Questões de Concurso Sobre sinônimos | synonyms em inglês

Leia a tirinha a seguir e responda a questão.

Viva La Revolución Energética

Laurie Guevara-Stone Courtesy Mario Alberto Arriastía Avila

Alternatives Journal 34:6 2008

O texto a seguir deve ser utilizado para responder às questões de números 21 a 23.

Historically, information security has been called a number of different things such as:

• Data security;

• IT Security;

• Computer security.

But these terms (except possibly data security) ignore the fact that the information that is held on the computers is almost always and most certainly worth many times more than the computers that it runs on. The correct term is ‘information security’ and typically information security comprises three component parts:

• Confidentiality. Assurance that information is shared only among authorised persons or organisations. Breaches of confidentiality can occur when data is not handled in a manner appropriate to safeguard the confidentiality of the information concerned. Such disclosure can take place by word of mouth, by printing, copying, e-mailing or creating documents and other data etc.;

• Integrity. Assurance that the information is authentic and complete. Ensuring that information can be relied upon to be sufficiently accurate for its purpose. The term ‘integrity’ is used frequently when considering information security as it represents one of the primary indicators of information security (or lack of it). The integrity of data is not only whether the data is ‘correct’, but whether it can be trusted and relied upon;

• Availability. Assurance that the systems responsible for delivering, storing and processing information are accessible when needed, by those who need them.

(Extraído de: “An Introduction to Information, Network and Internet Security.

What is ‘Information Security’?” The Security Practitioner

http://security.practitioner.com/introduction/infosec_2.htm)

Read the text Picasso and Monets Are Stolen in Dutch Heist and answer questions 25), 26), 27),and 28).

Picasso and Monets Are Stolen in Dutch Heist

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Thieves broke into a Rotterdam museum on Tuesday and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions.

Police haven't said how they pulled off the early hours heist, but an expert who tracks stolen art said the robbers clearly knew what they were after.

"Those thieves got one hell of a haul," said Chris Marinello, who directs the Art Loss Register.

The heist at the Kunsthal museum is one of the largest in years in the Netherlands, and is a stunning blow for the private Triton Foundation collection, which was being exhibited publicly as a group for the first time.

"It's every museum director's worst nightmare," said Kunsthal director Emily Ansenk, who had been in Istanbul on business but returned immediately.

News of the theft "struck like a bomb," she said at a press conference in the museum's cafe.

She declined to reveal any details of how the thieves struck, or how the museum is protected, other than describing its security as "state of the art" and "functional."

Willem van Hassel, the museum's chairman, said its security systems are automated, and do not use guards on site.

Police arrived at the scene five minutes after an alarm was triggered, he said. He described the museum's insurance as adequate for the exhibition.

The collection was on display as part of celebrations surrounding the museum's 20th anniversary.

Police spokeswoman Willemieke Romijn said investigators were reviewing videotapes of the theft, which took place around 3 a.m. local time, and calling for any witnesses to come forward.

The Art Loss Register's Marinello said the items taken could be worth "hundreds of millions of euros" if sold legally at auction. However, he said that was now impossible, as the paintings have already been registered internationally as stolen.

The stolen paintings were Pablo Picasso's 1971 "HAsenk said she spoke on behalf of tarlequin Head"; Claude Monet's 1901 "Waterloo Bridge, London" and "Charing Cross Bridge, London"; Henri Matisse's 1919 "Reading Girl in White and Yellow"; Paul Gauguin's 1898 "Girl in Front of Open Window"; Meyer de Haan's "Self-Portrait," around 1890, and Lucian Freud's 2002 work "Woman with Eyes Closed."

Marinello said the thieves have limited options available, such as seeking a ransom from the owners, the museum or the insurers. They could conceivably sell the paintings in the criminal market too, though any sale would likely be a small fraction of their potential auction value.

The Triton Foundation is a collection of avant-garde art put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia, an investor and businessman, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-VanThe Kunsthal museu der Laan.

Asenk said she spoke on behalf of the family in saying "we are shocked, but we will go on."

"All involved want the public to still be able to see these kinds of special collections and private collections," she said.

