Questões do ENEM: Linguagens e nível difícil

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4.735 questões encontradas. Mostrando a página 134 de 237.

• 2E390E20-D8

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  
  

  In paragraph 1, “The facts” in the sentence “The facts have never been in dispute” most likely refers to all of the following except

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e390e20-d8

  A

  Freddie Hall was the co-participant in a terrible sex crime.

  B

  Freddie Hall helped to cause the death of a young woman and her unborn child.

  C

  The car that Freddie Hall and his companion used in a robbery attempt belonged to the murdered woman.

  D

  Freddie Hall and his companion killed an officer of the law in Florida State.

  E

  A jury decided that Freddie Hall must be executed as the punishment for his crimes.

  Responder
• 2E348CF3-D8

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  
  

  With respect to the sabbath, which of the following is not supported by the information in the article?

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e348cf3-d8

  A

  The sabbath occupies an area in which commercial and governmental interests do not predominate.

  B

  A rich person and a poor person may get equal benefit from the sabbath.

  C

  The sabbath should be observed collectively, that is, as a community activity.

  D

  Maintaining a sabbath can help to keep important parts of society healthy.

  E

  Without a sabbath, liberal democracy is destined to fail.

  Responder
• 2E295A9E-D8

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  
  

  With respect to the author’s conception of the sabbath, which of the following is most supported by the information in the article?

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e295a9e-d8

  A

  The sabbath’s only function is to impose limits on people.

  B

  The refusal to observe limits was the main factor that destroyed the Greek and Roman civilizations.

  C

  A rigid observation of the sabbath would make environmental regulations dealing with carbon consumption unnecessary.

  D

  A worldwide sabbath, with restrictions on the use of vehicles, could have an important impact on carbon consumption.

  E

  Only by understanding the idea of limits can people make sure that environmental devastation will never happen.

  Responder
• 2E24997D-D8

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  
  

  At the end of paragraph 3, the sentence “It’s when we make space for the things that are important but not urgent” most likely refers to which of the following?

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e24997d-d8

  A

  The fast pace of modern society has made the sabbath more important than ever for our spiritual and physical health.

  B

  The sabbath encourages us to disregard certain matters that normally would demand our immediate attention.

  C

  Normally, things we consider urgent are, in reality, almost always unimportant.

  D

  Without the sabbath to support and protect it, religion would become unimportant in modern society.

  E

  The more people neglect the sabbath, the more important it becomes.

  Responder
• 2E1E8398-D8

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  
  

  According to the information in the article,

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e1e8398-d8

  A

  the sabbath was first conceived by slaves who wanted to put limits on how much they had to work.

  B

  in the ancient world, Jews who owned slaves were forbidden to make them work every day.

  C

  if the Jewish people had never been slaves, the sabbath would not exist.

  D

  nowadays, only the orthodox Jewish religion still actively promotes the idea of a collective, institutionalized day of rest.

  E

  nowadays, the slavery imposed by our modern inventions and communication devices is as severe as the slavery practiced in the ancient world.

  Responder
• 2E0B763B-D8

  Português

  Interpretação de TextosFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  NOSSO TEMPO

  
  

  (...)

                                   V

  Escuta a hora formidável do almoço

  na cidade. Os escritórios, num passe, esvaziam-se. 

  As bocas sugam um rio de carne, legumes e tortas vitaminosas. 

  Salta depressa do mar a bandeja de peixes argênteos! 

  Os subterrâneos da fome choram caldo de sopa, 

  olhos líquidos de cão através do vidro devoram teu osso. 

  Come, braço mecânico, alimenta-te, mão de papel, é tempo de comida, 

  mais tarde será o de amor. 

  Lentamente os escritórios se recuperam, e os negócios, forma indecisa, evoluem. 

  
  

  O esplêndido negócio insinua-se no tráfego. 

  Multidões que o cruzam não veem. É sem cor e sem cheiro. 

  Está dissimulado no bonde, por trás da brisa do sul, 

  vem na areia, no telefone, na batalha de aviões, 

  toma conta de tua alma e dela extrai uma porcentagem. 

  (...) 

                                                   Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Poesia completa.

  Tanto esse trecho de Drummond quanto o romance O cortiço, de Aluísio Azevedo, apresentam a figuração de coletivos humanos em ação. Embora em proporções diferentes, em ambas as obras esses coletivos são movidos sobretudo por forças de caráter

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2e0b763b-d8

  A

  econômico e biológico.

