Questões de Inglês

RISING SEAS

 

As the planet warms, the sea rises. Coastlines flood. What will we protect? What will we abandon?

How will we face the danger of rising seas?

A seawall now protects Maale, capital of the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago that is the lowest, flattest country on Earth.

 

      By the time Hurricane Sandy veered toward the Northeast coast of the United States last October 29, it had mauled several countries in the Caribbean and left dozens dead. Faced with the largest storm ever spawned over the Atlantic, New York and other cities ordered mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas. Not everyone complied. Those who chose to ride out Sandy got a preview of the future, in which a warmer world will lead to inexorably rising seas.

      A profoundly altered planet is what our fossil-fuel-driven civilization is creating, a planet where Sandy-scale flooding will become more common and more destructive for the world’s coastal cities. By releasing carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, we have warmed the Earth by more than a full degree Fahrenheit over the past century and raised sea level by about eight inches. Even if we stopped burning all fossil fuels tomorrow, the existing greenhouse gases would continue to warm the Earth for centuries. We have irreversibly committed future generations to a hotter world and rising seas. (…)

      Global warming affects sea level in two ways. About a third of its current rise comes from thermal expansion – from the fact that water grows in volume as it warms. The rest comes from the melting of ice on land. So far it’s been mostly mountain glaciers, but the big concern for the future is the giant ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Six years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report predicting a maximum of 23 inches of sea-level rise by the end of this century. (…) However, that report intentionally omitted the possibility that the ice sheets might flow more rapidly into the sea, on the grounds that the physics of that process was poorly understood. But climate scientists now estimate that Greenland and Antarctica combined have lost on average about 50 cubic miles of ice each year since 1992 – roughly 200 billion metric tons of ice annually. Many think sea level will be at least three higher than today by 2100.

 

(National Geographic magazine. Vol. 224, nº 3, September 2013. Adaptado.)

 

According to the text and context, “Not everyone complied.” (1st paragraph) can be translated into Portuguese by the sentence:Quase ninguém enfrentou.

S P E C I E S

      Life on Earth is full of different species. Each species is adapted to a different environment. All you have to do is look around and observe.

      In a forest, species specialization can be seen in the layer system of forest life. Animals that live on the top of the trees dare not come to the ground. It is too dangerous for them. Besides, all food and shelter that they need to survive is on the top layer of the forest. The same can be said about animals in the middle layer and in the ground layer. Other species, like some types of bacteria, have to live inside the bodies of other animals to survive. If they go in the open for too long, they die.

      Humans also use to have their place in nature. They used to live in caves and feed on plants and on game. However, unlike other species, humans reasoned and wanted to change nature. They started defending themselves from their natural predators. They wanted to have a more comfortable life.

      If we are careful enough to observe nature, we will see that humans are the biggest threat living on earth today. They are used to doing only what they want, and not what they must. They are not used to doing what they ought to do in favor of life in this planet. Things have gotten so out of control that humans constitute the single species that acts against the rules of nature. They dare so much in favor of their own well-being that life of all species on earth is threatened, including human life.

(PRESCHER, E; PASQUALIN, E; AMOS, E. New Graded English. Editora Moderna. Adaptado.)

 

It is possible to observe in the text that human being is

In 1969 the world had its eyes turned to what was undoubtedly to become a historical feat: the first human being setting foot on the moon. However, in that same year something else of much importance was happening as well: the Internet was coming into being.

Usually when we think of a historical feat, we think of something big, like the first voyage to the moon. But more often than not, we find that the most meaningful events in history spring from what is

INGLÊS 

viewed in their time as an unimportant fact. A case in point is exactly what the figure above represents: the birth of the Internet.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when the Internet was born. The World Wide Web is indeed the result of a number of interrelated events that can be traced back to the first artificial satellite – the Russian (then Soviet) Sputnik – being put into orbit around the earth back in the 1950’s. But it was in l969 that “… four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET, and the budding Internet was off the ground”. The diagram above shows the first four places ever linked via the Internet which was then called the ARPANET. They are US organizations: the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Stanford Research Institute (SRI), the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the University of Utah (UTAH).

Little by little the Internet started spreading everywhere because of new technological advancements and today it is so important that our lives would not be the same without it. Of course going to the moon was an extremely important event as well, a real historical feat, but the birth of the Internet has proved to be the most significant historical fact, and feat, in the recent past of the history of mankind.

(MITRANO-NETO, N; LOUREIRO, M; ANTUNES, Alice M. Insight. Richmond Publishing Editora. São Paulo, 2004. Adaptado.)

