Questões de Concurso Sobre inglês

Which negative form is correct according to Grammar? 

Das alternativas abaixo, qual a única que admite a utilização do artigo indefinido "an". 

Which modal is used to express strong belief or obligation? 

The past perfect form is fairly often used in English. Correct the mistakes in the following past perfect sentence: "The work had started the moment she'd left the terminal patient there."

Science News
New Research Advances Voice Security Technology
ScienceDaily (Mar. 11, 2010) — Most people are familiar with security technology that scans a person's handprint or eye for identification purposes. Now, thanks in part to research from North Carolina State University, we are closer to practical technology that can test someone's voice to confirm their identity. "The big picture is speaker authentication by computer," says Dr. Robert Rodman, professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a new paper on the subject. "The acoustic parameters of the voice are affected by the shape of the vocal tract, and different people have different vocal tracts," Rodman explains. "This new research will help improve the speed of speech authentication, without sacrificing accuracy."
Rodman explains that speech authentication could have a host of applications in this age of heightened security and mobile electronics. "Potential users of this technology include government, financial, health-care and telecommunications industries," Rodman says, "for applications ranging from preventing ID theft and fraud to data protection."
Current computer models that are used to compare acoustic profiles, effectively evaluating whether a speaker is who he says he is, may take several seconds or more to process the information, which is still too long for the technology to gain widespread acceptance. "In order for this technology to gain traction among users," Rodman says, "the response time needs to improve without increasing the error rate."
To address this problem, Rodman and his fellow researchers modified existing computer models to streamline the authentication process so that it operates more efficiently. "This is part of the evolution of speech authentication software," Rodman says, "and it moves us closer to making this technology a practical, secure tool."
The research was co-authored by NC State's Rodman; Rahim Saeidi, Tomi Kinnunen and Pasi Franti of the University of Joensuu in Finland; and Hamid Reza Sadegh Mohammadi of the Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture & Research.
The research, "Joint Frame and Gaussian Selection for Text Independent Speaker Verification", will be presented at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) in Dallas, March 14-19. The research was funded, in part, by the Centre for International Mobility.
NC State's Department of Computer Science is part of the university's College of Engineering.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100308102202.htm
“Current computer models […] may take several seconds or more to process the information, which is still too long for the technology to gain widespread acceptance.”
In this sentence, the relative pronoun which refers to the

Innovation is the new key to survival […] At its most basic, innovation presents an optimal strategy for controlling costs. Companies that have invested in such technologies as remote mining, autonomous equipment and driverless trucks and trains have reduced expenses by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously driving up productivity. Yet, gazing towards the horizon, it is rapidly becoming clear that innovation can do much more than reduce capital intensity. Approached strategically, it also has the power to reduce people and energy intensity, while increasing mining intensity. Capturing the learnings The key is to think of innovation as much more than research and development (R&D) around particular processes or technologies. Companies can, in fact, innovate in multiple ways, such as leveraging supplier knowledge around specific operational challenges, redefining their participation in the energy value chain or finding new ways to engage and partner with major stakeholders and constituencies. To reap these rewards, however, mining companies must overcome their traditionally conservative tendencies. In many cases, miners struggle to adopt technologies proven to work at other mining companies, let alone those from other industries. As a result, innovation becomes less of a technology problem and more of an adoption problem. By breaking this mindset, mining companies can free themselves to adapt practical applications that already exist in other industries and apply them to fit their current needs. For instance, the tunnel boring machines used by civil engineers to excavate the Chunnel can vastly reduce miners’ reliance on explosives. Until recently, those machines were too large to apply in a mining setting. Some innovators, however, are now incorporating the underlying technology to build smaller machines—effectively adapting mature solutions from other industries to realize more rapid results. Re-imagining the future At the same time, innovation mandates companies to think in entirely new ways. Traditionally, for instance, miners have focused on extracting higher grades and achieving faster throughput by optimizing the pit, schedule, product mix and logistics. A truly innovative mindset, however, will see them adopt an entirely new design paradigm that leverages new information, mining and energy technologies to maximize value. […] Approached in this way, innovation can drive more than cost reduction. It can help mining companies mitigate and manage risks, strengthen business models and foster more effective community and government relations. It can help mining services companies enhance their value to the industry by developing new products and services. Longer-term, it can even position organizations to move the needle on such endemic issues as corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability. (http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ru/Document s/energy-resources/ru_er_tracking_the_trends_2015_eng.pdf) The fragment “To reap these rewards” (l. 17) means to:

