Questões de Concurso
Comentadas sobre interpretação de texto | reading comprehension em inglês
Foram encontradas 6.152 questões
Text 2
Immigrants and Public Schools
Public schools in the United States helped immigrants in different ways. First the school gave the children a free education. This meant that many young people became better educated than their parents and had more chances for better jobs. In addition, many schools had evening classes for adults.
brainly.com.br
Text 2 is about: 8
1. Evening classes for adults.
2. Jobs opportunities found leaving school.
3. The precise number of schools where the immigrants study in the United States.
4. How public schools can help immigrants to get free education.
Choose the alternative which contains the correct affirmatives
Text 2
Immigrants and Public Schools
Public schools in the United States helped immigrants in different ways. First the school gave the children a free education. This meant that many young people became better educated than their parents and had more chances for better jobs. In addition, many schools had evening classes for adults.
brainly.com.br
According to text 2, decide if the following sentences are true ( T ) or false ( F ). ( ) Public schools in the United States helped only adults.
( ) Children’s education in public schools is free for their parents.
( ) Adults were able to go to public schools in the United States.
( ) Children’s relatives were usually better educated than their parents.
( ) There weren’t any chances for immigrants be employed.
Choose the alternative which presents the correct sequence, from top to bottom:
Text 1
Structure of education in Singapore
The complete control and management of Singapore’s education is in the hands of the Ministry of Education (MOE). With continuous endeavour from MOE, today Singapore can be considered to have a strong and well-reputed education system. As per recent study Singapore is ranked fourth in terms of World’s Best Education System.
The preschools are run by the private sector, including religious bodies, community foundations, business groups, etc. However, every preschool need to register itself with the Singapore Ministry of Education before being functional.
After completion of 6 years of primary education, students have to appear for a Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). All those students who passed the exam are admitted in a secondary level course, which is usually completed in 4-5 years. It is similar to attending seventh grade through tenth grade in the American education system.
After completion of the secondary education, the students need to appear in Singaporean GCE ‘O’ Level exam. Based on the merit in that exam, students proceed to pre-university education, which is similar to attending eleventh grade and twelfth grade as per the American education system. At this level students can opt for a wide range of subjects from varied academic areas covering Humanities, Arts and Languages, Sciences and Mathematics streams.
www.singaporeeducation.info/Education-System/ Structure-of-Education
According to the information on text 1, the GCE ‘O’ Level exam is important after completion the secondary school because:
Text 1
Structure of education in Singapore
The complete control and management of Singapore’s education is in the hands of the Ministry of Education (MOE). With continuous endeavour from MOE, today Singapore can be considered to have a strong and well-reputed education system. As per recent study Singapore is ranked fourth in terms of World’s Best Education System.
The preschools are run by the private sector, including religious bodies, community foundations, business groups, etc. However, every preschool need to register itself with the Singapore Ministry of Education before being functional.
After completion of 6 years of primary education, students have to appear for a Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). All those students who passed the exam are admitted in a secondary level course, which is usually completed in 4-5 years. It is similar to attending seventh grade through tenth grade in the American education system.
After completion of the secondary education, the students need to appear in Singaporean GCE ‘O’ Level exam. Based on the merit in that exam, students proceed to pre-university education, which is similar to attending eleventh grade and twelfth grade as per the American education system. At this level students can opt for a wide range of subjects from varied academic areas covering Humanities, Arts and Languages, Sciences and Mathematics streams.
www.singaporeeducation.info/Education-System/ Structure-of-Education
According to text 1, we can infer that:
Text 1
Structure of education in Singapore
The complete control and management of Singapore’s education is in the hands of the Ministry of Education (MOE). With continuous endeavour from MOE, today Singapore can be considered to have a strong and well-reputed education system. As per recent study Singapore is ranked fourth in terms of World’s Best Education System.
The preschools are run by the private sector, including religious bodies, community foundations, business groups, etc. However, every preschool need to register itself with the Singapore Ministry of Education before being functional.
After completion of 6 years of primary education, students have to appear for a Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). All those students who passed the exam are admitted in a secondary level course, which is usually completed in 4-5 years. It is similar to attending seventh grade through tenth grade in the American education system.
After completion of the secondary education, the students need to appear in Singaporean GCE ‘O’ Level exam. Based on the merit in that exam, students proceed to pre-university education, which is similar to attending eleventh grade and twelfth grade as per the American education system. At this level students can opt for a wide range of subjects from varied academic areas covering Humanities, Arts and Languages, Sciences and Mathematics streams.
www.singaporeeducation.info/Education-System/ Structure-of-Education
Considering the information from text 1, which rank Singapore is in terms of World’s Best Education System?
“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its students."
― Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz's statement emphasizes:
What concept is George Carlin's quote, "If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?" attempting to convey? Choose the correct alternative.
Disponível em: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes
In the fourth strip, when Calvin says "What difference does that make?", what does the word "THAT" refer to in his question?
At UK's AI Summit developers and govts agree on testing to help manage risks
Leading AI developers agreed to work with governments to test new frontier models before they are released to help manage the risks of the rapidly developing technology, in a "landmark achievement" concluding the UK's artificial intelligence summit.
