COMPREHENSION EXERCISES
SPAIN’S ECONOMY
In the midst of a currency crisis, steep credit downgrades, and a 100 billion euro bailout of its
banking system, it’s easy to be pessimistic about Spain. But there are some grounds for optimism.
2
Start with exports. While Spanish wages rose much faster than the euro zone average during the precrisis years, large exporters kept costs under control, allowing them to stay relatively competitive.
Meanwhile Spanish employers with more than 250 workers stayed just as productive as their German,
Italian, and French counterparts, according to BBVA, Spain’s No. 2 bank.
3
Consequently, despite Asia’s rise, Spain has managed to hang on to its global market share of
exports. That puts it in a league with Germany and well ahead of most of the euro zone. Inditex, the
clothing group best known for its Zara retail chain, is a poster child of Spanish competitiveness. It
shrugged off the European financial crisis and even delivered a sharp rise in first-quarter profits.
4
The catch is that exports, which account for about 30 percent of Spain’s GDP, can’t compensate for
the steep drop in demand at home. Yet some companies are doing well inside Spain. Mercadona, the
largest purely domestic grocer, boosted sales by 8 percent last year, to 17.8 billion euros. Its unique
business model is studied in the classrooms of top American business schools.
5
Another bright spot: Spain’s current account deficit has fallen sharply from its peak of about 10
percent of GDP in 2007 to about 3 percent in the most recent quarter. The decline has been steeper
than in other troubled countries such as Greece or Portugal, but investors would still like to see trade
in balance. One way to get there is by cutting spending on imports. A better way, in the words of
Mercadona chairman Juan Roig: everyone in Spain “needs to work harder” to boost productivity.
6
Spain’s emblematic companies show that this can be done. But their success has been despite, not
because of, the country’s politicians and rigid employment laws. Spain has already implemented
painful reforms, particularly in the labor market, but they will take time to feed into the economy. The
bank bailout may eventually ease the ongoing credit crunch, but in the short term the country’s
increasing borrowing costs will make it harder for Spanish entrepreneurs to finance their businesses.
Adapted from Newsweek, June 25, 2012
1
01 - (FGV )In the last paragraph, “they” in the phrase “…but they will take time to feed into the
economy” most likely refers to
a) recently elected Spanish politicians.
b) difficult but necessary changes in Spanish regulations.
c) Spain’s emblematic companies.
d) Spain’s traditionally rigid employment laws.
e) the investment money now available to Spanish companies.
Are You A Digital Native or A Digital Immigrant?
1
We all know that we are living in an increasingly 2 technologically driven world. Living here in the
heart 3 of Silicon Valley I certainly feel it every day. In fact, I 4 don’t think I know a single couple in my
neighborhood, 5 other than my wife and I, who don’t work in the 6 technology field in some capacity.
Our local companies 7 are Facebook, Apple, Google, Yahoo, and so many 8 venture capital firms that I
can’t keep them straight. 9 But you don’t have to live in Silicon Valley to feel 10 that the world is getting
more and more technology 11 centered, focused, and driven. We can debate the 12 pros and cons of
this reality but we can’t deny that 13 the world has changed very quickly in head spinning 14 ways. Two
recent comments led me to finally enter 15 the 21st century by getting a smart phone this week, 16
kicking and screaming.
17
First, I mentioned to one of my undergraduate 18 classes at Santa Clara University that I didn’t have
19
a smart phone, but rather I had a dumb phone. My 20 phone can make and receive phone calls and
that’s 21 about it. No email, internet, and so forth. So one of my 22 students looked at me in an odd and
curious way, like 23 she was talking to someone from another planet, and 24 stated in a matter of fact
manner, “Professor Plante, 25 even 2nd graders have smart phones.” Ouch!
26
Second, I was talking with a producer at the 27 PBS NewsHour who wanted me to do a live interview
28
within a few hours of his call regarding some late 29 breaking news about clergy sexual abuse, which
30
is my specialty. I was out of the office and driving my 31 car when he called and in a matter of fact
manner 32 he said that he wanted to send me some important 33 information to my smart phone to
best prepare me for 34 the upcoming interview. When I told him that I couldn’t 35 receive anything
since I had a dumb phone and not a 36 smart phone, there was a long silence. He then said 37 he’d
have to just read it to me over the phone as a 38 Plan B. He wasn’t happy ... neither was I.
