Questões de Concurso Comentadas por alunos sobre palavras conectivas | connective words em inglês

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                 Technology has created more jobs than it has destroyed

      The battle between men and machines goes back centuries. Are they taking our jobs? Or are they easing our workload? A study by economists at the consultancy Deloitte seeks to shed new light on the relationship between jobs and the rise of technology by searching through census data for England and Wales going back to 1871.

      Their conclusion is that, rather than destroying jobs, technology has been a “great job-creating machine”. Findings by Deloitte such as rise in bar staff since the 1950s or a surge in the number of hairdressers this century suggest to the authors that technology has increased spending power, therefore creating new demand and new jobs. Their study argues that the debate has been twisted towards the job-destroying effects of technological change, which are more easily observed than its creative aspects.

      Going back over past figures paints a more balanced picture, say authors Ian Stewart and Alex Cole. “The dominant trend is of contracting employment in agriculture and manufacturing being more than balanced by rapid growth in the caring, creative, technology and business services sectors,” they write. “Machines will take on more repetitive and laborious tasks, but they seem no closer to eliminating the need for human labor than at any time in the last 150 years.” 

      According to the study, hard, dangerous and dull jobs have declined. In some sectors, technology has quite clearly cost jobs, but they question whether they are really jobs we would want to hold on to. Technology directly substitutes human muscle power and, in so doing, raises productivity and shrinks employment. “In the UK the first sector to feel this effect on any scale was agriculture,” says the study. 

      The study also found out that ‘caring’ jobs have increased. The report cites a “profound shift”, with labor switching from its historic role, as a source of raw power, to the care, education and provision of services to others.

Technological progress has cut the prices of essentials, such as food, and the price of bigger household items such as TVs and kitchen appliances, notes Stewart. That leaves more money to spend on leisure, and creates new demand and new jobs, which may explain the big rise in bar staff, he adds. “_______ the decline in the traditional pub, census data shows that the number of people employed in bars rose fourfold between 1951 and 2011,” the report says.

      The Deloitte economists believe that rising incomes have allowed consumers to spend more on personal services, such as grooming. That in turn has driven employment of hairdressers. So, while in 1871 there was one hairdresser or barber for every 1,793 citizens of England and Wales; today there is one for every 287 people.

                                  (Adapted from: https://goo.gl/7V5vuw. Access: 02/02/2018.)

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                                        Saving Energy

Just a century ago, humans used very little energy because we had less of the things that consume it. There were no computers, phones, TV, cars, lights, washing machines and all that. After the industrial revolution, people started using a lot more manufactured items such as electronics, automobiles, and home appliances. These items use a lot of energy, but if we all cut its use by half, that would be huge savings, and make a great difference.

Saving energy can be achieved in different ways: 1. Energy conservation, 2. Energy Efficiency, and 3. Recycling. These first two are not the same, even though people often use them to mean the same thing.

1- Energy Conservation: This is the practice that results in less energy being used. For instance, turning the taps, computers, lights, and TV off when not in use. It also includes running in the park or outside instead of running on the treadmill in the gym. Energy conservation is great because we can all do this everywhere and anytime. It is a fundamental behavior we must acquire.

2- Energy Efficiency: This is the use of manufacturing techniques and technology _______ produce things that use less energy for the same result. For example, if a heater is designed to warm your home with less energy than regular heaters, that would be an energy efficient heater. If your washing machine uses less energy to do the same job as other washers, that is an energy efficient washer. An interesting fact is that homes built in the U.S. after 2000 are about 30% bigger, but they use less energy than older homes.

3- Recycling: This involves the use of waste or old materials to make new ones, like collecting all old newspapers from the town at the end of every day and turning the papers into fresh paper for printing again. We can collect all plastic bottles and send them to be used for new plastic bottles or used for children plastic toys. Recycling saves energy __________ less energy is used to recycle than to turn new raw materials into new products.

This means that to save energy, we should use all these great ways. If we all try to do this, together we can save some money and use less natural resources too.

                          (Adapted from: https://goo.gl/AyZdzW. Access: 01/30/2018)