Questões Militares Comentadas sobre vocabulário | vocabulary em inglês

Woman wins Picasso painting worth €1m in raffle

    An Italian woman has won a painting by Pablo Picasso, worth about €1m (£900,000; $1.1m), in a raffle after being given the ticket as a gift.

    The winning ticket was pulled out during a live draw at Christie’s auction house in Paris.

    The event, which was fundraising for Care charity, had been postponed twice - first to sell more tickets, and then because of coronavirus restrictions.

    The prize painting, Nature Morte, is a still life from 1921.

     It is a relatively small artwork - measuring 9in by 18in (23cm by 46cm) - which shows a glass of absinthe and a newspaper on a table.

    In total €5.1m was raised for the charity by selling 51,000 raffle tickets at €100 each. About 29% of the tickets were sold in France, followed by the US and Switzerland.

    Organisers said that €4.2m of proceeds will go towards clean water projects in schools and villages in Madagascar, Morocco and Cameroon.

    David Nahmad, the billionaire collector from Monaco who supplied the Picasso painting, will be given €900,000. He also donated €100,000 to Care, organisers said.

    “Picasso would have loved an operation like this, because he was someone with a lot of interest in humanitarian and social causes,” sale organiser Peri Cochin told Reuters news agency.

Adapted from www.bbc.com

Diary: your life day by day

    Most people consider diaries indispensable - a reminder of what they have to do each day. This is especially true in the professional world. A diary can help you keep track of your agenda and make it easier for you to follow a planned schedule. In this sense, it is similar to a notebook with dates in which you write meetings and other things to remember. At school or at work, diaries are very useful.

    However, a diary can be more than a list of appointments: it can be a secret record of private thoughts. People write these diaries for different reasons: for fun or to read them years later. “It makes you think and form an opinion on what you are writing” - when you express your feelings and experiences, it’s easier to overcome your problems; it’s like a therapy.

    Nowadays, some people write e-diaries, called blogs or web logs. “They open their hearts” to other people on the Net.

     In fact, many people, famous or ordinary in fiction or in real life, write diaries.

Adapted from Inglês de olho no mundo do trabalho.

Oil contaminating Brazil’s beaches very likely from

Venezuela

Anna Jean Kaiser

    Thick crude oil that has stained hundreds of miles of pristine Brazilian beach in recent weeks probably originated in Venezuela, the Brazilian government has said, in an accusation likely to further strain relations between the two countries.

    Brazilians authorities have been investigating the growing disaster for more than a month, as the oil has spread to more than 130 beaches across nine states.

    Ricardo Salles, the country’s environment minister, told that a study by Petrobrás had concluded that the oil “is very likely from Venezuela. He said that a foreign ship near Brazil’s coastline appeared to have caused the spill.

    There was no immediate response from Venezuela.

    Social media users have shared shocking images of the spill, showing kilometers of white sand stained with oil blotches and dead, oil-covered turtles and dolphins. One shows thick black oil lapping up against a rocky jetty.

Adapted from The Guardian.  

Diplomat

    There are three main aspects to this profession: a diplomat has to keep his country informed about pertinent international events, promote a favorable image of his country and protect his country’s interests.

    Whoever is interested in a diplomatic career has to be extremely familiar with political, economical, scientific, cultural and administrative issues. To be a diplomat, it is essential to have a good knowledge of English, not only the conversational language, but also the technical terms in international law and diplomacy itself.

    To follow this career, besides being fluently bilingual, one needs a standard college education and has to take and do well in the Rio Branco Institute examination in Brasilia.

    English is so important in this career that in the first part of this selection exam, the applicant has to demonstrate his or her proficiency in the English language. Then, during the course, foreign language classes become a priority, giving future diplomats the necessary expertise to deal with the areas of official correspondences, diplomatic negotiation and international media.

Adapted from Inglês no mundo do trabalho.  

All of me

John Legend

‘Cause all of me

Loves all of you

Love your curves and all your edges

All your perfect imperfections

Give your all to me

I’ll give my all to you

You’re my end and my beginning

Even when I lose I’m winning

‘Cause I give you all of me

And you give me all of you  

Read the text and answer question.

The Importance of the English Language

    Nowadays, more and more people are dedicating time to studying English as a second language. Many countries include English in their school syllabus and children are starting to learn English at a younger and younger age. Do you know why learning English is so important? Here are five good reasons to take an English Language Course.

