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

Read the text about a tribute to Franz Kafka for the question

Google Doodle celebrates Franz Kafka’s 130th birthday with ‘The Metamorphosis’ tribute Google has created a ‘doodle’ in tribute to Franz Kafka on the 130th anniversary of the Germanlanguage novelist’s birth.

The doodle is based on Kafka’s 1915 novella ‘The Metamorphosis’ – considered by many to be one of the most important works of fiction of the 20th Century – and shows the character Gregor Samsa walking into a room in the guise of a large insect.

In the much-celebrated work, Samsa is a travelling salesman who transforms into an insect overnight. The rest of novella focuses on his struggle to come to terms with his new existence and the burden it places on his family.

Kafka was born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family on 3 July 1883 in Prague, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He originally trained as a lawyer but began writing short stories in his spare time - eventually coming to consider it his calling – despite only a handful of his works being published during his lifetime.

Regarded as one of the 20th Century’s most influential authors, Kafka’s works are dominated by unreliable narrators who often tell dark tales of existentialist difficulties.

Kafka’s notoriously difficult relationship with his father Hermann is believed to have strongly influenced his work – with The Metamorphosis itself thought to be based upon Kafka’s own fears of insignificance and repulsiveness to his own family.

From: HALL, John. Available at:<http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-doodlecelebrates-franz-kafkas-130th-birthday-with-the-metamorphosis-tribute-8685557.html>.

Read TEXT and answer question.

TEXT

CASE STUDY ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REVERSE LOGISTICS PRACTICES IN A COMPANY PRODUCING HYGIENE PRODUCTS

Currently, it is necessary for companies to understand both distribution logistics processes and those involving reverse logistics, which is characterized by the treatment and final destination of post-consumption and post-sale products. The implementation of the reverse logistics features propelling forces and restrictive forces that assist and inhibit, respectively, its implementation. The objective of this paper is to study the propelling and restrictive forces of reverse logistics and to identify through a case study of a company producing hygiene products whether reverse logistics practices are applied, and in what form. In addition, we sought to identify the existence of specific performance indicators. It was found that the company considers reverse logistics a strategic issue and that, despite the existence of few performance indicators related to this topic, waste generation was reduced from 10% to 7% on the production volume, indicating that materials were being reused.

(ANDRADE, R. P.; VIEIRA JR., M.; VANALLE, R. M. Estudo de caso sobre a implementação das práticas de logística reversa em uma empresa de produtos de higiene. Exacta – EP, São Paulo, v. 11, n. 2, p. 13-22, 2013. Disponível em: . Acesso: 20 out. 2016.) 

Read the following article and answer question based on the text.

Faced with the unprecedented stream of migrants fleeing war and trauma in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe needs to take clear-sighted action.

        For its part, the UK has agreed to take 20,000 refugees, a significant portion of whom will likely be children and orphans according to report. One key aspect in ensuring their smooth settlement in the UK will be providing these refugees with language training.

       Many Syrians are well-educated and many speak fluent English. Others, however, do not speak English well enough to function professionally within the UK. The issue of language is so fundamental to our lives that we often overlook it. Several multi-million pound training contracts have failed to be delivered on account of not addressing the language barrier. All the goodwill, financial backing, and technical expertise to deliver needed medical, economic, military,engineering, or navigational training may be present; but unless there is a shared language in which to impart that knowledge, little will be accomplished.

        One of the biggest misconceptions about language is that if you “just go to the country,” you’ll pick it up. Many people believe that immersion will guarantee fluency; yet you may well know several immigrants who have been in this country for years and still only speak broken English. You might also know dozens of expats in various countries across the world who have failed to pick up the local languages of their host countries. Training and effort are both necessary.

        Though not a guarantee of fluency, immersion is a wonderful opportunity. The first issue we need to address with respect to refugees is ensuring that those who come will actually be immersed. That is, that they will be welcomed as part of larger communities, and not simply join communities of other refugees. On the other hand, immersion is just an opportunity, and in order to take full advantage of it, training and education are required. In terms of refugees, we need to consider options for the provision of language training, whether by self-study, classroom instruction, private tuition, or some combination of the three.        

