Questões de Inglês

Learning from animal friendships

Erica Goode

January 26, 2015

Videos of unlikely animal pairs romping or snuggling have become so common that they are piquing the interest of some scientists, who say _79_ invite more systematic study. Among other things, researchers say, the alliances could add to an understanding of how species communicate, what propels certain animals to connect across species lines and the degree to which some animals can adopt the behaviors of other species.

Yet until recently, any suggestion that interspecies relationships might be based simply on companionship would probably have been met with derision, dismissed as Pixar1-like anthropomorphism. That has changed as research has gradually eroded some boundaries between Homo sapiens and other animals. Other species, it turns out, share abilities once considered exclusive to humans, including some emotions, tool use, counting, certain aspects of language and even a moral sense.

(www.nytimes.com. Adaptado.)

No trecho do primeiro parágrafo “Among other things, researches say, the alliances could add to an understanding of how species communicate”, a palavra em destaque tem sentido semelhante, em português, a

If all of the children who currently are sedentary started exercising every day, societies could save enormous amounts of money in the coming decades and have healthier citizens as a whole, according to a remarkable new study. In the United States alone, we could expect to save more than $120 billion every year in health care and associated expenses. The study is the first to usesophisticated computer simulations to arrive at a literal and sobering societal price tag for allowing our children to be sedentary. Inactivity is, of course, widespread among young people today. Recent research shows that in the

United States and Europe, physical activity tends to peak at about age 7 for both boys and girls and tail off continually throughout adolescence. More than two-thirds of children in theUnited States rarely exercise at all. The immediate health consequences for inactive children and their families are worrisome. Childhood obesity, which is linked to lack of exercise, is common, as is the incidence of Type 2 diabetes and other health problems related to being overweight among children as young as 6. But the long-term financial costs ofinactivity in the young, both for them and society as a whole, have never been quantified. So for the new study, which was published this week in Health Affairs, researchers with the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and other institutions decided to create a bogglingly complex computer model of what the future could look like if we do or do not get more of our children moving.

The researchers began by gathering as much public data as is currently available about the health, weight and physical activity patterns of all 31.7 million American children now aged 8 to 11, using large-scale databases from the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other groups. The researchers fed this information into a computerized modeling program that created an electronic avatar for every American child today. In line with reality, two-thirds of these children were programmed to rarely exercise and many were overweight or obese.The scientists then had the simulated children grow up. Using estimations about how calorie intake and activity patterns affect body weight, the program changed each virtual child’s body day-by-day and year-by-year into adulthood. Most became increasingly overweight. As the simulated children became adults,the scientists then modeled each one’s health, based on obesity-associated risks for heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer, and also the probable financial price of dealing with those diseases (adjusted for future inflation), both in terms of direct expenses for hospitalizations, drugs and so on, and lost productivity because of someone’s being ill.

 

The results were staggering. According to the computer model, the costs of today’s 8- to 11- year-olds being inactive and consequently overweight would be almost $3 trillion in medical expenses and lost productivity every year once the children reached adulthood and for decades until

their deaths.

But when the researchers tweaked children’s activity levels within their model, thenumbers began to look quite different. If they presumed that, in an imaginary America, half of all children exercised vigorously for about 25 minutes three times a week, such as during active recess or sports or, more ambitiously, ran around and moved for at least an hour every day, which is the amount of youth exercise recommended by the C.D.C., their virtual lives were transformed. Most obviously, the incidence of childhood obesity fell by more than 4 percent, a change that resonated throughout the simulated children’s lives and society. There were about half a million fewer cases of adult-onset heart disease, diabetes, cancer and strokes in this simulation, and the society-wide costs associated with these illnesses dropped by about $32 billion every year if the children romped about for 25 minutes three times per week and by almost $37 billion if they moved for an hour every day.

The impacts were even more substantial when the researchers assumed that 100 percent of the children who are now sedentary got regular exercise. In this scenario, the annual total costs during adulthood from obesity-associated medical expenses and lost productivity plummeted by about $62 billion when children were active three times a week and by more than $120 billion every year when all of the virtual children played and moved for at least an hour each day.

 

From: https://www.nytimes.com May 3, 2017

According to the text, the lack of exercise in childhood years is associated with very early health problems such as

Depreende-se das informações da figura que

Ranking Universities by ‘Greenness’

Universities these days are working hard to improve their sustainability credentials, with efforts that include wind power, organic food and competitions to save energy. They are also adding courses related to sustainability and energy. But which university is the greenest?

Several ranking systems have emerged to offer their take. The Princeton Review recently came out with its second annual green ratings. Fifteen colleges earned the highest possible score — including Harvard, Yale and the University of California, Berkeley.

Another group, the Sustainable Endowment Institute’s GreenReportCard.org, rates colleges on several different areas of green compliance, such as recycling, student involvement and green building. Its top grade for overall excellence, an A-, was earned by 15 schools.

(Adaptado de http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/ranking-universities-bygreenness/?_r=0. Acessado em 31/08/2016.)

 

Conforme o texto, universidades norte-americanas estão se empenhando para

A tirinha ironiza uma suposta característica dos ingleses:

Observe a tirinha abaixo.

Na língua portuguesa, a ordem dos algarismos de acordo com o comentário do “5” seria