Matemática
CircunferênciasUniversidade do Contestado - Santa Catarina · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosAnalise as alternativas a seguir considerando as equações c: x² + y² = 4 e r: 3x + 4y = 10.
Todas estão corretas, exceto a:
Questões do ENEM: nível muito difícil
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21E7F146-FD 21B4CC60-FD Português
Coesão e coerênciaUniversidade do Contestado - Santa Catarina · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosNumere os períodos de modo a constituírem um texto coeso e coerente e, depois, indique a sequência numérica correta.
( ) Hoje, o desodorante apresenta diversas formas que podem ser escolhidas de acordo com a necessidade de cada um. Encontramos desodorantes aromatizados ou sem perfume, com ou sem álcool e os com ou sem agentes bactericidas.
( ) Desde a época do Império Romano que se tenta controlar o suor e o odor produzidos pelas axilas. Os homens desta época usavam pequenas almofadas aromatizadas debaixo das axilas para diminuir o odor provocado pelo suor.
( ) Em razão do alto preço, o produto somente se espalhou no Ocidente. Após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, os preços caíram e assim o desodorante se tornou acessível.
( ) Podem ainda ser antitranspirante, que fecha cerca de 50% das glândulas sudoríparas, ou antiperspirante que reduz a formação do mau cheiro e a transpiração.
( ) No início do século XX, os Estados Unidos fabricaram um produto à base de sulfato de potássio e sulfato de alumínio, que seria capaz de controlar o suor e diminuir o odor, e deram o nome de desodorante.
Disponível em: http://www.brasilescola.com/curiosidades/a-origem-do-desodorante.htm. Acesso em: 12-05-2012.21A931D7-FD Português
Interpretação de TextosUniversidade do Contestado - Santa Catarina · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos
Considerando o que se afirma no texto 2, assinale a alternativa correta.
2197D905-FD Português
Interpretação de TextosUniversidade do Contestado - Santa Catarina · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos
Assinale a alternativa em que a expressão entre parênteses pode substituir o segmento destacado em negrito sem prejuízo do sentido dado no texto 1.
BAD38A00-FB Atualidades
América Latina na AtualidadeFGV · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosEm 22 de junho de 2012, o presidente Fernando Lugo foi acusado de fraco desempenho de suas funções e destituído pelo Senado paraguaio.
Sobre as repercussões desse fato na agenda externa do país, é CORRETO afirmar:
3CCC1DC7-ED Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosLeia o texto a seguir e responda à questão.A schematic summary would say as follows: At a founding time, romantic fiction saw the peculiarities of the Brazilian family life under the picturesque and the national identity signs, over which it laid some more or less feuilletonist fabling. The combination, in line with the needs of the young country, was very successful. Although irreverent, the emphasis on mirroring and its somewhat regressive accomplice character formed a positive sign on our particular traits. One generation later, Machado used in a different manner the same thematic, ideological, and aesthetic complexity, this time without the covering mists of local color and patriotic self-congratulation. The large Brazilian family was now observed from the point of view of the enlightened dependent, who was part of it and transformed it into a problem. This is a special system of relationships, with its own structure, resources and problems, which needed to be analyzed. Its difference was a sign of primitiveness, because the tacit measure of the dependent was the Rights of Man, which were effective, in principle, in other regions. The narrator’s fondness shifted to the heroine’s struggles against injustice, which was also portrayed in a feuilletonist fashion. As for the opposing side, it was inevitable that the conflict arrangement, as it developed from book to book, made more visible the negative traits of the landowner. These traits absorbed and reflected precisely, as a fault, the absurd lack of balance between the classes. Using the consequences of this very lack of balance, which gave no signs of internal regeneration, Machado invented the formula that would characterize his mature works and make him a great writer. He did not surrender to the easy delights of romantic picturesqueness. Likewise, he now renounced the unanimous fondness towards the moderate narrator and his good causes.The new artistic device dealt indirectly with dependents’ frustrations and directly with their abandonment by landowners – the peripheral society incapable of integration resonated. The scope of the formal arrangement, which challenged the secular spirit’s superstitions, especially the trust in progress and in benevolence, is uncomfortable to this day. The insinuating personification of an elite narrator enviably civilized and deeply involved in oppressive relationships, which he arranges and judges himself, is a chess move that disarranges the narrative board, making the game more real. The process challenges readers in every line: it teaches them to think by themselves; to discuss not only the issues, but also their presentation; to consider the narrators and authorities – always the interested party – from a distance, even if they are