  B

  ético e social.

  C

  aleatório e histórico.

  D

  filosófico e materialista.

  E

  doutrinário e espontâneo.

  Responder
• 2DFDACD4-D8

  Português

  Interpretação de TextosFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

      Depois de uma parte de concerto, que foi como descanso reparador, seguiu-se a oferta do busto. Teve a palavra o Professor Venâncio.

  (...)

  O orador acumulou paciente todos os epítetos de engrandecimento, desde o raro metal da sinceridade até o cobre dúctil, cantante das adulações. Fundiu a mistura numa fogueira de calorosas ênfases, e sobre a massa bateu como um ciclope, longamente, até acentuar a imagem monumental do diretor.
      Aristarco depois do primeiro receio esquecia-se na delícia de uma metamorfose. Venâncio era o seu escultor.
      A estátua não era mais uma aspiração: batiam-na ali. Ele sentia metalizar-se a carne à medida que o Venâncio falava. Compreendia inversamente o prazer de transmutação da matéria bruta que a alma artística penetra e anima: congelava-lhe os membros uma frialdade de ferro; à epiderme, nas mãos, na face, via, adivinhava reflexos desconhecidos de polimento. Consolidavam-se as dobras das roupas em modelagem resistente e fixa. Sentia-se estranhamente maciço por dentro, como se houvera bebido gesso. Parava-lhe o sangue nas artérias comprimidas. Perdia a sensação da roupa; empedernia-se, mineralizava-se todo. Não era um ser humano: era um corpo inorgânico, rochedo inerte, bloco metálico, escória de fundição, forma de bronze, vivendo a vida exterior das esculturas, sem consciência, sem individualidade, morto sobre a cadeira, oh, glória! Mas feito estátua.
      “Coroemo-lo!” bradou de súbito Venâncio.

  
  

                                                 Raul Pompeia, O Ateneu

  Tendo em vista que a cena aqui reproduzida representa o ápice da solenidade bienal de distribuição dos prêmios aos colegiais, confirma-se o paradoxo de que o colégio Ateneu tem como objetivo primordial

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2dfdacd4-d8

  A

  o desenvolvimento físico do estudante, não o intelectual.

  B

  a realização do pedagogo, não a do estudante.

  C

  o fortalecimento do caráter do educando, não sua maior flexibilidade moral.

  D

  o incremento da filosofia, não o da técnica.

  E

  a metalurgia, não a pedagogia.

  Responder
• 2DF6887C-D8

  Português

  Interpretação de TextosFGV · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

      Depois de uma parte de concerto, que foi como descanso reparador, seguiu-se a oferta do busto. Teve a palavra o Professor Venâncio.

  (...)

  O orador acumulou paciente todos os epítetos de engrandecimento, desde o raro metal da sinceridade até o cobre dúctil, cantante das adulações. Fundiu a mistura numa fogueira de calorosas ênfases, e sobre a massa bateu como um ciclope, longamente, até acentuar a imagem monumental do diretor.
      Aristarco depois do primeiro receio esquecia-se na delícia de uma metamorfose. Venâncio era o seu escultor.
      A estátua não era mais uma aspiração: batiam-na ali. Ele sentia metalizar-se a carne à medida que o Venâncio falava. Compreendia inversamente o prazer de transmutação da matéria bruta que a alma artística penetra e anima: congelava-lhe os membros uma frialdade de ferro; à epiderme, nas mãos, na face, via, adivinhava reflexos desconhecidos de polimento. Consolidavam-se as dobras das roupas em modelagem resistente e fixa. Sentia-se estranhamente maciço por dentro, como se houvera bebido gesso. Parava-lhe o sangue nas artérias comprimidas. Perdia a sensação da roupa; empedernia-se, mineralizava-se todo. Não era um ser humano: era um corpo inorgânico, rochedo inerte, bloco metálico, escória de fundição, forma de bronze, vivendo a vida exterior das esculturas, sem consciência, sem individualidade, morto sobre a cadeira, oh, glória! Mas feito estátua.
      “Coroemo-lo!” bradou de súbito Venâncio.

  
  

                                                 Raul Pompeia, O Ateneu

  Considere os seguintes pares de palavras retirados do texto:

  I     “metamorfose” – “transmutação”; 

  II     “dúctil” – “inerte”;

  III    “empedernia” – “mineralizava”.

