Questões de Inglês

How is technology changing the way we use language?

Professor Naomi Baron

The popular press has led many people to believe that the explosion of first email, and then IM (instant messages) and texting, has led language down a destructive path: all that bad spelling and grammar, random punctuation, and all those abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons. There are two presumptions in this assumption: first, that language has indeed changed and second, that the change is destructive.

Has contemporary digital technology really changed language that much? If you look at writing patterns over the past fifty years or so, you’ll find that our notions regarding the importance of “writing mechanics” have shifted dramatically. Grammar? Don’t be so prescriptive. Punctuation? Follow more the way we speak (so-called rhetorical punctuation) rather than traditional rules for writing (so-called logical punctuation). Spelling? Isn’t that what spell check is for? It turns out that many of the “errors” we complain about finding in IMs or text messages have their roots in the writing of young people before online and mobile communication became available.

As for abbreviations and acronyms, a quick check of history shows that such shortenings date back centuries, even millennia. With emoticons, while there are hundreds of options out there, empirical research indicates that unless you are a teenager or young adult wanting to show how “in” or “cool” you can be, the vast majority of people do not use them much.

Disponível em: <http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/technology-changing-language>. Acesso em: 25 abr. 2013.

How is technology changing the way we use language?

Professor Naomi Baron

The popular press has led many people to believe that the explosion of first email, and then IM (instant messages) and texting, has led language down a destructive path: all that bad spelling and grammar, random punctuation, and all those abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons. There are two presumptions in this assumption: first, that language has indeed changed and second, that the change is destructive.

Has contemporary digital technology really changed language that much? If you look at writing patterns over the past fifty years or so, you’ll find that our notions regarding the importance of “writing mechanics” have shifted dramatically. Grammar? Don’t be so prescriptive. Punctuation? Follow more the way we speak (so-called rhetorical punctuation) rather than traditional rules for writing (so-called logical punctuation). Spelling? Isn’t that what spell check is for? It turns out that many of the “errors” we complain about finding in IMs or text messages have their roots in the writing of young people before online and mobile communication became available.

As for abbreviations and acronyms, a quick check of history shows that such shortenings date back centuries, even millennia. With emoticons, while there are hundreds of options out there, empirical research indicates that unless you are a teenager or young adult wanting to show how “in” or “cool” you can be, the vast majority of people do not use them much.

Disponível em: <http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/technology-changing-language>. Acesso em: 25 abr. 2013.

Scotland: a land of contrasts

Scotland provides superb opportunities to enjoy wild and grand scenery which is even more impressive than the postcards suggest. It also offers towns and cities with a rich cultural life, a good mix of accommodation and places to eat and drink. Friendly and welcoming, it is an interesting and colorful all-season destination, where landscapes and the environment, sport and leisure pursuits, heritage and history, culture and cuisine are all part of a rewarding experience. The best reason for choosing to go on holiday to Scotland is this: is one of the last places inside the crowded and frenetic European Union where it is possible to be alone isolated countryside. This is not to say that Scotland, like everywhere else, does not have its tourist traps, its crowded roads or its popular beauty spots. But it is relatively easy to escape from them. It would be a mistake to think that Scotland is merely an extension of England. Indeed, no attitude is capable of causing greater offence to the Scots. They successfully resisted English attempts at domination for seven hundred years, and many differences between the two countries persist. Scotland's history, embodied in its castles, battlefields, and ancient links with France, Flanders and Scandinavia, is special.

(My Own Resources ESL/EFL – www.miguelmllop.com)

Scotland: a land of contrasts

Scotland provides superb opportunities to enjoy wild and grand scenery which is even more impressive than the postcards suggest. It also offers towns and cities with a rich cultural life, a good mix of accommodation and places to eat and drink. Friendly and welcoming, it is an interesting and colorful all-season destination, where landscapes and the environment, sport and leisure pursuits, heritage and history, culture and cuisine are all part of a rewarding experience. The best reason for choosing to go on holiday to Scotland is this: is one of the last places inside the crowded and frenetic European Union where it is possible to be alone isolated countryside. This is not to say that Scotland, like everywhere else, does not have its tourist traps, its crowded roads or its popular beauty spots. But it is relatively easy to escape from them. It would be a mistake to think that Scotland is merely an extension of England. Indeed, no attitude is capable of causing greater offence to the Scots. They successfully resisted English attempts at domination for seven hundred years, and many differences between the two countries persist. Scotland's history, embodied in its castles, battlefields, and ancient links with France, Flanders and Scandinavia, is special.