39
In case you haven’t noticed, the 21st century is 40 really upon us and to live in it one really does
need 41 to be connected in my view. Although I often consider 42 myself a 19th or 20th century guy
trapped in the 21st 43 century we really do need to adapt. For most of us 44 we are just living in a new
world that really demands 45 comfort with and access to technology.
46
This notion of digital native vs. digital immigrant 47 makes a great deal of sense to me. Young people
48
in our society are digital natives. They seem to be 49 very comfortable with everything from iPhones
to TV 50 remotes. Digital immigrants, like me, just never feel 51 that comfortable with these
technologies. Sure we 52 may learn to adapt by using email, mobile phones, 53 smart ones or dumb
ones, Facebook, and so forth but 54 it just doesn’t and perhaps will never be very natural 55 for us. It is
like learning a second language ... you can 56 communicate but with some struggle.
57
This has perhaps always been true. I remember 58 when I was in graduate school in the 1980s trying
to 59 convince my grandparents that buying a telephone 60 answering machine as well as a clothes
dryer would 61 be a good idea. They looked at me like I was talking 62 in another language or that I was
from another planet.
63
Perhaps we have a critical period in our lives for 64 technology just like we do for language. When we
are 65 young we soak up language so quickly but find it so66 much harder to learn a new language
when we are 67 older. The same seems to be true for technology.
68
So, this week I bought my first smart phone and 69 am just learning to use it. When questions arise,
I turn70 to my very patient teenage son for answers. And when 71 he’s not around, I just look to the
youngest person 72 around for help.
73
So, what about you? Are you a digital native or 74 a digital immigrant and how does it impact your
life?
Adapted
from
“Digital
Native
vs
Digital
Immigrant?
Which
are
you?”
Published on July 24, 2012 by Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP in Do the Right Thing
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201207/
digitalnative-vs-digital-immigrant-which-are-you retrieved on July 28, 2012
02 - (PUC RJ)In the sentence, “He then said he’d have to just read it to me over the phone as a Plan
B.” (Refs. 36-38), the underlined pronoun refers to
a) the author´s dumb phone.
b) the information needed for the interview.
c) the author’s smart phone.
d) the upcoming interview.
e) the conversation the author had with the TV producer.
It’s All Greek to Him: Chobani’s Unlikely Success Story
Five years ago, Chobani didn’t exist. Now it’s a billiondollar business. How the son of a small-town
shepherd made good.
By Daniel Gross
Turkish Kurd comes to the U.S. with $3,000 in 2 his pocket gets a feel for the country, ends up 3
buying an ancient yogurt factory abandoned by a 4 Fortune 500 company, and ships his first order of 5
so-called Greek yogurt to a kosher grocery on Long 6 Island. Five years later, the company notches $1
7
billion in revenue, Forbes deems the green-cardholding 8 entrepreneur a billionaire, and the company
9
— Chobani — stands as a case study of how a tiny 10 consumer-products company can slug it out
with 11 giants.
12
Only in America!
13
Hamdi Ulukaya isn’t the type of immigrant that 14 technology executives have in mind when they 15
advocate less-restrictive policies. He didn’t arrive 16 with an engineering degree or with cash to invest.
17
He doesn’t know how to code. But he is likely to 18 have an economic and consumer impact far
greater 19 and longer-lasting than that of the founders of Zynga 20 or Instagram. Chobani Yogurt
employs about 3,000 21 people around the world, hoovers up 40 million 22 pounds of domestically
produced milk per week, and 23 has helped turn an economically depressed region 24 of upstate New
York into a capital of Greek yogurt 25 production. Oh, and unlike so many large 26 companies, he’s
hiring. In May, Chobani had 290 job 27 openings.
Available on: <http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/>. Access on: jun.12 2013.
1
GLOSSARY
Kosher: 1 alimento preparado de acordo com os preceitos judaicos. 2 restaurante que serve alimentos
ou refeições assim.
Notches: conseguir, atingir.