  
  

  Tendo em vista as relações de sentido estabelecidas no texto, é correto afirmar que pode ser lido como sinônimo apenas o par indicado em

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão 2df6887c-d8

  A

  I.

  B

  II.

  C

  III.

  D

  I e II.

  E

  I e III.

  Responder
• ACB6A2F9-D6

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  Texto 1

  Call to halve target for added sugar

  People need to more than halve their intake of added sugar to tackle the obesity crisis, according to scientific advice for the government in England.

  
  

      A report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) says sugar added to food or naturally present in fruit juice and honey should account for 5% of energy intake. Many fail to meet the old 10% target. The sugar industry said “demonizing one ingredient” would not “solve the obesity epidemic”
      The body reviewed 600 scientific studies on the evidence of carbohydrates – including sugar – on health to develop the new recommendations. One 330ml can of soft drink would take a typical adult up to the proposed 5% daily allowance, without factoring in sugar from any other source.
      Prof Ian MacDonald, chairman of the SACN working group on carbohydrates, said: “The evidence that we have analyzed shows quite clearly that high free sugars intake in adults is associated with increased energy intake and obesity. There is also an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and type-2 diabetes. In children there is clear demonstration that sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with obesity. By reducing it to 5% you would reduce the risk of all of those things, the challenge will be to get there.”
      The target of 5% of energy intake from free sugars amounts to 25g for women (five to six teaspoons) and 35g (seven to eight teaspoons) for men, based on the average diet.
      Public Health Minister for England, Jane Ellison, said: “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health, and this advice confirms that. We want to help people make healthier choices and get the nation into healthy habits for life. This report will inform the important debate taking place about sugar.”

  (www.bbc.com. Adaptado.)

  
  

  Texto 2

      Eating more fruits and veggies won’t make you lose weight
      We’re often told to eat more fruits and vegetables, but the chances that you’ll lose weight just by eating more of these foods are slim. New research suggests increased fruit and vegetable intake is only effective for weight loss if you make an effort to reduce your calorie intake overall.
      In other words, you need to exercise or consume fewer calories to shed those pounds.
      Don’t let that stop you from including more fruits and veggies in your diet, though. Even if they don’t directly help you lose weight, these foods still provide a number of health benefits.
  

  (http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com. Adaptado.)
  

  No trecho do último parágrafo do texto 1 “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health”, a expressão em destaque indica

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão acb6a2f9-d6

  A

  importância.

  B

  necessidade.

  C

  qualidade.

  D

  prazer.

  E

  excesso.

  Responder
• ACB1F160-D6

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  Texto 1

  Call to halve target for added sugar

  People need to more than halve their intake of added sugar to tackle the obesity crisis, according to scientific advice for the government in England.

  
  

      A report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) says sugar added to food or naturally present in fruit juice and honey should account for 5% of energy intake. Many fail to meet the old 10% target. The sugar industry said “demonizing one ingredient” would not “solve the obesity epidemic”
      The body reviewed 600 scientific studies on the evidence of carbohydrates – including sugar – on health to develop the new recommendations. One 330ml can of soft drink would take a typical adult up to the proposed 5% daily allowance, without factoring in sugar from any other source.
      Prof Ian MacDonald, chairman of the SACN working group on carbohydrates, said: “The evidence that we have analyzed shows quite clearly that high free sugars intake in adults is associated with increased energy intake and obesity. There is also an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and type-2 diabetes. In children there is clear demonstration that sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with obesity. By reducing it to 5% you would reduce the risk of all of those things, the challenge will be to get there.”
      The target of 5% of energy intake from free sugars amounts to 25g for women (five to six teaspoons) and 35g (seven to eight teaspoons) for men, based on the average diet.
      Public Health Minister for England, Jane Ellison, said: “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health, and this advice confirms that. We want to help people make healthier choices and get the nation into healthy habits for life. This report will inform the important debate taking place about sugar.”

  (www.bbc.com. Adaptado.)

  
  

  Texto 2

      Eating more fruits and veggies won’t make you lose weight
      We’re often told to eat more fruits and vegetables, but the chances that you’ll lose weight just by eating more of these foods are slim. New research suggests increased fruit and vegetable intake is only effective for weight loss if you make an effort to reduce your calorie intake overall.
      In other words, you need to exercise or consume fewer calories to shed those pounds.
      Don’t let that stop you from including more fruits and veggies in your diet, though. Even if they don’t directly help you lose weight, these foods still provide a number of health benefits.
  

