Questões de Inglês

STICKERNOMICS

Football albums

Got, got, got, got, got, need  

 

[1]   THE World Cup is still two weeks away, but for children worldwide (plus disturbing numbers of adults)  

the race to complete the Brazil 2014 sticker book started long ago. Panini, an Italian firm, has produced  

sticker albums for World Cups since Mexico 1970; this year’s version has 640 stickers to collect. Collecting  

them is no idle pursuit, however. Getting every slot filled delivers an early lesson in probability, the value of  

[5] statistical tests and the importance of liquidity.  

  When you start an album, your first sticker (in Britain, they come in packs of five) has a 640/640  

probability of being needed. As the spaces get filled, the odds of opening a pack and finding a sticker you  

want fall. According to Sylvain Sardy and Yvan Velenik, two mathematicians at the University of Geneva, the  

number of sticker packs that you would have to buy on average to fill the album by mechanically buying pack  

[10] after pack would be 899. That assumes there is no supply shock to the market (the theft of hundreds of 

thousands of stickers in Brazil in April left many fearful that Panini would run short of cards).  

  It also assumes that the market is not being rigged. Panini says that each sticker is printed in the same  

volumes and randomly distributed. In a 2010 paper Messrs Sardy and Velenik gamely played the role of  

“regulator” by checking the distribution of stickers for a 660-sticker album sold in Switzerland for that year’s  

[15] World Cup. Out of their sample of 6,000 stickers, they expected to see each sticker 9.09 times on average  

(6,000/660), which was broadly borne out in practice.  

  Even in a fair market, it is inefficient to buy endless packs as an individual (not to mention bloody  

expensive for the parents). The answer is to create a market for collectors to swap their unwanted stickers.  

The playground is one version of this market, where a child who has a card prized by many suddenly  

[20] understands the power of limited supply. Sticker fairs are another. As with any market, liquidity counts. The  

more people who can be attracted into the market with their duplicate cards, the better the chances of finding  

the sticker you want.  

  Messrs Sardy and Velenik reckon that a group of ten astute sticker-swappers would need a mere  

1,435 packs between them to complete all ten albums, if they take advantage of Panini’s practice of selling  

[25] the final 50 missing stickers to order. Internet forums, where potentially unlimited numbers of people can  

swap stickers, make this number fall even further. The idea of a totally efficient market should dismay Panini,  

which will sell fewer packs as a result. But as in all markets, behaviour is not strictly rational. Despite  

entreaties, your correspondent’s son is prepared to tear out most of his stickers to get hold of Lionel Messi.  

Fonte: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21603019-got-got-got-got-got-need-stickernomics Acesso: 13/ago/2014 

 

Marque a opção em que o item lexical sublinhado não remete a uma informação anterior. 

STICKERNOMICS

Football albums

Got, got, got, got, got, need  

 

[1]   THE World Cup is still two weeks away, but for children worldwide (plus disturbing numbers of adults)  

the race to complete the Brazil 2014 sticker book started long ago. Panini, an Italian firm, has produced  

sticker albums for World Cups since Mexico 1970; this year’s version has 640 stickers to collect. Collecting  

them is no idle pursuit, however. Getting every slot filled delivers an early lesson in probability, the value of  

[5] statistical tests and the importance of liquidity.  

  When you start an album, your first sticker (in Britain, they come in packs of five) has a 640/640  

probability of being needed. As the spaces get filled, the odds of opening a pack and finding a sticker you  

want fall. According to Sylvain Sardy and Yvan Velenik, two mathematicians at the University of Geneva, the  

number of sticker packs that you would have to buy on average to fill the album by mechanically buying pack  

[10] after pack would be 899. That assumes there is no supply shock to the market (the theft of hundreds of 

thousands of stickers in Brazil in April left many fearful that Panini would run short of cards).  

  It also assumes that the market is not being rigged. Panini says that each sticker is printed in the same  

volumes and randomly distributed. In a 2010 paper Messrs Sardy and Velenik gamely played the role of  

“regulator” by checking the distribution of stickers for a 660-sticker album sold in Switzerland for that year’s  

[15] World Cup. Out of their sample of 6,000 stickers, they expected to see each sticker 9.09 times on average  

(6,000/660), which was broadly borne out in practice.  