The museum was cordoned off as police carried out their investigation Tuesday, but the museum will reopen Wednesday, she said.

The Kunsthal museum is a display space that has no permanent collection of its own — the name means "art gallery" in Dutch.

The Cordia family collection includes works by more than 150 famed artists. Others whose work was on show include Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Edgar Degas and Andy Warhol.

Curators of the Cordia family collection aim to have the works on display for the public, and pieces have been shown in the past.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/10/16/world/europe/ap-eu-netherlands-art-heist.html?_r=1&hp

Instruções: As questões de números 56 a 60 referem-se ao texto abaixo.

Southwest pilot suspended for slur-laced rant on air-traffic frequency

By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY

Southwest Airlines says it has suspended a pilot after he went on an obscenity-laden rant from the cockpit, NBC affiliate KPRC Channel 2 of Houston reports.

The March 25 rant was inadvertently broadcast over a Houston air traffic control frequency after the pilot failed to shut off his flight's communications link with air traffic control, a move that also tied up the frequency for other flights in the area, according to NBC 2.

NBC 2 says the unidentified pilot "could be heard talking to his co-pilot in the cockpit, expressing frustration over the airline hiring so many flight attendants that he found to be unsuitable for dating."

An air traffic controller tried to interrupt the pilot's rant several times, though the pilot appeared to be unaware of the attempts.

NBC 2 says the tape became public after "air traffic controllers in Houston first alerted Federal Aviation Administration supervisors on March 25, 2011, around 1:30 p.m. and those supervisors forwarded a tape of the episode to Southwest Airlines to take action against the pilot."

After the rant ended, several other pilots on the frequency were quick to say the rant didn't come from their flight.

Speaking about the incident, the FAA issued a statement to NBC 2 saying "the incident occurred during a phase of flight in which personal conversations are permitted in the cockpit."

However, the FAA did not appear to be pleased with what had happened.

"Nevertheless, the FAA expects a higher level of professionalism from flight crews, regardless of the circumstances," the statement concluded.

(Adapted from: http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/06/ southwest-pilot/175250/1)

Text I

Brazil: Platform for growth

_{By Joe Leahy}

On the Cidade de Angra dos Reis oil platform,

surrounded by the deep blue South Atlantic, a

Petrobras engineer turns on a tap and watches black

liquid flow into a beaker.

5____It looks and smells like ordinary crude oil.

Nevertheless, for Brazil, this represents something

much more spectacular. Pumped by the national oil

company from “pre-salt” deposits – so-called because

they lie beneath 2,000m of salt – 300km off the coast

10 of Rio de Janeiro, it is some of the first commercial

oil to flow from the country’s giant new deepwater

discoveries.

Already estimated to contain 50bn barrels, and

with much of the area still to be fully explored, the

15 fields contain the world’s largest known offshore oil

deposits. In one step, Brazil could jump up the world

rankings of national oil reserves and production, from

15th to fifth. So great are the discoveries, and the

investment required to exploit them, that they have

20 the potential to transform the country – for good or for ill.

Having seen out booms and busts before,

Brazilians are hoping that this time “the country

of the future” will at last realise its full economic

potential. The hope is that the discoveries will provide

25 a nation already rich in renewable energy with an

embarrassment of resources with which to pursue the

goal of becoming a US of the south.

The danger for Brazil, if it fails to manage this

windfall wisely, is of falling victim to “Dutch disease”.

30 The economic malaise is named after the Netherlands

in the 1970s, where the manufacturing sector withered

after its currency strengthened on the back of a large

gas field discovery combined with rising energy prices.

Even worse, Brazil could suffer a more severe

35 form of the disease, the “oil curse”, whereby nations

rich in natural resources – Nigeria and Venezuela, for

example – grow addicted to the money that flows from

them.

Petrobras chief executive says neither the

40 company nor the country’s oil industry has so far

been big enough to become a government cash cow.

But with the new discoveries, which stretch across an

800km belt off the coast of south-eastern Brazil, this is

going to change. The oil industry could grow from about

45 10 per cent of GDP to up to 25 per cent in the coming

decades, analysts say. To curb any negative effects,

Brazil is trying to support domestic manufacturing

by increasing “local content” requirements in the oil

industry.

