Questões de Concurso

O texto a seguir deve ser utilizado para responder às questões de números 46 a 50.

When the market received the IBM PC bang in the mid-1980, Microsoft, thanks to IBM came up with MS-DOS. The runner up was Digital Research. So, in August 12, 1981 Microsoft starts working at MS-DOS. They started from a clone of QDOS for which they paid $50000, clone renamed as PC-DOS.

But MS-DOS got alive only thanks to COMPAQ who managed to clone the IBM BIOS and so the world got a new player on the computer manufacturers. Thanks to this, Microsoft began licensing its operating system for use on non-IBM PC clones and so MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) entered the scene.

In 1985, Microsoft moves to Ireland and there they founded the first international production facility. And there, on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called 0S/2. OS/2 was marketed in connection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2. Shortly afterwards on February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around one month later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising US$61 million at US$21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risen to US$28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMS.

The early versions of Windows were often thought of as just graphical user interfaces or desktops, mostly because they were started from MS-DOS and used it for file system services. However even the carliest 16-bit Windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions, notably having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers (timer, graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound) for applications. Unlike DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through co-operative multitasking, something which competitors (like GEM) did not offer. Finally, Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme which allowed it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources were swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce, and data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control, typically waiting for user input. Examples include Windows 1.0 (1985) and Windows 2.0 (1987) and its close relative Windows/286.

[Extraído de: http://news.soft32.com/windows-evolution 1629.html]

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 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.

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)