Innovation is the new key to survival […] At its most basic, innovation presents an optimal strategy for controlling costs. Companies that have invested in such technologies as remote mining, autonomous equipment and driverless trucks and trains have reduced expenses by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously driving up productivity. Yet, gazing towards the horizon, it is rapidly becoming clear that innovation can do much more than reduce capital intensity. Approached strategically, it also has the power to reduce people and energy intensity, while increasing mining intensity. Capturing the learnings The key is to think of innovation as much more than research and development (R&D) around particular processes or technologies. Companies can, in fact, innovate in multiple ways, such as leveraging supplier knowledge around specific operational challenges, redefining their participation in the energy value chain or finding new ways to engage and partner with major stakeholders and constituencies. To reap these rewards, however, mining companies must overcome their traditionally conservative tendencies. In many cases, miners struggle to adopt technologies proven to work at other mining companies, let alone those from other industries. As a result, innovation becomes less of a technology problem and more of an adoption problem. By breaking this mindset, mining companies can free themselves to adapt practical applications that already exist in other industries and apply them to fit their current needs. For instance, the tunnel boring machines used by civil engineers to excavate the Chunnel can vastly reduce miners’ reliance on explosives. Until recently, those machines were too large to apply in a mining setting. Some innovators, however, are now incorporating the underlying technology to build smaller machines—effectively adapting mature solutions from other industries to realize more rapid results. Re-imagining the future At the same time, innovation mandates companies to think in entirely new ways. Traditionally, for instance, miners have focused on extracting higher grades and achieving faster throughput by optimizing the pit, schedule, product mix and logistics. A truly innovative mindset, however, will see them adopt an entirely new design paradigm that leverages new information, mining and energy technologies to maximize value. […] Approached in this way, innovation can drive more than cost reduction. It can help mining companies mitigate and manage risks, strengthen business models and foster more effective community and government relations. It can help mining services companies enhance their value to the industry by developing new products and services. Longer-term, it can even position organizations to move the needle on such endemic issues as corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability. (http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ru/Document s/energy-resources/ru_er_tracking_the_trends_2015_eng.pdf) The verb “reduce” in “reduce capital intensity” (l. 7) has the same meaning as:

Innovation is the new key to survival […] At its most basic, innovation presents an optimal strategy for controlling costs. Companies that have invested in such technologies as remote mining, autonomous equipment and driverless trucks and trains have reduced expenses by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously driving up productivity. Yet, gazing towards the horizon, it is rapidly becoming clear that innovation can do much more than reduce capital intensity. Approached strategically, it also has the power to reduce people and energy intensity, while increasing mining intensity. Capturing the learnings The key is to think of innovation as much more than research and development (R&D) around particular processes or technologies. Companies can, in fact, innovate in multiple ways, such as leveraging supplier knowledge around specific operational challenges, redefining their participation in the energy value chain or finding new ways to engage and partner with major stakeholders and constituencies. To reap these rewards, however, mining companies must overcome their traditionally conservative tendencies. In many cases, miners struggle to adopt technologies proven to work at other mining companies, let alone those from other industries. As a result, innovation becomes less of a technology problem and more of an adoption problem. By breaking this mindset, mining companies can free themselves to adapt practical applications that already exist in other industries and apply them to fit their current needs. For instance, the tunnel boring machines used by civil engineers to excavate the Chunnel can vastly reduce miners’ reliance on explosives. Until recently, those machines were too large to apply in a mining setting. Some innovators, however, are now incorporating the underlying technology to build smaller machines—effectively adapting mature solutions from other industries to realize more rapid results. Re-imagining the future At the same time, innovation mandates companies to think in entirely new ways. Traditionally, for instance, miners have focused on extracting higher grades and achieving faster throughput by optimizing the pit, schedule, product mix and logistics. A truly innovative mindset, however, will see them adopt an entirely new design paradigm that leverages new information, mining and energy technologies to maximize value. […] Approached in this way, innovation can drive more than cost reduction. It can help mining companies mitigate and manage risks, strengthen business models and foster more effective community and government relations. It can help mining services companies enhance their value to the industry by developing new products and services. Longer-term, it can even position organizations to move the needle on such endemic issues as corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability. (http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ru/Document s/energy-resources/ru_er_tracking_the_trends_2015_eng.pdf) “For instance” in “Traditionally, for instance, miners have focused on extracting” (l. 34-35) is used to:

