Questões de Inglês

  Some aspects of our health and vitality are governed by our genes and how our mother behaves during pregnancy, but many lifestyle factors, including fitness, diet and weight all impact on our ability to live a long and healthy life.

  Even before we are born, our health can be affected by the lifestyle choices our mother makes. Studies have shown that if an expectant mother is highly stressed this may impact on their baby, leaving them less able to handle stress later in life.

  Heavy drinking during pregnancy can lead to foetal alcohol syndrome in babies – which can cause a life-long learning disability as well as physical problems. Smoking can also affect their development. Research also suggests a pregnant woman’s diet can increase her child’s risk of obesity by changing the unborn baby’s DNA. Having a happy childhood may boost longevity, as a study suggests those who are unhappy in their youth have a greater risk of heart disease as adults.

  Getting outdoors is also key, as sunlight is an important source of vitamin D. At present one in four children are deficient in this vitamin, which is needed for building strong and healthy bones. Vitamin D helps our bodies to absorb calcium and phosphorus from our diets.

  The pressures of home and family life can make it feel like there’s little time to exercise. Aside from weight loss, there is a lot to gain from exercise and it can make a huge difference to staying healthy:

  • Exercise means a healthier heart because it reduces several cardiovascular risks, including high blood pressure and heart disease.

  • Being physically active can bolster good mental health and help you manage stress, anxiety and even depression.

  • Regular exercise can help you achieve and maintain an ideal weight and reduce the risk of diabetes.

  • Weight bearing exercise, such as running is especially good in promoting bone density and protecting against osteoporosis – which is when bones become thin, weak and break easily.

  Although there are measures we can take to help us live a long and healthy life, there may be an element of luck involved – depending on our DNA. Much research into ageing has been focused on the role of telomeres. These are the protective tips found at the end of chromosomes, sometimes likened to the tips of shoelaces. Their role is to safeguard the end of the chromosome and to prevent the loss of genetic information during cell division.

  Each time our cells divide, the tips of our telomeres become shorter. Eventually they become so short, they stop our cells dividing which means the cells die, which is how we age. Studies have revealed that longer telomeres have been linked to a longer lifespan, while shorter telomeres have been linked to diseases such as heart disease and dementia. Longer telomeres can also be inherited by the next generation. Maybe one day in the future, we will be able to predict how long we will live for.

(www.bbc.co.uk. Adaptado.)

No segundo parágrafo, o termo “expectant” pode ser substituído, sem prejuízo de sentido, por

Can acupuncture treat depression?

 

The alternative practice may be able to replace medication or alleviate its side effects

Tori Rodriguez

June 12, 2014

 

A growing number of people are seeking alternatives to

antidepressant medications, and new research suggests that

acupuncture could be a promising option. One new study

found the traditional Chinese practice to be as effective as

antidepressants, and a different study found that acupuncture

may help treat the medications’ side effects.

In acupuncture, a practitioner inserts needles into the

skin at points of the body thought to correspond with specific

organs. Western medicine suggests the needles may activate

natural painkillers in the brain; in traditional Chinese medicine,

the process is believed to improve functioning by correcting

energy blocks or imbalances in the organs.

A study published last fall in the Journal of Alternative

and Complementary Medicine found that electroacupuncture

– in which a mild electric current is transmitted through the

needles – was just as effective as fluoxetine (the generic

name of Prozac) in reducing symptoms of depression. For

six weeks, patients underwent either electroacupuncture

five times weekly or a standard daily dose of fluoxetine. The

researchers, the majority of whom specialize in traditional

Chinese medicine, assessed participants’ symptoms every

two weeks and tracked their levels of glial cell line-derived

neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a neuroprotective protein.

Previous studies have found lower amounts of GDNF among

patients with major depressive disorder, and in another

research, levels of the protein rose after treatment with

antidepressant medication.

After six weeks, both groups showed a similar improvement

in symptoms, and both treatments restored GDNF to a normal

concentration. But the acupuncture began to work faster,

reducing symptoms more dramatically at weeks two and four

than the drug did. Among the patients who got better, a higher

percentage of the acupuncture recipients showed “great

improvement.”

Another study suggests that acupuncture may help with

one particularly difficult aspect of depression treatment:

the sexual side effects of some medications. Twelve weeks

of acupuncture helped both men and women with several

aspects of sexual functioning, according to the work, also

in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

These findings add to a growing body of research suggesting

acupuncture may be useful for a variety of ailments, including

chronic pain, anxiety and nausea.

