer genetic test to receive FDA approval for DNA testing without a doctor's supervision. The test was limited to 10 specific conditions only and cost $199.
Retrieved from: https://newatlas.com/sema4-baby-dna-testing/53314/

Consider the statements about the text and choose the alternative in which there are only correct propositions.

 

I. The revolutionary test is easily performed by sending newborn’s swab of saliva to Sema4 and afterwards verify for more than a hundred possible different disorders.
II. In 2016, the data from 23andme’s feature was supervised and considered suitable for limited medical diagnosis at low cost.

III. The test also includes a pharmacogenetic analysis of how a baby is likely to respond to 38 medications commonly prescribed at an early age
IV. Following the DNA tests, a genetic counsellor will follow up with the family and their pediatrician to identify the genetic mutation that the children will develop.

 

Mark the correct alternative.

Text - Are countries trying to end US dollar's power?

 

    Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has suggested that the U.S. dollar could be losing its status as the world's most important currency. Mr. Lavrov said that because the U.S. has imposed economic sanctions on countries like Iran, Turkey and Russia, these countries could start conducting international business in their own national currencies instead of the dollar. In addition, countries that have had trade tariffs imposed on them by the U.S. could also do trade in their own currencies. This could include the global economic superpower China dropping the dollar. China has already established trade deals in its own currency.
    Experts say the U.S. dollar could lose its position as the international reserve currency. The U.S. dollar replaced the British pound as the international reserve currency in the 1920s. Since then, most international trade has taken place using the dollar. This means more U.S. dollars flow out of the U.S. than flow in. The effect of this is the U.S. has a currency deficit as its dollars are in the bank accounts of other countries. Mr. Lavrov said: "I'm confident that the grave abuse of the role of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency will result over time in the weakening and demise of its role." China's currency the yuan is emerging as an alternative trading currency. Africa's most populous nation Nigeria has already started trading using the yuan.
Source: https://www.forbes.com (adapted)

Which one of these sentences is properly written?

Leia o texto abaixo. 

 

Tech Companies Struggle With How to Curtail Offensive Speech

 

No more hands off

  Internet firms are moving away from the long-held position that they didn’t want to monitor expression on their sites too closely, Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University, said.

  “The companies are stuck in the middle and no longer trying to avoid responsibility in a way that I think they were even a few years ago when they were saying we are just neutral platforms”, Raicu said. “They are increasingly taking a more open role in determining what content moderation looks like”.

  It’s not just in the U.S. where the internet companies are having to make hard decisions about speech. The firms are also grappling with extreme speech in other languages.

  Comments on Facebook have been linked to violence in places like Myanmar and India. A recent article by the Reuters news agency reports that negative messages about MyanMar’s Rohingya minority group were throughout its site.

  Some call on social media companies to do more to target and take down hate messages before they lead to violence.

  “If Facebook is bent on removing abusive words and nudity, they should be focused on removing these words as well”, said Abhinay Korukonda, a student from Mumbai, India, who is studying at the University of California, Berkeley. “This comes under special kinds of abusive terms. They should take an action. They should definitely remove these”.

(Disponível em: <https://www.voanews.com/a/tech-companies-struggle-with-curtailing-offensive-speech/4534022.html>. Acesso em: 19 ago. 2018.)

 

Com relação ao texto, identifique como verdadeiras (V) ou falsas (F) as seguintes afirmativas:

 

( ) Empresas da Internet estão mudando de posição quanto à liberdade de expressão em seus sítios.

( ) O Facebook se opõe a bloquear usuários que apresentam comportamentos abusivos na rede.

( ) O problema central tratado no texto não se restringe apenas ao que acontece nos Estados Unidos.

( ) As empresas de tecnologia estão contratando moderadores de conteúdo para monitorarem seus aplicativos.

 

Assinale a alternativa que apresenta a sequência correta, de cima para baixo.

Com base no excerto abaixo, retirado de um texto que discute a obsessão por esportes e suas consequências, responda a questão.

 

  There is no doubt that the sports industry in this country has grown massively over the last twenty years. This growth is linked with the development of cable and satellite television channels, many of which supply continual sports coverage to subscribers. These channels earn huge revenues not only from subscribers but also from advertisers who rush to advertise their goods and services when important sports events occur. The governing bodies of the various major sports in Britain, such as football, cricket, rugby and tennis, have cooperated with the television companies in signing agreements to allow the televising of their ‘products’. ________ the amazing hype that surrounds major, or even run-of-the-mill, sporting events stems from the pooled and vested interests of the owners of the media outlets and the groups who control the sports themselves. This continual high-intensity marketing of sport has led to a nation of obsessive watchers, most of whom are male.

