Questões de Inglês

TEXTO:

New glowing mushrooms found in Brazil 

    Like a black light poster come to life, a group of

bioluminescent fungi collected from Ribeira Valley Tourist

State Park near São Paulo, Brazil, emanates a soft green

glow when the lights go out. The mushrooms are part of

5 the genus Mycena, a group that includes about 500

species worldwide. Of these only 33 are known to be

bioluminescent — capable of producing light through a

chemical reaction.

    Since 2002, Cassius Stevani, professor of Chemistry

10 at the University of São Paulo, Dennis Desjardin,

professor of mycology at San Francisco State University

in California, and Marina Capelari of Brazil’s Institute of

Botany have discovered 10 more bioluminescent fungi

species — four of which are new to science — in Brazil’s

15 tropical forests. The work, Stevani says, has increased

the number of glowers known since the 1970s by 30

percent.

    In addition to mushrooms, a variety of marine

animals, select species of bacteria, insects, and annelids

20 (earthworms) are known to be bioluminescent.

Bioluminescence creates “cold” light — emissions with

low thermal radiation. An enzyme called luciferase

triggers a pigment called luciferin to oxidize, and the

reaction emits light. But why the fungi evolved to glow

25 this way remains a mystery, Stevani says. To get the

green glow of the new specimens of bioluminescent

mushrooms, Dr Desjardin and Dr Stevani had to go out

on new moon nights and stumble around in the forest,

running into trees, while keeping an eye out for poisonous

30 snakes and prowling jaguars.

    Besides helping researchers decipher how and why

mushrooms glow, Stevani is studying the bioluminescent

fungi’s ability to signal the presence of toxins in the soil.

In the lab, his team has developed a procedure that

35 shows that fungi emit less light when exposed to several

metals and organic pollutants. “In a near future we can

use it to evaluate the toxicity of environmental samples

of soil and sediments,” Stevani said in an email to

National Geographic News. The researcher also says

40 that the fungi could serve as a tool for bioremediation

(cleanup using living organisms) of contaminated soil.

New glowing mushrooms found in Brazil. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 

TEXTO:

    We always think “It will never happen to me,” but

disasters can strike, at any time, anywhere — from hotel

fires to train crashes to terrorist attacks. How would you

cope if the unthinkable happened?

5    According to experts, people caught up in disasters

tend to fall into three categories. About 10% to 15%

remain calm and act quickly and efficiently. Another 15%

completely panic, crying and screaming and obstructing

the evacuation. But the vast majority (70%) of people do

10 very little. They are “stunned and confused,” says

psychologist John Leach.

    Why is this? Research suggests that under great

stress, our minds take much longer to process

information. So, in a crisis, many people “freeze” just at

15 the moment when they need to act quickly. It also seems

that personality is not a good guide to how people might

react — a normally decisive person may not act quickly

enough in a crisis and vice versa. “Most people go their

entire lives without a disaster,” says Michael Lindell, a

20 professor at Texas A&M University. “So when something

bad happens, they are so shocked they just think, ‘This

can’t possibly be happening to me,’ instead of taking

action.”

OXENDEN, C et Latham-Koenig, C American English File 4B, p. 52 Oxford University Press. 

TEXTO:

    We always think “It will never happen to me,” but

disasters can strike, at any time, anywhere — from hotel

fires to train crashes to terrorist attacks. How would you

cope if the unthinkable happened?

5    According to experts, people caught up in disasters

tend to fall into three categories. About 10% to 15%

remain calm and act quickly and efficiently. Another 15%

completely panic, crying and screaming and obstructing

the evacuation. But the vast majority (70%) of people do

10 very little. They are “stunned and confused,” says

psychologist John Leach.

    Why is this? Research suggests that under great

stress, our minds take much longer to process

information. So, in a crisis, many people “freeze” just at

15 the moment when they need to act quickly. It also seems

that personality is not a good guide to how people might

react — a normally decisive person may not act quickly

enough in a crisis and vice versa. “Most people go their

entire lives without a disaster,” says Michael Lindell, a

20 professor at Texas A&M University. “So when something

bad happens, they are so shocked they just think, ‘This

can’t possibly be happening to me,’ instead of taking

action.”