(My Own Resources ESL/EFL – www.miguelmllop.com)

18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle

to Survive Severe Malaria

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

As the sun went down and the ridges of the

Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of

mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of

the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children

lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too

weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s

headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

These children have “severe malaria,” […] an

infection with one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium

falciparum. After the parasite has invaded via the drilllike

proboscis of a blood-hungry female Anopheles

mosquito, the falciparum parasite replicates fast and,

like a microscopic wrecking ball, smashes red blood

cells and leaves children breathless with severe

anemia and sticks to blood vessels in the brain,

causing seizures, coma, and death.

Time is everything — delay treatment and the

parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a

point of no return. Lejuif — the nurse on duty — and

I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old

Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock.

He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on

his chest — he was in a coma — and his chest heaved

up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His

hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his

red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed

an immediate blood transfusion.

We rushed him under a crowd of stars between

the tent and the single story building containing our

intensive care unit (ICU). The unit has an oxygen

concentrator, which we used to help him breathe while

we placed a drip, gave anti-malarials, and arranged

for a transfusion.

Families have to donate blood if a child needs

a transfusion. Bahati’s mother had walked from the

gold mining town of Misisi, 15 kilometers down a dirt

road, and her partner had not accompanied her. As

she was pregnant, she could not donate. There was

no suitable blood in the hospital freezer. Wilondja,

another of the nurses, went back to the pediatric tent

and persuaded another of the parents to give blood.

We also started antibiotics as we had no means of

ruling out meningitis or another blood infection. […]

Political will and funding to buy bed nets,

insecticide spray, and medications that both cure

malaria and stop onward transmission of the disease

have saved many children’s lives in Sub-Saharan

Africa. There is now hope for a vaccine.

Experience in the Kimbi-Lulenge health district

would seem to bear out evidence from the World

Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report

(2011) that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

is defying the trend and cases are actually rising.

MSF treated 15 percent more malaria cases in South

Kivu in the first two months of 2012, compared to

2011. […]

Bahati had a stormy course and remained in a

coma, with periodic seizures, for two days. His name

in Swahili means “luck,” and with the care of the

nursing staff in the makeshift ICU, he pulled through.

But thousands of children in the DRC will die from

malaria this year, a disease that is both preventable

and curable.

Available in: . Retrieved on: 27 April 2012. Adapted.

18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle

to Survive Severe Malaria

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

As the sun went down and the ridges of the

Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of

mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of

the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children

lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too

weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s

headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

These children have “severe malaria,” […] an

infection with one type of malaria parasite, Plasmodium

falciparum. After the parasite has invaded via the drilllike

proboscis of a blood-hungry female Anopheles

mosquito, the falciparum parasite replicates fast and,

like a microscopic wrecking ball, smashes red blood

cells and leaves children breathless with severe

anemia and sticks to blood vessels in the brain,

causing seizures, coma, and death.

Time is everything — delay treatment and the

parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a

point of no return. Lejuif — the nurse on duty — and

I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old

Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock.

He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on

his chest — he was in a coma — and his chest heaved

up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His

hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his

red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed

an immediate blood transfusion.

We rushed him under a crowd of stars between

the tent and the single story building containing our

intensive care unit (ICU). The unit has an oxygen

concentrator, which we used to help him breathe while

we placed a drip, gave anti-malarials, and arranged

for a transfusion.

Families have to donate blood if a child needs

a transfusion. Bahati’s mother had walked from the

gold mining town of Misisi, 15 kilometers down a dirt

road, and her partner had not accompanied her. As

she was pregnant, she could not donate. There was

no suitable blood in the hospital freezer. Wilondja,

another of the nurses, went back to the pediatric tent

and persuaded another of the parents to give blood.

We also started antibiotics as we had no means of

ruling out meningitis or another blood infection. […]

Political will and funding to buy bed nets,

insecticide spray, and medications that both cure

malaria and stop onward transmission of the disease

have saved many children’s lives in Sub-Saharan

Africa. There is now hope for a vaccine.

Experience in the Kimbi-Lulenge health district

would seem to bear out evidence from the World

Health Organization’s latest World Malaria Report

(2011) that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

is defying the trend and cases are actually rising.

MSF treated 15 percent more malaria cases in South

Kivu in the first two months of 2012, compared to

2011. […]

Bahati had a stormy course and remained in a

coma, with periodic seizures, for two days. His name

in Swahili means “luck,” and with the care of the

nursing staff in the makeshift ICU, he pulled through.

But thousands of children in the DRC will die from

malaria this year, a disease that is both preventable

and curable.

Available in: . Retrieved on: 27 April 2012. Adapted.