Questões de Concurso Comentadas para professor - inglês

INSTRUCTION: Now read carefully the text below; then mark the alternatives that answer the questions or complete the sentences in the question.

Amy watched six taxis avoid her and go deliberately towards other people. Then she began to realise she was suffering from advanced paranoia and that she had better cut her losses and take the tube home. She was already so late and angry, that the lurching crowded journey couldn’t make her much worse. And there was the danger that if she stood much longer on the side of the street being ignored by rush hour taxi drivers she might lose her small remaining ration of sanity. And she needed to hold on to what she had for tonight.

Tonight Ed’s sister and her husband were coming to dinner. Tonight, for the first time, she would meet the Big Mama figure in Ed’s American family, the one they all bowed to, the one Ed had practically written to for permission to marry Amy. At the time Amy had thought it funny; she had even suggested that her dental reports and Photostats of her GCE certificates be sent to New York. But three years later, after a period of watching Ed write his monthly letter to his big sister Bella, she found it less funny. She was never shown those letters and in pique she had opened one before posting it. It was an infantile report on how their life had been progressing since last month: childish details about the floor covering they had bought for the kitchen, aspirations that Ed’s salary would be reviewed and upped. Praise for a new dress that Amy had bought, minutiae about a picnic they had had with another couple. It had made Amy uneasy, because it had made Ed seem retarded. It was the kind of letter that a mother might expect from a small son who had gone off to summer camp, not something that a sister in far away America should need or want.

Ed had been euphoric about the visit. It had been planned for over three months. Bella and her husband Blair were coming to London for three days as part of a European tour. They would arrive in the morning; they did not want to be met, they preferred to recover from their jet lag alone in the privacy of a good hotel with a comfortable bedroom and bathroom.

Fully refreshed, at seven p.m. they would come and see their beloved Ed and welcome their new sister Amy to the family. Next day there would be a tour to Windsor and an evening at the theatre, with a dinner for the four of them. And on the Saturday morning, Amy might kindly take her new sister Bella shopping, and point out the best places, introduce her to the heads of departments in the better stores. They would have a super girly lunch, and then Bella and Blair should fly out of their lives to Paris.

Normally, on any ordinary Thursday, Amy came home from Harley Street, where she worked as a doctor’s receptionist, took off her shoes, put on her slippers, unpacked her shopping, organized a meal, lit the fire and then Ed would arrive home. Their evenings had begun to have a regular pattern. Ed came home tense and tired. Little by little, in front of the fire, he would unwind; little by little he relaxed his grip on the file of papers he had brought back from the office. He would have a sherry, his face would lose its lines; and then he would agree really that there was no point in trying to do too much work in the evening.

And afterwards, he would carve away happily at the table he was making, or watch television, or do the crossword with Amy; and she realized happily that she was essential to him, because only her kind of understanding could make him uncoil and regard his life as a happy, unworrying thing.

That was all before the threatened visit of Bella.

In: BINCHY, Maeve. Victoria Line, Central Line. Hodder and Stoughton: Coronet Books, 1982, p.11-12.

INSTRUCTION: Read the following text carefully and then mark the alternatives that complete the sentences in the question.

3 Tips for Teaching Reading in a Foreign Language

June 15, 2015     Giwan Persaud

Reading is a great skill to have. It’s something we can do anytime, anywhere. Today I want to share with you some tips about teaching reading skills in foreign languages to young learners. Ready? Let’s go.

1. Traffic Light Reading.

This is one of my all-time favourite exercises for teaching reading. The idea is that you pick an appropriately levelled text (this can be adapted to any level!), take the text in question, or a segment of it, and reread it three times. The first time you read with a green pen or pencil in hand and underline every single thing you understand. This is great because it includes numbers, places, and names meaning that every student is guaranteed some green on their page. What a confidence booster!

Then students re-read the text. This time with an orange pen at the ready. The orange is for those words that look familiar or could be guessed, but that students aren’t 100% sure about. There should be less of these. Encourage students to also have the green pen ready as they may notice ‘green’ words they didn’t see the first time around. And finally, as you may well have guessed, the red pen comes in and underlines every completely unknown word. Providing that the text is of the right level, there should be a nice shade of green filling the page with the odd orange and red spec.

