Questões de Inglês

    "The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters of the practice have relied on very small samples of unrepresentative subjects, like isolated Buddhist monks who spend hours meditating every day, or on studies that generally were not randomized and did not include placebo control groups.

    This month, however, a study published in Biological Psychiatry brings scientific thoroughness to mindfulness meditation and for the first time shows that, unlike a placebo, it can change the brains of ordinary people and potentially improve their health.

    To meditate mindfully demands ‘‘an open and receptive, nonjudgmental awareness of your present-moment experience,’’ says J. David Creswell, who led the study and is an associate professor of psychology and the director of the Health and Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. One difficulty of investigating meditation has been the placebo problem. In rigorous studies, some participants receive treatment while others get a placebo: They believe they are getting the same treatment when they are not. But people can usually tell if they are meditating. Dr. Creswell, working with scientists from a number of other universities, managed to fake mindfulness.

    First they recruited 35 unemployed men and women who were seeking work and experiencing considerable stress. Blood was drawn and brain scans were given. Half the subjects were then taught formal mindfulness meditation at a residential retreat center; the rest completed a kind of sham mindfulness meditation that was focused on relaxation and distracting oneself from worries and stress. ‘‘

    "We had everyone do stretching exercises, for instance,’’ Dr. Creswell says. The mindfulness group paid close attention to bodily sensations, including unpleasant ones. The relaxation group was encouraged to chatter and ignore their bodies, while their leader cracked jokes.

    At the end of three days, the participants all told the researchers that they felt refreshed and better able to withstand the stress of unemployment. Yet follow-up brain scans showed differences in only those who underwent mindfulness meditation. There was more activity, or communication, among the portions of their brains that process stress-related reactions and other areas related to focus and calm. Four months later, those who had practiced mindfulness showed much lower levels in their blood of a marker of unhealthy inflammation than the relaxation group, even though few were still meditating.

    Dr. Creswell and his colleagues believe that the changes in the brain contributed to the subsequent reduction in inflammation, although precisely how remains unknown. Also unclear is whether you need to spend three uninterrupted days of contemplation to reap the benefits. When it comes to how much mindfulness is needed to improve health, Dr. Creswell says, ‘‘we still have no idea about the ideal dose.”

(Adapted from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/contemplation-therapy/)

 

Which of the following sentences is either not mentioned or cannot be comprehended from the text?

 

"The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters of the practice have relied on very small samples of unrepresentative subjects, like isolated Buddhist monks who spend hours meditating every day, or on studies that generally were not randomized and did not include placebo control groups.

This month, however, a study published in Biological Psychiatry brings scientific thoroughness to mindfulness meditation and for the first time shows that, unlike a placebo, it can change the brains of ordinary people and potentially improve their health.

To meditate mindfully demands ‘‘an open and receptive, nonjudgmental awareness of your present-moment experience,’’ says J. David Creswell, who led the study and is an associate professor of psychology and the director of the Health and Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. One difficulty of investigating meditation has been the placebo problem. In rigorous studies, some participants receive treatment while others get a placebo: They believe they are getting the same treatment when they are not. But people can usually tell if they are meditating. Dr. Creswell, working with scientists from a number of other universities, managed to fake mindfulness.

First they recruited 35 unemployed men and women who were seeking work and experiencing considerable stress. Blood was drawn and brain scans were given. Half the subjects were then taught formal mindfulness meditation at a residential retreat center; the rest completed a kind of sham mindfulness meditation that was focused on relaxation and distracting oneself from worries and stress. ‘‘

We had everyone do stretching exercises, for instance,’’ Dr. Creswell says. The mindfulness group paid close attention to bodily sensations, including unpleasant ones. The relaxation group was encouraged to chatter and ignore their bodies, while their leader cracked jokes.

At the end of three days, the participants all told the researchers that they felt refreshed and better able to withstand the stress of unemployment. Yet follow-up brain scans showed differences in only those who underwent mindfulness meditation. There was more activity, or communication, among the portions of their brains that process stress-related reactions and other areas related to focus and calm. Four months later, those who had practiced mindfulness showed much lower levels in their blood of a marker of unhealthy inflammation than the relaxation group, even though few were still meditating.

Dr. Creswell and his colleagues believe that the changes in the brain contributed to the subsequent reduction in inflammation, although precisely how remains unknown. Also unclear is whether you need to spend three uninterrupted days of contemplation to reap the benefits. When it comes to how much mindfulness is needed to improve health, Dr. Creswell says, ‘‘we still have no idea about the ideal dose.”

 

(Adapted from: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/contemplation-therapy/)

The conjunction however (2nd paragraph) may be replaced, without causing grammatical loss, by:

Challenges concerning multiculturalism in Canada

     

      The official Canadian policy of multiculturalism has been updated twice since its introduction in

1971. It was originally created as a policy based on the logic of ethnicity, modified to deal with racism and

amended to include freedom of religion. In 1988 the Canadian Multiculturalism Act was passed.

      Canada is considered a nation of immigrants such that cultural diversity is often presented as the

essence of national identity. However, it is difficult to negotiate social and political policy when trying to

speak for such a varied populace. Two very real challenges that Canada faces in regard to multiculturalism

are the clash of cultures and the socioeconomic position of immigrants.

      An example of clash of cultures is the one between English and French-Canada. The province of

Quebec has always asserted a distinct identity and an inclination towards separatism from the rest of the

country. In 1995, there was a referendum in the province of Quebec concerning separation in which 49% of

the voting population voted “yes” and 51% voted “no”. The clash between French and English-Canada is

primarily a cultural clash with Quebec concerned with preserving its own history, language and values;

fearing these things are apt to become lost within English-Canada. Since the referendum, tensions have

cooled a bit and Canada’s national administration has increased their efforts to accommodate Quebec identity

within a Canadian identity.

