Questões de Inglês - Sinônimos | Synonyms para Concurso

Read the text below to answer the questions 11-15.

NASA Researchers Studying Advanced Nuclear Rocket Technologies

January 9, 2013

By using an innovative test facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., researchers are able to use non-nuclear materials to simulate nuclear thermal rocket fuels - ones capable of propelling bold new exploration missions to the Red Planet and beyond. The Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage team is tackling a three-year project to demonstrate the viability of nuclear propulsion system technologies. A nuclear rocket engine uses a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen to very high temperatures, which expands through a nozzle to generate thrust. Nuclear rocket engines generate higher thrust and are more than twice as efficient as conventional chemical rocket engines.

The team recently used Marshall’s Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator, or NTREES, to perform realistic, non-nuclear testing of various materials for nuclear thermal rocket fuel elements. In an actual reactor, the fuel elements would contain uranium, but no radioactive materials are used during the NTREES tests. Among the fuel options are a graphite composite and a “cermet” composite - a blend of ceramics and metals. Both materials were investigated in previous NASA and U.S. Department of Energy research efforts.

Nuclear-powered rocket concepts are not new; the United States conducted studies and significant ground testing from 1955 to 1973 to determine the viability of nuclear propulsion systems, but ceased testing when plans for a crewed Mars mission were deferred.

The NTREES facility is designed to test fuel elements and materials in hot flowing hydrogen, reaching pressures up to 1,000 pounds per square inch and temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit - conditions that simulate space-based nuclear propulsion systems to provide baseline data critical to the research team.

“This is vital testing, helping us reduce risks and costs associated with advanced propulsion technologies and ensuring excellent performance and results as we progress toward further system development and testing,” said Mike Houts, project manager for nuclear systems at Marshall.

A first-generation nuclear cryogenic propulsion system could propel human explorers to Mars more efficiently than conventional spacecraft, reducing crews’ exposure to harmful space radiation and other effects of long-term space missions. It could also transport heavy cargo and science payloads. Further development and use of a first-generation nuclear system could also provide the foundation for developing extremely advanced propulsion technologies and systems in the future - ones that could take human crews even farther into the solar system.

Building on previous, successful research and using the NTREES facility, NASA can safely and thoroughly test simulated nuclear fuel elements of various sizes, providing important test data to support the design of a future Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. A nuclear cryogenic upper stage - its liquid- hydrogen propellant chilled to super-cold temperatures for launch - would be designed to be safe during all mission phases and would not be started until the spacecraft had reached a safe orbit and was ready to begin its journey to a distant destination. Prior to startup in a safe orbit, the nuclear system would be cold, with no fission products generated from nuclear operations, and with radiation below significant levels.

“The information we gain using this test facility will permit engineers to design rugged, efficient fuel elements and nuclear propulsion systems,” said NASA researcher Bill Emrich, who manages the NTREES facility at Marshall. “It’s our hope that it will enable us to develop a reliable, cost-effective nuclear rocket engine in the not-too-distant future."

The Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage project is part of the Advanced Exploration Systems program, which is managed by NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and includes participation by the U.S. Department of Energy. The program, which focuses on crew safety and mission operations in deep space, seeks to pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future vehicle development and human missions beyond Earth orbit.

Marshall researchers are partnering on the project with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls; Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

The Marshall Center leads development of the Space Launch System for NASA. The Science & Technology Office at Marshall strives to apply advanced concepts and capabilities to the research, development and management of a broad spectrum of NASA programs, projects and activities that fall at the very intersection of science and exploration, where every discovery and achievement furthers scientific knowledge and understanding, and supports the agency’s ambitious mission to expand humanity’s reach across the solar system. The NTREES test facility is just one of numerous cutting-edge space propulsion and science research facilities housed in the state-of- the-art Propulsion Research & Development Laboratory at Marshall, contributing to development of the Space Launch System and a variety of other NASA programs and missions.

Available in: http://www.nasa.gov

House Approves Higher Debt Limit Without Condition
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ASHLEY PARKER
Feb. 11, 2014


      WASHINGTON - Ending three years of brinkmanship in which the threat of a devastating default on the nation’s debt was used to wring conservative concessions from President Obama, the House on Tuesday voted to raise the government’s borrowing limit until March 2015, without any conditions.
      The vote - 221 to 201 - relied almost entirely on Democrats in the Republican-controlled House to carry the measure and represented the first debt ceiling increase since 2009 that was not attached to other legislation. Only 28 Republicans voted yes, and only two Democrats voted no.
      Simply by holding the vote, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio effectively ended a three-year Tea Party-inspired era of budget showdowns that had raised the threat of default and government shutdowns, rattled economic confidence and brought serious scrutiny from other nations questioning Washington’s ability to govern. In the process, though, Mr. Boehner also set off a series of reprisals from fellow Republican congressmen and outside groups that showcased the party’s deep internal divisions.
      During the October 2013 government shutdown, The Times’s David Leonhardt explained the debt limit and how a failure to raise it could have affected the economy both at home and abroad.
      “He gave the president exactly what he wanted, which is exactly what the Republican Party said we did not want,” said a Republican representative, Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, who last year unsuccessfully tried to rally enough support to derail Mr. Boehner’s re-election as speaker. “It’s going to really demoralize the base.”
      The vote was a victory for President Obama, Democrats and those Senate Republicans who have argued that spending money for previously incurred obligations was essential for the financial standing of the federal government. “Tonight’s vote is a positive step in moving away from the political brinkmanship that’s a needless drag on our economy,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.
      “A clean debt ceiling is a complete capitulation on the speaker’s part and demonstrates that he has lost the ability to lead the House of Representatives, let alone his own party,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. “It is time for him to go.”
      Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, commended the speaker and promised to pass the bill as soon as possible. “We’re happy to see the House is legislating the way they should have legislated for a long time,” he said.