  _________, it is not only the people who watch most of their sport on television that are fanatics. The real committed fans are those who follow their team weak in, week out, as they play around the country. What, it could be asked, is wrong with that? Is this not a harmless pastime that causes no one any problems? Yes, it can be, but too often this obsession with ‘your team’ can take over from a proper concern with other important issues of employment, family, relationships and even money. We all probably know of some ‘sports nut’, to whom the success or failure of their chosen team or individual sporting god matters too much. Often, belonging to a sports’ club or unofficial grouping takes priority over relationships that would appear to be more important in an individual’s life, for example, a wife or children.

(SHIACK, Don. How to write essays. Oxford: How to Books, 2009, p. 52-54.)

De acordo com o texto, assinale a alternativa correta.

Beyonce, colorism, and why all of this needs to end

by Ernest Owens

 

  Yes, the Super Bowl was on fire. As one who is very critical of halftime show performances, I cannot deny that Beyoncé brought the energy and attention. All of this led to her releasing her tour dates for the Mrs. Carter Show. As excited as I was to actually buy these tickets, something turned me off. The poster.

  If you haven’t seen the photographs for Beyonce’s new world tour, you probably wouldn’t even recognize her. You will see an image of what looks like a Victorian white woman in the Elizabethan era. Her (prosthetic) blonde hair puffed and extended to reveal a face that is almost as white as snow. Lips red and her skin powdered. This is not the same bronze Beyonce that I saw rocking the stage in an all female band with her darker Destiny’s Child counterparts. I was only left with memories of previous patterns that the multi-Grammy award winning artist had done in previous years in regards to her skin. And I asked myself the question: why, Bey?

  Let’s not act like this is something new. Over the years, it seems as though Beyonce has gotten lighter as she has gotten older. No, this is not genetics and let’s not pretend her skin color in her first Destiny’s Child album cover matches that of her latest album. Whether it is that highly controversial Revlon advertisement or her own album cover art, Beyonce has consistently been called out on alterations done to her pigments.

  What does this say about our society for black women? It tells me that, an independent, confident and successful woman of color still struggles to have the confidence to fully embrace the skin she is in. If one of the most powerful women in entertainment feels she has to lighten her skin for projection, what does that say for the rest of us?

  Believe it or not, colorism, the stigma associated with skin complexion, has been an ill that has not yet been dissolved by the black community. What was first given to us by slave masters in separating the house slaves from the field ones, has now taken place in how we objectify our women and each other.

  This is pretty problematic in many ways. It’s first of all self-loathing and unnecessary for today’s times. The fact that our nation had an African-American first lady with a complexion that isn’t on the lighter side of the spectrum, nor does it try to be, shows a compelling advancement in appreciation for all women of color in many ways.

  Furthermore, the only reason why such stigma in our country continues is contributed to our own behavior that is shaped by the influential people of color around us. It devastated me when I saw that Sammy Sosa had lightened his skin. As successful as he was in a field that was not necessarily fixated on male skin complexion, it saddened me to see him do it. In many ways, it even made me reflect back on the transition of the late great Michael Jackson and what explanations he had for such a more pale white appearance.

  And why does all of this matter? Because I grew up hearing stories of young dark black girls getting their faces scrubbed with skin lightening soaps out of their free will. Tales of young women being abandoned by their mothers because they were too dark.

  If this is the reality that had more implications back in the early 20th century than it does now, please stop it. Stop trying to explain why you are dating the ebony skin girl. Stop making it seem exceptional that a girl of a darker complexion is actually attractive. Celebrities, stop putting extraneous powders and lighteners on your skin: we all know what you used to look like and we still love you. And people of color: let’s not continue to perpetuate an oppressive cycle of self-loathing of our appearance and heritage. If this can be accomplished, then perhaps even in our own race we can truly make our lives not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character.

(adapted from www.huffingtonpost.com, 14/02/2013)

The pronoun “it” in the phrase “nor does it try to be”, bold faced, in paragraph 6 refers to: