Questões Militares Sobre sinônimos | synonyms em inglês

                                        ARE YOU A FACEBOOK ADDICT? 

Are you a social media enthusiast or simply a Facebook addict? Researchers from Norway have developed a new instrument to measure Facebook addiction, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

"The use of Facebook has increased rapidly. We are dealing with a subdivision of Internet addiction connected to social media," Doctor of Psychology Cecilie Schou Andreassen says about the study, which is the first of its kind worldwide.

Andreassen heads the research project “Facebook Addiction” at the University of Bergen (UiB). An article about the results has just been published in the renowned journal Psychological Reports. She has clear views as to why some people develop Facebook dependency.

"It occurs more regularly among younger than older users. We have also found that people who are anxious and socially insecure use Facebook more than those with lower scores on those traits, probably because those who are anxious find it easier to communicate via social media than face-to face," Andreassen says.

People who are organised and more ambitious tend to be less at risk from Facebook addiction. They will often use social media as an integral part of work and networking.

"Our research also indicates that women are more at risk of developing Facebook addiction, probably due to the social nature of Facebook," Andreassen says.

Six warning signs

As Facebook has become as ubiquitous as television in our everyday lives, it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people to know if they are addicted to social media. Andreassen’s study shows that the symptoms of Facebook addiction resemble those of drug addic addiction, and chemical substance addiction.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is based on six basic criteria, where all items are scored on the following scale: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often Always. 

• You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planning to use of Facebook.

• You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.

• You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.

• You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.

• You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.

• You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.

Andreassen’s study shows that scoring “often” or “very often” on at least four of the six items may suggest that you are addicted to Facebook.

Disponível em: <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120507102054.htm> Acesso em: 3 jun. 2013 (Texto adaptado)  

                                                              Text 1

             Luis Suárez joins anti-racism calls after Dani Alves banana incident

      The Barcelona defender Dani Alves has sparked a social media campaign against racism in football as support flooded in from fellow professionals for his decision to eat a banana thrown at him by an opposition fan.

      Luis Suárez, Neymar, Hulk, Mario Balotelli and Sergio Agüero were among those who posted pictures of themselves taking bites out of bananas in tribute to Alves' actions in his side's La Liga match at Villarreal on Sunday.

      The Fifa president Joseph Blatter has branded the abuse directed at Alves an "outrage" and promised zero tolerance towards discrimination at the World Cup, while Villarreal took swift action by identifying the culprit and handing him a lifetime stadium ban.

      Alves' response to the banana being thrown on to the pitch in front of him as he prepared to take a corner was to nonchalantly pick it up, peel it and take a bite before continuing with the game. The 30-yearold, who has been the victim of racist abuse before during his time in La Liga, said: "You need to take these situations with a dose of humour."

      Players across Europe paid homage on Twitter and Instagram, including Suárez, who served an eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra.

      Alves's Barça and Brazil team-mate Neymar led the way after posting a picture on Instagram of himself holding a banana, while writing "We are all monkeys". Balotelli, Milan's former Manchester City striker, posted a picture of himself in a similar pose.

      Suárez posted a picture on Twitter of himself and Liverpool team-mate Philippe Coutinho taking bites out of bananas, along with the words: "#SayNoToRacism #WeAreAllMonkeys."

      (...)

      Barça gave their player their "complete support and solidarity" and thanked Villarreal for their "immediate condemnation" of the incident. Villarreal later revealed they had, with the help of fans, found out who the culprit was, had withdrawn his season ticket and banned him from the El Madrigal stadium for life.

Disponível em:<http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/29/luis-suarez-anti-racism-dani-alvesbanana> . Acesso em 29 abr.2014 (texto adaptado)  

Billions of dollars spent on defeating improvised explosive devices (IED) are beginning to show what technology can and cannot do for the evolving struggle.

Two platoons of U.S. Army scouts are in a field deep in the notorious “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, a region of countless clashes between Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. The platoons are guided by a local man who’s warned them of pressure-plate improvised explosive devices, designed to explode when stepped on. He has assured them that he knows where the IED’s are, which means he is almost certainly a former Sunni insurgent.

The platoons come under harassing fire. It stops, but later the tension mounts again as they maneuver near an abandoned house known to shelter al-Qaeda fighters. A shot rings out; the scouts take cover. They don’t realize it’s just their local guide, with an itchy trigger finger, taking the potshot at the house. The lieutenant leading the patrol summons three riflemen to cover the abandoned house.

Then all hell breaks loose. One of the riflemen, a sergeant, steps on a pressure-plate IED. The blast badly injures him, the two other riflemen, and the lieutenant. A Navy explosives specialist along on the mission immediately springs into action, using classified gear to comb the area for more bombs. Until he gives the all clear, no one can move, not even to tend the bleeding men. Meanwhile, one of the frozen-inspace scouts notices another IED right next to him and gives a shout, provoking more combing in his area. Then a big area has to be cleared so that the medevac helicopter already on the way can land.

That incident, which took place on 7 November 2007, exhibits many of the hallmarks of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan – a small patrol; a local man of dubious background; Navy specialists working with soldiers on dry land; and costly technologies pressed into service against cheap and crude weapons. And, most of all, death by IED.  

Leia a passagem seguinte e responda à pergunta que a segue.

Modern buildings incorporate exciting forms with glittering façades and compelling interior spaces. Surveying for these projects requires sophisticated computation, aggressive quality control and close interaction with construction teams. 