50____Without a “firm local content policy”, says

Petrobras CEO, Dutch disease and the oil curse will

take hold. However, “if we have a firm and successful

local content policy, no – because other sectors in the

economy are going to grow as fast as Petrobras”.

55___The other long-term dividend Brazil is seeking

from the discoveries is in research and development

(R&D). Extracting oil from beneath a layer of salt at

great depth, hundreds of kilometres from the coast, is

so challenging that Brazilian engineers see it as a new

60 frontier. If they can perfect this, they can lead the way

in other markets with similar geology, such as Africa.

For its part, Petrobras is spending $800m-$900m

a year over the next five years on R&D, and has

invested $700m in the expansion of its research

65 centre.

Ultimately, Brazil’s ability to avoid Dutch disease

will depend not just on how the money from the oil

is spent. The country is the world’s second biggest

exporter of iron ore. It is the largest exporter of beef.

70 It is also the biggest producer of sugar, coffee and

orange juice, and the second-largest producer of soya

beans.

Exports of these commodities are already driving

up the exchange rate before the new oil fields have

75 fully come on stream, making it harder for Brazilian

exporters of manufactured goods. Industrial production

has faltered in recent months, with manufacturers

blaming the trend on a flood of cheap Chinese-made

imports.

80____“Brazil has everything that China doesn’t and it’s

natural that, as China continues to grow, it’s just going

to be starved for those resources,” says Harvard’s

Prof Rogoff. “At some level Brazil doesn’t just want

to be exporting natural resources – it wants a more

85 diversified economy. There are going to be some

rising tensions over that.”

_{Adapted from Financial Times - March 15 2011 22:54. Available in:}

_{<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fa11320c-4f48-11e0-9038-00144feab49a,_i_email=y.html>}

_{Retrieved on: June 17, 2011.}

Read the following text to answer the question.

By Leo Selivan

In this article, informed by the Lexical Approach, I reflect on grammar instruction in the classroom […]. I consider the problems with ‘traditional’ grammar teaching before arguing that what we actually need is more grammar input as well as showing how lexis can provide necessary ‘crutches’ for the learner.

Lexis = vocabulary + grammar

The shift in ELT from grammar to lexis mirrors a similar change in the attitude of linguists. In the past linguists were preoccupied with the grammar of language; however the advances in corpus linguistics have pushed lexis to the forefront. The term ‘lexis’, which was traditionally used by linguists, is a common word these days and frequently used even in textbooks.

Why use a technical term borrowed from the realm of linguistics instead of the word ‘vocabulary’? Quite simply because vocabulary is typically seen as individual words (often presented in lists) whereas lexis is a somewhat wider concept and consists of collocations, chunks and formulaic expressions. It also includes certain patterns that were traditionally associated with the grammar of a language, e.g. If I were you…, I haven’t seen you for ages etc.

Recognising certain grammar structures as lexical items means that they can be introduced much earlier, without structural analysis or elaboration. Indeed, since the concept of notions and functions made its way into language teaching, particularly as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) gained prominence, some structures associated with grammar started to be taught lexically (or functionally). I’d like to is not taught as ‹the conditional› but as a chunk expressing desire. Similarly many other ‹traditional› grammar items can be introduced lexically relatively early on.

Less grammar or more grammar?

You are, no doubt, all familiar with students who on one hand seem to know the ‘rules’ of grammar but still fail to produce grammatically correct sentences when speaking or, on the other, sound unnatural and foreign-like even when their sentences are grammatically correct. Michael Lewis, who might be considered the founder of the Lexical Approach, once claimed that there was no direct relationship between the knowledge of grammar and speaking. In contrast, the knowledge of formulaic language has been shown by research to have a significant bearing on the natural language production.

Furthermore, certain grammar rules are practically impossible to learn. Dave Willis cites the grammar of orientation (which includes the notoriously difficult present perfect and the uses of certain modal verbs) as particularly resistant to teaching. The only way to grasp their meaning is through continuous exposure and use.

