Questões de Inglês

Leia o texto para responder a questão.

    Plenty of opportunities exist to study and work abroad. But some early-career scientists might face challenges adjusting to different communication styles and different workplace and academic hierarchies.

    It is important both to be sensitive to cultural differences and to avoid inadvertently stereotyping; also, assumptions should not be made about students solely on the basis of their culture. A wealthy Chinese student from Hong Kong, for example, could see things differently from one who comes from a rural area on the mainland. And individual perceptions can vary too: one student may personally encounter directness more often in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but others might not have experienced this. The relationship between researcher and supervisor is influenced by many factors including personality, previous experiences and the workplace culture.

    One point of difference that can arise is the appropriate level of deference to supervisors. Some Nigerian, Egyptian and Chinese international students report that, in their home nations, a large power differential between students and teachers is common, and that students generally follow instructions without arguing. But a supervisor from a country where debate is expected might sometimes incorrectly interpret a lack of questioning from the student as a lack of interest in the work. The absence of a strictly defined hierarchy can encourage freer communication, says Salim Reza, a radiation-detector scientist. When he moved from his native Bangladesh to Sweden for graduate studies, he learnt that he did not need to address faculty members as ‘sir’ or ‘professor’ or remain standing in their offices. This informality made it easier for him to approach professors to clarify a topic or to propose a new research angle.

    Sometimes, though, misunderstandings can stem from differences in communication style. In some countries, the ‘feedback sandwich’ is common: start with praise, suggest improvements and end with encouragement. Students from countries where this format is less common might think that, because comments were mostly positive, the suggestions are optional and can be ignored. Conversely, a student who is accustomed to gentler feedback might be ‘traumatized’ by cultural tendencies in other countries, such as Germany or the Netherlands, to give more direct criticism. Senior researchers could smooth over differences by freely discussing how the student prefers to receive comments. Students could also talk to lab mates about the feedback; hearing others’ stories could help them overcome discouragement.

    Whether they are welcoming international students or starting work in new countries, scientists can ease the transition by remaining non-judgemental. People sometimes brush off a student from another country as ‘rude’, but “in their culture, they’re not”. Researchers should also remember that their nation’s customs aren’t necessarily best. “When you come from a small country, you don’t assume everybody should be doing things your way,” says a Croatian student. “I never cared if somebody was different than me as long as it didn’t seriously affect the rest of the lab.”

(Roberta Kwok. www.nature.com, 23.05.2018. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder a questão.

    Plenty of opportunities exist to study and work abroad. But some early-career scientists might face challenges adjusting to different communication styles and different workplace and academic hierarchies.

    It is important both to be sensitive to cultural differences and to avoid inadvertently stereotyping; also, assumptions should not be made about students solely on the basis of their culture. A wealthy Chinese student from Hong Kong, for example, could see things differently from one who comes from a rural area on the mainland. And individual perceptions can vary too: one student may personally encounter directness more often in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but others might not have experienced this. The relationship between researcher and supervisor is influenced by many factors including personality, previous experiences and the workplace culture.

    One point of difference that can arise is the appropriate level of deference to supervisors. Some Nigerian, Egyptian and Chinese international students report that, in their home nations, a large power differential between students and teachers is common, and that students generally follow instructions without arguing. But a supervisor from a country where debate is expected might sometimes incorrectly interpret a lack of questioning from the student as a lack of interest in the work. The absence of a strictly defined hierarchy can encourage freer communication, says Salim Reza, a radiation-detector scientist. When he moved from his native Bangladesh to Sweden for graduate studies, he learnt that he did not need to address faculty members as ‘sir’ or ‘professor’ or remain standing in their offices. This informality made it easier for him to approach professors to clarify a topic or to propose a new research angle.