Some tech and political leaders have warned that AI poses huge risks if not controlled, ranging from eroding consumer privacy to danger to humans and causing a global catastrophe, and these concerns have sparked a race by governments and institutions to design safeguards and regulation.
At an inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, home of Britain's World War Two codebreakers, political leaders from the United States, European Union and China agreed on Wednesday to share a common approach to identifying risks and ways to mitigate them.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that declaration, the action on testing and a pledge to set up an international panel on risk would "tip the balance in favour of humanity".
He said the United States, EU and other "like-minded" countries had reached a "landmark agreement" with select companies working at AI's cutting edge on the principle that models should be rigorously assessed before and after they are deployed.
Disponível em: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-pm-sunak-lead-ai-summit-talks-before-musk-meeting-2023-11-02/
Based on the passage, what is one of the main outcomes of the UK's artificial intelligence summit in relation to managing the risks of AI?
How will future climate change affect the world?
Scientists say limiting temperature rise to 1.5C is crucial to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change - although these increase with every extra increment of warming.
The 1.5C warming limit was partly designed to avoid crossing so-called "tipping points".
These are thresholds beyond which changes could accelerate and become irreversible in different parts of the Earth's climate system, such as the collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
But it's not clear precisely where these thresholds sit. Some may have already been crossed; some may be further away than first thought.
Disponível em: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24021772
Based on the passage, what is one of the main purposes of limiting temperature rise to 1.5C in the context of climate change?
Read the excerpt to answer questions 26 to 28.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
― Charles Dickens
Which of the following elements is NOT part of the contrasting pairs mentioned in the quote?
Read the excerpt to answer questions 26 to 28.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
― Charles Dickens
What is the contrast that Dickens establishes in the quote, "It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness"?
Leia o texto e responda as questões.
Read the text and provide responses to questions.
California woman arrested in theft of 65 Stanley cups - valued at nearly $2,500
By C Mandler
January 22, 2024 / 3:05 PM EST / CBS News
On Jan. 17, police in Roseville, California, discovered a 23-year-old woman had allegedly absconded with 65 Stanley cups from a nearby store — worth nearly $2,500.
"Staff saw a woman take a shopping cart full of Stanley water bottles without paying for them," said the Roseville Police Department in a statement on Facebook.
After being confronted by retail staff, the woman refused to stop, stuffing the cups into her car. She was subsequently arrested on a charge of grand theft and has yet to be identified by officers.
"While Stanley Quenchers are all the rage, we strongly advise against turning to crime to fulfill your hydration habits," said the Roseville police.
One commenter on the post pointed out that in addition to the trove of cups in the trunk and front seat, there was also a bright red Stanley cup in the cup holder, which they hoped police also confiscated. Colorful Stanley cups caused consumer mayhem earlier this month when the brand dropped a limited-edition batch of Valentine's Day colors of the popular tumbler at in-Target Starbucks locations.
Viral video showed shoppers running toward displays of the cups, as well as long lines of consumers waiting to get their hands on one of the coveted Quenchers.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stanley-cups-theft-california-target-2500-65/ (First published on January 22, 2024 /3:05PM EST)
C Mandler is a social media producer and trending topics writer for CBS News, focusing on American politics and LGBTQ+ issues.
FIGURA 1
Fonte: CBS NEWS, 2024.
Based on the information provided in the text, select the correct statement regarding the influence of cultural and societal norms on criminal acts and their impact on perspectives on crime and punishment:
Acerca dos eixos organizadores propostos para o componente Língua Inglesa na Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC), avalie as afirmações abaixo como VERDADEIRAS ou FALSAS:
(__)O eixo Leitura aborda práticas de linguagem decorrentes da interação do leitor com o texto escrito, especialmente sob o foco da construção de significados, com base na compreensão e interpretação dos gêneros escritos em língua inglesa, que circulam nos diversos campos e esferas da sociedade.
(__)O eixo Oralidade envolve as práticas de linguagem em situações de uso oral da língua inglesa, com foco na compreensão (ou escuta) e na produção oral (ou fala), articuladas pela negociação na construção de significados partilhados pelos interlocutores e/ou participantes envolvidos, com ou sem contato face a face.
(__)O eixo Dimensão intercultural consolida-se pelas práticas de uso, análise e reflexão sobre a língua, sempre de modo contextualizado, articulado e a serviço das práticas de oralidade, leitura e escrita.
A sequência CORRETA é:
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
What might be the implications for the study of Valdivia figurines if it is indeed challenging to distinguish between authentic artifacts and well-crafted fakes?
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
In the context of the text, what does "looted" mean?
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
What does the author imply about the market demand for Valdivia figurines over time based on the information provided?
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
Which of the following best summarizes the author's attitude towards Valdivia figurines?
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
Based on the text, what can be inferred about the author's opinion regarding the study of Valdivia figurines?
O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 1 a 9.
Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'
(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.
(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.
(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.
(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.
(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.
(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.
https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a
nd-appeal-of-oldest.html
According to the passage, why are Valdivia figurines prominently featured on the Ministry of Culture website?
Conheça nossos planos