  Even in a fair market, it is inefficient to buy endless packs as an individual (not to mention bloody  

expensive for the parents). The answer is to create a market for collectors to swap their unwanted stickers.  

The playground is one version of this market, where a child who has a card prized by many suddenly  

[20] understands the power of limited supply. Sticker fairs are another. As with any market, liquidity counts. The  

more people who can be attracted into the market with their duplicate cards, the better the chances of finding  

the sticker you want.  

  Messrs Sardy and Velenik reckon that a group of ten astute sticker-swappers would need a mere  

1,435 packs between them to complete all ten albums, if they take advantage of Panini’s practice of selling  

[25] the final 50 missing stickers to order. Internet forums, where potentially unlimited numbers of people can  

swap stickers, make this number fall even further. The idea of a totally efficient market should dismay Panini,  

which will sell fewer packs as a result. But as in all markets, behaviour is not strictly rational. Despite  

entreaties, your correspondent’s son is prepared to tear out most of his stickers to get hold of Lionel Messi.  

Fonte: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21603019-got-got-got-got-got-need-stickernomics Acesso: 13/ago/2014 

 

Marque a opção em que o uso do ing denota ação contínua. 

Bribery, corruption, and worker abuse have reached a boiling point in Qatar, the 2022 World cup host.

Migrant Wokers on a contruction site in Doha, Qatar. Amnesty Intenational/Zuma

 

The world was shocked when Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010. Of course, there’s the weather: the Persian Gulf state suffers temperatures well north of 100 degrees – sometimes over 120 – in the World Cup months of June and July. And there’s the fact that the tiny, oil-rich nation has little soccer history or presence on the sport’s international stage: It’s never sent a team to the Cup to compete. Turns out, there may have been more suspicious factors behind FIFA’s bizarre decision. The British press have alleged that Qatari billionaire Mohamed bin Hammam paid off FIFA officials in order to secure their votes to bring the Cup to his country. If the allegations are true, FIFA Vice President Jim Boyce said he’d push to strip Qatar of the Cup and re-award it to another country. What could push all this to critical mass is ongoing outrage over Qatar’s mistreatment of the construction workers tasked with building Cup infrastructure. The long hours of hard labor in unbearably hot conditions have proven lethal: It’s estimated that 1200 workers have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the Cup. They are almost exclusively migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia and can only leave Qatar with the written permission of their employers – a system some watchers have compared to slavery. Five of the World Cup’s six top corporate sponsors (including Coca-Cola and Adidas) have voiced concern over corruption and worker abuse allegations, and publicly back formal investigations. Blatter, in a rare off-message moment, admitted that giving Qatar the bid was a “mistake”. Qatari officials have denied wrong doing on corruption charges and promised to reform labor laws – but clearly, they have a lot more to worry about than air-conditioning their stadiums.

(Adaptado de: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/06/fifa-world-cup-scandals-brazil-qatar. Acesso em: 17 set. 2014.)

 

Com base nas expressões sublinhadas no texto, considere as afirmativas a seguir.

 

I. Os termos long hours, hard labor e unbearably hot foram empregados com o propósito de dar imparcialidade ao texto.

II. O termo turns out introduz a ideia de que as informações apresentadas em seguida têm um caráter de veracidade.

III. Ao utilizar os vocábulos shocked e bizarre decision, o enunciador revela sua opinião sobre o assunto.

IV. A utilização da palavra slavery revela um aspecto negativo em torno da discussão acerca da escolha do Catar.

 

Assinale a alternativa correta.