    Sometimes, though, misunderstandings can stem from differences in communication style. In some countries, the ‘feedback sandwich’ is common: start with praise, suggest improvements and end with encouragement. Students from countries where this format is less common might think that, because comments were mostly positive, the suggestions are optional and can be ignored. Conversely, a student who is accustomed to gentler feedback might be ‘traumatized’ by cultural tendencies in other countries, such as Germany or the Netherlands, to give more direct criticism. Senior researchers could smooth over differences by freely discussing how the student prefers to receive comments. Students could also talk to lab mates about the feedback; hearing others’ stories could help them overcome discouragement.

    Whether they are welcoming international students or starting work in new countries, scientists can ease the transition by remaining non-judgemental. People sometimes brush off a student from another country as ‘rude’, but “in their culture, they’re not”. Researchers should also remember that their nation’s customs aren’t necessarily best. “When you come from a small country, you don’t assume everybody should be doing things your way,” says a Croatian student. “I never cared if somebody was different than me as long as it didn’t seriously affect the rest of the lab.”

(Roberta Kwok. www.nature.com, 23.05.2018. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder a questão.

    Plenty of opportunities exist to study and work abroad. But some early-career scientists might face challenges adjusting to different communication styles and different workplace and academic hierarchies.

    It is important both to be sensitive to cultural differences and to avoid inadvertently stereotyping; also, assumptions should not be made about students solely on the basis of their culture. A wealthy Chinese student from Hong Kong, for example, could see things differently from one who comes from a rural area on the mainland. And individual perceptions can vary too: one student may personally encounter directness more often in the United Kingdom than in the United States, but others might not have experienced this. The relationship between researcher and supervisor is influenced by many factors including personality, previous experiences and the workplace culture.

    One point of difference that can arise is the appropriate level of deference to supervisors. Some Nigerian, Egyptian and Chinese international students report that, in their home nations, a large power differential between students and teachers is common, and that students generally follow instructions without arguing. But a supervisor from a country where debate is expected might sometimes incorrectly interpret a lack of questioning from the student as a lack of interest in the work. The absence of a strictly defined hierarchy can encourage freer communication, says Salim Reza, a radiation-detector scientist. When he moved from his native Bangladesh to Sweden for graduate studies, he learnt that he did not need to address faculty members as ‘sir’ or ‘professor’ or remain standing in their offices. This informality made it easier for him to approach professors to clarify a topic or to propose a new research angle.

    Sometimes, though, misunderstandings can stem from differences in communication style. In some countries, the ‘feedback sandwich’ is common: start with praise, suggest improvements and end with encouragement. Students from countries where this format is less common might think that, because comments were mostly positive, the suggestions are optional and can be ignored. Conversely, a student who is accustomed to gentler feedback might be ‘traumatized’ by cultural tendencies in other countries, such as Germany or the Netherlands, to give more direct criticism. Senior researchers could smooth over differences by freely discussing how the student prefers to receive comments. Students could also talk to lab mates about the feedback; hearing others’ stories could help them overcome discouragement.

    Whether they are welcoming international students or starting work in new countries, scientists can ease the transition by remaining non-judgemental. People sometimes brush off a student from another country as ‘rude’, but “in their culture, they’re not”. Researchers should also remember that their nation’s customs aren’t necessarily best. “When you come from a small country, you don’t assume everybody should be doing things your way,” says a Croatian student. “I never cared if somebody was different than me as long as it didn’t seriously affect the rest of the lab.”

(Roberta Kwok. www.nature.com, 23.05.2018. Adaptado.)

Leia a tirinha para responder à questão.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

The secret of why we like to eat chocolate

    Chocolate contains a number of interesting psychoactive chemicals. These include anandamide, whose name comes from the Sanskrit – “ananda”, meaning “joy, bliss, delight”. Anandamides, a neurotransmitter, stimulate the brain in much the same way that cannabis does. It also contains tyramine and phenylethylamine, both of which have similar effects to amphetamines. Finally, if you look hard enough, you will find small traces of theobromine and caffeine, both of which are well-known stimulants.