eloquent; to doubt the civilizing and national commitment of the privileged, particularly in young countries, where this intention plays a major role; to feel an aversion to the imaginary consolations of romanticism, manipulated by the narrative authority to its own benefit. The process teaches, above all, that the combination of the cosmopolitan and the excluded spheres may be stable, without a feasible solution. This demonstration is a juicy one because it illustrates and examines the nation’s “delicious” mechanisms – to use the Machadian term – of the non-bourgeois reproduction of the bourgeois order. However, the demonstration is also universal to some extent, because globally, unlike what it seems, this reproduction is the rule, not the exception.The heroines of the first novels are not very interesting because their precarious social status is distorted by the romantic cliché. Their vicissitudes, however, stress the antagonistic class traits, whose figure has literary originality. In the novels of the second phase, once the angle is inverted, it is the poor who appear in the subjective mirror of owners, where the prisms are either that of bourgeois individualism or of paternalistic domination, according to the selfish convenience impudence. The dependent becomes extraordinarily relevant in that light. They are portraits of the powerless that get no recognition for the value of work, no rights protected, and no compensation by divine providence. It is the social vacuum generated by modern slavery to freedom without possessions, another issue that, mutatis mutandis, lives on.In the same line of advanced resonance of the primitiveness, notice how the extra bourgeois aspect of local issues works, and also the narrative relationship itself: at times it is only a shift in the rule; at times it is a movement in its own right, which escapes the dominating definitions and discovers unknown land. To give an idea, compare the part of authority in the definition and dissolution of characters, themselves or others; the relationships between personal separation and the experience of time, between command and insanity – often by the ones in charge; the extra scientific dimensions of science, with its authoritarian and sadistic roles; the overall difference that generates a point of view, etc. In this manner, Machadian fiction and the advanced literature of his time converged – both tried to release other realities under the bourgeois reality. As a mere indication, it is worth mentioning a few similarities, rather at random, in the innovative field, such as Dostoievski, Baudelaire, Henry James, Tchekov, Proust, Kafka, and Borges. Machado’s classical derivations are countless and have led critics to find his merit there, which hinders the understanding of the up-todateness and advanced character of his experimentation.Choose the alternative that best answers the question: Does the Machadian prose reflect any kind of social criticism?3CC72365-ED Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosLeia o texto a seguir e responda à questão.A schematic summary would say as follows: At a founding time, romantic fiction saw the peculiarities of the Brazilian family life under the picturesque and the national identity signs, over which it laid some more or less feuilletonist fabling. The combination, in line with the needs of the young country, was very successful. Although irreverent, the emphasis on mirroring and its somewhat regressive accomplice character formed a positive sign on our particular traits. One generation later, Machado used in a different manner the same thematic, ideological, and aesthetic complexity, this time without the covering mists of local color and patriotic self-congratulation. The large Brazilian family was now observed from the point of view of the enlightened dependent, who was part of it and transformed it into a problem. This is a special system of relationships, with its own structure, resources and problems, which needed to be analyzed. Its difference was a sign of primitiveness, because the tacit measure of the dependent was the Rights of Man, which were effective, in principle, in other regions. The narrator’s fondness shifted to the heroine’s struggles against injustice, which was also portrayed in a feuilletonist fashion. As for the opposing side, it was inevitable that the conflict arrangement, as it developed from book to book, made more visible the negative traits of the landowner. These traits absorbed and reflected precisely, as a fault, the absurd lack of balance between the classes. Using the consequences of this very lack of balance, which gave no signs of internal regeneration, Machado invented the formula that would characterize his mature works and make him a great writer. He did not surrender to the easy delights of romantic picturesqueness. Likewise, he now renounced the unanimous fondness towards the moderate narrator and his good causes.The new artistic device dealt indirectly with dependents’ frustrations and directly with their abandonment by landowners – the peripheral society incapable of integration resonated. The scope of the formal arrangement, which challenged the secular spirit’s superstitions, especially the trust in progress and in benevolence, is uncomfortable to this day. The insinuating personification of an elite narrator enviably civilized and deeply