I find this activity constantly boosts students confidence as they see a black and white page in a foreign language come to life in colour. So many students are amazing and really pleased with themselves about how much they can actually understand when they take the time to focus on a text. One of my all-time favourites.

Available at: <http://www.duolir.com/blog/2015/6/13/3-tips-forteaching-reading-in-a-foreign-language> (Adapted).

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the text carefully and then mark the alternatives that answer the questions or complete the sentences presented after it.

The cab had arrived ten minutes late, then had got stuck in a monumental traffic jam on Charing Cross Road. ‘Sorry, love, nothing doing,’ the driver had said. Joanna had looked at her watch, chucked a ten-pound note at him and jumped out of the cab. As she’d hared through the streets towards Covent Garden, her chest laboring and her nose streaming, she’d wondered whether life could get any worse.

Joanna was snapped out of her reverie as the congregation suddenly ceased their chatter. She opened her eyes and turned round as Sir James Harrison’s family members began to file into the church.

Leading the party was Charles Harrison, Sir James’s only child, now well into his sixties. He lived in Los Angeles, and was an acclaimed director of big-budget action films filled with special effects. She vaguely remembered that he had won an Oscar some time ago, but his films weren’t the kind she usually went to see.

By Charles Harrison’s side was Zoe Harrison, his daughter. As Alec had hoped, Zoe looked stunning in a fitted black suit with a short skirt that showed her long legs, and her hair was pulled back in a sleek chignon that set off her classic English-rose beauty to perfection. She was an actress, whose film career was on the rise, and Matthew had been mad about her. He always said Zoe reminded him of Grace Kelly his dream woman, apparently – leading Joanna to wonder why Matthew was going out with a dark-eyed, gangly brunette such as herself. She swallowed a lump in her throat, betting that Winnie the Pooh hot-water bottle that his ‘Samantha” was a petite blonde.

Holding Zoe Harrison’s hand was a young boy of around nine or ten, looking uncomfortable in a black suit and tie: Zoe’s son Jamie Harrison, named after his great-grandfather. Zoe had given birth to Jamie when she was only nineteen and still refused to name the father. Sir

James had loyally defended his granddaughter and her decision to both have the baby and to remain silent about Jamie’s paternity.

Joanna thought how alike Jamie and his mother were: the same fine features, a milk and rose complexion, and huge blue eyes. Zoe Harrison kept him away from the cameras as much as possible – if Steve had got a shot of mother and son together, it would probably make the front page tomorrow morning.

Behind them came Marcus Harrison, Zoe’s brother. Joanna watched him as he drew level with her pew. Even with her thoughts still on Matthew, she had to admit Marcus Harrison was a serious ‘hottie’, as her fellow reporter Alice would say. Joanna recognised him from the gossip columns – most recently squiring a blonde British socialite with a triple-barreled surname. As dark as his sister was fair, but sharing the same blue eyes, Marcus carried himself with louche confidence. His hair almost touched his shoulders and, wearing a crumpled black jacket and a white shirt unbuttoned at the neck, he oozed charisma. Joanna dragged her gaze away from him. Next time, she thought firmly, I’m going for a middle-aged man who likes bird watching and stamp collecting. She struggled to recall what Marcus Harrison did for a living – a fledgling film producer, she thought. Well, he certainly looked the part.

‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen’. The vicar spoke from the pulpit, a large picture of Sir James Harrison in front of him, surrounded with wreaths of white roses. ‘Sir James’s family welcomes you all here and thanks you for coming to pay tribute to a friend, a colleague, a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, and perhaps the finest actor of this century. For those of us who had the good fortune to know him well, it will not come as a surprise that Sir James was adamant that this was not to be a sombre occasion, but a celebration. Both his family and I have honoured his wishes. Therefore, we start with Sir James’s favourite hymn “I Vow to Thee My Country”. Please stand’.

RILEY, Lucinda. The Love Letter. London: Pan Books, 2018, p. 13-15.