    For a while, some food scientists got very excited about the discovery but, although chocolate contains these substances, we now know they are only there in trace amounts. Your brain is not going to get much of a chemical rush from eating a few squares. None the less, they may play a small part in seducing our senses. So what else does chocolate have going for it? Well, it also has a creamy viscosity. When you take it out of its wrapper and put a bit in your mouth without biting, you will notice that it rapidly melts on your tongue, leaving a lingering sensation of smoothness. Special touch receptors on our tongues detect this textural change, which then stimulates feelings of pleasure.

    But the thing that really transformed the cocoa from a bitter and watery drink into the snack we adore today was the addition of sugar and fat. The addition of just the right amount of each is crucial to our enjoyment of chocolate. Look at the side of a packet of milk chocolate and you will see that it normally contains around 20-25% fat and 40-50% sugar. In nature such high levels of sugar and fat are rarely found, or at least not together. You can get lots of natural sugars from fruits and roots, and there is plenty of fat to be found in nuts or a tasty chunk of salmon, but one of the few places where you will find both together is in milk.

    Human breast milk is particularly rich in natural sugars, mainly lactose. Roughly 4% of human breast milk is fat, while about 8% is made up of sugars. Formula milk, which is fed to babies, contains a similar ratio of fats to sugars. This ratio, 1 g of fat to 2 g of sugars, is the same ratio of fats to sugars that you find in milk chocolate. And in biscuits, doughnuts, ice cream. In fact this particular ratio is reflected in many of the foods that we find hard to resist. So why do we love chocolate? For a whole host of reasons. But it may also be that we are trying to recapture the taste and sense of closeness we got from the first food we ever sampled: human breast milk.

(Michael Mosley. www.bbc.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

The secret of why we like to eat chocolate

    Chocolate contains a number of interesting psychoactive chemicals. These include anandamide, whose name comes from the Sanskrit – “ananda”, meaning “joy, bliss, delight”. Anandamides, a neurotransmitter, stimulate the brain in much the same way that cannabis does. It also contains tyramine and phenylethylamine, both of which have similar effects to amphetamines. Finally, if you look hard enough, you will find small traces of theobromine and caffeine, both of which are well-known stimulants.

    For a while, some food scientists got very excited about the discovery but, although chocolate contains these substances, we now know they are only there in trace amounts. Your brain is not going to get much of a chemical rush from eating a few squares. None the less, they may play a small part in seducing our senses. So what else does chocolate have going for it? Well, it also has a creamy viscosity. When you take it out of its wrapper and put a bit in your mouth without biting, you will notice that it rapidly melts on your tongue, leaving a lingering sensation of smoothness. Special touch receptors on our tongues detect this textural change, which then stimulates feelings of pleasure.

    But the thing that really transformed the cocoa from a bitter and watery drink into the snack we adore today was the addition of sugar and fat. The addition of just the right amount of each is crucial to our enjoyment of chocolate. Look at the side of a packet of milk chocolate and you will see that it normally contains around 20-25% fat and 40-50% sugar. In nature such high levels of sugar and fat are rarely found, or at least not together. You can get lots of natural sugars from fruits and roots, and there is plenty of fat to be found in nuts or a tasty chunk of salmon, but one of the few places where you will find both together is in milk.

    Human breast milk is particularly rich in natural sugars, mainly lactose. Roughly 4% of human breast milk is fat, while about 8% is made up of sugars. Formula milk, which is fed to babies, contains a similar ratio of fats to sugars. This ratio, 1 g of fat to 2 g of sugars, is the same ratio of fats to sugars that you find in milk chocolate. And in biscuits, doughnuts, ice cream. In fact this particular ratio is reflected in many of the foods that we find hard to resist. So why do we love chocolate? For a whole host of reasons. But it may also be that we are trying to recapture the taste and sense of closeness we got from the first food we ever sampled: human breast milk.

(Michael Mosley. www.bbc.com, 24.02.2017. Adaptado.)