text I

In 2013 medical journal, the Lancet, confirmed that malnutrition is the underlying cause behind 45% of child deaths under five. But the government is showing it has the political will to address the problem, having signed up to the Nutrition for Growth agreement and joined the Scaling Up Nutrition (Sun) movement, a collective effort from governments, civil society, the UN, donors, businesses and researchers. It’s involvement in Sun is being led by the vice-president’s office. “It’s come to the point where everybody knows it’s not just health related, you need to have all the players on board to tackle malnutrition,” says Aminata Shamit Koroma, director of food and nutrition at Sierra Leone’s the ministry of health. As the country moves from post-conflict to emerging market, the government realises that it must shift from treatment of malnutrition to prevention. Agriculture, education, gender equality and sanitation all have a role to play in this. “We’ve seen that women with a higher educational level are less likely to have malnourished children. You need good sanitation. You need food to be affordable, accessible for people to be able to purchase and feed themselves,” says Koroma. In Sierra Leone, Koroma focuses on promoting breastfeeding as a key policy for reducing stunting and malnutrition among younger generations. The message that babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their lives is broadcast over the radio, during awareness weeks and via mother-to-mother support groups. “Experienced mothers counsel young mothers,” she says. “We’ve found that the barrier to exclusive breastfeeding is tradition. Grandmothers tell mothers they need to give the baby water because it’s thirsty. We use this same medium [grandmothers] to go back to the mothers and say, you don’t have to give the baby water. Breast milk has everything the child needs for the first six months.”

(LEACH, Anna Veronica. Adaptado de: Guardian Professional, Monday 16 June 2014 12.39 BST. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 1 jul. 2014.)

 

Assinale a alternativa que apresenta, corretamente, o principal objetivo do texto.

What is the future of technology in education?

 

By Matt Britland

 

  Some time ago I was asked about the future of

technology in education. It is a question I think about

all the time. By its very nature, technology changes

quickly and making it accessible to pupils, teachers

and other stakeholders is an ongoing challenge.

  I don’t think iPad is the future. For me, the future

is not about one specific device. Don’t misunderstand

me, I love the iPad. In fact, I have just finished a trial

using them – and they have proved effective.

  IPads and other mobile technology are the

‘now’, and they will play a part in the future, but four

years ago the iPad didn’t even exist. We don’t know

what the current technology will be in another four.

Perhaps it will be wearable devices such as Google

Glass, although I suspect tablets will still be used in

education.

  The future is about access, both locally and

globally. Teaching and learning is going to be social.

Future schools could have a traditional cohort of

students plus online only students who live across

the country or abroad. Things are already starting to

move this way with the emergence of massive open

online courses (MOOCs).

  For me the future of technology in education is the

cloud because it can remove the barrier technology

often represents to teaching and learning.

  Schools will only need one major thing to

be prepared for the future: a fast robust internet

connection. Infrastructure is paramount to the future

of technology in education.

  We don’t know about the new future devices, but

we do know that they will need the cloud. Schools and

other educational institutions will need to provide the

best possible infrastructure.

  If you want to start to use mobile technology in

your school, whether it is an iPad program or a bring

your own device (BYOD) program, your connectivity

must be fast and reliable. If the network is inefficient,

students and teachers will not want to use the devices.

The infrastructure should be there before the devices.

  Teachers can use the cloud to set, collect and

grade work online. Students will have instant access

to grades, comments and work via a computer,

smartphone or tablet. Many schools are already doing

this.

  This is where devices come in. All devices in the

future will need to access the cloud. Students will

have their own devices, either specified by the school

or chosen by themselves.

  Thanks to the cloud and mobile devices,

technology will be integrated into every part of school.

Games fields, gyms and school trips will all change.

Whether offsite or on site, the school, teachers,

students and support staff will all be connected. All

classrooms will be paperless.

  With the cloud, the world will be our classroom.

E-learning will change teaching and learning. Students

and teachers can interact from anywhere.

  The cloud can also encourage independent

learning. Teachers could adopt a flipped classroom

approach more often. Teachers can put videos,

documents, audio podcasts or interactive images for

students online. Students will take ownership of their

own learning. There is a massive amount of resources

online that students can find and use without the

help of the teacher. As long as they have an internet

connection, they are good to go.

  This, of course, means the teacher’s role will

change.

  Shared applications and documents on the

cloud will allow for more social lessons. How often do

students get an opportunity to collaborate productively

using technology in the classroom? It isn’t always

easy. However, using Google Apps is easy when

students are working on documents together. They

could be in the same room or in different countries. Of

course, these collaborative tools are also very useful

for teachers, even if they never meet their students.