OXENDEN, C et Latham-Koenig, C American English File 4B, p. 52 Oxford University Press. 

TEXTO:

Thickening glaciers 

    A team of scientists has shown that the glaciers in

one of Asia’s major mountain ranges are defying the

general tendency towards shrinkage, and have in fact

expanded slightly over the last few years. The range in

5 question is the Karakoram, which straddles Pakistan,

India and China on the north-western end of the

Himalayas.

    Glacial decline and the gradual loss of polar ice

caps has been a worrying trend over recent decades,

10 but scientists have been aware of an apparently curious

anomaly with the Karakoram, which contains some of

the world’s biggest mountains including the second

highest, K2. It has about 20,000 square kilometers of

glaciers, accounting for three percent of the total area of

15 ice outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

    Now a team of French scientists has carried out a

detailed survey over a large area of the range using

sophisticated remote-sensing measurements. Writing in

the scientific journal, Nature, they say they found that in

20 the first years of this century the Karakoram’s glaciers

had actually expanded by a small amount, while in the

neighboring Himalayas they’d been shrinking.

It’s unclear why this is happening, but it seems that by

a quirk in the weather pattern that’s not fully understood,

25 less heat is being delivered to the Karakoram and the

mountains are receiving heavier falls of snow.

Thickening glaciers. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 21 jul. 2012. 

TEXTO:

Thickening glaciers 

    A team of scientists has shown that the glaciers in

one of Asia’s major mountain ranges are defying the

general tendency towards shrinkage, and have in fact

expanded slightly over the last few years. The range in

5 question is the Karakoram, which straddles Pakistan,

India and China on the north-western end of the

Himalayas.

    Glacial decline and the gradual loss of polar ice

caps has been a worrying trend over recent decades,

10 but scientists have been aware of an apparently curious

anomaly with the Karakoram, which contains some of

the world’s biggest mountains including the second

highest, K2. It has about 20,000 square kilometers of

glaciers, accounting for three percent of the total area of

15 ice outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

    Now a team of French scientists has carried out a

detailed survey over a large area of the range using

sophisticated remote-sensing measurements. Writing in

the scientific journal, Nature, they say they found that in

20 the first years of this century the Karakoram’s glaciers

had actually expanded by a small amount, while in the

neighboring Himalayas they’d been shrinking.

It’s unclear why this is happening, but it seems that by

a quirk in the weather pattern that’s not fully understood,

25 less heat is being delivered to the Karakoram and the

mountains are receiving heavier falls of snow.

Thickening glaciers. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 21 jul. 2012. 

TEXTO:

Thickening glaciers 

    A team of scientists has shown that the glaciers in

one of Asia’s major mountain ranges are defying the

general tendency towards shrinkage, and have in fact

expanded slightly over the last few years. The range in

5 question is the Karakoram, which straddles Pakistan,

India and China on the north-western end of the

Himalayas.

    Glacial decline and the gradual loss of polar ice

caps has been a worrying trend over recent decades,

10 but scientists have been aware of an apparently curious

anomaly with the Karakoram, which contains some of

the world’s biggest mountains including the second

highest, K2. It has about 20,000 square kilometers of

glaciers, accounting for three percent of the total area of

15 ice outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

    Now a team of French scientists has carried out a

detailed survey over a large area of the range using

sophisticated remote-sensing measurements. Writing in

the scientific journal, Nature, they say they found that in

20 the first years of this century the Karakoram’s glaciers

had actually expanded by a small amount, while in the

neighboring Himalayas they’d been shrinking.

It’s unclear why this is happening, but it seems that by

a quirk in the weather pattern that’s not fully understood,

25 less heat is being delivered to the Karakoram and the

mountains are receiving heavier falls of snow.

Thickening glaciers. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 21 jul. 2012.