Questões de Inglês

    How to Pick Up the Local Language Before You Go

www.nytimes.com

 

Speaking — even trying to speak — a language will help open doors on your next trip, and achieving a “survival level” might be easier than you think.

Weston Wei

There are plenty of reasons to learn a foreign language before you travel. Perhaps you’re venturing beyond major tourist centers, or you want to be prepared for emergencies. Whatever the reason, speaking even a few words of the local language with residents can quickly elevate you from mere tourist to sympathetic traveler.

“This tiny interaction instantly connects you,” said Mary Green, vice president and executive editor of Pimsleur Language Programs, in an email. “That’s the feeling travelers are chasing. You’re not just passing through, but actually engaging and connecting.”

Fortunately, there are lots of ways to learn languages, and getting started is affordable, or even free.

Start simply and build from there

Aim to reach a “survival level” before you travel. That means abandoning your inhibitions and not getting hung up on grammar or achieving proficiency, said Thomas Sauer, assistant director of resource development for the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Travelers can connect and communicate surprisingly well at this level, which he described as a speaking style, akin to that of a toddler, that gets the point across.

For Brandon Shaw, a co-owner of the Tour Guy, a company providing specialized tours in Europe and North America, reaching survival level means focusing on a core of essential verbs (words like “go,” “see,” “eat,” “drink,” “have,” “do” and “be”), then learning a small vocabulary of other words centered on your particular interests for a given trip.

“Then you can literally build a hundred sentences around that,” Mr. Shaw said.

Learning those “right words” doesn’t happen overnight. Getting beyond the transactional tourist tropes of “Where’s the bathroom?” and “Check, please,” for example, can take anywhere from one to three months of daily practice, although everyone learns differently. As with a fitness program, you get out of language study what you put in. The trick is finding what works for you.

(Taken from www.nytimes.com. Access: October, 2025)

Based on the text, select the INCORRECT alternative:

From: https://advertgallery.com/newspaper/azim-premji-foundation-opportunities-asresource-persons-ad/?amp=1 on Oct 17, 2025.

To apply, it is advisable that you...

Read the excerpt from the song Talking about a Revolution by Tracy Chapman and then answer the question.

 

[…]
Don't you know
They’re talkin’ about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs
[…]

Available at: https://www.vagalume.com.br/tracy-chapman/talkin-bout-a-revolution.html. Accessed on: Jun. 15th, 2025. Adapted.

 

In the context of the song, what is the precise meaning of the expression “rise up” as used in the line “Poor people gonna rise up”?

O título da canção “Another Brick in the Wall”, da banda Pink Floyd, pode ser interpretado como uma crítica simbólica ao papel desempenhado por instituições sociais — especialmente a escola — na formação dos indivíduos. A expressão "mais um tijolo no muro" sugere um processo repetitivo e impessoal de inserção social.

 

Com base no título da canção e em teorias sociológicas sobre a educação como instrumento de controle social ou reprodução de normas, assinale a alternativa correta.

Prior to responding, conduct a careful examination of the painting presented below.

Available at: https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp. Accessed on: Jun. 13th, 2025.

 

Guernica, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937, is widely recognized as a powerful visual text. Through a combination of fragmented human and animal figures, contrasting tones, and distorted shapes, the artwork conveys intense emotion and symbolic meaning.

 

Based on the information presented and the contextual visual language used in the painting, what central theme can be inferred from its symbolic composition?

Read the following graph

Disponível em: www.statista.com. Acesso em: 05 nov. de 2025.

 

    The chart shows the average number of minutes Americans aged 15 and older spent reading for pleasure per day from 2004 to 2022. In 2004, people read 23 minutes, but over the years the average decreased, reaching only 16 minutes in 2022. Although reading is an important habit for education, imagination and vocabulary, many people now say they rarely or never read books because they prefer watching videos or using social media. Others say they usually read only on weekends.

 

Considering the information in the chart and the text above, analyze the statements and choose the correct one.