    1. English is the most commonly spoken language in the world. One out of five people can speak or at least understand English!

    2. Studying English can help you get a job.

    3. English is the language of the Internet.

    4. Travelling is a lot easier with a good knowledge of English.

    5. English gives you access to multiple cultures.

Adapted from https://www.british-study.com/en/importance-of-english-language/

Read the text and answer question.

   The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/benjamin_franklin_141100

Computer says no: Irish vet fails oral English test needed to stay in Australia

     Louise Kennedy is an Irish veterinarian with degrees in history and politics – both obtained in English. She is married to an Australian and has been working in Australia as an equine vet on a skilled worker visa for the past two years. As a native English speaker, she has excellent grammar and a broad vocabulary, but has been unable to convince a machine she can speak English well enough to stay in Australia.

    But she is now scrambling for other visa options after a computer-based English test – scored by a machine – essentially handed her a fail in terms of convincing immigration officers she can fluently speak her own language.

    Earlier this year, Kennedy decided she would seek permanent residency in Australia. She knew she would have to sit a mandatory English proficiency test but was shocked when she got the results. While she passed all other components of the test including writing and reading, (...). She got 74 when the government requires 79. “There’s obviously a flaw in their computer software, when a person with perfect oral fluency cannot get enough points,” she said. The test providers have categorically denied there is anything wrong with its computer-based test or the scoring engine trained to analyse candidates’ responses. “We do not offer a pass or a fail, simply a score and the immigration department set the bar very high for people seeking permanent residency”, they say.

    Kennedy, who is due to have a baby in October, says she will now have to pursue a bridging visa, while she seeks a more expensive spouse visa so she can remain with her Australian husband.

Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/08/computer-says-no-irish-vet-fails-oral-english-test-needed-to-stay-in-australia

Leia os dois parágrafos a seguir para responder à questão.

    An international student who majors in engineering drops by the engineering department office and asks the secretary, “Can you tell me where the English department is?” The secretary smiles and responds, “I don’t know, actually. It’s probably somewhere in the Humanities Building. Do you have a campus map?” The student turns around and leaves. The secretary is taken aback and feels slightly uncomfortable. She wonders why the student left so abruptly.

     (...)

    People who interact with ESL students have commented that some seem to express gratitude excessively for small considerations, even to the point of embarrassing the person they are speaking. Others seem downright rude because they do not say thank you when they are expected to.

(Celce-Murcia, M. 2001.)

Read the text below and answer the question.

Thought-in-Action Links

    It is important to recognize that methods link thoughts and actions, because teaching is not entirely about one or the other. As a teacher of language, you have thoughts about your subject matter – what language is, what culture is – and about your students – who they are as learners and how it is they learn. You also have thoughts about yourself as a teacher and what you can do to help your students to learn. Many of your thoughts have been formed by your own experience as a language learner. With this awareness, you are able to examine why you do what you do and perhaps choose to think about or do things differently.

    As an example, let us relate an anecdote about a teacher with whom Diane Larsen-Freeman was working some time ago. From her study of methods in Stevick (1980), Heather (not her real name) became interested in how to work with teacher control and student initiative in her teaching. She determined that during her student teaching internship, she would exercise less control of the lesson in order to encourage her students to take more initiative, and have them impose the questions in the classroom, since so often it is the teacher who asks all the questions, not the students.

    However, she felt that the students were not taking the initiative, but she could not see what was wrong. When Diane Larsen Freeman, who was her supervisor, visited her class, she observed the following:

    HEATHER: Juan, ask Anna what she is wearing.

    JÜAN: What are you wearing?

    ANNA: I am wearing a dress.

    HEATHER: Anna, ask Muriel what she is writing.

    ANNA: What are you writing?

    MÜRIEL: I am writing a letter.

    This pattern continued for some time. It was clear to see that Heather had successfully avoided the common problem of the teacher asking all the questions in the class. The teacher was not asking the questions – the students were. However, Heather had not achieved her goal of encouraging student initiative.

(Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. Adaptado)

Considere a reflexão a seguir e responda à questão.

A partir da leitura do livro Hipermodernidade, multiletramentos e gêneros discursivos, é possível dizer que os gêneros textuais, os gêneros do discurso e a tipologia textual são construtos cada vez mais importantes para o professor, especialmente aquele que ensina línguas.

(ROJO, R. e BARBOSA, J. P. Hipermodernidade, multiletramentos e gêneros discursivos.)