Questões de Inglês - Passado simples | Simple past para Concurso

Read Text | and answer questions 05 to 13.

Netflix is trying to prove to the world that it's all grown up

Netflix is trying to persuade Wall Street that it is now all grown up. After squeezing out millions of additional subscribers via its password sharing crackdown and through the introduction of cheaper advertiser-supported plans, the streamer knows that its growth spurts are coming to an end — and now it wants investors to stop obsessing over those pesky membership numbers and instead focus on other metrics.

"In our early days, when we had little revenue or profit, membership growth was a strong indicator of our future potential. But now we're generating very substantial profit and free cash flow. We are also developing new revenue streams like advertising and our extra member feature, so memberships are just one component of our growth", Netflix told shareholders as it reported quarterly earnings.

To that end, Netflix said that it will no longer report quarterly subscriber numbers, starting in 2025. Alas, the metric that Wall Street has forever judged Netflix on — the metric that prompted legacy media companies to burn endless piles of cash in their bids to compete with the streamer — will be retired. The decision to shut off transparency on the metric represents a significant turning point in the streaming revolution. For years, Netflix has prided itself on being extraordinarily transparent. Now it is aiming to hold its cards closer to its chest. And given that streaming giant is the trendsetter in the space, one could expect that other media companies will be inspired by the company's move and also opt to cease reporting such data.

To be fair, what Netflix is saying isn't necessarily off base either. As the company shifts its business model away from subscriptions and toward advertising and other revenue streams, it makes sense to consider how much time users are spending on the service. The more content a user consumes on Netflix, the more likely they are to continue paying for the service, and the more money Netflix then makes from that single subscriber. "We're focused on revenue and operating margin as our primary financial metrics — and engagement (i.e. time spent) as our best proxy for customer satisfaction,” Netflix underscored in its letter to shareholders.

Regardless, less transparency in an already opaque industry is not ideal. The walled garden of streaming already lacks the same detailed viewership data that Nielsen collects on linear television broadcasters. Now, visibility into the streaming world will get even dimmer.

The announcement from Netflix managed to overshadow its otherwise stellar quarter. The company handily beat expectations and added a staggering 9.3 million subscribers, meaning it now boasts nearly 270 million in total. Netflix also beat analyst expectations on both earnings and revenue. However, it wasn't all good news. Netflix forecasted its subscriber growth to be lower in quarter two, chalking it up to “typical seasonality.” That led the stock to slide nearly 5% in after-hours trading.

Whether "typical seasonality” is solely to blame, or whether the streamer is simply starting to hit a ceiling, is hard to tell. Perhaps it is a mix of both. Whatever the cause, the stock sliding on the less-than-ideal outlook is a prime example of why Netflix wants Wall Street to stop focusing on its subscriber numbers. And, in one year's time, investors won't have a choice.

Adapted from: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/19/media/netflix-subscription-numbers/index.html

Read Text I and answer the fourteen questions that follow it

 Text I The “literacy turn” in education: reexamining 

what it means to be literate

In response to the phenomena of mass migration and the emergence of digital communications media that defined the last decade of the 20th century, the New London Group (NLG) called for a broader view of literacy and literacy teaching in its 1996 manifesto, A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures. The group argued that literacy pedagogy in education must (1) reflect the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of the contemporary globalized world, and (2) account for the new kinds of texts and textual engagement that have emerged in the wake of new information and multimedia technologies. In order to better capture the plurality of discourses, languages, and media, they proposed the term ‘multiliteracies’.

Within the NLG’s pedagogy of multiliteracies, language and other modes of communication are viewed as dynamic resources for meaning making that undergo constant changes in the dynamics of language use as learners attempt to achieve their own purposes. Within this broader view of literacy and literacy teaching, learners are no longer “users as decoders of language” but rather “designers of meaning.” Meaning is not viewed as something that resides in texts; rather, deriving meaning is considered an active and dynamic process in which learners combine and creatively apply both linguistic and other semiotic resources (e.g., visual, gesture, sound, etc.) with an awareness of “the sets of conventions connected with semiotic activity [...] in a given social space” (NLG, 1996, p. 74).

