Questões de Inglês

Death of The Death Care Industry
Death is a dying industry with an economic phenomenon. As Americans perceived value of “traditional” funerals diminish, the cost of funerals have increased nearly 1,328% in just four decades. In 1960 the average cost of a funeral was $706 when only 3.56% of bodies were cremated. Today the average traditional funeral costs between $8,000  and $10,000, and about 42% of people are cremated. The US funeral industry accounts for about $20 billion in annual economic activity, with around 130,000 employees that make a living on the 1.5 million people that go to rest each year.
Many communities have turned a blind eye to what goes on inside funeral homes, as many people prefer not to know  the ins and out of the business. In addition, grieving customers in need of funeral goods and services may not be in a healthy state of mind to make financial decisions. Grief has similar side effects of alcohol consumption, such as numbness, guilt, and depression, resulting in less alert and price sensitive customers. In addition, the funeral industry is somewhat taboo in the sense that communities in general don’t communicate with one another about what are acceptable practices in this industry.
Some funeral service providers have taken advantage of this by encouraging the lack of transparency in the industry, charging exorbitant prices for funeral goods and services and charging people who appear to be wealthy higher prices. After Jessica Mitford published The American Way of Death in 1963, to expose the abuses in the funeral industry, a groundswell of support for government intervention followed. Under President Ronald Reagan The Funeral Rule was first enacted to protect consumers from deceptive practices, but the rule has yet to put the nail in the coffin.
Adaptado de: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/perianneboring/2014/04/25/thedeath-of-the-death-care-industry-and-eternal-lifeonline/#60f53eb1c1ae> Acessado em 13 de outubro de 2017

Hot or Cold? The Benefits of Both Kinds of Showers

Showering is an essential part of a healthy routine, but depending on the temperature, your time spent under the water can offer different benefits. Whether you like it hot or prefer it cold, learn how your showering routine can affect your health. After reading, you might rethink which way you turn the dial.
Some Like It Hot
Hot showers can relieve tension and soothe stiff muscles. If you have a powerful showerhead, even better! Let the hot water work like a minimassage on your shoulders, neck, and back.
Studies have shown that taking a hot shower can amp up your oxytocin levels and ease anxiety. Anyone working with stress can use more of the love hormone in their life! A hot shower also acts as a natural decongestant to relieve cold symptoms, since the hot steam moisturizes nasal passages.
Some Like It Cold
Cold showers — as unbearable as they are — are actually really good for our bodies! Turning your shower cold for the last five minutes can help "shock" your body awake. This instant change in temperature relieves your body of fatigue and increases your mental alertness.
A "cooler" shower (around 68 degrees) for two to three minutes once or twice daily is recommended by researchers as a treatment for depression. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out!
On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin. 

Disponível em: Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Hot or Cold? The Benefits of Both Kinds of Showers

Showering is an essential part of a healthy routine, but depending on the temperature, your time spent under the water can offer different benefits. Whether you like it hot or prefer it cold, learn how your showering routine can affect your health. After reading, you might rethink which way you turn the dial.
Some Like It Hot
Hot showers can relieve tension and soothe stiff muscles. If you have a powerful showerhead, even better! Let the hot water work like a minimassage on your shoulders, neck, and back.
Studies have shown that taking a hot shower can amp up your oxytocin levels and ease anxiety. Anyone working with stress can use more of the love hormone in their life! A hot shower also acts as a natural decongestant to relieve cold symptoms, since the hot steam moisturizes nasal passages.
Some Like It Cold
Cold showers — as unbearable as they are — are actually really good for our bodies! Turning your shower cold for the last five minutes can help "shock" your body awake. This instant change in temperature relieves your body of fatigue and increases your mental alertness.
A "cooler" shower (around 68 degrees) for two to three minutes once or twice daily is recommended by researchers as a treatment for depression. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out!
On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin. 