Innovation is the new key to survival […] At its most basic, innovation presents an optimal strategy for controlling costs. Companies that have invested in such technologies as remote mining, autonomous equipment and driverless trucks and trains have reduced expenses by orders of magnitude, while simultaneously driving up productivity. Yet, gazing towards the horizon, it is rapidly becoming clear that innovation can do much more than reduce capital intensity. Approached strategically, it also has the power to reduce people and energy intensity, while increasing mining intensity. Capturing the learnings The key is to think of innovation as much more than research and development (R&D) around particular processes or technologies. Companies can, in fact, innovate in multiple ways, such as leveraging supplier knowledge around specific operational challenges, redefining their participation in the energy value chain or finding new ways to engage and partner with major stakeholders and constituencies. To reap these rewards, however, mining companies must overcome their traditionally conservative tendencies. In many cases, miners struggle to adopt technologies proven to work at other mining companies, let alone those from other industries. As a result, innovation becomes less of a technology problem and more of an adoption problem. By breaking this mindset, mining companies can free themselves to adapt practical applications that already exist in other industries and apply them to fit their current needs. For instance, the tunnel boring machines used by civil engineers to excavate the Chunnel can vastly reduce miners’ reliance on explosives. Until recently, those machines were too large to apply in a mining setting. Some innovators, however, are now incorporating the underlying technology to build smaller machines—effectively adapting mature solutions from other industries to realize more rapid results. Re-imagining the future At the same time, innovation mandates companies to think in entirely new ways. Traditionally, for instance, miners have focused on extracting higher grades and achieving faster throughput by optimizing the pit, schedule, product mix and logistics. A truly innovative mindset, however, will see them adopt an entirely new design paradigm that leverages new information, mining and energy technologies to maximize value. […] Approached in this way, innovation can drive more than cost reduction. It can help mining companies mitigate and manage risks, strengthen business models and foster more effective community and government relations. It can help mining services companies enhance their value to the industry by developing new products and services. Longer-term, it can even position organizations to move the needle on such endemic issues as corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability. (http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ru/Document s/energy-resources/ru_er_tracking_the_trends_2015_eng.pdf) The word “them” in “apply them to fit” (l. 25) refers to:

Decide if the alternatives are true ( T ) or false ( F ).
( ) Many people thought about the environment before the 1960s. ( ) Most scientists knew about global warming in the 1960s. ( ) Professor Lovelock found chemicals called CFCs in the atmosphere. ( ) Lovelock wrote a book in 2006.
Choose the alternative that presents the correct order from top to bottom:

Justice Monitors New Microsoft Software
By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 20, 2004
The Justice Department has begun looking closely at the next generation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system to ensure that it meets the terms of an antitrust settlement reached with the company more than two years ago.
Renata Hesse, the Justice Department lawyer in charge of monitoring Microsoft’s compliance with the agreement, told a federal judge yesterday that the government wants to look at the software, code-named Longhorn, early enough in its development so that it is not presented as a “fait accompli” that would be easy to change.
Microsoft, which has delayed Longhorn’s rollout, has not said when it will be released as the successor to Windows XP, the current version of the personal-computer operating system. Several industry analysts have predicted introduction of Longhorn in 2006 or possibly 2007, which is when the antitruste settlement is scheduled to expire.
The new operating system probably will showcase na aggressive push by Microsoft on several fronts, including technology for Internet searching, managing multiple homeentertainment devices, and virus scanning and other security measures. The company also has been expanding its efforts to become an industry standard-setter in ...... digital entertainment is protected from illegal copying.
Some of these moves will pit the company against competitors with similar products and will again shine a spotlight on Microsoft’s well-honed strategy of bundling more and more programs into its operating system.
It was the bundling strategy that led to Microsoft’s antitrust troubles. Bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser into Windows all but squashed competition from Netscape Communications Inc.’s Navigator browser, which was the Market leader but often had to be downloaded separately.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/articles/A6285 2-2004jul19.html?referrer=email)
No texto, looking closely (1 o parágrafo, 1 a linha) significa