Finally, even the most authoritative English grammars never claim to provide a comprehensive description of all the grammar, hence the word ‘introduction’ often used in their titles (for instance, Huddleston & Pullum’s A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar or Halliday’s An Introduction to Functional Grammar).

If grammarians do not even attempt to address all areas of grammar, how can we, practitioners, cover all the aspects of grammar in our teaching, especially if all we seem to focus on is a limited selection of discrete items, comprised mostly of tenses and a handful of modal verbs? It would seem that we need to expose our students to a lot of naturally occurring language and frequently draw their attention to various grammar points as they arise.

For example, while teaching the expression fall asleep / be asleep you can ask your students:

• Don’t make any noise – she’s fallen asleep.

• Don’t make any noise – she’s asleep.

What does’s stand for in each of these cases (is or has)?

One of the fathers of the Communicative Language Teaching Henry Widdowson advocated using lexical items as a starting point and then ‘showing how they need to be grammatically modified to be communicatively effective’ (1990:95). For example, when exploring a text with your students, you may come across a sentence like this:

• They’ve been married for seven years.

You can ask your students: When did they get married? How should you change the sentence if the couple you are talking about is no longer married?

The above demonstrates how the teacher should be constantly on the ball and take every opportunity to draw students’ attention to grammar. Such short but frequent ‘grammar spots’ will help to slowly raise students’ awareness and build their understanding of the English grammar system.

[…]

Conclusion

So is there room for grammar instruction in the classroom? Certainly yes. But the grammar practice should always start with the exploitation of lexical items. Exposing students to a lot of natural and contextualised examples will offer a lexical way into the grammar of the language.

To sum up, grammar should play some role in language teaching but should not occupy a big part of class time. Instead grammar should be delivered in small but frequent portions. Students should be encouraged to collect a lot of examples of a particular structure before being invited to analyse it. Hence, analysis should be preceded by synthesis.

Lastly, language practitioners should bear in mind that grammar acquisition is an incremental process which requires frequent focus and refocus on the items already studied.

Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professionaldevelopment/teachers/knowing-subject/articles/grammar-vs-lexisor-grammar-through. Accessed on: April 29, 2024.

Empowering language learning through assessment 

Texto para as questões 20 a 22.

The passage below is an extract from the preface of the centenary edition of Animal Farm, written by George Orwell. Read the text to answer questions 20 - 22.

(…)

Orwell called the book “a fairy story.” Like Voltaire’s Candide, however, with which it bears comparison, it is too many other things to be so handily classified. It is also a political tract, a satire on human folly, a loud hee-haw at all who yearn for Utopia, an allegorical lesson, and a pretty good fable in the Aesop tradition. It is also a passionate sermon against the dangers of political innocence. The passage in which the loyal but stupid workhorse Boxer is sold to be turned into glue, hides, and bone meal because he is no longer useful is written out of a controlled and icy hatred for the cynicism of the Soviet system – but also out of despair for all deluded people who served it gladly.

Maybe because it gilds the philosophic pill with fairy-story trappings, Animal Farm has had an astonishing success for a book rooted in politics. Since its first publication at the end of World War II, it has been read by millions. With 1984, published three years later, it established Orwell as an important man of letters. It has enriched modern political discourse with the observation that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” How did we ever grasp the true nature of the politics of uplift before Orwell explained it so precisely?

George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Blair, the son of a colonial official with long service in British India. Eric was educated as a scholarship boy at Eton and seemed to be miserable there most of the time, largely, one guesses, because of the money gap that divided him from so many of his well-heeled schoolmates. His dislike of the moneyed classes in turn influenced him toward a lifelong loyalty to democratic socialism. After Eton he went to Burma as a member of the Imperial constabulary and had the enlightening experience of discovering he was hated by the Burmese people as a symbol of British Imperialism. Hating the work himself, he quit and went back to England to try making a living by writing.

During the years when he was not very successful, he began to devote himself to work for British socialism. Afterwards he said he had never written anything good that was not about politics. Before he went to work on Animal Farm, his books were well enough received by the critics but sold modestly.