Grounded within the view that learning develops in social, cultural, and material contexts as a result of collaborative interactions, NLG argued that instantiating literacy-based teaching in classrooms calls on the complex integration and interaction of four pedagogical components that are neither hierarchical nor linear and can at times overlap: situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice. […]

Although the NLG’s pedagogy of multiliteracies was conceived as a “statement of general principle” (1996, p. 89) for schools, the group’s call for educators to recognize the diversity and social situatedness of literacy has had a lasting impact on foreign language (FL) teaching and learning. The reception of the group’s work along with that of other scholars from critical pedagogy appeared at a time when the field was becoming less solidly anchored in theories of L2 acquisition and more interested in the social practice of FL education itself. In the section that follows, we describe the current state of FL literacy studies as it has developed in recent years, before finally turning to some very recent emerging trends that we are likely to see develop going forward.

(Adapted from: https://www.colorado.edu/center/altec/sites/default/files/ attachedfiles/moving_toward_multiliteracies_in_foreign_language_teaching.pdf)

Planes top 800 mph as near-record winds sweep high over Mid-Atlantic

(Available at: www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/02/18/record-jet-stream-winds-dc-flights/ – text specially adapted for this test)

TEXTO 01

O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder às questões de 01 a 05.

MEG PECKED

Harry WON'T make up with William despite Diana statue unveiling as he 'can't afford to upset Meghan', biographer claims

1§ Despite the brother's united front at the unveiling of the statue honouring their late mother Princess Diana, Harry made a sharp exit after the ceremony.

2§ The pair seemed in sync as they tugged the green curtain draped over the touching artwork but he left just 20 minutes later after raising a glass of bubbly to Di.

3§ He dashed back to the US to be with his wife Meghan Markle, Archie, and newborn daughter Lilibet - which royal commentator Angela Levin suggested is because "he does what he's told."

4§ But the author isn't holding her breath for a reconciliation, as she told The Andrew Pierce Show, "I think whatever Harry decides Meghan will change it."

5§ "She will make it a negative thing to happen, and I don't see that there will be a long-term progress there.

6§ "I think there will be some nasty comments about it, perhaps William pulled the green cloth harder than Harry," Ms Levin joked.

7§ "Seriously, it is a very big thing, what Harry has done, said about William, the Royal Family, and his father, and the Queen."

8§ Prince Harry and Wills have not seen each other since Prince Philip's funeral in April and have been embroiled in a bitter feud about Harry's bombshell comments about the Royal's in interviews with chat show host Oprah.

9§ "You can't just brush over that. You can put a plaster on it for half __ hour but you can't really get rid of that unless there's a huge amount of conversations over a long period of time."

10§ "And Harry does what he's told," Ms Levin continued.

11§ "If Meghan tells him how __ make a statement, he'll make it, and that's it.

12§ "He can't afford now to upset Meghan because he would feel such a failure and a misery and she'd give him what for, really. I think there's no chance __ that."

13§ Diana's sons were seen laughing and joking on Thursday afternoon surrounded by their late mother's family in the Sunken Garden for the unveiling.

14§ The pair even mirrored each other's body language as they strolled in, before being welcomed by Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, their former private secretary, who is godfather to Prince George.

15§ Sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, the mastermind behind the bronze memorial said Diana "was an icon who touched the lives of people right around the world so it has been a privilege to work alongside Prince William and Prince Harry."

16§ Harry and William chose some of Diana's favourite flowers to be planted by the statue, including 100 forget-me-nots, 200 roses, 300 tulips and 500 lavender plants.

Source (adapted): mmaake-uu-wliamm-danna-saaue uupse-mmeghan/ry-wont-make-up-william-diana-statue-upset-meghan/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15480142/harry-wont-make-up-william-diana-statue-upset-meghan/