 

(www.scientificamerican.com. Adaptado.)

O trecho do terceiro parágrafo “in which a mild electric current is transmitted through the needles”

The trip that transformed me: The university graduate By Mia Simon

 

Australian Vanessa Costanzo expected her university

experience to prepare her for adulthood, but in reality, she

said, it prepared her only for a job. So after she graduated

from Curtin University in Western Australia in February

2013, she decided to travel.

Costanzo hoped to gain worldly knowledge that she

craved by spending seven months exploring Europe and

parts of the Middle East. Starting in 2014, the lessons

came fast and furious.

Her first stop was Dubai. Not long after she arrived,

she recalled watching men from Pakistan and India in blue

jumpsuits working tirelessly in the sweltering heat1 to

manage the upkeep of Sheikh Zayed Road, a major city

thoroughfare2.

Unlike Costanzo, they were not in a foreign country on

holiday. A cab driver told her that most were working for

minimal pay and living in substandard conditions. Much of

the money they earned they sent home to their families.

How did he know? He had a wife and child back home

in his native India. He hadn’t seen them in a year.

The lesson hit her hard: If you have the means to

travel, as she did, you’re fortunate. And you don’t need

material possessions to be happy.

 

Glossary:

1. sweltering heat: oppressively hot

2. thoroughfare: a main road

 

Source: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150224-the-trip-that-transformed-me-the-universitygraduate. Adapted.

According to the text, it is CORRECT to affirm that the word “fortunate”, in line 22, is equivalent to:

There is no future in any job. The future lies in the person who holds the job.” – George W. Crane

 

education is that they tend to prepare students for jobs of

the past. Similarly, the best paying jobs of the future are

all jobs that currently exist today. Many of them will still

[5]   exist in the future, but with some changes as technology

and communication systems make their impact.

As a rule of thumb, 60% of the jobs 10 years

from now haven’t been invented yet. With that in mind,

I’ve decided to put together a list of some jobs that will be

[10]  in high demand in the future.

 

Jobs before 2020

Many of the changes we see today will cause

new jobs to materialize quickly. This first section deals

[15]  with new positions that will likely be developed within the

next 10 years.

3D printing engineers – Classes in 3D printing are

already being introduced into high schools and the

demand for printer-produced products will rise quickly.

[20]  The trend will be for these worker-less workshops to

enter virtually different fields, at the same time, driving

the need for competent technicians and engineers to

design and maintain the next wave of this technology.

Nano-medics – Health professionals capable of working

[25]  on the nano-level, both in designing diagnostics systems,

  remedies, and monitoring solutions will be in high

demand.

Organ agents – The demand for transplantable organs

is exploding and people who can track down and deliver

[30]   healthy organs will be in hot demand.

Octogenarian service providers – As the population

continues to age we will have record numbers of people

living into their 80s, 90s, and 100s. This growing group of

active oldsters will provide a demand for goods and

[35]  services currently not being addressed in today’s

marketplace.

Jobs in 2030 and beyond

A number of technologies currently on the

drawing board will require a bit longer lead time before

[40]the industry comes into its own. Here are a few examples

of these kinds of jobs:

Body part & limb makers – The organ agents listed

before will quickly find themselves out of work as soon as

we figure out how to efficiently grow and mass produce

[45]  our own organs from scratch.

 Earthquake forecasters – While scientists are

developing skills to work with nanoscale precision on the

earth’s surface, the best we can know about below the

surface is blindfolded guesswork done with 100-mile

[50]  precision. What we don’t know is literally killing us – over

226,000 killed in 2010 alone. But that will change over

time as we begin to understand the inner working of the

earth and accurately forecast when the next big quakes

are about to hit.

[55]   “Heavy air” engineers – Compressed air is useful in a

wide variety of ways. However, we have yet to figure out

how to compress streams of air as they pass through our

existing atmosphere. Once we do, it will create untold

opportunity for non-surface based housing and

[60]  transportation system, weather control, and other kinds

of experimentation.

 

Final thoughts

The jobs and occupations listed above are just

scratching the surface. This list is intended to help

[65]  stretch your imagination and start you down a path of

imagining your own future.

 

(Adapted from http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2011/11/55-jobs-of-the-future)

The text's main goal is to

TEXT I

 

JOBS AT HIGH RISK

 

It is an invisible force that goes by many names.

Computerization. Automation. Artificial intelligence.

Technology. Innovation. And, everyone's favorite,

ROBOTS.