Those old enough to remember the wartime spirit of the 1940s may be startled to realize that Orwell started work on Animal Farm in 1943. As he discovered when he went looking for a publisher, Stalin’s Soviet Union was so popular that year in Britain and America that few wanted to hear or read anything critical of it. It was as though a great deal of the West had willingly put on blinders, and this was because the Red Army that year had fought the Nazis to a standstill and forced it to retreat. Suddenly Hitler’s army, which had looked invincible for so long, had begun to look vincible.

In this period the air on both sides of the Atlantic was filled with a great deal of justifiable praise for the Soviet people and their fighting forces. Stalin’s political system, with its bloody purges and police-state brutality, was an important beneficiary of all this. Looking for a publisher for his small book, Orwell was reminded that British socialists, who idealized the Russian Revolution, had never been hospitable to critics of the Soviet Union. In 1943, however, even conservatives were pro-Soviet.

It became hard to write candidly of the Soviet system without being accused of playing dupe to the Nazis. Orwell discovered how hard when he began receiving publishers’ rejections on Animal Farm. With its swinish communists, the book seemed heretical. As no wonder. Stalin and Trotsky, after all, were unmistakably Orwell’s feuding pigs, Napoleon and Snowball. It was not until the war had ended that Frederic Warburg finally published it, on August 17, 1945.

(…)

Source: ORWELL, George. Animal Farm. London: Penguin Books, 2003. Preface by Russel Baker.

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the text carefully and then answer the questions from 21 to 26 by choosing the correct alternative.

Grammarly corrects your writing errors on every device

Sometimes, it pays to make a good first impression. When you‘re writing that important email pitch, Grammarly can help. This intelligent app is like a personal writing coach, spotting your errors and suggesting improvements. It can even check your work for plagiarism.

Whereas Microsoft Word often misunderstands the context of your writing, Grammarly is intelligent enough to follow along. The app lets you fix spelling mistakes, grammar faults, and punctuation errors with a couple of clicks. The app actually explains where you went wrong, so you can avoid making the same mistakes twice.

In addition, Grammarly can find areas for improvement and make relevant suggestions. The app even adapts to your style with genre-specific checks, and the plagiarism checker compares your work with 8 billion web pages.

Along with the main app, Grammarly offers a neat browser extension. This means you get the same checks across the web—whether you‘re crafting the perfect tweet or updating your LinkedIn profile. It‘s an essential tool when you want to look professional online.

By Stack Commerce January 5, 2018 –Popular Science.

Read the text and answer questions 22 to 25.

TEXT II

Like Castles In An Aquarium, Offshore Drilling Platforms Are Sprawling With Residents

Just beneath the ocean’s surface, there’s an unseen world that most people will never have the opportunity to witness firsthand. A place where nature and mankind have struck a balance – a mutual respect, a friendship of sorts.

Offshore drilling platforms have become home to vast communities of sea life. Florid carpets of coral encrust their massive pylons, along with sponge, sea urchins, crabs, and snails. Swimming in the sanctuary of their enormous risers are schools of rockfish, bright orange garibaldi and angel fish. And splashing about on the surface is the occasional sea lion.

Now scientists have confirmed what some had suspected all along. Most of the sea life was actually created at the rig rather than having come from other parts of the ocean and settled there, according to the National Academy of Sciences. And fish that would otherwise perish in vast expanses of open ocean, settle within the safety of the structures.

Like castles in an aquarium, offshore platforms are sprawling with underwater residents. Scientists say these are the richest marine ecosystems on the entire planet. They are even more productive than coral reefs and estuaries, according to marine biologists.

The first thing anyone – trained scientist or casual recreational diver – notices around a rig is the big fish -- lots of them, say marine researchers and divers, alike.

For a decade and a half, researchers used submersibles to survey fish at 16 different platforms. When the researchers tabulated the data, they were surprised to discover that, by one standard, California’s oil rigs are among the most productive marine habitats ever recorded.

At the end of their production, however, the offshore rigs must be decommissioned. Scientific insight is adding momentum to efforts to convert some of these rigs into artificial reefs […].

(From http://thesurge.com/stories/like-castles-aquarium-offshore-drilling-platformssprawling-residents. Accessed July 18th, 2017)