03 - (IFGO) Choose the alternative that contains the correct verb tense in which the verbs comes (Ref.
1), gets (Ref. 2), ends (Ref. 2) and ships (Ref. 4) appear:
a) Present perfect.
b) Simple present.
c) Present perfect continuous.
d) Present continuous.
e) Simple future.
Bus fares & World Cup
Costs fuel Brazil protests
21st June, 2013
The biggest protests Brazil has seen for decades 2 are taking place in its streets. Many of them are 3
happening outside soccer stadiums. Brazil is 4 currently hosting the Confederations Cup – a FIFA 5
World Cup test event. While Brazil's team beat 6 Mexico 2-0 on Tuesday night, thousands of 7
protesters were in the streets outside the stadium. 8 There were around 100,000 more people
protesting 9 around Brazil at the same time. They are unhappy 10 with many things about life in their
country. The 11 protests started last week in Rio de Janeiro and Sao 12 Paulo because of an increase in
bus fares. They 13 soon spread across the country. People are also 14 angry about the cost of the 2014
World Cup, poor 15 public services, and corruption.
16
Protests across the country are getting bigger 17 and bigger. The police are taking tougher actions to
18
control the crowds. Police used rubber bullets, tear 19 gas and beatings, which have made the people
20
angrier. Many of the protestors want the government 21 to spend more money on health and
education and 22 less on the World Cup. The BBC reported seeing a 23 banner that read: "A teacher is
worth more than 24 Neymar" (Brazil's star player). One of the banners in 25 the crowd at the BrazilMexico game asked FIFA 26 (the World Cup organizers) to bring hospitals to 27 Brazil instead of
stadiums. Another Brazilian star, 28 striker Hulk, said: "After seeing the people on the 29 streets… it
makes me feel like joining them. They 30 are doing the right thing."
Available
on:
<http://
www.Breakingnewsenglish.com/1306/130621
- brazil_protests.htme>. Access on: Jun. 30 2013.
1
04 - (IFGO) About the relation between the pronoun and the word or expression it refers to, it is
incorrect to affirm that:
a) Its (Ref. 2) refers to Brazil.
b) Them (Ref. 2) refers to the protests in Brazil.
c) Their (Ref. 10) refers to the protesters.
d) They (Ref. 12) refers to the bus fares.
e) They (Ref. 29) refers to the people.
TEXTO: 5 - Comum à questão: 5
Higher education in Brazil: the diploma boom
UNIVERSITIES in Brazil have long been for the privileged ones. Only 11% of the population of
workingage has a degree. Graduates earn, on average, 2.5 times as much as those without a diploma,
and fi ve times as much as the majority who never fi nished secondary school.
In 2010, there were around 2,400 universities or colleges of higher education, of which only 10% of
them were public. Some of the rest were charitable, mostly Catholic. But 75% of them were run for
profi t; in other words, most universities and colleges in Brazil are private institutions.
A large population of young adults, defi cient schools and the growth of industries, such as oil, that
demand qualifi ed workers all mean that the need for higher education will continue.
Some 300,000 students will get scholarships* this year.
Universities will have to spend on technology and seek economies of scale if they are to improve
quality, cut costs, keep the students they have and attract more.
The government has a different route to social justice: admissions quotas. Last month, the president,
Dilma Rousseff, signed a law that gives federal universities until 2016 to reserve half of their places for
students from state schools. Of those places, half must go to very poor students, and black, mixedrace
or Amerindian students must be admitted.
But that does not mean this type of programme will work equally well. Quotas tend to benefi t the
luckiest and bestprepared of the favoured group, not the most disadvantaged, says Andreas
Schleicher, an education expert.
Attempts by the University of Campinas, in São Paulo state, show how hard it is to keep students from
poor backgrounds on higher education. Two years ago it started to admit 120 of the best students from
local state schools annually to a twoyear preparation programme, with progression to degree courses
for those who do well. “We have an army of people helping them,” says Marcelo Knobel, the
university’s dean* of admissions: “social workers, teaching assistants, other students, medical care.
Even so, some are too far behind to continue their studies.” Mr Schleicher says that researches show
the best way to guarantee all youngsters have a fair chance to get into the best universities is to offer
good schools to all.
