Questões de Concurso Sobre inglês

Polar ice is melting and changing Earth’s rotation. It’s messing with time itself
    One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.
     The hours and minutes that dictate our days are determined by Earth’s rotation. But that rotation is not constant; it can change ever so slightly, depending on what’s happening on Earth’s surface and in its molten core.
     These nearly imperceptible changes occasionally mean the world’s clocks need to be adjusted by a “leap second,” which may sound tiny but can have a big impact on computing systems.
     Plenty of seconds have been added over the years. But after a long trend of slowing, the Earth’s rotation is now speeding up because of changes in its core. For the first time ever, a second will need to be taken off.
    “A negative leap second has never been added or tested, so the problems it could create are without precedent,” Patrizia Tavella, a member of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France, wrote in an article accompanying the study.
     But exactly when this will happen is being influenced by global warming, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Melting polar ice is delaying the leap second by three years, pushing it from 2026 to 2029, the report found.
    “Part of figuring out what is going to happen in global timekeeping … is dependent on understanding what is happening with the global warming effect,” said Duncan Agnew, professor of geophysics at the University of California San Diego and the study’s author.
(https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/27/climate/timekeeping-polar-ice-melt-earth-rotation/index.html)



Select the correct alternative, according to the text:

In what specific way does the article suggest that legible handwriting impacts academic performance, as indicated by the research?

Based on the article's findings, why is handwriting important?

According to Krista Griffin, what connection does writing help children establish?

Which of the following sentences effectively uses conjunction to contrast ideas?

Which sentences correctly use the words “hard” or “hardly”?

I. I am exhausted because I’ve been working hard.
II. She tried hard to remember my name but she couldn’t.
III. Roger Federer is a great tennis player. He hits the ball hardly.
IV. This shirt is practically new. I’ve hardly worn it.

Choose the sentence with the correct transformation to passive voice:

"The team won the championship after months of rigorous training and strategizing."

What term serves as a synonym for "contiguous" as employed in the provided text?

What is "the path of totality" in relation to a total solar eclipse?

According to the text, what defines a total solar eclipse?

Reported speech is how we represent the speech of other people or what we ourselves say. There are some principles of reported speech, which are: (I) Reported speech is a way to convey what someone said; (II) Reported speech often changes verbs and pronouns; (III) Reported speech often uses a tense further back in the past; and, (IV) Reported speech changes questions into statements. Also, it is worth mentioning that there are two main types of reported speech: direct speech and indirect speech. The main difference between direct and indirect speech is that direct speech uses the exact words spoken by someone, while indirect speech reports what someone said without using their exact words. With that in mind, check the alternative which sentence represents the correct form of the reported speech (indirect speech) from the example provided below (direct speech):
Paulo Freire once said, “There is no such thing as neutral education”.

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a teaching method that uses physical movement to help students learn language and vocabulary. It is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement to react to verbal input. The process mimics the way that infants learn their first language, and it reduces student inhibitions and lowers stress. In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language with body movements, and students respond with whole-body actions. Total Physical Response is particularly useful for, but not limited to, teaching beginners and, or younger students and is highly effective for teaching imperative-based languages, where the commands are easily expressed through actions. Having that said, check the alternative, whose statement is not associated with the one of the core principles of TPR.

Adverbs have many different meanings and functions. They are especially important for indicating the time, manner, place, degree and frequency of something. An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence. There are six main types of adverbs: manner, time, place, frequency, degree, and conjunctive. With this in mind, match the second column according to the information provided in the first one, then check the correct answer.

( 1 ) MANNER ( 2 ) TIME ( 3 ) PLACE ( 4 ) FREQUENCY ( 5 ) DEGREE ( 6 ) CONJUNCTIVE

( ) Very, absolutely, totally, rather, quite, really, completely, extremely, fairly
( ) There, here, somewhere, everywhere, nowhere, anywhere, abroad, northwards.
( ) Also, however, otherwise, indeed, finally, furthermore, nonetheless, in fact.
( ) Usually, sometimes, never, often, always, rarely, occasionally, seldom.
( ) Soon, early, now, today, tomorrow, yesterday, then, now, lately, next.
( ) Quickly, slowly, easily, fast, well, carefully, correctly, noisily, silently. 