       The array of needs is staggering. In truth, every language learner has a different set of learning objectives, and will require different training to meet those objectives. Coordinating the actual needs with providers in different regions and accounting for different personal schedules and start dates is a significant challenge. It is, however, a challenge that must be addressed immediately, as proficiency in English will be a key enabler of success for refugees in this country.

(Adapted from Aaron Ralby http://www.blogs.jbs.cam.ac.uk/ socialinnovation/2015/11/16/)

      Goods in transit refers to merchandise and other inventory items that have been shipped by the seller, but have ..I.. been received by the purchaser. To illustrate goods in transit, let's use the following example. Company J ships a truckload of merchandise on December 30 to Customer K, which is located 2,000 miles away. The truckload of merchandise arrives at Customer K on January 2. Between December 30 and January 2, the truckload of merchandise is goods in transit. The goods in transit requires special attention if the companies issue financial statements as of December 31. The reason is that the merchandise is the inventory of one of the two companies. However, the merchandise is not physically present at either company. One of the two companies must add the cost of the goods in transit to the cost of the inventory that it has in its possession.

      The terms of the sale will indicate which company should report the goods in transit as its inventory as of December 31. If the terms are FOB shipping point, the seller (Company J) will record a December sale and receivable, and ..II..  include the goods in transit as its inventory. On December 31, Customer K is the owner of the goods in transit and will need to report a purchase, a payable, and must add the cost of the goods in transit to the cost of the inventory which is in its possession.

      If the terms of the sale are FOB destination, Company J will not have a sale and receivable until January 2. This means Company J must report the cost of the goods in transit in its inventory on December 31. (Customer K will not have a purchase, payable, or inventory of these goods until January 2.)

       (Adapted from http://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-are-goods-in-transit) 

Atenção: As questões de números 56 a 60 referem-se ao texto apresentado abaixo. As cores originais dos mapas 2, 3 e 4 foram alteradas para visualização em tons de cinza. 

Using analysis, we can feel confident in the spatial patterns we see, and in the decisions that we make.

Putting your data on a map is an important first step for finding patterns and understanding trends. Here we’re looking at crimes that happened in San Francisco, about 37,000 of them. Looking at the points on a map, can you find the clusters or patterns in this point data? Can you decide where the police department should allocate its resources? Just looking at points on a map is often not enough to answer questions or make decisions using this kind of point data. That’s where the spatial analysis tools in ArcGIS come in. 

We’ve all seen heat maps on TV or in web application-beautiful maps that show high-density areas in bright red, and low-density areas in blue. These maps are used to visualize crime, disease, and a whole host of other types of data and information. These heat maps can be a great first step in a visual analysis of your data  they can also be very subjective. What does that mean? Well, the two heat maps shown below reflect the same San Francisco Crime data, and were created using the same tool. The only difference is the criteria that were used to decide what appears very dark (high density) and what appears very light (low density). These types of cartographic elements that we incorporate into our maps can have a huge impact on the story that the map tells. 

If the decisions that you’re trying to make as a result of your analyses are important, and they usually are, you’ll want to minimize subjectivity as much . A great way to minimize the subjectivity in your pattern analysis is to use a hot spot analysis, which incorporates a simple spatial statistic to determine if the patterns that you’re seeing are statistically significant or not. The hot spot map is shown here.

So what makes this type of map any less subjective than density-based heat maps? The very dark areas on hot spot maps are statistically significant clusters of high values (hot spots), and the very light areas are statistically significant clusters of low values (cold spots). What’s dark and what’s light is always based on statistical significance. Using hot spot analysis, we can feel confident in the spatial patterns that we see, and in the decisions that we make.(Adapted from: http://resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/analysis/017z00000015000000.htm

Answer question according to TEXT 1 below, adapted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8606466.stm (accessed on April 7th, 2010) .

TEXT 1

At least 200 people have died in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro after another storm. This is arguably the worst torrential rain for decades, causing flooding and landslides. Our website readers in Rio de Janeiro have been sharing their experiences.

