Questões de Concurso Sobre interpretação de texto | reading comprehension em inglês

My City: Seoul

Seoul is the capital of South Korea. It’s a bustling city of 10.5 million people. The city is expanding all the time, and there are some incredible new buildings, such as the GT Tower East. The architects built it entirely of glass, with curving lines so it imitates the sea.

New buildings are everywhere in Seoul, but we have preserved the old city, too. In Bukchon village, there are still many old-style houses made of wood and stone. It’s a lovely place to spend an afternoon.

The Gangnam district is in the center of the city. It’s now famous for the 2012 hit song Gangnam Style by the singer Psy. He wrote the song because people in my neighborhood try to be very fashionable, and in the song, he’s laughing at us because we think we’re cool. We don’t mind. It’s great that people all around the world are talking about us!

My neighborhood is also a great place to spend your free time. Seoul is home to some excellent restaurants. On weekends, I like to go out and share a plate of bibimbap with my friends. It’s a popular rice dish topped with vegetables and a spicy sauce, and sometimes beef or an egg. Be careful if you try it because, like a lot of Korean food, it’s very spicy!

As the home of Samsung and LG, Korea is one of the world’s leading technological countries. And Seoul is known for being a very modern, futuristic place. For example, it’s possible to use a smartphone to pay for tickets on the subway. That is the best way to get around the city, and trains run from 5:30 a.m. until midnight.

It’s also possible to use a smartphone to pay for groceries at the supermarket or to turn appliances on and off in your home. This is possible because Wi-Fi connection speeds are incredibly fast all over the city. This isn’t science-fiction – it’s everyday life in my city, Seoul! 

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Suez Canal reopens after giant stranded ship is freed Traffic has resumed in Egypt's Suez Canal after a stranded container ship blocking it for nearly a week was finally freed by salvage crews.

Tug boats honked their horns in celebration as the 400m-long (1,300ft) Ever Given was dislodged on Monday with the help of dredgers.

Hundreds of ships are waiting to pass through the canal which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

It is one of the world's busiest trade routes.

Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever Given had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday, "thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again".

Egyptian officials say the backlog of ships waiting to transit through should be cleared in around three days, but experts believe the knock-on effect on global shipping could take weeks or even months to resolve.

A marine source told Reuters news agency on Monday evening that ships were travelling southwards towards the Red Sea while canal services provider Leth Agencies said vessels had resumed transit from the Great Bitter Lake.

Some ships have already left the region, preferring to take an alternative, longer route around the southern tip of Africa. 

Inevitably, cargoes will be reaching their destination much later than planned. There may be congestion when they arrive in port, while future sailing schedules have been thrown into disarray,

The cost of shipping goods to Europe is expected to rise as a result, BBC Business Correspondent Theo Leggett reports.

Adaptado de: BBC. 2021. Disponível em: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east56567985. Acesso em 30 mar. 2021.

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Brazil Becomes the Second Nation After the U.S. to Top

300,000 COVID-19 Deaths

Brazil topped 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so amid a spike in infections that has seen the South American country report record death tolls in recent days.

The United States reached the grim milestone on Dec. 14, but has a larger population than Brazil.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s health ministry reported 2,009 daily COVID-19 deaths, bringing its pandemic total to 300,685. On Tuesday, the country saw a single-day record of 3,251 deaths.

According to local media reports, the latest coronavirus figures might be affected by changes in the government’s counting system. Newly appointed Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said in a press conference that he was going to check whether the numbers had been artificially reduced.

With daily death tolls at pandemic highs, state governors and mayors in Brazil have expressed fears that April could be as bad as March for the country’s overwhelmed hospitals.

Just in the past 75 days, Brazil has registered 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, a spike health experts blame on a lack of political coordination in fighting the virus, new variants that spread more easily and a disregard for health protocols. 

President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday held a meeting with the heads of other government branches to coordinate anti-virus efforts. But he didn’t propose any policies to deal with the pandemic.

Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic, insisting the economy must be kept humming to prevent worse hardship, and he has criticized health measures imposed by local leaders.