* scholarship – bolsa de estudos
* dean reitor
Disponível
em:
<http://www.economist.com/node/21562955?zid=305&ah=
417bd5664dc76da5d98af4f7a640fd8a>. Acesso em: 28 out. 2012.
05 - (UNIUBE MG) Considere o termo destacado em negrito, no fragmento a seguir, extraído do último
parágrafo:
““We have an army of people helping them,” says Marcelo Knobel [...]”. O pronome “them” se
refere:
a) às escolas públicas.
b) às tentativas de inclusão de alunos.
c) aos melhores alunos das escolas públicas.
d) ao corpo de profi ssionais da universidade.
e) aos cursos superiores
February 03, 2013
BOSTON – After a visit to Harvard University, dozens in a group of high school students and their
adult chaperones were injured when their charter bus hit a bridge after police say the driver failed to
heed low-clearance warning signs.
One person was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and three with serious injuries, the
Boston Emergency Medical Services said. Thirty-four people were injured in all, EMS said.
The Calvary Coach bus was carrying 42 people and was heading back to the Philadelphia area when
it struck an overpass on Soldier’s Field Road in Boston, a major crosstown road, at around 7.30 p.m.
Saturday, Massachusetts State Police said. Some passengers were trapped for more than an hour as
rescue crews worked to free them.
(nation.time.com)
06 - (Fac. Santa Marcelina SP) In “when it struck an overpass” and “as rescue crews worked to free
them”, the words it and them refer, respectively, to
a) “the Calvary Coach bus” and “some passengers”.
b) “an overpass” and “the Massachussetts State Police”.
c) “Philadelphia area” and “rescue crews”.
d) “Soldier’s Field Road” and “42 people”.
e) “a major crosstown road” and “adult chaperones”.
Which Professions Have The Most Psychopaths?
First off, psychopath doesn’t just mean someone who cuts you up with a chainsaw — though the
majority of people who do things like that are psychopaths. What’s the definition?
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow
emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt,
egocentricity, superficial character, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial
behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality.
So, which professions (other than axe murderer) do they disproportionately gravitate towards — or
away from? According to the book “Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can
Teach Us About Success”, by Kevin Dutton, these are the professions that have the most psychopaths:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
Lawyer
Media (TV/Radio)
Salesperson
Surgeon
Journalist
Police Officer
Clergyperson
Chef
Civil Servant
Most of these roles offer power and many require an ability to make objective, clinical decisions
divorced from feelings. Psychopaths would be drawn to these roles and succeed there.
The good news? On the other hand, if you work in the following professions, psychopaths usually steer
clear of them: care aide, nurse, therapist, craftsperson, beautician/stylist, charity worker, teacher,
creative artist, doctor, accountant. Most of these professions require human connection, dealing with
feelings and most of them don’t offer much power. Psychopaths, by their very nature, would not be
drawn to or very good at these things.
(www.huffingtonpost.com. Adaptado.)
07 - (Fac. Santa Marcelina SP) No trecho do quinto parágrafo – The good news? On the other hand,
if you work in the following professions, psychopaths usually steer clear of them –, o
pronome em destaque substitui o termo:
a) other hand.
b) psychopaths.
c) the following professions.
d) good news.
e) steer clear.
Tooth fairy quantum mechanics
The reason I can’t show you a Higgs boson1 is also
the solution to a parental dilemma.
Posted by Jon Butterworth
Sunday 23 December 2012 18.36 GMT, theguardian.com
I do sometimes get asked “If you’ve found a Higgs boson, can you show me a picture of it?”
Unfortunately, the answer is no. But the reason for this provides a resolution to a severe parental
dilemma, and explains why I am in fact sometimes the tooth fairy. Bear with me.
I can’t show you something which is definitely the new boson, but I can show evidence for it, for
example in the picture below. It shows the distribution (black dots) of the mass you get when you
combine the energy and momenta2 of pairs of photons (particles of light) in the ATLAS detector. The
bump shows that there are more of these photon pairs at masses corresponding to around 125 GeV
than would be expected from the trend. This excess implies the existence of a particle at about this
mass which decays to pairs of photons.