involved in oppressive relationships, which he arranges and judges himself, is a chess move that disarranges the narrative board, making the game more real. The process challenges readers in every line: it teaches them to think by themselves; to discuss not only the issues, but also their presentation; to consider the narrators and authorities – always the interested party – from a distance, even if they are eloquent; to doubt the civilizing and national commitment of the privileged, particularly in young countries, where this intention plays a major role; to feel an aversion to the imaginary consolations of romanticism, manipulated by the narrative authority to its own benefit. The process teaches, above all, that the combination of the cosmopolitan and the excluded spheres may be stable, without a feasible solution. This demonstration is a juicy one because it illustrates and examines the nation’s “delicious” mechanisms – to use the Machadian term – of the non-bourgeois reproduction of the bourgeois order. However, the demonstration is also universal to some extent, because globally, unlike what it seems, this reproduction is the rule, not the exception.The heroines of the first novels are not very interesting because their precarious social status is distorted by the romantic cliché. Their vicissitudes, however, stress the antagonistic class traits, whose figure has literary originality. In the novels of the second phase, once the angle is inverted, it is the poor who appear in the subjective mirror of owners, where the prisms are either that of bourgeois individualism or of paternalistic domination, according to the selfish convenience impudence. The dependent becomes extraordinarily relevant in that light. They are portraits of the powerless that get no recognition for the value of work, no rights protected, and no compensation by divine providence. It is the social vacuum generated by modern slavery to freedom without possessions, another issue that, mutatis mutandis, lives on.In the same line of advanced resonance of the primitiveness, notice how the extra bourgeois aspect of local issues works, and also the narrative relationship itself: at times it is only a shift in the rule; at times it is a movement in its own right, which escapes the dominating definitions and discovers unknown land. To give an idea, compare the part of authority in the definition and dissolution of characters, themselves or others; the relationships between personal separation and the experience of time, between command and insanity – often by the ones in charge; the extra scientific dimensions of science, with its authoritarian and sadistic roles; the overall difference that generates a point of view, etc. In this manner, Machadian fiction and the advanced literature of his time converged – both tried to release other realities under the bourgeois reality. As a mere indication, it is worth mentioning a few similarities, rather at random, in the innovative field, such as Dostoievski, Baudelaire, Henry James, Tchekov, Proust, Kafka, and Borges. Machado’s classical derivations are countless and have led critics to find his merit there, which hinders the understanding of the up-todateness and advanced character of his experimentation.“These traits absorbed and reflected precisely, as a fault, the absurd lack of balance between the classes.” This statement taken from the text might be interpreted as:3CC23B5B-ED Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosLeia o texto a seguir e responda à questão.A schematic summary would say as follows: At a founding time, romantic fiction saw the peculiarities of the Brazilian family life under the picturesque and the national identity signs, over which it laid some more or less feuilletonist fabling. The combination, in line with the needs of the young country, was very successful. Although irreverent, the emphasis on mirroring and its somewhat regressive accomplice character formed a positive sign on our particular traits. One generation later, Machado used in a different manner the same thematic, ideological, and aesthetic complexity, this time without the covering mists of local color and patriotic self-congratulation. The large Brazilian family was now observed from the point of view of the enlightened dependent, who was part of it and transformed it into a problem. This is a special system of relationships, with its own structure, resources and problems, which needed to be analyzed. Its difference was a sign of primitiveness, because the tacit measure of the dependent was the Rights of Man, which were effective, in principle, in other regions. The narrator’s fondness shifted to the heroine’s struggles against injustice, which was also portrayed in a feuilletonist fashion. As for the opposing side, it was inevitable that the conflict arrangement, as it developed from book to book, made more visible the negative traits of the landowner. These traits absorbed and reflected precisely, as a fault, the absurd lack of balance between the classes. Using the consequences of this very lack of balance, which gave no signs of internal regeneration, Machado invented the formula that would characterize his mature works and make him a great writer. He did not surrender to the easy delights of romantic picturesqueness. Likewise, he now renounced the unanimous fondness towards the moderate narrator and his good causes.The new artistic device dealt indirectly with dependents’ frustrations and directly with their abandonment by landowners – the peripheral society incapable of integration resonated. The scope of the formal arrangement, which challenged the secular spirit’s superstitions, especially the trust in progress and in benevolence, is uncomfortable to this day. The insinuating personification of an elite narrator enviably civilized and deeply involved in oppressive relationships, which he arranges and judges himself, is a chess move that disarranges the narrative board, making the game more real. The process challenges readers in every line: it teaches them to think by themselves; to discuss not only the issues, but also their presentation; to consider the narrators and authorities – always the interested party – from a distance, even if they are eloquent; to doubt the civilizing and national commitment of the privileged, particularly in young countries, where this intention plays a major role; to feel an aversion to the imaginary consolations of romanticism, manipulated by the narrative authority to its own benefit. The process teaches, above all, that the combination of the cosmopolitan and the excluded spheres may be stable, without a feasible solution. This demonstration is a juicy one because it illustrates and examines the nation’s “delicious” mechanisms – to use the Machadian term – of the non-bourgeois reproduction of the bourgeois order. However, the demonstration is also universal to some extent, because globally, unlike what it seems, this reproduction is the rule, not the exception.The heroines of the first novels are not very interesting because their precarious social status is distorted by the romantic cliché. Their vicissitudes, however, stress the antagonistic class traits, whose figure has literary originality. In the novels of the second phase, once the angle is inverted, it is the poor who appear in the subjective mirror of owners, where the prisms are either that of bourgeois individualism or of paternalistic domination, according to the selfish convenience impudence. The dependent becomes extraordinarily relevant in that light. They are portraits of the powerless that get no recognition for the value of work, no rights protected, and no compensation by divine providence. It is the social vacuum generated by modern slavery to freedom without possessions, another issue that, mutatis mutandis, lives on.In the same line of advanced resonance of the primitiveness, notice how the extra bourgeois aspect of local issues works, and also the narrative relationship itself: at times it is only a shift in the rule; at times it is a movement in its own right, which escapes the dominating definitions and discovers unknown land. To give an idea, compare the part of authority in the definition and dissolution of characters, themselves or others; the relationships between personal separation and the experience of time, between command and insanity – often by the ones in charge; the extra scientific dimensions of science, with its authoritarian and sadistic roles; the overall difference that generates a point of view, etc. In this manner, Machadian fiction and the advanced literature of his time converged – both tried to release other realities under the bourgeois reality. As a mere indication, it is worth mentioning a few similarities, rather at random, in the innovative field, such as Dostoievski, Baudelaire, Henry James, Tchekov, Proust, Kafka, and Borges. Machado’s classical derivations are countless and have led critics to find his merit there, which hinders the understanding of the up-todateness and advanced character of his experimentation.According to the text, Machado de Assis’ prose might be considered different because:3CB47A3A-ED Atualidades
Economia Internacional na AtualidadeFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosEm 1º de outubro deste ano, o jornal digital RFI publicou artigo afirmando que “segundo vários economistas, o governo francês assume uma política que vai na contramão da adotada pelos vizinhos para reduzir os efeitos da crise econômica mundial.” Sobre a particularidade da política econômica adotada pelo governo de François Hollande para contornar os efeitos da crise mundial, é correto afirmar que:3C95D496-ED Conhecimentos Gerais
Questões SociaisFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosSobre a eclosão do movimento grevista no ABC paulista, no final da década de setenta, é correto afirmar:3C535881-ED Matemática
Análise de Tabelas e GráficosFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosO trecho abaixo é parte da conversa do jornalista Milton Jung com o comentarista Ethevaldo Siqueira, que foi ao ar no “Jornal da CBN” em novembro de 2012. “A tecnologia das câmeras digitais está matando a empresa. É o caso mais irônico que eu conheço, pois foi a Kodak que inventou a câmera digital. Em 1975, o engenheiro Steve Sasson, da Kodak, inventou a primeira câmera fotográfica digital. Mas a empresa, que era líder mundial em fotografia analógica desde o século 19, não decidiu migrar logo para a nova tecnologia. Foi protelando, tentando proteger seu mercado de filmes e câmeras analógicas, até que os japoneses da Sony também inventaram suas câmeras digitais e passaram a investir maciçamente nesse novo paradigma tecnológico. Encurtando a história, a Kodak, embora tenha faturado US$ 6 bilhões de dólares, registrou um prejuízo de mais de US$ 760 milhões”.O gráfico ao lado mostra o faturamento total da Kodak em 2007, separado por setores. Comparando as informações do texto com o gráfico de setores, podemos concluir que:
3C109962-ED Literatura
Escolas LiteráriasFaculdade Cásper Líbero · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosAssinale a opção que apresenta corretamente a análise crítica do romance Til, de José de Alencar:42B74259-EA Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUniversidade Luterana do Brasil · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos
According to the text:
42B42EB7-EA Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUniversidade Luterana do Brasil · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosAccording to the text:
420D07EB-EA Literatura
Escolas LiteráriasUniversidade Luterana do Brasil · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosLeia o fragmento abaixo e marque a resposta correta.- Está vendo aquele umbu, lá embaixo, à direita do coxilhão?Pois ali é a tapera do Mariano. Nunca vi pêssegos mais bonitos que os que amadurecem naquele abandono; ainda hoje os marmeleiros carregam, que é uma temeridade!Mais para baixo, como umas três quadras, há uns olhos-d'água, minando as pedras, e logo adiante uns coqueiros; depois pega um cordão de araçazeiros. Diziam os antigos que ali encostado havia um lagoão mui fundo onde até jacaré se criava.Eu, desde guri conheci o lagoão já tapado pelos capins, mas o lugar sempre respeitado como um tremedal perigoso: até contavam de um mascate que aí atolou-se e sumiu-se com duas mulas cargueiras e canastras e tudo...Mais de uma rês magra ajudei a tirar de lá; iam à grama verde e atolavam-se logo, até a papada.Só cruzam ali por cima as perdizes e algum cusco leviano.Com certeza que as raízes do pasto e dos aguapés foram trançando uma enrediça fechada, e o barro e as folhas mortas foram-se amontoando e, pouco a pouco, capeando, fazendo a tampa do sumidouro.E depois nunca deram desgoto na ponta do lagoão, porque, se dessem, a água corria e não se formaria o mundéu...Mas, onde quero chegar: vou mostrar-lhe, lá, bem no meio do manantial, uma cousa que vancê nunca pensou ver; é uma roseira, e sempre carregada de rosas...Gente vivente não apanha as flores porque quem plantou a roseira foi um defunto... e era até agouro um cristão enfeitar-se com uma rosa daquelas!...62247EAE-E6 Português
Coesão e coerênciaIF-BA · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos
“Neste passo, a Defensoria Pública do Estado da Bahia não poderia se furtar a participar do processo.” (l.45-46).A expressão “neste passo” retoma a informação contida em5F46BE95-E1 Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUniversidade Católica de Pelotas · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritos
Em relação às sentenças abaixo, é correto afirmar que:I. Os pesquisadores Szell e Thurner encontraram diferenças significativas entre os comportamentos de homens e mulheres no Pardus.II. Os homens aceitam os pedidos de amizade feitos por mulheres mais rapidamente do que os pedidos feitos por outros homens.III. Comparadas aos homens, as mulheres tendem a fazer mais amizades entre si.IV. As mulheres se arriscam mais que os homens no PardusF34BA8DE-B8 Inglês
Análise sintática | Syntax ParsingUECE · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosT E X TSPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle MartinRhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of PompeuFabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?Source: www.nytimes.comIn the following question, some sentences from the text have been modified to fit certain grammatical structures.
The sentence “Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition [...]” containsF33C9516-B8 Inglês
Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehensionUECE · 2012Muito difícilEntre para guardar nos favoritosT E X TSPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle MartinRhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle.In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of PompeuFabra in Spain. “It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?Source: www.nytimes.com
In relation to the difference between bilinguals and monolinguals, Alberto Costa mentions the fact that bilingualsFC5D58F8-B7 Inglês
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The need to constantly adapt is the new reality for many workers, well beyond the information technology business. Car mechanics, librarians, doctors, Hollywood special effects designers — virtually everyone whose job is touched by computing — are being forced to find new, more efficient ways to learn as retooling becomes increasingly important not just to change careers, but simply to stay competitive on their chosen path.
Going back to school for months or years is not realistic for many workers, who are often left to figure out for themselves what new skills will make them more valuable, or just keep them from obsolescence. In their quest to occupy a useful niche, they are turning to bite-size instructional videos, peer-to-peer forums and virtual college courses.
Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at the London Business School, has coined a term for this necessity: “serial mastery.”
