Questões de Inglês - Infinitivo e gerúndio | Infinitive and gerund para Concurso
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Cell Phones: Are they dangerous?
Do you have a cell phone? Do you use it a lot? If the answer to these questions is yes, you should read the following information very carefully.
If you keep on using a cell phone, it will probably cause premature ageing, which might be rather difficult to get over. At least this is what most scientists claim. Low-level radiation from the phone may heat up body cells, damaging skin and making it look slightly lined and tired. Scientists say that if you expose cells to the radiation from a cell phone, the natural process that repairs your skin will probably be affected. Furthermore, radiation produces mutations in the cells and these mutations could be related to other health problems.
Cell phone users have also found out that if they use their phone for a long time they feel other symptoms such as fatigue and memory loss. The fatigue may be caused because, when using phones, people suffer an involuntary speeding up of their heart beat. Apart from that, nearly two out of three people interviewed complained of regular headaches from using their phones, although this may be due to bad posture rather than radiation emissions.
The most surprising fact discovered by researchers is that people exposed to the radiation of a cell phone for 45 minutes go to the bathroom twice as much as usual. This proves that radiation has a biological effect on humans.
So if I were you, I would definitely think twice before using a cell phone if I looked in the mirror and saw wrinkles on my face, felt fatigue, had trouble remembering things, or if I started using my bathroom more often than I used to.
The underlined words in the text are all examples of:
Cultural diversity and cultural identity in globalization
In the process of globalization winners are the countries with highly developed mass media as complex systems which are able to broadcast and receive diverse information which are used as basic development resource. On the other side are the developing countries which suffer their impact. Their characteristic is the small capacity to adapt to innovations that came from outside and that is why their cultural identity is called into question. Mass media are not only instruments for spreading popular culture and industries, but at the same time, their use enables cultural hegemony. Mass media, society, local culture, and media content are closely related. By exhibiting TV shows, movies, dramas etc. media will reflect values specific to local culture. So, we can talk about displaying commerciality as feature of American culture, Japanese aesthetic values, French tendency to philosophize... One of the main functions of mass media is to transfer cultural inheritance, information about the past, values of a given society, and to furnish cultural directive for life, action, and behavior. Despite the globalization of the economy, and the emergence of international political institutions, global dissemination of culture (mass media, education, modernization, urbanization, the spread of literacy) from the late 20th century has strengthened national identities. Modern nationalism is less focused on defending the country and more inclined to defend the established cultural identity. The identities represent the defense against unpredictability, disorder, and changes of globalization. In the last three decades there is strong trend to resisting globalization and cosmopolitanism as a form of defense of cultural identity. “God, nations, families and communities will ensure eternal figures that cannot be broken down and around which society will develop a counter-culture of real virtuality”. Castells considers that individuals carry with them the eternal truth, the values that cannot be virtualized or destroyed. As the globalization process strengthens the coming of cultural integrity and identity problems are more prevalent. Dominant monoculture stands against local, national and traditional cultures with the progressive disintegration of traditional culture value patterns.
(Available: www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2013. Adapted.)
Gerund use does NOT follow the same pattern of “spreading” (L04) in
2. This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
3. They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles. (…)
4. The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving. (…)
5. The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it. (…)
6. Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.
7. Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?
(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/thebenefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=0. Acesso: 04/02/2013)
The words globalized (paragraph 01), considered (paragraph 02), blessing (paragraph 03), and like (paragraph 04), are respectively presented in text as:
Text 1:
How being bilingual can boost your career
Whether you’re fresh out of college or a seasoned executive, insiders agree that fluency in a second language can not only help you stand out among prospective employers, it can also open doors to opportunities that those without foreign language skills might miss.
In today’s global economy, the ability to communicate in another language has become a significant advantage in the workforce. Research has found that people who speak at least one foreign language have an average annual household income that’s $10,000 higher than the household income of those who only speak English. And about 17 percent of those who speak at least one foreign language earn more than $100,000 a year.
A recent survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 headhunters in Europe, Latin America, and Asia say that being at least bilingual is critical for success in today’s business environment. And 66 percent of North American recruiters agreed that being bilingual will be increasingly important in the next 10 years.
“In today’s global economy you really have to understand the way business is done overseas to maximize your potential. A second language equips you for that,” says Alister Wellesley, managing partner of a Connecticut-based recruiting firm. “If you’re doing business overseas, or with someone from overseas, you obtain a certain degree of respect if you’re able to talk in their native language.”
Language skills can also be key for service industries. At the Willard InterContinental Washington, a luxury hotel a few blocks from the White House, a staff of about 570 represents 42 nations, speaking 19 languages. The Willard’s front-of-house employees such as the concierge speak at least two languages. Bilingualism is not an absolute requirement, but it is desirable, according to Wendi Colby, director of human resources.
Workers with skills in a second language may have an edge when it comes to climbing Willard’s professional ladder. “The individual that spoke more languages would have a better chance for a managerial role, whatever the next level would be,” Colby says. “They are able to deal with a wide array of clients, employees.”
So which languages can give you a leg up on the job market? Insiders agree the most popular – and marketable – languages are Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese, with a growing emphasis on Mandarin, given China’s booming economy. So let’s learn Mandarin!
“We see demand from a full range of industries,” says Wellesley. “Actually it depends on which company you’re working for and the country in which they’re located.”
Adapted from: LATHAM-KOENIG, Christina & OXENDEN,
Clive. American English File 5. 2nd edition. Oxford: OUP,
2018.