      Another challenge of multiculturalism is the socioeconomic position of immigrants. Diversity is

supported by governmental policy but Canada is still a society where racist interactions and poor-bashing

are severely detrimental to minorities (especially recent arrivals). There are many barriers to equal

integration, especially in education, housing and employment. For example, in the workforce it is very

difficult to get a job when the potential employer feels you are not speaking “proper” English or you do not

have any Canadian work experience on your resumé. This often leads to overqualified people in full-time

minimum wage positions with little or no benefits and no access, time or funds for language classes or other

training programs. These sorts of circumstances lead to isolation, alienation, poverty and unsafe

environments where a new immigrant does not feel safe to report or act against harassment or abuse.

Source: Adapted from http://globalcitizens.pbworks.com/w/page/9036226/Challenges%20Concerning%20Multiculturalism%20in %20Canada.

Mark the CORRECT alternative.

 

[1]       Even if the figure of the zombie appeared only relatively recently in popular western culture, it has enjoyed

[2]  almost continuous success since the 60s and the release of Night Of The Living Dead by Romero. A success

[3]  that the series The Walking Dead is definitely being driven by, inspired by the series of comic books of the same

[4]  name created by Robert Kirkman in 2003. With the help of the film director Frank Darabont, he also contributed

[5]  towards its adaptation for the American channel AMC, which has been showing the series since September

[6]  2010.

[7]      The plot of The Walking Dead revolves around the character Rick Grimes, a police officer who discovers

[8]  when coming out of a prolonged coma that the majority of the human race has been transformed into zombies.

[9]  Along with other survivors, he attempts to make an existence last longer in the heart of an America that has

[10]  been devastated and invaded by the hordes of the living dead.

[11]      In the same way as for the comic book, the TV series became an immediate success and even achieved

[12]  record audiences as The Walking Dead is now the most watched series in the history of American cable TV.

[13]  An enthusiasm clearly created by the comic books and the televised episodes, but that is also driven by a vast

[14]  transmedia presence that offers the TV viewer an ever more innovative narrative experience.

[15]  An augmented televisual experience

[16]  To achieve this, The Walking Dead has been adapted to a variety of special media, all of which contri-

[17]  bute a new dimension to the overall narrative. Even for the television, AMC does not simply show the episodes

[18]  in the series. Since 2011, the channel has been producing a 30 minute talk show presented by the comedian

[19]  Chris Hardwick: Talking Dead is thus positioned as the direct extension of the TV series and actors, fans and

[20]  members of the production crew are invited to take part.

[21]  In the same spirit of complementing the TV series, AMC has also developed The Walking Dead

[22]  Story Sync, a so-called double screen application, which will allow the user to post live comments on the episodes,

[23]  respond to surveys and talk to other fans via a chat system.

 

Disponível em <http://www.transmedialab.org/en/the-blog-en/case-study-en/the-walking-dead-a-tentacular-transmedia-success/>. Acesso em 25 set. 2016.

O sucesso da proposta transmidiática apresentada deve-se, de acordo com o texto, ao fato de que, nesta proposta,

Processo de produção de “nuggets” mais saudáveis:

 

1. A worker feeds chickens at Kee Song Brothers' drugfree poultry farm in Yong Peng.

2. A researcher counts Lactobacillus colonies forming in a Petri dish.

3. A researcher shows Petri dishes containing Lactobacillus colonies forming.

4. A researcher shows Lactobacillus fermented powder to be mixed with chicken feed.

 

Escolha a alternativa que apresenta a ordem correta das figuras que ilustram o processo descrito:

Disponível em: http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/mozart-loving-chickens-may answer-st?articleId=USKBN0O200V20150517&slideId=1048941026

Read the text to answer.

 

Mysterious ancient cemetery in Egypt could contain a million mummies

 

    A mysterious ancient cemetery in Egypt could contain more than a million mummified human remains, archaeologists have claimed.

   Around 1,700 bodies have so far been uncovered at the Fag el‐Gamous (Way of the Water Buffalo) site, around 60 miles south of Cairo. But experts believe that countless more are contained in the burial ground.

    “We are fairly certain we have over a million burials within this cemetery. It's large, and it's dense,” said project director Kerry Muhlestein, an associate professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University (BYU), which has been examining the site for around 30 years.

    They were placed there between the 1st and the 7th centuries AD, but the scale of the site has left many baffled.

    A nearby village has been deemed too small to warrant such a large cemetery, while the closest major settlements had their own burial grounds.

    “It's hard to know where all these people were coming from,” Professor Muhlestein told Live Science.

    Another interesting find was that the corpses appeared to be grouped together by hair colour, with one section containing the remains of those with blonde hair and another for those with red hair.

    The bodies, which included a man of more than seven feet in height, are thought to be of ordinary citizens, rather than the royalty found at many famous Egyptian sites. They were not buried in coffins, according to Muhlestein, and were in fact mummified not by design but by the arid natural environment.

    “The people in the cemetery represent the common man. They are the average people who are usually hard to learn about because they are not very visible in written sources. A lot of their wealth, or the little that they had, was poured into these burials.”

    His team discovered objects including glassware, jewellery and linen. The findings were presented to the Scholars Colloquim at the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities in Toronto last month.

The Telegraph, London.

(http://www.traveller.com.au/mysterious‐ancient‐cemetery‐in‐egypt‐could‐contain‐a‐million‐mummies‐12aaq7.)

According to the text, it is true that: