Questões para Concursos

Using your phone while on the toilet poses significant health risks, as warned by an expert, Dr. Sethi. Despite being a common habit, mindlessly scrolling or using your phone in the bathroom can lead to severe consequences. Dr. Sethi, a Harvard-trained stomach doctor, highlights that this practice, particularly during bowel movements, causes extended sitting that strains the rectum and anus, potentially resulting in hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and rectal prolapse.
Furthermore, using phones in the bathroom makes them a breeding ground for bacteria, surpassing the hygiene levels of a public toilet seat. Dr. Sethi emphasizes the importance of avoiding phone usage while on the toilet or, if unavoidable, suggests disinfecting the phone afterward. Research spanning over a decade has consistently shown that phones harbor a significant amount of germs, including fecal matter.
Despite these health warnings, over 65% of adults take their phones into the bathroom, with Spain having the highest usage rates (nearly 80%) and Germany the lowest (just under 55%). Interestingly, younger age groups, particularly those aged 26-41 and 18-25, are most likely to engage in this unhygienic behavior. Apart from health concerns, there’s the practical risk of dropping the phone into the toilet, with a fifth of respondents in the United States admitting to this mishap.

Internet: (adapted).

Based on the previous text, judge the following items.

Text CG1A2-II

The enormity of the global climate crisis is so vast that individual actions may seem meaningless: can installing LED lighting in my home or keeping my car tires inflated really help save the polar bears?
First coined by Portland, Oregon-based writer Emma Pattee, the climate shadow aims to paint a picture of the full sum of one’s choices — and the impact they have on the planet.
In an article she wrote in 2021, Pattee detailed her concept for measuring an individual’s impact: “Your climate shadow is a dark shape stretching out behind you. Everywhere you go, it goes too, tallying not just your air conditioning use and the gas mileage of your car, but also how you vote, how many children you choose to have, where you work, how you invest your money, how much you talk about climate change, and whether your words amplify urgency, apathy, or denial.” The larger the shadow — the greater an individual’s impact on doing good for the planet.
In other words, rather than incentivizing purely individual actions, your climate shadow grows when those actions inspire others, knowingly or otherwise.

Kieran Mulvaney. Climate shadow is what really matters. National Geographic (adapted).

A lawyer used ChatGPT to prepare a court filing. It went horribly awry.
A lawyer who relied on ChatGPT to prepare a court filing on behalf of a man suing an airline is now all too familiar with the artificial intelligence (AI) tool’s shortcomings — including its propensity to invent facts.
Roberto Mata sued Colombian airline Avianca last year, alleging that a metal food and beverage cart injured his knee on a flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York. When Avianca asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss the lawsuit based on the statute of limitations, his lawyer submitted a brief based on research done by ChatGPT.
While ChatGPT can be useful to professionals in numerous industries, including the legal profession, it has proved itself to be both limited and unreliable. In this case, the AI invented court cases that didn’t exist, and asserted that they were real. The fabrications were revealed when Avianca’s lawyers approached the case’s judge, saying they couldn’t locate the cases cited in Mata’s lawyers’ brief in legal databases.
“It seemed clear when we didn’t recognize any of the cases in their opposition brief that something was amiss,” said the airline’s lawyer. And soon they figured it was some sort of chatbot of some kind. On the other hand, the passenger’s lawyer said that it was the first time he’d used ChatGPT for work and, therefore, he was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.

Internet: (adapted).

Based on the preceding text, judge the items that follow.