            (Adapted from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/us/politics/ boehner-to-bring-debt-
            ceiling-to-vote-without-policy- attachments. html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_2014021 2&_r=0)

Read the text below and answer the questions that follow:

Text 1:

At the Airport

Laura is at the airport. She waits for her flight. Her flight is to Berlin, and it is 4 hours away. Laura walks around the airport and looks at the shops. She has a nice time.

After an hour she wants to visit the bathroom. She searches for it, but she doesn’t find it. “Where is the bathroom?” she asks herself. She looks and looks but she can’t find it. She starts asking people where it is.

Laura: “Excuse me sir, could you please tell mewhere is the bathroom?”
Man: “Youmean the restroom, right?”
Laura: “No, Imean the bathroom.”
Man: “Well, the restroom is over there.” He says andwalks away.

Laura doesn’t understand. She asks a lady: “Excusememadam, could you please tellmewhere is the bathroom?”

“The restroom is over there,” the lady answers andwalks away.

Laura is confused. “What’s their problem? I need to use the bathroomand they sendme to rest?! I don’t need a restroom, I need the bathroom!”

After a while Laura gives up. She feels tired of all this walking and asking. She decides that maybe they are all right and she does need to rest. She walks to the restroom. Now she is surprised. She realizes the restroom is actually the name for a public bathroom!

(Taken from: < www.really-learn-english.com>)

Computers are used to control a wide range of systems from simple domestic machines, through games controllers, to entire manufacturing plants. These computers interact directly with hardware devices. Their software must react to events generated by the hardware and, often, issue control signals in response to these events. These signals result in an action, such as the initiation of a phone call, the movement of a character on the screen, the opening of a valve, or the display of the system status. The software in these systems is embedded in system hardware, often in read-only memory, and usually responds, in real time, to events from the system’s environment. By real time, I mean that the software system has a deadline for responding to external events. If this deadline is missed, then the overall hardware-software system will not operate correctly.

Embedded software is very important economically because almost every electrical device now includes software. There are therefore many more embedded software systems than other types of software system. If you look around your house you may have three or four personal computers. But you probably have 20 or 30 embedded systems, such as systems in phones, cookers, microwaves etc

Responsiveness in real time is the critical difference between embedded systems and other software systems, such as information systems, web-based systems, or personal software systems, whose main purpose is data processing. For non-real- time systems, the correctness of a system can be defined by specifying how system inputs map to corresponding outputs that should be produced by the system. In response to an input, a corresponding output should be generated by the system and, often, some data should be stored. For example, if you choose a create command in a patient information system, then the correct system response is to create a new patient record in a database, and to confirm that this has been done. Within reasonable limits, it does not matter how long this takes.

However, in a real-time system, the correctness depends both on the response to an input and the time taken to generate that response. If the system takes too long to respond, then the required response may be ineffective. For example, if embedded software controlling a car braking system is too slow, then an accident may occur because it is impossible to stop the car in time.

(Extraído de: Software Engineering, I. Sommerville, 9th Edition, 2011, pg. 538.)

Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.

Text:

How to get the most enjoyment from your
color TV set


Your new color TV incorporates a host of features designed to give you excellent performance. Besides, this model utilizes a highly sophisticated control microprocessor that can give you unprecedented convenience and control in the areas of picture adjustment, channel tuning, monitor operation, on-screen information, and remote control.

We therefore strongly urge that you read all of these instructions before using yourTV for the first time.

Installation

Antenna

Unless your TV is connected to a cable TV system, or to a centralized antenna system, a good outdoor color TV antenna is recommended for the best performance. However, if you are located in a strong signal area that is free from interference and ghost conditions (multipath), an indoor antenna may be sufficient. The two pole antenna packedwith this set is for your convenience only. It is not capable of providing you with the sharp detail and rich color that this televisionwas designed to display.

Location

Select an area where sunlight or bright indoor illumination will not fall directly on the picture screen. Also, be sure that the location selected allows a free flow of air to and fromthe perforated back cover of the set.

Note

Never remove the back cover of the set. This can expose you to very high voltage and other hazards.

If the set does not operate properly, unplug it and call your dealer or service shop.

(Fonte: Color Television – Operating Instructions.)

(Adapted from http://w w w .infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html)

Read the text below and answer the questions.

Hedge Fund Manager Donates $100 Million for
Central Park