 

till analyzing the word “it” in the last paragraph, we can say that

 

I. the first “it” is a subject pronoun.

II. the second “it” is an object pronoun.

III. both are personal pronouns.

IV. the first “it” is a possessive adjective.

V. the second “it” is a possessive pronoun.

 

It is CORRECT

In 1969 the world had its eyes turned to what was undoubtedly to become a historical feat: the first human being setting foot on the moon. However, in that same year something else of much importance was happening as well: the Internet was coming into being.

Usually when we think of a historical feat, we think of something big, like the first voyage to the moon. But more often than not, we find that the most meaningful events in history spring from what is

INGLÊS 

viewed in their time as an unimportant fact. A case in point is exactly what the figure above represents: the birth of the Internet.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when the Internet was born. The World Wide Web is indeed the result of a number of interrelated events that can be traced back to the first artificial satellite – the Russian (then Soviet) Sputnik – being put into orbit around the earth back in the 1950’s. But it was in l969 that “… four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET, and the budding Internet was off the ground”. The diagram above shows the first four places ever linked via the Internet which was then called the ARPANET. They are US organizations: the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Stanford Research Institute (SRI), the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the University of Utah (UTAH).

Little by little the Internet started spreading everywhere because of new technological advancements and today it is so important that our lives would not be the same without it. Of course going to the moon was an extremely important event as well, a real historical feat, but the birth of the Internet has proved to be the most significant historical fact, and feat, in the recent past of the history of mankind.

(MITRANO-NETO, N; LOUREIRO, M; ANTUNES, Alice M. Insight. Richmond Publishing Editora. São Paulo, 2004. Adaptado.)

 

According to the text, in 1969

 

I. the first human being thought about setting foot on the moon.

II. the first man really set foot on the moon.

III. the Internet came out to human being.

IV. the Sputnik was put into orbit around the earth.

V. some US organizations were first connected together.

 

It is CORRECT

Super typhoon Haiyan slams into Philippines, at least three dead

FRIDAY, 08 NOVEMBER 2013 14:41 IN: HTTP://WWW.DAILYMIRROR.LK/NEWS/WORLD-NEWS/INTERNATIONAL/38404-SUPERTYPHOON-HAIYAN-SLAMS-INTO-PHILIPPINES-AT-LEAST-THREE-DEAD.HTML

 

The strongest typhoon in the world this year and possibly the most powerful ever to hit land battered the Philippines on Friday, forcing more than a million people to flee, cutting power lines and blowing apart houses.

 

Haiyan, a category-5 super typhoon, scoured the northern tip of Cebu Province and headed west towards Boracay island, both of them tourist destinations, after lashing the central islands of Leyte and Samar with 275 kph (170 mph) wind gusts and 5-6 meter (15-19 ft) waves.

 

Three people were killed and seven injured, national disaster agency spokesman Rey Balido told a news briefing at the main army base in Manila. The death toll could rise as reports come in from stricken areas.

 

Power and communications in the three large island provinces of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were almost completely down but the government and telephone service providers promised to restore them within 24 hours.

 

Authorities warned that more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of Cebu City, which has a population of about 2.5 million, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.2-magnitude quake last month.

 

"The super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph. This makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall," said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at U.S.-based Weather Underground.

 

Typhoons and cyclones of that magnitude can blow apart storm shelters with the pressure they create, which can suck walls out and blow roofs off buildings. Lionel Dosdosa, an International Organization for Migration coordinator on Bohol island, the epicenter of an October 15 earthquake that killed 222 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, said power was off and streets were deserted. "It\'s dark and gloomy, alternating between drizzle and heavy rain", he said.

 

About a million people took shelter in 29 provinces, after President Benigno Aquino appealed to people in Haiyan\'s path to leave vulnerable areas, such as along river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes.

 

"Our school is now packed with evacuees," an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte who only gave her name as Feliza told a radio station. Leyte and Southern Leyte are about 630 km (390 miles) southeast of Manila. NO POWER, PRAYERS

 

Roger Mercado, governor of Southern Leyte province, said no one should underestimate the storm. "It is very powerful," Mercado told DZBB radio. "We lost power and all roads are impassable because of fallen trees. We just have to pray."

 

In Samar province, links with some towns and villages had been cut, officials said.

 

"The whole province has no power," Samar Governor Sharee Tan told Reuters by telephone. Fallen trees, toppled electric poles and other debris blocked roads, she said.

 

Authorities suspended ferry services and fishing and shut 13 airports. Nearly 450 domestic and eight international flights were suspended.

 

Schools, offices and shops in the central Philippines were closed, with hospitals, soldiers and emergency workers preparing for rescue operations. Twenty navy ships and various military aircraft including three C-130 cargo planes and helicopters were on standby.