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BOOK REVIEW: HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH BY

JEREMY HARMER

Right at the top of the recommended reading list for Eton Institute’s TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program is “How to Teach English” by Jeremy Harmer. Alisa W., TESOL graduate from Eton Institute, shares with us a review of the book and how it helped her own personal TESOL journey.

Prior to the training course I took to learn how to be an EFL teacher, I had no formal teacher training, I had a limited exposure to different styles of teaching, and I had never even done basic self-reflection about why I preferred some instructors over others (I always assumed it was their personality that I enjoyed). If the CEFR gave teacher ratings, I would be at the A1.1 level. I read ‘How to Teach English’ by Jeremy Harmer as part of my TESOL training course, and it was perfect for my level. It is by no means a replacement to a full teaching course, but it is a valuable supplement to those who are learning and a good refresher for those who have been out of practice for a while. It provides contemporary teaching practices and keeps its descriptions pithy and hands-on.

While some of the sections are a bit obvious or too shallow to be useful, the book is so well organized that it is easy to find what you need and skip over what you don’t. Each chapter is divided into main sections (also listed in the table of contents), and subdivided again, bolds important words, and features a list at the end of the chapter that allows you to briefly review what you just read.

As with any well-designed reference book, the glossary, index, and appendices in the back are good sources for extending your self-education as a teacher.

The book comes with a DVD that has clips from real classes so you can observe good teaching practice in the comfort of your pyjamas and the support of a bowl of chips. The DVD wouldn’t play on my MacBook, so I can’t tell you if it is helpful or not. Another feature that is nice-to-have-but-I-didn’t-use is the “Task Files” at the back. After completing a chapter, you can quiz yourself by completing info tables, answering multiple-choice questions, matching definitions, and the like.

Adaptado de: ETON INSTITUTE. Disponível em: https://etoninstitute.com/blog/book-review-how-toteach-english-by-jeremy-harmer. Acesso em 27 mar. 2021.

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Lady Gaga's dogs found safe after armed robbery

Lady Gaga's two stolen French bulldogs have been found safe and handed in to police, according to officials.

The two dogs, stolen in an armed robbery, have been "reunited" with the singer's representatives, police said. Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer, was shot by two men who abducted the dogs in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on Wednesday. He is in hospital and his family said on Friday that he was expected to make a full recovery.

Details of how the dogs were recovered are unclear. The Associated Press said a woman had brought them to the Olympic Community Police Station in LA and the singer's representatives had confirmed they were hers. The woman appeared to be "uninvolved and unassociated" with the robbery, a police spokesman said.

Lady Gaga had offered $500,000 for their safe return but it is not clear if the reward has been claimed. The star - whose real name is Stefani Germanotta - is currently in Rome working on a new Ridley Scott film, Gucci. In her first public reaction to the attack, Gaga tweeted on Friday: "My heart is sick. I am praying my family will be whole again with an act of kindness. I will pay $500,000 for their safe return."

Footage has emerged showing one of the suspects firing at Mr. Fischer before making off with the dogs, Koji and Gustav. A third bulldog, named Miss Asia, ran away and was later recovered by police.

The dog walker was shot in the chest, according to reports in US media. His family released a statement on Friday praising the medical staff who had been caring for him and saying they were confident for his full recovery, according to US media: "We cannot possibly say enough to thank all of the first responders, nurses and doctors who have worked so tirelessly to care for Ryan," the statement said. They also said: "Of course, we also want to thank Lady Gaga who has shown nothing but non-stop love and concern for Ryan and our family right from the outset. Ryan loves Gustavo and Koji as much as Lady Gaga does; so we join in her plea for their safe return." 

Police said the attack happened at about 21:40 local time on 24 February, in the area of Sierra Bonita Avenue and Sunset Boulevard: "The suspects approached the victim in a white Nissan Altima four door. Two suspects exited the vehicle and demanded the victim turn over the dogs at gunpoint," the LAPD said in an updated statement on Friday: "The victim struggled with the suspects and was shot once by one of the suspects. The suspects took two of the three dogs and fled the scene in the suspect vehicle."

The statement said "the victim is in stable condition", and the two suspects are described as black males aged 20-25.