  What we must remember is that when schools

adopt new technology and services, they must be

evaluated. Staff will also need training. Any initiative is

doomed to failure without well trained, confident staff

who can see how technology can support and benefit

teaching and learning.

  Many schools have already embraced this, but

there’s still a way to go to ensure all schools are ready

for the future of technology. It is time for all schools to

embrace the cloud.

 

Available at: teacher-blog/2013/jun/19/technology-future-education-cloud- -social-learning>. Retrieved on: 20th Aug. 2014. Adapted. 

In the sentence of the text “However, using Google Apps is easy when students are working on documents together” (lines 74-75), the word However implies the idea of 

What is the future of technology in education?

 

By Matt Britland

 

  Some time ago I was asked about the future of

technology in education. It is a question I think about

all the time. By its very nature, technology changes

quickly and making it accessible to pupils, teachers

and other stakeholders is an ongoing challenge.

  I don’t think iPad is the future. For me, the future

is not about one specific device. Don’t misunderstand

me, I love the iPad. In fact, I have just finished a trial

using them – and they have proved effective.

  IPads and other mobile technology are the

‘now’, and they will play a part in the future, but four

years ago the iPad didn’t even exist. We don’t know

what the current technology will be in another four.

Perhaps it will be wearable devices such as Google

Glass, although I suspect tablets will still be used in

education.

  The future is about access, both locally and

globally. Teaching and learning is going to be social.

Future schools could have a traditional cohort of

students plus online only students who live across

the country or abroad. Things are already starting to

move this way with the emergence of massive open

online courses (MOOCs).

  For me the future of technology in education is the

cloud because it can remove the barrier technology

often represents to teaching and learning.

  Schools will only need one major thing to

be prepared for the future: a fast robust internet

connection. Infrastructure is paramount to the future

of technology in education.

  We don’t know about the new future devices, but

we do know that they will need the cloud. Schools and

other educational institutions will need to provide the

best possible infrastructure.

  If you want to start to use mobile technology in

your school, whether it is an iPad program or a bring

your own device (BYOD) program, your connectivity

must be fast and reliable. If the network is inefficient,

students and teachers will not want to use the devices.

The infrastructure should be there before the devices.

  Teachers can use the cloud to set, collect and

grade work online. Students will have instant access

to grades, comments and work via a computer,

smartphone or tablet. Many schools are already doing

this.

  This is where devices come in. All devices in the

future will need to access the cloud. Students will

have their own devices, either specified by the school

or chosen by themselves.

  Thanks to the cloud and mobile devices,

technology will be integrated into every part of school.

Games fields, gyms and school trips will all change.

Whether offsite or on site, the school, teachers,

students and support staff will all be connected. All

classrooms will be paperless.

  With the cloud, the world will be our classroom.

E-learning will change teaching and learning. Students

and teachers can interact from anywhere.

  The cloud can also encourage independent

learning. Teachers could adopt a flipped classroom

approach more often. Teachers can put videos,

documents, audio podcasts or interactive images for

students online. Students will take ownership of their

own learning. There is a massive amount of resources

online that students can find and use without the

help of the teacher. As long as they have an internet

connection, they are good to go.

  This, of course, means the teacher’s role will

change.

  Shared applications and documents on the

cloud will allow for more social lessons. How often do

students get an opportunity to collaborate productively

using technology in the classroom? It isn’t always

easy. However, using Google Apps is easy when

students are working on documents together. They

could be in the same room or in different countries. Of

course, these collaborative tools are also very useful

for teachers, even if they never meet their students.

  What we must remember is that when schools

adopt new technology and services, they must be

evaluated. Staff will also need training. Any initiative is

doomed to failure without well trained, confident staff

who can see how technology can support and benefit

teaching and learning.

  Many schools have already embraced this, but

there’s still a way to go to ensure all schools are ready

for the future of technology. It is time for all schools to

embrace the cloud.

 

Available at: teacher-blog/2013/jun/19/technology-future-education-cloud- -social-learning>. Retrieved on: 20th Aug. 2014. Adapted. 

In the text, the sentence “Shared applications and documents on the cloud will allow for more social lessons” (lines 70-71) means that students will be able to use