The way we use language depends on factors such as the situation we are in (at a friend’s house, in a job interview, in a tutorial); who we are talking to (friends, potential employer, tutor); and our means of communication (conversation face to face, telephone, email, report). Our decisions about the way we use language are to a great extent unconscious ones: we instinctively know how to adapt our language to the situation. For example, there are a number of differences between spoken and written language. This being so, we can characterize spoken language as quite informal, colloquial and presumably unstructured (since it is often spontaneous). Furthermore, spoken language mostly takes place in the form of a dialogue with another speaker. Written language, on the other hand, is generally more structured, formal, impersonal and wordy. Also, written language is considered more formal and should follow the rules of the English language. Spoken language is generally less formal, and the rules are less important. Slang, an informal language understood only by certain groups, is acceptable in spoken language but not in written language. That said, read the statements that follow, then check ( T ) for TRUE and ( F ) for FALSE while indicating the correct answer (by also checking it).

( )Written English is more complex grammatically than spoken English, with longer and more complex sentences, fewer contractions, and more subordinate clauses.

( ) Spoken English is more likely to be face-to-face communication, while written English is more likely to be communication through the written word.

( ) Spoken English is more fixed and stable than written English, which is more fleeting.

( ) Spoken English is usually more organized and carefully formulated than written English.

( ) Written English is typically more structured and forms a monologue rather than a dialogue, while spoken English is more likely to be a dialogue.

( ) Written English communicates across time and space for as long as the medium exists and the language is understood. Spoken English is more immediate.

( ) Spoken English normally uses a generally acceptable standard variety of the language, whereas written English may sometimes be in a regional or other limited-context dialect.

( ) In Spoken English, the content is presented much more densely. In written English, the information is “diluted” and conveyed through many more words: there are a lot of repetitions, glosses, “fillers”, producing a text is noticeably longer and with more redundant passages. 

Active methodologies are teaching methods that place students as the main characters in their learning process. The main aim of active methodologies is to train students and teachers with the competencies and skills of the future, which are: argumentation, digital culture, good communication, critical thinking, responsibility, cooperation, and much more. Active methodologies are the basis for creating more open learning environments, with interactivity and cooperation between students. It is the transformation of education, which motivates and engages students, reduces dropout rates and failures, and improves the experience as a whole. Also, studies have shown that these methodologies improve grades and help students develop emotional intelligence beyond the basic curriculum. That being said, having in mind the fundamentals and principles of the most known active methodologies, match the second column according to the information provided in the first one, then check the correct answer. 
( A ) Flipped classroom. ( B ) Project-based learning. ( C ) Case studies. ( D ) Peer teaching. ( E ) Gamification. ( F ) Inquiry-based learning.

( ) Students learn from each other through pairing and sharing learning objectives. It is an effective way to encourage collaboration and communication, and can help students retain information.

( ) It involves the use of game elements in non-game situations to increase motivation and learning. It can also be used in the classroom to increase student engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention while helping them to develop a positive attitude towards learning.

( )Students find solutions to problems mainly by themselves, and then present their findings to the class. It is an active approach that encourages students to become self-directed learners. It also emphasizes contextual and experiential approaches to learning.

( ) Students apply their knowledge to real-world problems, often open-ended. They also work on projects over an extended period of time – from a week up to a semester – that engage them in answering a complex question.

( ) Students are placed in an active learning role, promoting research, problem-solving, and highlevel cognitive skills. It challenges students to think critically and creatively to develop solutions.

( ) It focuses on problem solving and learning activities in the classroom, while content transmission happens outside of the classroom. Students learn content at home through readings, videos, or other activities before class. In class, students participate in activities like practice, application exercises, discussions, and team-based learning.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Communicative Approach (CA) is a language teaching method that focuses on helping students communicate in real-world situations. The goal of CLT is to develop communicative competence, rather than linguistic competence, through learner interaction. That being so, check the answer whose characteristic is not associated with the Communicative Language Teaching.