[5]  Whatever name you prefer, some form of it has

been stimulating progress and killing jobs — from tailors

to paralegals — for centuries. But this time is different:

nearly half of American jobs today could be automated in

"a decade or two". The question is: which half?

[10]  Another way of posing the same question is:

Where do machines work better than people? Tractors

are more powerful than farmers. Robotic arms are

stronger and more tireless than assembly-line workers.

But in the past 30 years, software and robots have

[15]  succeeded replacing a particular kind of occupation: the

average-wage, middle-skill, routine-heavy worker,

especially in manufacturing and office administration.

Indeed, it's projected that the next wave of

computer progress will continue to endanger human

[20]  work where it already has: manufacturing, administrative

support, retail, and transportation. Most remaining

factory jobs are "likely to diminish over the next

decades". Cashiers, counter clerks, and telemarketers

are similarly endangered. On the other hand, health care

[25]  workers, people responsible for our safety, and

management positions are the least likely to be

automated.

 

The next big thing

[30]  We might be on the edge of an innovating

moment in robotics and artificial intelligence. Although

the past 30 years have reduced the middle, high- and

low-skill jobs have actually increased, as if protected

from the invading armies of robots by their own moats.

[35]  Higher-skill workers have been protected by a kind of

social-intelligence moat. Computers are historically good

at executing routines, but they're bad at finding patterns,

communicating with people, and making decisions,

which is what managers are paid to do. This is why

[40]  some people think managers are, for the moment, one of

the largest categories immune to the fast wave of AI.

Meanwhile, lower-skill workers have been

protected by the Moravec moat. Hans Moravec was a

futurist who pointed out that machine technology copied

[45] a savant infant: Machines could do long math equations

instantly and beat anybody in chess, but they can't

answer a simple question or walk up a flight of stairs. As

a result, not skilled work done by people without much

education (like home health care workers, or fast-food

[50]  attendants) have been saved, too.

 

The human half

In the 19th century, new manufacturing

technology replaced what was then skilled labor. In the

[55]  second half of the 20th century, however, software

technology took the place of median-salaried office work.

The first wave showed that machines are better at

assembling things. The second showed that machines

are better at organizing things. Now data analytics and

[60]  self-driving cars suggest they might be better at patternrecognition

and driving. So what are we better at?

The safest industries and jobs are dominated by

managers, health-care workers, and a super-category

that includes education, media, and community service.

[65]  One conclusion to draw from this is that humans are,

and will always be, superior at working with, and caring

for other humans. In this light, automation doesn't make

the world worse. Far from it: it creates new opportunities

for human creativity.

[70]  But robots are already creeping into diagnostics

and surgeries. Schools are already experimenting with

software that replaces teaching hours. The fact that

some industries have been safe from automation for the

last three decades doesn't guarantee that they'll be safe

[75]  for the next one.

It would be anxious enough if we knew exactly

which jobs are next in line for automation. The truth is

scarier. We don't really have a clue.

 

(Adapted from http://www.businessinsider.com/robots-overtakingamerican- jobs-2014-1)

According to the first paragraph, robots can be _____ by many names.

Directions: Answer question according to TEXT.

 

TEXT 

 

DANCING EFFECTS ON THE HUMAN BODY

 

  These days, people love to watch other people

dance. Competitive dance shows, like “So you think you

 can dance” and “Dancing with the stars”, are dominating

the world of reality television. So, if you get off the sofa

[5]  and dance, you can keep your body and mind healthy.

Studies show that dancing can improve your heart

health, helps you lose weight and stay flexible, reduces

stress and can also help you get old in a pleasant way.

  Dancing, as an aerobic exercise, can reduce the

[10]  risk of heart problems and high blood pressure. You can

learn ballroom dancing, participate in a dance-fitness

class or dance with a video in your house. There are

many ways to enjoy dancing and get a good aerobic

exercise at the same time.

[15]   Dance training helps you to lose weight. The

number of calories burned per hour depends on the type

of dance and the weight of the dancer. Observe the chart

below.

 

 

[25] 

  Another good effect is that dancing works on the
part of the brain that controls memory – hippocampus.
So, what are you waiting for? Let's dance!

(Adapted from www.everydayhealth.com and www.livestrong.com)

 

Glossary:
health - “saúde”
ballroom dancing - “dança de salão”
to lose weight - “perder peso”
to improve - “melhorar”
calories burned – “calorias queimadas”

The opposite of never (line 9) is