TEXT 1
School for sexism
By Deborah Cameron (Oxford University)
This week, it was announced that schools in England are being issued with new guidelines on combatting sexism and gender stereotyping. This initiative follows research conducted for the Institute of Physics (IoP), which found that most schools took sexism less seriously than other kinds of prejudice and discrimination. […]
The IoP’s main concern—one it shares with the government, which co-funded the research—is that girls are being deterred from studying science subjects by the sexist attitudes they encounter in school. Language is only one of the issues the report urges schools to tackle. […] But language was the main theme picked up in media reporting on the new guidelines, with many news outlets dramatically proclaiming that children ‘as young as five’ were going to be ‘banned’ from using certain words.
[…] I think we can guess why these newspapers were so keen on the language angle. They’ve known since the heyday of ‘political correctness gone mad’ that nothing stirs up the wrath of Middle England like a story about someone trying to ban words. Never mind that no sane parent permits total free expression for the under-fives […].
This reporting only underlined the point that sexism isn’t taken as seriously as other forms of prejudice. […] Rather than being outraged by the idea of telling primary school children to watch their words, shouldn’t we be asking why ‘children as young as five’ are using sexist language in the first place?
We may not want to think that this is happening among children still at primary school, but unfortunately the evidence says it is. […] Girl Guiding UK publishes an annual survey of girls’ attitudes: the 2015 survey, conducted with a sample of nearly 1600 girls and young women aged between 7 and 21, found that in the week before they were questioned, over 80% of respondents had experienced or witnessed some form of sexism, much of which was perpetrated by boys of their own age, and some of which undoubtedly occurred in school. 39% of respondents had been subjected to demeaning comments on their appearance, and 58% had heard comments or jokes belittling women and girls. […]
By the time they go to secondary school, girls are conscious of this everyday sexism as a factor which restricts their freedom, affecting where they feel they can go, what they feel able to wear and how much they are willing to talk in front of boys. In the Girl Guiding UK survey, a quarter of respondents aged 11-16 reported that they avoided speaking in lessons because of their fear of attracting sexist comments.
So, the Institute of Physics isn’t just being perverse when it identifies sexist ‘banter’ as a problem that affects girls’ education. It’s to the organization’s credit that it’s saying this shouldn’t be tolerated—and it’s also to its credit that it’s offering practical advice. Its recommendations are sensible, and its report contains many good ideas for teachers to consider. […]
When the Sunday Times talks about ‘boys and girls cheerfully baiting each other in the playground’, the implication is that we’re dealing with something reciprocal, a ‘battle of the sexes’ in which the two sides are evenly matched. But they’re not evenly matched. What can a girl say to a boy that will make him feel like a commodity, a piece of meat? What popular catchphrase can she fling at him that has the same dismissive force as ‘make me a sandwich’? […]
The IoP report does not seem to grasp that there is more to sexism than gender stereotyping. It falls back on the liberal argument that stereotyping harms both sexes equally: it’s as bad for the boy who wants to be a ballet dancer as it is for the girl who dreams of becoming an astrophysicist. But sexism doesn’t harm boys and girls equally, just as racism doesn’t harm white people and people of colour equally. It is the ideology of a system based on structural sexual inequality: male dominance and female subordination. You can’t address the problem of gender stereotyping effectively if you don’t acknowledge the larger power structure it is part of.
Disponível em: https://debuk.wordpress.com. Acesso em: 20 out. 2019.
We’re all looking forward to have a few days’ holiday together.
In the context above, there is mistake related to:
Based on the text, judge the item below.
The infinitive form of “taught” (line 2) is think.
Cow Threat
Cows are walking machines. They transform materials (grass, hay, water, and feed) into finished products (milk, beef, leather, and so on).
As any factory, cows produce waste. Solid waste is eliminated through the rear end of these ‘complex machines’, and it is used as fertilizer.
The fermentation process in their four stomachs produces gas. These walking machines have two chimneys: one in the front end, and other in the rear end. Gaseous emissions through the front end chimney are called burps. Cows burp a lot. Every minute and half these burps release methane gas. Methane is dangerous to the planet because it contributes to the greenhouse effect.
The world population is growing very fast. That means there are more people eating beef. Consequently, there is more cattle – more walking machines – producing more methane gas.
This is the problem, but very few people want to change their eating habits. What about you?
Analyze the sentences according to structure and grammar use.
1. The words they and their, in bold in the text, are object pronoun and possessive adjective, respectively.
2. The negative form of: “These walking machines have two chimneys”, is “These walking machines haven’t two chimneys”.
3. The underlined word in the following sentence: “These walking machines” is a gerund form.
4. The word release is synonym of discharge.
Choose the alternative which presents the correct ones.
Judge the following item according to text 19A3BBB.
It is correct to replace “calling” with call in the phrase “used to
calling” (l.17).
Judge the following item, on the linguistic aspects of text 19A1AAA.
The verbal phrase “allowed him to live abroad” (l.4) can be
correctly replaced by allowed him living abroad.
Based on the text, judge the following items.
If we want avoiding is a suitable alternative for “If we
want to avoid” (line 4).
Complete the sentence below.
Would you like to _______ dinner with me tomorrow night?
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words:
She was the ____________ woman I ever met. Besides, she was ____________ intelligent and creative. Also, she received the ___________ recognition of her time for _________ the first pianist of her country to receive an international award.