Questões de Inglês do ENEM

Languages and cultures use non-verbal communication which conveys meaning. Although many gestures are similar in Thai and English such as nodding for affirmation many others are not shared. A good example of this is the ubiquitous “Thai smile”. The “smile” carries a far wider range of meanings in Thai than it does in English culture. This can sometimes lead to serious communication breakdowns between Thais and English speakers.

An example from my own early experience in Thailand illustrates the point. When confronting the Thai owner of a language school with administrative problems, complaints regarding student numbers in the class were met by a beaming smile and little else. I took this to mean lack of concern or an attempt to trivialise or ignore the problem. I left the discussion upset and angry by what appeared to be the owner's offhand attitude to my problems.

It was only later when another native speaking English teacher, with considerably more experience of Thailand, explained that a smile meant an apology and the fact that the following day all my complaints had been addressed, that I fully understood the situation.

Disponível em: www.spring.org.uk. Acesso em: 11 jul. 2011 (fragmento)

Viver em um país estrangeiro pode ser uma experiência enriquecedora, embora possa também ser um desafio, pelo choque cultural. A experiência relatada pelo autor do texto revela diferentes atribuições de sentido a um determinado comportamento, mostrando que naquela situação o sorriso indicava um(a)

World Cup 2014 kicks off with colourful ceremony.

Disponível em: <http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27779059> . Acesso em: 12 jun. 2014

       Pakistan army demands TV channel closure over assassination dispute

      Pakistan’s army demanded the closure of the country's most popular television channel on Tuesday following allegations that the military's main intelligence agency had ordered an assassination attempt on its star journalist.

Disponível em: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/23/pakistan-army-demands-tv-station-closure-assassination?CMP=EMCNEWEML661912>  Acesso em: 23 abr. 2014.  

O texto acima trata de:  

Popes John XXIII and John Paul II to be made saints in historic ceremony

As many as one million people are expected in Saint Peter's Square and nearby streets of Rome to witness the canonisation of popes John XXIII and John Paul II later today.

Disponível: <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-27/an-two-popes-to-be-made-saints/5413850>. Acesso em: 27 abr. 2014.

O texto acima trata de:

               Heartburn drug Motilium should be restricted due to heart deaths, says medicines regulator

      Around two million people were prescribed Motilium, also known as domperidone, for sickness and nausea symptoms, stomach conditions and heartburn. Now following a review at European level, the drug will be restricted for those with sickness and nausea only. […] The drug is widely prescribed by GPs for babies with severe reflux and can continue to be used in this way under caution and when the doctor has carefully calculated the dose according to the child's weight and is satisfied they do not have a heart condition, a spokesman for the drugs regulator said.

Disponível em: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10788459/Heartburn-drug-Motilium-should-be-restricted-due-to-heart-deaths-says-medicines-regulator.html. Acesso em: 26 abr. 2014.  

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      Using e-cigarettes in the office is becoming a burning issue.

      Some UK employers have already banned 'vapers' from using e-cigs at their desk – but there is no legal reason to do so

Disponível em: <http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2014/jun/03/e-cigarette-office-smoking-vaping-tobacco> . Acesso em: 03 jun. 2014. 

No texto acima, as palavras em destaque são, respectivamente, categorizadas:  

King Juan Carlos's democratic legacy is rooted in cliche

The Spanish king had no choice but to champion democracy. We should remember the part played by ordinary people

Disponível:: <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/03/king-juan-carlos-legacy-spaincliche-democracy> . Acesso em: 03 jun. 2014.

No texto acima, os termos grifados correspondem, respectivamente, aos elementos gramaticais:

Dinosaurs fit in an intermediate class between warm and cold blooded animals, a study in the journal Science claims.

Scientists compared the growth rates of hundreds of living and extinct species, using growth rings and bone size to calculate the rates for dinosaurs.

Disponível em: <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27794723> . Acesso em: 12 jun. 2014.

No texto, os trechos grifados correspondem a que categoria gramatical:

                           Alice Munro’s road to Nobel literature prize was not easy

                                         Nobel literature prize winner Alice Munro.

Alice Munro has been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in literature, thus becoming its 13th female recipient. It’s a thrilling honour for a major writer: Munro has long been recognised in North America and the UK, but the Nobel will draw international attention, not only to women’s writing and Canadian writing, but to the short story, Munro’s chosen literary genre and one often neglected.

The road to the Nobel wasn’t an easy one for Munro. She found herself referred to as “some housewife”, and was told that her subject matter, being too “domestic”, was boring. A male writer told her she wrote good stories, but he wouldn’t want to sleep with her. “Nobody invited him,” said Munro. Maybe as a consequence of this initial reaction towards her, when writers occur in Munro stories, they are pretentious, or exploitative of others; or they’re being asked by their relatives why they aren’t famous, or – worse, if female – why they aren’t better-looking.

The chances that a literary star would emerge from her time and place would once have been zero. Munro was born in 1931, and thus experienced the Depression as a child and the Second World War as a teenager. This was in south-western Ontario, Canada, a region that also produced equally talented writers and poets such as Robertson Davies, Graeme Gibson, James Reaney, and Marian Engel. It’s this small-town setting that features most often in her stories – the snobberies, the eccentrics, and the jeering at ambitions, especially artistic ones.

Shame is a common driving force for Munro’s characters just as perfectionism in the writing and courage in her profession have been driving forces for her.

As in much else, Munro is essentially Canadian. Faced with the Nobel, she will be modest, she won’t get a swelled head. The rest of us, on this magnificent occasion, will just have to do that for her.

Writers of memoirs and life stories never lack an audience. People are interested in the actual lives of others (l. 34-35)

The semantic relationship between the two sentences above can be made explicit by the additon of following connective: