Questões de Inglês

The Case for Working with your Hands

Matthew B. Crawford

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an
assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize
the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur – the hazards faced
by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well
to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s
poem “To Be of Use”, which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/ and a
person for work that is real”. Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

This seems to be a moment when the useful arts have an especially compelling economic
rationale. A car mechanics’ trade association reports that repair shops have seen their business
jump significantly in the current recession: people aren’t buying new cars; they are fixing the ones
they have. The current downturn is likely to pass eventually. But there are also systemic changes in
the economy, arising from information technology, that have the surprising effect of making the
manual trades - plumbing, electrical work, car repair – more attractive as careers. The Princeton
economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not
between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over
a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihood
more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, “you can’t hammer a nail
over the Internet.” Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India.

If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be
imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn).
Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and
natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things (...).

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic
credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among
parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates
controlled by prestigious institutions.

Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com Published: May 24, 2009

The Case for Working with your Hands

Matthew B. Crawford

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an
assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize
the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur – the hazards faced
by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well
to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s
poem “To Be of Use”, which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/ and a
person for work that is real”. Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

This seems to be a moment when the useful arts have an especially compelling economic
rationale. A car mechanics’ trade association reports that repair shops have seen their business
jump significantly in the current recession: people aren’t buying new cars; they are fixing the ones
they have. The current downturn is likely to pass eventually. But there are also systemic changes in
the economy, arising from information technology, that have the surprising effect of making the
manual trades - plumbing, electrical work, car repair – more attractive as careers. The Princeton
economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not
between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over
a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihood
more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, “you can’t hammer a nail
over the Internet.” Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India.

If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be
imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn).
Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and
natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things (...).

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic
credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among
parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates
controlled by prestigious institutions.

Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com Published: May 24, 2009

The Case for Working with your Hands

Matthew B. Crawford

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an
assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize
the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur – the hazards faced
by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well
to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s
poem “To Be of Use”, which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/ and a
person for work that is real”. Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

This seems to be a moment when the useful arts have an especially compelling economic
rationale. A car mechanics’ trade association reports that repair shops have seen their business
jump significantly in the current recession: people aren’t buying new cars; they are fixing the ones
they have. The current downturn is likely to pass eventually. But there are also systemic changes in
the economy, arising from information technology, that have the surprising effect of making the
manual trades - plumbing, electrical work, car repair – more attractive as careers. The Princeton
economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not
between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over
a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihood
more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, “you can’t hammer a nail
over the Internet.” Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India.

If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be
imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn).
Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and
natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things (...).

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic
credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among
parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates
controlled by prestigious institutions.

Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com Published: May 24, 2009

The Case for Working with your Hands

Matthew B. Crawford

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an
assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize
the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur – the hazards faced
by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well
to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s
poem “To Be of Use”, which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/ and a
person for work that is real”. Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

This seems to be a moment when the useful arts have an especially compelling economic
rationale. A car mechanics’ trade association reports that repair shops have seen their business
jump significantly in the current recession: people aren’t buying new cars; they are fixing the ones
they have. The current downturn is likely to pass eventually. But there are also systemic changes in
the economy, arising from information technology, that have the surprising effect of making the
manual trades - plumbing, electrical work, car repair – more attractive as careers. The Princeton
economist Alan Blinder argues that the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not
between those with more or less education, but between those whose services can be delivered over
a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site. The latter will find their livelihood
more secure against outsourcing to distant countries. As Blinder puts it, “you can’t hammer a nail
over the Internet.” Nor can the Indians fix your car. Because they are in India.

If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn’t really true that 18-year-olds need to be
imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn).
Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and
natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things (...).

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic
credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among
parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates
controlled by prestigious institutions.

Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com Published: May 24, 2009

Leia atentamente o texto abaixo e responda à questão.

TEXTO

The West: Unique, not universal

( by Samuel P. Huntington)

    In recent years Westerners have reassured themselves and irritated others by expounding the notion that the culture of the West is and ought to be the culture of the world. This conceit takes two forms. One is the Coca-colonization thesis. Its proponents claim that Western, and more specifically American, popular culture is enveloping the world: American food, clothing, pop music, movies, and consumer goods are more and more enthusiastically embraced by people on every continent. The other has to do with modernization. It claims not only that the West has led the world to modern society, but that as people in other civilizations modernize they also westernize, abandoning their traditional values, institutions, and customs and adopting those that prevail in the West. Both theses project the image of an emerging homogeneous, universally Western world − and both are to varying degrees misguided, arrogant, false, and dangerous.

    Advocates of the Coca-colonization thesis identify culture with the consumption of material goods. The heart of a culture, however, involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs. Drinking Coca- Cola does not make Russians think like Americans any more than eating sushi makes Americans think like Japanese. Throughout human history, fads and material goods have spread from one society to another without significantly altering the basic culture of the recipient society. Enthusiasms for various items of Chinese, Hindu, and other cultures have periodically swept the Western world, with no discernible lasting spillover. The argument that the spread of pop culture and consumer goods around the world represents the triumph of Western civilization depreciates the strength of other cultures while trivializing Western culture by identifying it with fatty foods, faded pants, and fizzy drinks. The essence of Western culture is the Magna Carta, not the Magna Mac.

(Fonte: http://www.findthelinks.com/ neodemocracy/ English/ Huntington%2520-The% 2520 West.pdf. Acesso em 26.09.2008)

Glossário:

Reassured: reafirmado | Expounding: difundir

Proponents: defensores | Emerging: emergente

Misguided: equivocadas | Discernible: perceptíveis

Lasting: duradouros | Spillover: rastros

Spread: propagação | Trivializing: banaliza

Leia atentamente o texto abaixo e responda à questão.

TEXTO

The West: Unique, not universal

( by Samuel P. Huntington)

    In recent years Westerners have reassured themselves and irritated others by expounding the notion that the culture of the West is and ought to be the culture of the world. This conceit takes two forms. One is the Coca-colonization thesis. Its proponents claim that Western, and more specifically American, popular culture is enveloping the world: American food, clothing, pop music, movies, and consumer goods are more and more enthusiastically embraced by people on every continent. The other has to do with modernization. It claims not only that the West has led the world to modern society, but that as people in other civilizations modernize they also westernize, abandoning their traditional values, institutions, and customs and adopting those that prevail in the West. Both theses project the image of an emerging homogeneous, universally Western world − and both are to varying degrees misguided, arrogant, false, and dangerous.

    Advocates of the Coca-colonization thesis identify culture with the consumption of material goods. The heart of a culture, however, involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs. Drinking Coca- Cola does not make Russians think like Americans any more than eating sushi makes Americans think like Japanese. Throughout human history, fads and material goods have spread from one society to another without significantly altering the basic culture of the recipient society. Enthusiasms for various items of Chinese, Hindu, and other cultures have periodically swept the Western world, with no discernible lasting spillover. The argument that the spread of pop culture and consumer goods around the world represents the triumph of Western civilization depreciates the strength of other cultures while trivializing Western culture by identifying it with fatty foods, faded pants, and fizzy drinks. The essence of Western culture is the Magna Carta, not the Magna Mac.

(Fonte: http://www.findthelinks.com/ neodemocracy/ English/ Huntington%2520-The% 2520 West.pdf. Acesso em 26.09.2008)

Glossário:

Reassured: reafirmado | Expounding: difundir

Proponents: defensores | Emerging: emergente

Misguided: equivocadas | Discernible: perceptíveis

Lasting: duradouros | Spillover: rastros

Spread: propagação | Trivializing: banaliza