Pronouns make links to what has already been said and help avoid repetition. Pronouns can be used as cohesive devices in order to create cohesion. A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun, often to avoid the need to repeat the same noun over and over. Like nouns, pronouns can refer to people, things, concepts, and places. Most sentences contain at least one noun or pronoun. Pronouns do more than helping avoid repetitiveness. They provide context, make sentences’ meanings clearer, and shape how we perceive people and things. Read the sentences that follow and do what is required.

I. Her aunt will be vacating next week.
II. That toy on the shelf is mine.
III. Did you do it yourself?
IV. She is the girl I was talking to you about.
V. I am going home today evening.
VI. All my friends are coming home for my birthday party.

In the order they were respectively underlined and written in bold letters, the pronouns written in the sentences above have specific functions, check the answer whose pronouns types are correspondent to the ones read above. 

Tense, aspect, and mood are grammatical categories that describe the relationship between words and help convey the meaning of a verb. When it comes to tense, it refers to the time when an action occurs (past, present or future). Regarding to aspect, it describes the flow of time, or whether an action is complete, continuous, or repeated (simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous). Finally, on what matters to mood, it encompasses the attitude of the action, or whether it is actual, possible, or necessary (indicative, imperative and subjunctive. That being so, check the alternative whose sentences were written in all tenses, aspects and moods in the English language (in the order they were presented – respectively).

Over the years, different prescriptions (prescriptive documents) and laws have suggested different statuses for the English language, both as an object of teaching for the English language teachers and as an object of learning for the students from different classroom contexts in Brazil. Some of these documents are the National Curricular Parameters (PCN, 1998), the Common National Curricular Base (BNCC, 2017) and the Law of Guidelines and Bases (LDB, 1996). In this case, when it comes to the PCN (1998), as a prescriptive document, check the answer whose status of English language is correspondent to the one found in the before-mentioned document, which suggests its status and how this target language should be taught in Brazilian classrooms.

The history of English language teaching (ELT) is unarguably linked to the history of imperialism and colonialism, which materializes in a certain extent the explicit or implicit cultural domination. Such domination inevitably involves the insertion of the colonizer's language into the lives of the colonized peoples. In this regard, the history of English language teaching has always been experienced in terms of cycles, such as theoretical principles and techniques that appear as a trend, disappear for a time and reappear for another period time, sometimes with new principles and fundamentals, and the cycles tend to follow one another. In this regard, studies in Applied Linguistics and Methods and Approaches in English Language Teaching suggest Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method, Oral Approach and Audiolingualism Method to be the first ones in ELT history. Having that in mind match the second column based on the information provided in the first one. Then, check the correct answer.

( A ) GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION METHOD ( B ) DIRECT METHOD ( C ) ORAL APPROACH ( D) AUDIOLINGUALISM METHOD

( ) Grammatical rules are not presented formally and the texts used for reading and writing activities are no longer literary since this method is based on certain principles, such as: selection, gradation and presentation.

( ) Learning is associated with syntactic, morphological and phonological structures which are learned from a system of stimulus, response and reinforcement.

( ) In this method, the writing skill is also developed, but not with a communicative purpose.

( ) Adopting the monolingual principle, this method involves the use of objects, gestures and images to explain the meanings of words, since the students' native language is prohibited from being used.

( ) Language learning would be associated with the formation of readers and the intellectual development of students.

( ) This method involves automatic correction and immediate assessment of students' mistakes by teachers in order to prevent the students from forming or acquiring bad habits and behaviors during the learning process.

( ) As a theoretical systematization of foreign language teaching, its objective would be the development of students' oral skills as the vocabulary and grammatical structures they have learned would be controlled in terms of frequency of occurrence.

( ) In this method, learning must be directly connected to the target language without going through the process of translation into the students' native language.

( ) The language to be taught is the spoken language and the new elements of the language are practiced situationally as the grammatical items are proposed gradually, that is, from the simplest to the most complex forms.

( ) In this method, language is both seen and considered as a behavior, for it is a means of oral communication.