It is not clear whether Lady Gaga's dogs were specifically targeted in the attack.

No arrests have been made.

Adaptado de: BBC. 2021. Disponível em: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56218620. Acesso em: 29 mar. 2021.

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HOW YOU CAN LEARN ENGLISH FROM READING

We all know that reading books is a great way to learn English. What about if you don’t like books, though? Reading a whole book can be tough and timeconsuming, especially if you aren’t interested in reading books in your native language. So, what can we learn from reading something other than a book? Here are some tips:

1- Newspapers use a wide range of vocabulary to describe the world around us. If you feel like you already know all the vocabulary in your textbook or online study course, pick up a newspaper and you’ll soon come across some new words to add to your vocabulary.

2- Most fields of business have English trade journals that people use to keep their professional knowledge up to date. If you are a teacher, get yourself a teaching journal or if you are an architect or designer, subscribe to an interesting design magazine. Reading about your area of work in English will help you learn all specialist English expressions you need to do your job in English.

3- Practise scanning, scanning for specific information in a text is an important skills to master in English. Practise it by reading product specifications in English. Set yourself a task to find out a specific piece of information about a product and see how quickly you can look it up.

4- Reviews are great for finding out which products to buy or which films to see. See if you can understand the gist (general idea) of a review by reading the review and guessing what score the reviewer will give the product out of ten. Check if your guess matches the reviewer’s rating at the bottom of the review.

5- Read instructions to learn how to describe processes. Describing how things work in English is an important skill. It also often comes up as a task in English exams such as IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC. Next time you buy a new gadget, work out how to use it by reading the instructions in English. You will build your comprehension skills and learn how to describe the process of using something in English 

Adaptado de: ENGLISH LIVE. Disponível em: https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/study-tips/can-learnenglish-reading/. Acesso em 25 mar. 2021.

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It’s the Perfect Time to Discover Avatar: The Last Airbender

Spend your Labor Day weekend watching a 15-year-old Nickelodeon show aimed at children. You won’t regret it.

I’m a TV critic who’s constantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new television there is to consume; I can’t imagine how the average viewer must feel. Currently, 10 episodes of a new space opera, six episodes of a Civil War drama, a mini series about chess, an adaptation of a beloved novel, and the fourth installment of an anthology series are all vying for my attention—and those are just the ones I’m interested in watching, not the ones that I’ve already written off as being not worth my time.

Yet time and again, I’ve been frustrated by television in 2020. Seasons are bloated and meandering; character arcs are picked up and then abandoned; episodes don’t seem to cohere around any single idea, let alone a good idea; and often, shows are more interested in playing out their premise for as long as possible than they are in telling a story that has a compelling arc and a stunning end. Too many current shows seem to have been greenlit based on someone’s slightly deranged moodboard, or a movie idea spun into a series pitch; not enough are dramatically paced, well-written, coalescing around strong characters and a powerful theme or two. So it was a delight to spend some of the doldrums of August marathoning Avatar: The Last Airbender—a show so good, it puts prestige dramas, expensive streaming series, and wry comedies to shame. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it took the beloved Nickelodeon series’ arrival on Netflix to finally get me to watch its compact, elegant three seasons, which are purportedly intended for children but somehow also managed to make me cry like a baby. Anyway, I’m late to the party—Avatar premiered in 2005—but I’m not alone: After debuting on the platform in May, the series stayed in Netflix’s top 10 for 61 days, topping a previous record held by Ozark. 

For an animated half-hour that lasted just three seasons, this is a lot of meta-text—but if you’ve seen it, it’s not surprising. The series, from creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, introduces viewers to a fantasy world guided by fully non-European tradition, where certain powerful individuals can manipulate one of the four elements. The Avatar is a particularly powerful individual who has the ability to master all four elements; as their title implies, one is reincarnated every generation, holding all of those past lives inside them.

SARAYA, Sonia, 2020. Disponível em: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/avatarthe-last-airbender-netflix. Acesso em 24 mar. 2021. 

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When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.” 

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. What could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.”

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”

“I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not – at first. But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, chapter 4. Available at:

<https://www.gutenberg.org>. Accessed on: October 29th, 2018.