Comment 1 - I’ve never seen such chaos. We weren’t prepared for this, even though we were warned that a big storm was about to come. Newspapers are saying that the reason for the catastrophe is the garbage. Well it may have been. We need to teach recycling at schools and community groups, otherwise we will have more disasters like this. (Lia, Niterói)

Comment 2 - Today I witnessed Rio de Janeiro on the brink of collapse. I ventured out around midday, just as the electric power blacked out in my neighbourhood. Three hours later, looking out of my office window, the city still reminded me of a war zone. “What´ve we done to deserve this?”, I thought. It’s night time now and I haven’t been able to return home. I might do so tomorrow. (José, Rio)

Comment 3 - Worldwide, we are seeing more and more climate instability. The deserts of central Asia are growing, while areas of the US (and now Rio) are drenched. The lakes in Minnesota have never thawed this early, at any time in the recorded record. The icecaps will be history, and islands around the world are disappearing under the surf. The oceans are warming, the coral reefs are dying. How much more evidence do we need of global warming? (João, Brasília)

Atenção: Para responder à questão, considere o texto abaixo.

    Goods in transit refers to merchandise and other inventory items that have been shipped by the seller, but have been received by the purchaser. To illustrate goods in transit, let's use the following example. Company J ships a truckload of merchandise on December 30 to Customer K, which is located 2,000 miles away. The truckload of merchandise arrives at Customer K on January 2. Between December 30 and January 2, the truckload of merchandise is goods in transit. The goods in transit requires special attention if the companies issue financial statements as of December 31. The reason is that the merchandise is the inventory of one of the two companies. However, the merchandise is not physically present at either company. One of the two companies must add the cost of the goods in transit to the cost of the inventory that it has in its possession.

    The terms of the sale will indicate which company should report the goods in transit as its inventory as of December 31. If the terms are FOB shipping point, the seller (Company J) will record a December sale and receivable, and include the goods in transit as its inventory. On December 31, Customer K is the owner of the goods in transit and will need to report a purchase, a payable, and must add the cost of the goods in transit to the cost of the inventory which is in its possession
    If the terms of the sale are FOB destination, Company J will not have a sale and receivable until January 2. This means Company J must report the cost of the goods in transit in its inventory on December 31. (Customer K will not have a purchase, payable, or inventory of these goods until January 2.)

(Adapted from http://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/what-are-goods-in-transit)

Atenção: Para responder à questão, considere o texto abaixo.

    The sole proprietor of a plumbing shop was sentenced to 13 months in prison, three years of supervised release for tax evasion and ordered to pay approximately $130,000 in restitution to the IRS. The business owner willfully attempted to evade paying his federal income taxes by skimming gross receipts of his plumbing business and paying personal expenses from his business accounts and claiming them as business expenses.

    As part of his tax evasion scheme, he instructed several of his employees to solicit checks from clients payable in his name, rather than in the name of the business. He then cashed these checks and did not deposit the monies into his business’ bank account. Since this money was not recorded on the books of the business, nor deposited into the business’ account, he did not include these gross receipts on his income tax return. He also deducted personal expenses as business expenses thereby substantially reducing his tax for tax years 2003 through 2006.

(Adapted from http://www.bizfilings.com/toolkit/sbg/tax-info/fed-taxes/tax-avoidance-and-tax-evasion.aspx)

Atenção: Para responder à questão, considere o texto abaixo.

    In the United States of America, an income tax audit is the examination of a business or individual tax return by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or state tax authority. The IRS and various state revenue departments use the terms audit, examination, review, and notice to describe various aspects of enforcement and administration of the tax laws.

    The purpose of a tax audit or a return examination is to determine  reports filed with the taxing authorities are correct. The tax agencies identify and resolve taxpayer errors.

    There are several different methods used to select individuals and businesses for examination.

    Employers and financial institutions, among other organizations, are required by law to send documentation (W-2's and 1099's, for example) to the IRS. The IRS uses software to ensure that the numbers on a tax return match the numbers the IRS receives from third parties. If the documentation does not match, the return may be examined.

    When a tax return is filed, the IRS uses computer software called the Discriminant Index Function System (DIF) to analyze the return for oddities and discrepancies. Once the return has been processed through DIF, it is given a score. If the DIF score is high enough (i.e. a large amount of oddities or discrepancies are found), that tax return may be selected for examination. The formulas the IRS use to create the DIF software and analysis are a closely guarded secret.