  (http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com. Adaptado.)
  

  No trecho do terceiro parágrafo do texto 1 “the challenge will be to get there.”, a palavra em destaque refere-se a

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão acb1f160-d6

  A

  reducing it to 5%.

  B

  obesity/type-2 diabetes.

  C

  free sugars intake,

  D

  risk of all those things.

  E

  sugar-sweetened beverages.

  Responder
• ACAD098C-D6

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  Texto 1

  Call to halve target for added sugar

  People need to more than halve their intake of added sugar to tackle the obesity crisis, according to scientific advice for the government in England.

  
  

      A report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) says sugar added to food or naturally present in fruit juice and honey should account for 5% of energy intake. Many fail to meet the old 10% target. The sugar industry said “demonizing one ingredient” would not “solve the obesity epidemic”
      The body reviewed 600 scientific studies on the evidence of carbohydrates – including sugar – on health to develop the new recommendations. One 330ml can of soft drink would take a typical adult up to the proposed 5% daily allowance, without factoring in sugar from any other source.
      Prof Ian MacDonald, chairman of the SACN working group on carbohydrates, said: “The evidence that we have analyzed shows quite clearly that high free sugars intake in adults is associated with increased energy intake and obesity. There is also an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and type-2 diabetes. In children there is clear demonstration that sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with obesity. By reducing it to 5% you would reduce the risk of all of those things, the challenge will be to get there.”
      The target of 5% of energy intake from free sugars amounts to 25g for women (five to six teaspoons) and 35g (seven to eight teaspoons) for men, based on the average diet.
      Public Health Minister for England, Jane Ellison, said: “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health, and this advice confirms that. We want to help people make healthier choices and get the nation into healthy habits for life. This report will inform the important debate taking place about sugar.”

  (www.bbc.com. Adaptado.)

  
  

  Texto 2

      Eating more fruits and veggies won’t make you lose weight
      We’re often told to eat more fruits and vegetables, but the chances that you’ll lose weight just by eating more of these foods are slim. New research suggests increased fruit and vegetable intake is only effective for weight loss if you make an effort to reduce your calorie intake overall.
      In other words, you need to exercise or consume fewer calories to shed those pounds.
      Don’t let that stop you from including more fruits and veggies in your diet, though. Even if they don’t directly help you lose weight, these foods still provide a number of health benefits.
  

  (http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com. Adaptado.)
  

  In the sentence from the last paragraph of text 2 “Don’t let that stop you from including more fruits and veggies in your diet, though.”, the word in bold can be replaced, with no change in the sense of the sentence, by

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão acad098c-d6

  A

  get.

  B

  occupy.

  C

  deprive.

  D

  prevent.

  E

  impact.

  Responder
• AC9A658C-D6

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

  Texto 1

  Call to halve target for added sugar

  People need to more than halve their intake of added sugar to tackle the obesity crisis, according to scientific advice for the government in England.

  
  

      A report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) says sugar added to food or naturally present in fruit juice and honey should account for 5% of energy intake. Many fail to meet the old 10% target. The sugar industry said “demonizing one ingredient” would not “solve the obesity epidemic”
      The body reviewed 600 scientific studies on the evidence of carbohydrates – including sugar – on health to develop the new recommendations. One 330ml can of soft drink would take a typical adult up to the proposed 5% daily allowance, without factoring in sugar from any other source.
      Prof Ian MacDonald, chairman of the SACN working group on carbohydrates, said: “The evidence that we have analyzed shows quite clearly that high free sugars intake in adults is associated with increased energy intake and obesity. There is also an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and type-2 diabetes. In children there is clear demonstration that sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with obesity. By reducing it to 5% you would reduce the risk of all of those things, the challenge will be to get there.”
      The target of 5% of energy intake from free sugars amounts to 25g for women (five to six teaspoons) and 35g (seven to eight teaspoons) for men, based on the average diet.
      Public Health Minister for England, Jane Ellison, said: “We know eating too much sugar can have a significant impact on health, and this advice confirms that. We want to help people make healthier choices and get the nation into healthy habits for life. This report will inform the important debate taking place about sugar.”

  (www.bbc.com. Adaptado.)