The bump3 in this plot would not be there unless there were a new boson (credit, ATLAS experiment
and CERN). The key is that even if I show you a collision event with a pair of photons which exactly
gives the “Higgs mass”, i.e. at the top of that peak, it is still not possible to be sure that this exact pair
of photons came from a Higgs boson. There may be several possible ways of producing a set of new
particles from the incoming ones; but if the resulting set is identical, it is not physically meaningful to
say which way occurred.
Now, to the parental dilemma. It is especially acute at this time of year, but if you have children who
are losing their milk teeth, it is ever-present. Is the tooth fairy real? What about Father Christmas? Do
you spoil the fun or do you lie? Something in me hates the idea of lying to my kids, and undermining4
trust. Here’s my way out. Anything which has the same initial state (tooth) and final state (money)
might in fact be an event in which a tooth fairy was present. To put itanother way, anything which
removes the tooth and delivers money shares such an essential property with a tooth fairy that it can
be said to be one (anything removing both teeth and money is probably a dentist. Or possibly a
mugger5).
By now, my son doesn’t believe a word of it of course. But in the early days it was the truth. We
managed this transition without lies, betrayal and tears because actually, when tiptoeing into the
bedroom with a shiny pound coin, I really am the tooth fairy. I am of course also at the same time
Dad. This seemed to work, and now he’s older, it’s still fun. It’s not much of stretch to extend this to
Father Christmas, and it also explains why sometimes Father Christmas uses the same wrapping paper
as your parents - he and they are, in a sense, indistinguishable quantum possibilities for the delivery
process.
(theguardian.com/science/life-and-physics/2012/dec/23/tooth-fairy-quantum-mechanics Acesso em:
26.08.2013. Adaptado)
Glossário
1Higgs boson: partícula subatômica teórica que ficou conhecida publicamente após ter sido divulgada como a
“partícula de Deus”. Sua existência é associada a pesquisas acerca da origem do universo.
(topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/higgs_boson/index.html
Acesso
em
02.10.2013.
Adaptado)
2momenta: plural de momentum – conceito físico associado à quantidade de movimento de uma partícula.
3bump: choque ou elevação.
4undermine: tornar algo gradativamente mais fraco, especialmente a confiança ou autoridade de alguém.
5mugger: assaltante.
08 - (FATEC SP) Os pronomes he e they presentes no último parágrafo do texto – he and they are, in
a sense, indistinguishable quantum possibilities for the delivery process – substituem,
respectivamente, os termos
a) wrapping paper e Father Christmas.
b) Father Christmas e parents.
c) wrapping paper e parents.
d) Dad e Father Christmas.
e) Dad e wrapping paper.
Climate change: forecast for 2100 is floods and heat ... and it’s man’s fault
By Nick Allen
9:04PM BST 16 Aug 2013
Climate scientists have concluded that temperatures could jump by up to 5°C and sea levels could rise
by up to 82 cm by the end of the century, according to a leaked draft of a United Nations (UN) report.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also said there was a 95 per cent likelihood
that global warming is caused by human activities. That was the highest assessment so far from the
IPCC, which put the figure at 90 per cent in a previous report in 2007, 66 per cent in 2001, and just
over 50 per cent in 1995.
Reto Knutti, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, said: “We have got
quite a bit more certain that climate change is largely man-made. We’re less certain than many would
hope about the local impacts.” The IPCC report, the first of three in 2013 and 2014, will face intense
scrutiny particularly after errors in the 2007 study, which wrongly predicted that all Himalayan glaciers
could melt by 2035.
Almost 200 governments have agreed to try to limit global warming to below 2°C above pre-industrial
times, which is seen as a threshold for dangerous changes including more droughts, extinctions, floods
and rising seas that could swamp coastal regions and island nations. Temperatures have already risen
by 0.8°C since the Industrial Revolution.
The report will say there is a high risk global temperatures will rise by more than 2°C this century.
They could rise anywhere from about 0.6°C to almost 5°C a wider range at both ends of the scale than
predicted in the 2007 report. It will also say evidence of rising sea levels is “unequivocal”. The report
projects seas will rise by between 30 cm and 82 cm by the late 21st century. In 2007 the estimated
rise was between 18 cm and 58 cm, but that did not fully account for changes in Antarctica and
Greenland.
Scientists say it is harder to predict local impacts. Drew Shindell, a Nasa scientist, said: “I talk to
people in regional power planning. They ask, 'What’s the temperature going to be in this region in the
next 20 to 30 years, because that’s where our power grid is?’ We can’t really tell.”
(adapted from <telegraph.co.uk>)
09 - (UFPR) Mark the correct alternative, according to the text. The word “it”, in boldface and italics
(paragraph 5), refers to:
a) global warming.
b) the greenhouse effect.
c) rising sea levels.
d) the 21st century.
e) the IPCC report.
Good cholesterol linked to good memory
The “good” cholesterol that is found in olive oil and avocados has been portrayed as a good fairy lately
based on its association with healthy hearts, but a new study may give people another reason to chow
down on guacamole. A broad study of people in their 50s and 60s revealed that low levels of good
cholesterol are linked to poor memory, which may be an early indicator of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The results, reported in a journal published by the American Heart Association, showed that 60-yearolds with low levels of good cholesterol were 53 percent more likely to have memory problems.
However, other researchers point out that the study did not prove causation, and said the study did
not yet support larger diet trials aiming to boost levels.
Researchers believe they understand why good cholesterol, which is more properly called high-density
lipoproteins (HDL), is associated with heart health: it doesn’t build up in arteries, but instead
transports cholesterol back to the liver to be reused. But the mechanism by which it may influence
memory function is still mysterious. The lead researcher in the memory study, Archarna SinghManoux, had only a hypothesis regarding how HDL cholesterol may protect memory. She said one
possible explanation is that it wards off formation of plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of
Alzheimer’s.
While an editorial that accompanied the study argued that it didn’t provide enough evidence to support
dietary interventions for dementia patients, Singh-Manoux disagreed, and said that aging adults may
want to act on this information: “physicians and patients should be encouraged to monitor levels of
HDL cholesterol”, she said.
(www.discovermagazine.com. Adaptado.)
10 - (Unicastelo SP) No trecho do terceiro parágrafo – It doesn’t build up in arteries –, o pronome em
destaque refere-se a
a) researchers.
b) arteries.
c) cholesterol.
d) heart health.
e) good cholesterol.
Culture is ordinary
by Raymond Williams
The bus-stop was outside the cathedral. I had been looking at the Mappa Mundi, with its rivers out of
Paradise, and at the chained library, where a party of clergymen had gotten in easily, but where I had
waited an hour and cajoled a verger before I even saw the chains. Now, across the street, a cinema
advertised the Six-Five Special and a cartoon version of Gulliver’s Travels. The bus arrived, with a
driver and conductress deeply absorbed in each other. We went out of the city, over the old bridge,
and on through the orchards and the green meadows and the fields red under the plough. Ahead were
the Black Mountains, and we climbed among them, watching the steep fields end at the grey walls,
beyond which the bracken and heather and whin had not yet been driven back. To the east, along the
ridge, stood the line of grey Norman castles; to the west, the fortress wall of the mountains. Then, as
we still climbed, the rock changed under us. Here, now, was limestone, and the line of the early iron
workings along the scarp. The farming valleys, with their scattered white houses, fell away behind.
Ahead of us were the narrower valleys: the steel rolling-mill, the gasworks, the grey terraces, the
pitheads. The bus stopped, and the driver and conductress got out, still absorbed. They had done this
journey so often, and seen all its stages. It is a journey, in fact, that in one form or another, we have
all made.
(www.giarts.org)
11 - (UNISA SP) No excerto – Ahead were the Black Mountains, and we climbed among them –, a
palavra them refere-se a
a) grey walls.
b) farming valleys.
c) steep fields.
d) Norman castles.
e) Black Mountains.
GABARITO
1- Gab:
2- Gab:
3- Gab:
4- Gab:
5- Gab:
6- Gab:
7- Gab:
8- Gab:
9- Gab:
10- Gab:
11- Gab:
B
B
B
D
C
A
C
B
E
E
E