                                                        Text 3

                                   Xerox and the Icarus Paradox

                                                                                                             Schilling, Melissa A.

Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, Mc Graw-Hill International Edition, Fourth Edition

      According to Greek mythology, when King Minos imprisoned the crafstman Daedalus and his son Icarus, Daedalus built wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son could fly to their escape. Icarus was so enthralled by his wings and drawn to the light of the sun that despite his father's warning, he flew too high. The sun melted his wings, crashing Icarus to death in the sea. This was the inspiration for the now well-known Icarus Paradox – that which you excel at can ultimately be your undoing. Success can engender overconfidence, carelessness, and an unquestioning adherence to one's way of doing things.

      For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, Xerox had such a stranglehold on the photocopier market that it did not pay much attention when new Japanese competition began to infiltrate the market for smaller, inexpensive copiers. Xerox management did not believe competitors would ever be able to produce machines comparable to Xerox's quality and cost. However, Xerox was dangerously wrong. By the mid-1970s, Xerox was losing market share to the Japanese at an alarming rate. When Canon introduced a copier that sold for less than Xerox's manufacturing costs, Xerox knew it was in trouble and had to engage in a major benchmarking and restructuring effort to turn the company around.

                                                     TEXT II

                                      LANGUAGE TEACHING

Languages are taught and learned in various places, some in informal settings, others in formal contexts, such as classrooms. It is common knowledge that regardless of the method used, second language learners achieve mastery of the target language to varying degrees. Although 10 individuals may be in the same language class for a year, their eventual proficiency level and profile will be different from one another. This is the result of a combination of the factors briefly mentioned above, compounded with the pedagogical methods that the learner has encountered. Generally speaking, it can be stated that most individuals learn to communicate basic information through a conversation in the target language in the first few years of active language study (provided that there are opportunities to use the language to create personal meaning). It is important to note that mere exposure or contact with the target language in most cases is not sufficient to result in productive language skills.

                                  (http://www.aeservices.net/English/newsletters/Oct2007.html#B2)  

                                                          TEXTO I

           THE IMPACT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY ON LANGUAGE LEARNING

      Far from diminishing the human element in the learning process, the advent of computer technology as an integral part of language learning provides an opportunity to reflect upon and implement principles that enhance the learner’s status and expand the teacher’s role.

      Most teachers would probably agree on how:

•        Respecting learners` particular needs and learning habits increases their learning potential;

•        Learner self-esteem and involvement foster learning efficiency; and

•        The best use of a teacher’s time is not to teach vocabulary and grammar or provide listening practice, but to foster speech production and live interaction.

      Now, paradoxically, the use of computer technology can enable precisely these features to be developed by providing the means to create a learning environment in which each learner or learning group can select speed, level and content to suit their specific learning needs and styles.

      ‘Guided freedom would be a feature of intelligent CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), where the program would make suggestions, but the learner would make the choices.’ (Warschauer & Healey 1998)

      At the same time, the teacher’s role expands beyond being a provider and assessor of knowledge and know-how (i.e. someone in front of the class) to being also a coordinator of media and a tutor (i.e. someone who is also in the midst of his/her learners).

      Teachers become freer to use their time more efficiently by devoting their time to:

•           Facilitating communicative oral activities;

•           Assisting those learners who need their support most; and

•           Discussing effective learning strategies.

      Experience shows how the proper use of technological tools can be an extraordinary means of generating peer discussion, knowledge exchange, curiosity, motivation and relaxation: all prerequisites of effective learning.

      These values are inherent in the content-based, blended-learning English for Aviation Safety courseware designed by AES. The flexibility, availability and depth of relevant informational content of its web-based training mean that learners come to the classroom for the Intensive Speaking Seminars ready to use their time to the full in communicative interaction, putting into practice the skills, knowledge and know-how they have acquired at their own pace.

      Especially for pilots and controllers, learning English is not primarily about learning a language; it is learning how to perform certain essential functions in English in a timely and efficient manner.

Philip Shawcross is Director of Training Curriculum at AES.

                * ICAO Document 9835: Manual on the Implementation of the ICAO Language Proficiency Requirements 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which operates airport security checkpoints in the United States, is spending upward of US$ 7 million a year trying to develop technology that can detect the evil intent of the terrorists among us. Yes, you read that correctly: They plan to find the bad guys by reading their minds.

Dozens of researchers across the country are in the middle of a five year program contracted primarily to the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, in Cambridge, Mass. They’ve developed a psycho-physiological theory of ‘malintent’ – basically, a hodgepodge of behaviorism and biometrics according to which physiological chances can give away a terrorist’s intention to do immediate harm. So far, they’ve spent US$ 20 million on biometric research, sensors, and a series of tests and demonstrations. This technology is called the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST).

The underlying theory is that your body reacts, in measurable and largely involuntary ways, to reveal the nature of your intentions. So as you wait in line at the airport checkpoint, thermal and other types of cameras and laser- and radar-based sensors will try to get a fix on the baseline parameters of your autonomic nervous system – your body temperature, your heart rate and respiration, your skin’s moistness, and the very look in your eyes. Then, as a security officer asks you a few questions, the sensors will remeasure those parameters so that the FAST algorithms can figure out whether you’re naughty or nice, all on the spot, without knowing anything else about you.