  
  

  Texto 2

      Eating more fruits and veggies won’t make you lose weight
      We’re often told to eat more fruits and vegetables, but the chances that you’ll lose weight just by eating more of these foods are slim. New research suggests increased fruit and vegetable intake is only effective for weight loss if you make an effort to reduce your calorie intake overall.
      In other words, you need to exercise or consume fewer calories to shed those pounds.
      Don’t let that stop you from including more fruits and veggies in your diet, though. Even if they don’t directly help you lose weight, these foods still provide a number of health benefits.
  

  (http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com. Adaptado.)
  

  De acordo com o texto 1, a indústria açucareira

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão ac9a658c-d6

  A

  admite que o alto consumo de açúcar pode levar a diabetes tipo 2.

  B

  corrobora, em parte, o estudo elaborado pelo SACN.

  C

  assume o papel negativo atribuído ao açúcar no problema da obesidade.

  D

  rebate as afirmações que o estudo do SACN faz sobre os refrigerantes.

  E

  opõe-se ao papel de destaque dado ao açúcar no relatório do SACN.

  Responder
• E19EAF6B-BB

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  In the sentence “That museum… is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves…”, one finds a/an

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e19eaf6b-bb

  A

  object complement.

  B

  direct object.

  C

  subject complement.

  D

  indirect object.

  Responder
• E19AA5CC-BB

  Inglês

  Análise sintática | Syntax ParsingUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  The sentences “Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys” and “It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done” contain, respectively, relative pronouns that introduce a

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e19aa5cc-bb

  A

  defining clause and a non-defining clause.

  B

  non-defining clause and a non-defining clause.

  C

  non-defining clause and a defining clause.

  D

  defining clause and a defining clause.

  Responder
• E18A1919-BB

  Inglês

  Advérbios e conjunções | Adverbs and conjunctionsUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  The sentence “…immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets” contains a/an

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e18a1919-bb

  A

  subordinating conjunction.

  B

  coordinating conjunction.

  C

  defining relative clause.

  D

  non-defining relative clause.

  Responder
• E18587E6-BB

  Inglês

  Análise sintática | Syntax ParsingUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  In the sentence “…the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption”, one finds a/an

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e18587e6-bb

  A

  indirect object.

  B

  direct object.

  C

  subject complement.

  D

  object complement.

  Responder
• E1821A38-BB

  Inglês

  Verbos | VerbsUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  Choose the alternative that contains only irregular verbs.

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e1821a38-bb

  A

  run, occupy, remain, say

  B

  worry, stretch, finish, deserve

  C

  forget, use, tower, sprint

  D

  grow, see, fly, build

  Responder
• E163386C-BB

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  In the long list of unfinished projects the text includes

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e163386c-bb

  A

  Brazil’s credit rating.

  B

  paltry fan bases.

  C

  the northeastern concrete canals.

  D

  Manaus’ soccer stadium.

  Responder
• E15EC499-BB

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  Among the reasons given by César Borges as justification for the delay in completing the Transnordestina was the

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e15ec499-bb

  A

  metal scavengers.

  B

  sluggish economic conditions.

  C

  drought in the Northeast.

  D

  bureaucracies.

  Responder
• E153DA30-BB

  Inglês

  Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUECE · 2014DifícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos

       Brazil plowed billions of dollars into building a railroad across arid backlands, only for the longdelayed project to fall prey to metal scavengers. Curvaceous new public buildings designed by the famed architect Oscar Niemeyer were abandoned right after being constructed. There was even an illfated U.F.O. museum built with federal funds. Its skeletal remains now sit like a lost ship among the weeds.

       As Brazil sprints to get ready for the World Cup in June, it has run up against a catalog of delays, some caused by deadly construction accidents at stadiums, and cost overruns. It is building bus and rail systems for spectators that will not be finished until long after the games are done. But the World Cup projects are just a part of a bigger national problem casting a pall over Brazil’s grand ambitions: an array of lavish projects conceived when economic growth was surging that now stand abandoned, stalled or wildly over budget. 

      Some economists say the troubled projects reveal a crippling bureaucracy, irresponsible allocation of resources and bastions of corruption.

      Huge street protests have been aimed at costly new stadiums being built in cities like Manaus and Brasília, whose paltry fan bases are almost sure to leave a sea of empty seats after the World Cup events are finished, adding to concerns that even more white elephants will emerge from the tournament. 