 The only right form to complete the sentence “Let’s go, ______?” is: 

Which one of the alternatives below is not correct? 

 One of the verbs below cannot be followed by an “ing form”. Which one? 

Brazil wars against pregnancy dueto spreading virus   By Shasta Darlington, CNN December24, 2015     Rio de Janeiro (CNN): Brazilian health officials are dishing out some unusual advice these days: Don't get pregnant. That's the message for would-be parents, especially in the country's northeast, after officials linked a mosquito-borne virus called Zika to a surge in newbom microcephaly, a neurological disorder that can result in incomplete brain development. “It's a very personal decision, but at this moment of uncertainty, if families can put off their pregnancy plans, that's what we're recommending,” Angela Rocha, the pediatric infectologist at Oswaldo Cruz Hospital in Brazil's hardest-hit state, told CNN. Behind Brazil's outbreak     More than 2,400 suspected cases of microcephaly have been reported this year in 20 Brazilian states, compared with 147 cases last year. Doctors are investigating 29 related infant deaths. Microcephaly results in babies being bom with abnormally small heads that cause, often serious, developmental issues and sometimes early death. As a result, six states have declared a state of emergency. In Pernambuco state alone, more than 900 cases have been reported.     “These are newboms who will require special attention their entire lives. It's an emotional stress that just can't be imagined," Rocha said. "Here in Pemambuco, we're talking about a generation of babies that's going to be affected."     When the cases of microcephaly started to soar last month, doctors noticed they coincided with the appearance of the Zika virus in Brazil. They soon discovered that most of the affected mothers reported having Zika-like symptoms during early pregnancy - mild fever, rash and headaches.     On November 28, Brazil's Health Ministry announced that during an autopsy it had found the Zika vírus in a baby bom with microcephaly, establishing link between the two.     “This is an unprecedented situation, unprecedented in world scientific research," the ministry said on its website.    Research continues to determine if Zika actually causes microcephaly and further establish an association.     Initialy concentrated in northeastem Brazil, many cases of microcephaly have now been detected in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo to the south, fueling fears across the country.    Patricia Compassi, from Sao Paulo state, has received an outpouring of support and sympathy on social media after she opened up on national television about her son Lorenzo, born with microcephaly in November.     “lts been very difficult because initially the ultrasounds were normal," she told Globo TV in an interview. Early in her pregnancy, she woke up with a rash all over face and achy joints - symptoms that doctors initially attributed to a food allergy and now associate with Zika.     Toward the end of her term, doctors determined her baby would be born with microcephaly.    “There are days that | cry, but just looking at him gives me strength," she said.     Where Zika came from and where it can go Zika fever was first discovered in Uganda in the 1940s and has since become endemic in parts of Africa. It also spread to the South Pacific and areas of Asia, and most recently to Latin America.     It was detected in Brazil early this year. Some doctors believe tourists from Asia or the South Pacific introduced it during the 2014 World Cup.     There are concems it could continue to spread north, but at this point, the virus is known to be transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which thrives in tropical climates. In the United States that type of mosquito is only found in small numbers in Texas, Florida and Hawaii.     Aedes aegypti is the same mosquito responsible for the spread of yellow fever, dengue and chikungunya.     Zika is hard to detect, and there often aren't any symptoms. Brazils Health Ministry says there have been anywhere between a half million and 1.5 million casesin the country in the latest outbreak.    Both the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization have issued alerts in relation to the outbreak of Zika in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. Federal and local govemments have ramped up efforts to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito and encouraged people especially pregnant women, to lather on insect repellant and stay indoors.     In Rio de Janeiro, the host city for the 2016 Olympics, officials said they have already made more than 9 million house visits to eradicate the stagnant pools used as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and are monitoring 391 pregnant women who are suspected of having Zika infections.    With the hot, rainy summer just beginning, the concern is Brazil could see a big spike in Zika. And while it could take months or even years before researchers determine if mosquitoes are really to blame, they are encouraging families to avoid risks and hold off on those pregnancies. 
Após a leitura do texto, assinale a alternativa incorreta: 