    Filed tax returns are also subjected to an evaluation called the UIDIF, or the Unreported Income Discriminant Function System. This evaluation involves the analysis of tax returns based on a series of factors to determine a tax return's potential for unreported income. Returns that are found to have a high UIDIF score (i.e. the likelihood of unreported income) and a high DIF score may be selected for examination. The IRS formulas used to calculate UDIF are secret, but it is commonly thought that the IRS uses statistical comparisons between returns to determine UIDIF potential.

    The IRS selects a certain amount of income tax returns to be audited each year through random selection. No errors need to be found for the Enforcement branch to examine a tax return. Random selection exams tend to be more extensive and time-consuming than other forms of review.

    The practice of random selection has been a source of controversy for many years. The practice was suspended for a short time in the early 2000s amid criticism that the audits were too burdensome and intrusive. The IRS revived the practice in the fall of 2006.

(Adapted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_audit)

                                      OneDrive

      Microsoft has a problem when it comes to sticking with product names. With the exception of Windows and Office, it seems to re-brand its offerings every few years. Sometimes it's arbitrary (at least to customers). Sometimes it's ....I... of legalities. Take FolderShare, for instance, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2005 and promptly renamed Windows Live FolderShare − everything was called "Live" back then. In the years since, it has been Windows Live Mesh, Essentials, Live Folders, and SkyDrive.

      SkyDrive is a great name, but it was taken. Sort of. Microsoft got sued in the U.K. by broadcaster BSkyB for using the word "Sky." A court agreed that it infringed a trademark, and Microsoft had to rebrand again. In keeping with other products like OneNote and Xbox One, it went with OneDrive.

      OneDrive really should be a bigger name than it is. But Microsoft isn't as synonymous with cloud/sync as Dropbox or Google Drive. The latter has the excellent integration of Docs and Sheets for online editing, but OneDrive has something arguably better: full integration with Office. Office Online houses the online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Plus, OneDrive is integrated directly with Windows − no utility needed. All it takes to access OneDrive is a Microsoft account. The service will sync files between all your Windows and Mac computers, which you can access online via mobile apps and the Web.

      OneDrive also made a big splash announcing unlimited online storage in 2014, but recently took that option away thanks to a small number of users who abused the privilege, Microsoft claims.

(Adapted from: http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/329141/16-tips-to-help-you-master-microsoft-onedrive) 

What are the biggest Windows 10 problems Microsoft needs to fix?

by Edward Chester

03 July 2015

      Windows 10 is shaping up to be a good upgrade over both Windows 7 and Windows 8, but with the release date of 29 July mere weeks away, there are still some issues that need sorting.

      So, while there’s still just about time, here are some of the biggest Windows 10 problems that we’re hoping Microsoft will fix before the Windows 10 Technical Preview is closed and the final version is released to users.

      1. Tabs in File Explorer

      One of the longest-running requested features for a new Windows is simply to allow the File Explorer to have tabs. Just as web browsers can have multiple tabs open at the same time but all contained in a neat single-windowed view, we want the same thing for File Explorer.

      It seems like it should be a simple thing to add, but seemingly Microsoft is against the idea, as it's already made considerable adjustments to File Explorer in Windows 10 without including this feature.

      2. Finish updating icons

      Windows 8 saw a new, more sharp-lined, high-contrast style brought to Windows, but it didn’t do a very good job of maintaining consistency throughout the OS, with many features still using the old style. Windows 10 has improved this, tweaking the majority of system icons and features to fit in with the new look. ...I... , the task still isn’t complete, and while it doesn’t make a huge difference to the day-to-day satisfaction of using your computer, it does speak to the apparent difference in philosophy between Apple and Microsoft.

      When the former overhauled the look of iOS, it did so in a much more complete manner than Microsoft has managed over two major iterations of Windows.

      3. Stability issues

      The most obvious issue that Microsoft needs to address is simply making sure it really does solve any further performance and stability issues in Windows 10. While our experience has largely been smooth, we've nonetheless had moments of the system completely falling over while doing nothing particularly challenging, and there are many other reports of instability.

      Microsoft certainly can’t be complacent when it comes to core stability. The company does need to ensure that what customers are buying at least works reliably out of the box.

      (…)

                                               (Adapted from: http://www.trustedreviews.com)