 

The state weather bureau said Haiyan was expected to move past the Philippines on Saturday and out over the South China Sea, where it could become even stronger and threaten Vietnam or China.

 

The world\'s strongest recorded typhoon, cyclone or hurricane to make landfall was urricane Camille in 1969, which hit Mississippi with 305 kph (190 mph) winds, said Weather Underground\'s Masters.

 

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year.

 

Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three coastal towns on Mindanao, killed 1,100 people and caused damage estimated at $1.04 billion.

 

Haiyan is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year.

 

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Erik dela Cruz; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Robert Birsel)

No parágrafo 18, – Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three coastal towns on Mindanao, killed 1,100 people and caused damage estimated at $1.04 billion. – a palavra flattened significa

Super typhoon Haiyan slams into Philippines, at least three dead

FRIDAY, 08 NOVEMBER 2013 14:41 IN: HTTP://WWW.DAILYMIRROR.LK/NEWS/WORLD-NEWS/INTERNATIONAL/38404-SUPERTYPHOON-HAIYAN-SLAMS-INTO-PHILIPPINES-AT-LEAST-THREE-DEAD.HTML

 

The strongest typhoon in the world this year and possibly the most powerful ever to hit land battered the Philippines on Friday, forcing more than a million people to flee, cutting power lines and blowing apart houses.

 

Haiyan, a category-5 super typhoon, scoured the northern tip of Cebu Province and headed west towards Boracay island, both of them tourist destinations, after lashing the central islands of Leyte and Samar with 275 kph (170 mph) wind gusts and 5-6 meter (15-19 ft) waves.

 

Three people were killed and seven injured, national disaster agency spokesman Rey Balido told a news briefing at the main army base in Manila. The death toll could rise as reports come in from stricken areas.

 

Power and communications in the three large island provinces of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were almost completely down but the government and telephone service providers promised to restore them within 24 hours.

 

Authorities warned that more than 12 million people were at risk, including residents of Cebu City, which has a population of about 2.5 million, and areas still reeling from a deadly 2011 storm and a 7.2-magnitude quake last month.

 

"The super typhoon likely made landfall with winds near 195 mph. This makes Haiyan the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall," said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at U.S.-based Weather Underground.

 

Typhoons and cyclones of that magnitude can blow apart storm shelters with the pressure they create, which can suck walls out and blow roofs off buildings. Lionel Dosdosa, an International Organization for Migration coordinator on Bohol island, the epicenter of an October 15 earthquake that killed 222 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, said power was off and streets were deserted. "It\'s dark and gloomy, alternating between drizzle and heavy rain", he said.

 

About a million people took shelter in 29 provinces, after President Benigno Aquino appealed to people in Haiyan\'s path to leave vulnerable areas, such as along river banks, coastal villages and mountain slopes.

 

"Our school is now packed with evacuees," an elementary school teacher in Southern Leyte who only gave her name as Feliza told a radio station. Leyte and Southern Leyte are about 630 km (390 miles) southeast of Manila. NO POWER, PRAYERS

 

Roger Mercado, governor of Southern Leyte province, said no one should underestimate the storm. "It is very powerful," Mercado told DZBB radio. "We lost power and all roads are impassable because of fallen trees. We just have to pray."

 

In Samar province, links with some towns and villages had been cut, officials said.

 

"The whole province has no power," Samar Governor Sharee Tan told Reuters by telephone. Fallen trees, toppled electric poles and other debris blocked roads, she said.

 

Authorities suspended ferry services and fishing and shut 13 airports. Nearly 450 domestic and eight international flights were suspended.

 

Schools, offices and shops in the central Philippines were closed, with hospitals, soldiers and emergency workers preparing for rescue operations. Twenty navy ships and various military aircraft including three C-130 cargo planes and helicopters were on standby.

 

The state weather bureau said Haiyan was expected to move past the Philippines on Saturday and out over the South China Sea, where it could become even stronger and threaten Vietnam or China.

 

The world\'s strongest recorded typhoon, cyclone or hurricane to make landfall was urricane Camille in 1969, which hit Mississippi with 305 kph (190 mph) winds, said Weather Underground\'s Masters.

 

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year.

 

Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three coastal towns on Mindanao, killed 1,100 people and caused damage estimated at $1.04 billion.

 

Haiyan is the 24th such storm to hit the Philippines this year.

 

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema and Erik dela Cruz; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Robert Birsel)

No parágrafo 4, – Power and communications in thethree large island provinces of Samar, Leyte and Bohol were almost completely down but the government and telephone service providers promised to restore them within 24 hours. – a palavra "them" tem como referente