Disponível em: Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

Every aging society faces distinct challenges. But Japan, with the world’s oldest population (27.3 percent of its citizens are 65 or older, almost twice the share in the U.S.), has been dealing with one it didn’t foresee: senior crime.  Complaints and arrests involving elderly people, and women in particular, are taking place at rates above those of any other demographic group. Almost 1 in 5 women in Japanese prisons is a senior. Their crimes are usually minor—9 in 10 senior women who’ve been convicted were found guilty of shoplifting.
Why have so many otherwise law-abiding elderly women resorted to petty theft? Caring for Japanese seniors once fell to families and communities, but that’s changing. From 1980 to 2015, the number of seniors living alone increased more than sixfold, to almost 6 million. And a 2017 survey by Tokyo’s government found that more than half of seniors caught shoplifting live alone; 40 percent either don’t have family or rarely speak with relatives. These people often say they have no one to turn to when they need help.
Elderly women are also often economically vulnerable— nearly half of those 65 or older who live alone also live in poverty relative to the broader population, for example, compared with 29 percent of men.
Neither the government nor the private sector has established an effective rehabilitation program for seniors, and the costs to keep them in prison are rising fast. Expenses associated with elder care helped push annual medical costs at correctional facilities past $50 million in 2015, an 80 percent increase from a decade before. Specialized workers have been hired to help older inmates with bathing and toileting during the day, but at night these tasks are handled by guards.
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant. More than a third of female correctional officers quit their jobs within three years.
In 2016, Japan’s parliament passed a law aiming to ensure that recidivist seniors get support from the country’s welfare and social-service systems. Since then, prosecutor’s offices and prisons have worked closely with government agencies to get senior offenders the assistance they need. But the problems that lead these women to seek the relative comfort of jail lie beyond the system’s reach.
Adaptado de: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-16/japan-s-prisons-are-a-haven-for-elderly-women> Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

Every aging society faces distinct challenges. But Japan, with the world’s oldest population (27.3 percent of its citizens are 65 or older, almost twice the share in the U.S.), has been dealing with one it didn’t foresee: senior crime.  Complaints and arrests involving elderly people, and women in particular, are taking place at rates above those of any other demographic group. Almost 1 in 5 women in Japanese prisons is a senior. Their crimes are usually minor—9 in 10 senior women who’ve been convicted were found guilty of shoplifting.
Why have so many otherwise law-abiding elderly women resorted to petty theft? Caring for Japanese seniors once fell to families and communities, but that’s changing. From 1980 to 2015, the number of seniors living alone increased more than sixfold, to almost 6 million. And a 2017 survey by Tokyo’s government found that more than half of seniors caught shoplifting live alone; 40 percent either don’t have family or rarely speak with relatives. These people often say they have no one to turn to when they need help.
Elderly women are also often economically vulnerable— nearly half of those 65 or older who live alone also live in poverty relative to the broader population, for example, compared with 29 percent of men.
Neither the government nor the private sector has established an effective rehabilitation program for seniors, and the costs to keep them in prison are rising fast. Expenses associated with elder care helped push annual medical costs at correctional facilities past $50 million in 2015, an 80 percent increase from a decade before. Specialized workers have been hired to help older inmates with bathing and toileting during the day, but at night these tasks are handled by guards.
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant. More than a third of female correctional officers quit their jobs within three years.
In 2016, Japan’s parliament passed a law aiming to ensure that recidivist seniors get support from the country’s welfare and social-service systems. Since then, prosecutor’s offices and prisons have worked closely with government agencies to get senior offenders the assistance they need. But the problems that lead these women to seek the relative comfort of jail lie beyond the system’s reach.
Adaptado de: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-16/japan-s-prisons-are-a-haven-for-elderly-women> Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women

Lonely seniors are shoplifting in search of the community and stability of jail.

Every aging society faces distinct challenges. But Japan, with the world’s oldest population (27.3 percent of its citizens are 65 or older, almost twice the share in the U.S.), has been dealing with one it didn’t foresee: senior crime.  Complaints and arrests involving elderly people, and women in particular, are taking place at rates above those of any other demographic group. Almost 1 in 5 women in Japanese prisons is a senior. Their crimes are usually minor—9 in 10 senior women who’ve been convicted were found guilty of shoplifting.
Why have so many otherwise law-abiding elderly women resorted to petty theft? Caring for Japanese seniors once fell to families and communities, but that’s changing. From 1980 to 2015, the number of seniors living alone increased more than sixfold, to almost 6 million. And a 2017 survey by Tokyo’s government found that more than half of seniors caught shoplifting live alone; 40 percent either don’t have family or rarely speak with relatives. These people often say they have no one to turn to when they need help.
Elderly women are also often economically vulnerable— nearly half of those 65 or older who live alone also live in poverty relative to the broader population, for example, compared with 29 percent of men.
Neither the government nor the private sector has established an effective rehabilitation program for seniors, and the costs to keep them in prison are rising fast. Expenses associated with elder care helped push annual medical costs at correctional facilities past $50 million in 2015, an 80 percent increase from a decade before. Specialized workers have been hired to help older inmates with bathing and toileting during the day, but at night these tasks are handled by guards.
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant. More than a third of female correctional officers quit their jobs within three years.
In 2016, Japan’s parliament passed a law aiming to ensure that recidivist seniors get support from the country’s welfare and social-service systems. Since then, prosecutor’s offices and prisons have worked closely with government agencies to get senior offenders the assistance they need. But the problems that lead these women to seek the relative comfort of jail lie beyond the system’s reach.
Adaptado de: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-16/japan-s-prisons-are-a-haven-for-elderly-women> Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.