     “The fiascos are multiplying, revealing disarray that is regrettably systemic,” said Gil Castello Branco, director of Contas Abertas, a Brazilian watchdog group that scrutinizes public budgets. “We’re waking up to the reality that immense resources have been wasted on extravagant projects when our public schools are still a mess and raw sewage is still in our streets.” 

       The growing list of troubled development projects includes a $3.4 billion network of concrete canals in the drought-plagued hinterland of northeast Brazil — which was supposed to be finished in 2010 — as well as dozens of new wind farms idled by a lack of transmission lines and unfinished luxury hotels blighting Rio de Janeiro’s skyline.

       Economists surveyed by the nation’s central bank see Brazil’s economy growing just 1.63 percent this year, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, making 2014 the fourth straight year of slow growth. 

       President Dilma Rousseff’s supporters contend that the public spending has worked, helping to keep unemployment at historical lows and preventing what would have been a much worse economic slowdown had the government not pumped its considerable resources into infrastructure development.

      Still, a growing chorus of critics argues that the inability to finish big infrastructure projects reveals weaknesses in Brazil’s model of state capitalism. First, they say, Brazil gives extraordinary influence to a web of state-controlled companies, banks and pension funds to invest in ill-advised projects. Then other bastions of the vast public bureaucracy cripple projects with audits and lawsuits.

       “Some ventures never deserved public money in the first place,” said Sérgio Lazzarini, an economist at Insper, a São Paulo business school, pointing to the millions in state financing for the overhaul of the Glória hotel in Rio, owned until recently by a mining tycoon, Eike Batista. The project was left unfinished, unable to open for the World Cup, when Mr. Batista’s business empire crumbled last year. “For infrastructure projects which deserve state support and get it,” Mr. Lazzarini continued, “there’s the daunting task of dealing with the risks that the state itself creates.” 

       The Transnordestina, a railroad begun in 2006 here in northeast Brazil, illustrates some of the pitfalls plaguing projects big and small. Scheduled to be finished in 2010 at a cost of about $1.8 billion, the railroad, designed to stretch more than 1,000 miles, is now expected to cost at least $3.2 billion, with most financing from state banks. Officials say it should be completed around 2016. But with work sites abandoned because of audits and other setbacks months ago in and around Paulistana, a town in Piauí, one of Brazil’s poorest states, even that timeline seems optimistic. Long stretches where freight trains were already supposed to be running stand deserted. Wiry vaqueiros, or cowboys, herd cattle in the shadow of ghostly railroad bridges that tower 150 feet above parched valleys. “Thieves are pillaging metal from the work sites,” said Adailton Vieira da Silva, 42, an electrician who labored with thousands of others before work halted last year. “Now there are just these bridges left in the middle of nowhere.” 

       Brazil’s transportation minister, César Borges, expressed exasperation with the delays in finishing the railroad, which is needed to transport soybean harvests to port. He listed the bureaucracies that delay projects like the Transnordestina: the Federal Court of Accounts; the Office of the Comptroller General; an environmental protection agency; an institute protecting archaeological patrimony; agencies protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and descendants of escaped slaves; and the Public Ministry, a body of independent prosecutors. Still, Mr. Borges insisted, “Projects get delayed in countries around the world, not just Brazil.”

      Some economists contend that the way Brazil is investing may be hampering growth instead of supporting it. The authorities encouraged energy companies to build wind farms, but dozens cannot operate because they lack transmission lines to connect to the electricity grid. Meanwhile, manufacturers worry over potential electricity rationing as reservoirs at hydroelectric dams run dry amid a drought.

       Then there is the extraterrestrial museum in Varginha, a city in southeast Brazil where residents claimed to have seen an alien in 1996. Officials secured federal money to build the museum, but now all that remains of the unfinished project is the rusting carcass of what looks like a flying saucer. “That museum,” said Roberto Macedo, an economist at the University of São Paulo, “is an insult to both extraterrestrials and the terrestrial beings like ourselves who foot the bill for yet another project failing to deliver.”

  
  

  Adapted from www.nytimes.com/April 12, 2014.
  

  According to the article, Brazil’s not being able to complete huge infrastructure projects shows that

  Escolha uma alternativa para a questão e153da30-bb

  A

  the country’s model of state capitalism has many weaknesses.

  B

  the Workers Party should no longer run the country.

  C

  our leaders often invest in ill-advised projects.

  D

  more federal funds are needed.

  Responder