“You can’t expect that what you’ve become a master in will keep you valuable throughout the whole of your career, and you want to add to that the fact that most people are now going to be working into their 70s,” she said, adding that workers must try to choose specialties that cannot be outsourced or automated. “Being a generalist is, in my view, very unwise. Your major competitor is Wikipedia or Google.”
Businesses have responded by pouring more money into training, even in the current economic doldrums, according to several measures. They have experimented by paying employees to share their expertise in internal social networks, creating video games that teach and, human resources consultants say, enticing employees with tuition help even if they leave the company.
Individuals have also shouldered a lot of responsibility for their own upgrades. Lynda.com, which charges $25 a month for access to training videos on topics like the latest version of Photoshop, says its base of individual customers has been growing 42 percent a year since 2008. Online universities like Udacity and Coursera are on pace to double in size in a year, according to Josh Bersin of Bersin & Associates, a consulting firm that specializes in learning and talent management. The number of doctors participating in continuing education programs has more than doubled in the last decade, with the vast majority of the growth stemming from the increased popularity of Internet-based activities, according to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education in Chicago.
The struggle is not just to keep up, but to anticipate a future of rapid change. When the AshevilleBuncombe Technical Community College in North Carolina wanted to start a program for developing smartphone and tablet apps, the faculty had to consider the name carefully. “We had this title Mobile Applications, and then we realized that it may not be apps in two years, it may be something else,” said Pamela Silvers, the chairwoman of the business computer technologies department. “So we changed it to Mobile Development.”
As the metadata and digital archivist at Emory University, Elizabeth Russey Roke, 35, has had to keep up with evolving standards that help different databases share information, learn how to archive “born digital” materials, and use computers to bring literary and social connections among different collections to life. The bulk of her learning has been on the job, supplemented by the occasional course or videos on Lynda.com.
“For me, it’s easier to learn something in the classroom than it is on my own,” she said. “But I can’t exactly afford another three years of library school.”
Rapid change is a challenge for traditional universities; textbooks and even journals often lag too far behind the curve to be of help, said Kunal Mehta, a Ph.D. student in bioengineering at Stanford University. His field is so new, and changing so rapidly, he said, that there is little consensus on established practices or necessary skills. “It’s more difficult to know what we should learn,” he said. “We have advisers that we work with, but a lot of times they don’t know any better than us what’s going to happen in the future.”
Instead, Mr. Mehta, 26, spends a lot of time comparing notes with others in his field, just as many professionals turn to their peers to help them stay current. The International Automotive Technicians Network, where mechanics pay $15 a month to trade tips on repairs, has more than 75,000 active users today, up from 48,000 in 2006, said Scott Brown, the president.
In an economy where new, specialized knowledge is worth so much, it may seem anticompetitive to share expertise. But many professionals say they don’t see it that way.
“We’re scattered all over the country, Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., so it never really bothered us that we were sharing the secrets of what we do,” said Bill Moss, whose repair shop in Warrenton, Va., specializes in European cars, and who is a frequent user of peer-to-peer forums.
Mr. Moss, 55, said technological advances and proprietary diagnostic tools had forced many garages to specialize. Ten years ago, if his business had hit a slow patch, he said, he would have been quicker to broaden his repertory. “I might have looked at other brands and said, ‘These cars aren’t so bad.’ That’s much harder to do now, based on technology and equipment requirements.” His training budget is about $4,000 a year for each repair technician.
Learning curves are not always driven by technology. Managers have to deal with different cultures, different time zones and different generations as well as changing attitudes. As medical director of the Reproductive Science Center of New England, Dr. Samuel C. Pang has used patient focus groups and sensitivity training to help the staff adjust to treating lesbian couples, gay male couples, and transgendered couples who want to have children. This has given the clinic a competitive advantage.
“We have had several male couples and lesbian couples come to our program from our competitors’ program because they said they didn’t feel comfortable there,” Dr. Pang said.
On top of that, he has to master constantly evolving technology. “The amount of information that I learned in medical school is minuscule,” he said, “compared to what is out there now.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22
In questions, sentences from the text may have been modified/adapted to fit certain grammatical structures.
The sentences “We had this title Mobile Applications, and then we realized that it may not be apps in two years, it may be something else.” and “Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice at the London Business School, has coined a term for this necessity: ‘serial mastery’.” should be classified, respectively, as