‘Intellectualism’ is the belief that our mind comes upon a world complete in itself, and has the duty of ascertaining its contents; but has no power of re-determining its character, for that is already given.
William James   Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/belief?page=1#vM Pj4T57BbXTwqJA.99
Choose the alternative that presents a synonym for the expression “ comes upon a world ”:

Read the text below and answer the question:
To exercise or not to exercise ...
Are more young people overweight than in the past and do they exercise enough? We decided to ask four young people what they thought about this problem.
1- HEATHEROHURUOGU, aged 14 from Leeds, tells us what she thinks about keeping fit.   “I know there have been a lot of stories in newspapers about how fat young people are getting, but we're not all sitting at home at a computer eating crisps and chocolate. Some of us do actually realise that keeping fit is quite important. If anybody should be blamed, I think schools and parents are the problem. At my school we have fewer hours of PE lessons than we used to have. The school has decided we need to spend more time preparing for our exams. My mum and dad trust me to take a bus home if I stay late at school for hockey training, but my friend Carly can't come because her parents work and they are worried about her travelling alone.”
2- OLIVER MCKENNA, aged 15, Edinburgh, sees things differently.
“I don't like organised sport or spending my time with guys skateboarding. I love computers – programming them, playing games on them, surfing the Internet and in my free time that's what I do. It's true that I do need to lose some weight, though. Next week, Mum's taking me to a doctor so we can ask about going on a diet. Dad wants me to join the gym he goes to, but I think it's a bit boring working out all the time. In fact, there's a computer game now called Wii. I'm thinking of getting it because you actually do the actions of the games – you know, things like swinging your arm to hit the ball in tennis. That'd be a good way to get some exercise!”
3- REECEWILKINS, aged 13, Swansea, has another view.
“I'm an active person and so are most of my friends. We all like to spend some time on our Nintendos, PlayStations or whatever – all young people enjoy computer games – but we also belong to football teams or some kind of sports club. We don't have to make an effort to be fit – young people like active games. No, our problem is that we eat too much rubbish. In fact, we drink a lot of bad things – sweet, fizzy drinks which are full of sugar and very unhealthy. Also, we all love fast food and often eat hamburgers and chips. If we ate better, I think most of us would lose the extra weight we have.”

4- HANK DARROW, aged 14, London, shares his opinions with us.
“I've spent the last four years trying to lose weight, and it hasn't been easy. My problem started when I was a baby – it wasn't really my fault. You see, I wasn't very interested in food, and so my mum made all kinds of delicious things to get me to eat. Of course, all those tasty foods were very fattening. My mum used to carry a bowl of food everywhere we went and would follow me around the house or playground trying to get me to eat just one more bite. Well, I got used to eating constantly and, by the time we all realised that I had gained too much weight, the damage had been done. Now I follow a special diet – it was hard at first, but once I got used to it, I actually like it.And I look and feel so much better – I don't want to go back to the way I was.”
Taken from: CHAPMAN, Joanne. Laser B1 +. Teacher's book. Macmillan, 2008.
Choose the correct statement.
According to Heather Ohuruogu:

Choose the alternative that contains the word or group of words which best completes the following sentence: “Secretaries are expected ___________ organized, punctual, cheerful and courteous.”

Choose the alternative that contains the appropriate interpretation for the sentence: “Secretaries may also have to answer departmental phone lines.” This means that:

Which alternative contains the word or group of words that is most nearly the same in the meaning as the underlined words “at times”?