Questões de Concurso Comentadas sobre palavras conectivas | connective words em inglês

     What Is the Definition of Online Banking?

    The brick-and-mortar bank is the bank customers may use for banking. It is the bank where customers go to deposit checks, withdraw money, transfer money, and it's also the bank used to pay bills by mail. Brick-and-mortar banks ..A.. . Today's world of banking is more efficient. With online banking, customers rarely need to walk into a bank. Most of their banking is available through their computer. 

    Online banking is also called brick-to-click banking, according to bankrate.com, as well as electronic banking or Internet banking. It is a bank that gives customers the option of using checks, depositing money and transferring money at their physical location, or the option to do most of their banking on their computer. They can log on to their site and transfer between accounts, pay bills, use automatic deposits and check balances in all their accounts. If they need cash, they can make withdrawals using their ATM card or debit card. The only time they may need to enter an actual bank is to deposit a paper check or see a loan officer. 

    History

    According to "Banking and Finance on the Internet," a book edited by Mary J. Cronin, online banking was first introduced in the early 1980s when four New York banks − Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover − offered home banking services. The systems were quite ..B.. to use and did not prove to be very popular. In the U.K., it was Nottingham Building Society that in 1983 offered the first electronic home banking system. 

    How it Works

    In order to use e-banking, customers need access to a personal computer and Internet connection. When they register for ebanking, they are asked to provide a login name and password. Additionally, each time they want to access their account they might be required to answer a security question, which minimizes the risk of someone else accessing their account. 

    Features

    Online banking allows customers to access their bank account from their computer 24 hours a day. With a password and a secure system, they can view all their accounts, move their money around, open new accounts, pay loans, access past months, print off transactions and electronically pay bills. With an ATM card, they have 24-hour access to ATMs across the country. With a debit card, they can pay bills at any store instead of writing a check. The bank automatically deducts from their checking account.

    Virtual Banking

    Besides the brick-to-click banks, there are virtual banks that do not have a physical location or personnel. They offer the same services as a regular bank and must follow the same federal guidelines. ....CONJUNCTION ... they do not have the overhead of buildings and personnel, they can offer better deals on loans and higher returns on savings.

    Advantages of E-Banking 

    For customers, convenience is probably the main advantage, because it allows them to access their accounts whenever they want, and perform transactions from the comfort of their home. Almost equally important is ubiquity, because e-banking is available from any internet-connected computer anywhere in the world. For banks, e-banking means lower operating costs, as they need fewer branches and staff. Last but not least, it means new revenue opportunities, because e-banking attracts new, usually higher-income clients. 

    Disadvantages of E-Banking

    For customers, it takes time to learn how to use e-banking facilities and, more importantly, to trust their bank's website and stop worrying about security issues. For banks, it means investing more in equipment and highly trained staff to run the website and necessary software. 

(Adapted from http://www.ehow.com) 

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    For years attention has been paid to so-called communicative tests – usually implying tests dealing with speaking. More recently, efforts have been made to design truly communicative tests of other language skills as well, such as reading comprehension.

    Canale (1984) points out that a good test is not just one which is valid, reliable, and practical in terms of test administration and scoring, but rather one that is accepted as fair, important and interesting by test takers (the teachers) and test users (the students). Also, a good test has feedback potential, rewarding both teachers and students with clear, rich, relevant, and generalizable information. Canale suggests that acceptability and feedback potential have often been accorded low priority, thus explaining the curious phenomenon of multiple-choice tests claiming to assess oral interaction skills.

    One example of a communicative test has been referred to as a “storyline” test. In such a test, a common theme runs throughout in order to assess the effects of context. The basis for such an approach is that the respondents learn as they read on, that they check previous content, and that the ability to use language in conversation or writing depends in large measure on the skill of picking up information from past discussion and using it in formulating new strategies.

    Swain (1984), for example, developed a storyline test of French as a foreign language for high school French immersion students. The test consisted of six tasks around a common theme, “finding summer employment”. There were four writing tasks (a letter, a note, a composition, a technical exercise) and two speaking tasks (a group discussion and a job interview). The test was designed so that the topic would be motivating to the students and so that there would be enough information provided in order to give the tasks credibility. There was access to dictionaries and reference material, and opportunity for students to review and revise their work. Swain’s main concern was to “bias for best” in the construction of the test – to make every effort to support the respondent in doing their best on the test.

(Andrew D.Cohen. Second Language Assessment. IN: Marianne Celce-Murcia(ed). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston, Massachusstes: Heinle&Heinle. 2nd edition. 2001. Adaptado)

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    Culture is really an integral part of the interaction between language and thought. Cultural patterns, customs, and ways of life are expressed in language; culture-specific world views are reflected in language. Each culture has at its disposal a particular range of colours, illustrating its particular world view on what color is and how to identify color. The African Shona and Bassa peoples, for example, have fewer color categories than speakers of European languages and they break up the spectrum at different points, as shown below:

    Of course, the Shona or Bassa are able to perceive and describe other colors, in the same way that an English speaker might describe a “dark bluish green”, but the labels which the language provides tend to shape the person’s overall cognitive organization of color and to cause varying degrees of color discrimination. Eskimo tribes commonly have as many as seven different words for snow to distinguish among different types of snow (falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, wet snow, etc.), whereas certain African cultures in the equatorial forests of Zaire have no word at all for snow.

(Douglas Brown. Principles of language learning and teaching. 5th ed. Longman, 2000. Adaptado)