According to researchers in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University, hummingbirds have extreme aerial agility and flight forms, which is why many drones and other aerial vehicles are designed to mimic hummingbird movement. Using a novel modeling method, Professor Bo Cheng and his team of researchers gained new insights into how hummingbirds produce wing movement, which could lead to design improvements in flying robots.
“We essentially reverse-engineered the inner working of the wing musculoskeletal system — how the muscles and skeleton work in hummingbirds to flap the wings,” said first author and Penn State mechanical engineering graduate student Suyash Agrawal. “The traditional methods have mostly focused on measuring activity of a bird or insect when they are in natural flight or in an artificial environment where flight-like conditions are simulated. But most insects and, among birds specifically, hummingbirds are very small. The data that we can get from those measurements are limited.”
Penn State researchers used muscle anatomy literature, computational fluid dynamics simulation data and wing-skeletal movement information captured using micro-CT and X-ray methods to inform their model. They also used an optimization algorithm based on evolutionary strategies, known as the genetic algorithm, to calibrate the parameters of the model. According to the researchers, their approach is the first to integrate these disparate parts for biological fliers.
With this model, the researchers uncovered previously unknown principles of hummingbird wing actuation. While Cheng emphasized that the results from the optimized model are predictions that will need validation, he said that it has implications for technological development of aerial vehicles.
Internet: (adapted).
Judge the following items according to the previous text.

Global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions rose less strongly in 2023 than the year before, even as total energy demand growth accelerated, with continued expansion of solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, nuclear power and electric cars helping the world avoid greater use of fossil fuels. Without clean energy technologies, the global increase in CO 2 emissions in the past five years would have been three times greater, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in one of its reports.
Emissions increased by 410-million tons, or 1.1%, in 2023, compared with a 490-million-tonne increase in 2022, taking emissions to a record level of 37.4-billion tons. Specifically, an exceptional shortfall in hydropower owing to extreme droughts in China, the US and several other economies resulted in more than 40% of the rise in emissions in 2023, as countries turned largely to fossil fuel alternatives to plug the gap.
“Had it not been for the unusually low hydropower output, global CO 2 emissions from electricity generation would have declined in 2023 and made the overall rise in energy-related emissions significantly smaller,” the report pointed out. Additionally, advanced economies saw a record fall in their CO 2 emissions in 2023 even as their gross domestic product (GDP) grew. Advanced economies’ emissions dropped to a 50-year low while coal demand fell back to levels not seen since the early 1900s. The decline in advanced economies’ emissions was driven by a combination of strong renewables deployment, coal-to-gas switching, energy efficiency improvements and softer industrial production.
Internet: (adapted).

According to the text, judge the following statements.

Text 3A4

_____ During the last century water infrastructure projects involving large dams played a major role in the socio-economic transformation of many countries. At the same time, in a significant number of cases the benefits were not shared equitably, and the negative impacts on the environmental and sociocultural structures were excessive. In some cases their economic performance was questionable. Diverging views have arisen on the merits and demerits of dams, the roles they play, and their alternatives in providing water and energy services. However, recognition that such roles are complementary rather than mutually exclusive has been growing as the dam debate has moved forward.
_____ It is envisaged that, as part of the global effort to improve water and energy supplies, more dams will be constructed, especially in developing countries, alongside other diverse alternatives. There will, consequently, be a need to enhance the benefits of dams and avoid many of their drawbacks by applying better decision-making processes within the overall framework of sustainability. There are complex issues around the planning and management of dams in the context of sustainable development which will need to be adequately considered and addressed to achieve sustainable outcomes.
_____ Dealing with the environmental and social challenges within the context of meeting water and energy needs is at the heart of the sustainability of projects involving dams. Dams are one of the options, structural or non-structural, available to meet specific water or energy needs. In many cases water and energy services are best provided through a mix of options. Each case is different. A decision to build a dam should emerge after a comprehensive assessment of the full range of available options, giving appropriate consideration to all aspects of sustainability.

United Nations Environmental Programme. Dams and Development: Relevant Practices for Improved Decision-making. Nairobi: The Secretariat of the Dams and Development Project, 2007. p. 10-1 (adapted).

Text CB1A2-I

Indigenous languages appear to be disappearing at a concerning rate around the world. Current data indicates that at least 43% of the world’s spoken languages are being forgotten, with indigenous languages making a significant part. According to ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia), there are 65 indigenous languages in the country. Nearly one-third of them are at a critical risk of disappearing — and only three of them, including Nasa Yuwe, are spoken by more than 50,000 people. This is the reality that Juan Pablo Camayo seeks to change.
Two years ago, in Caldono, Colombia, Juan Pablo and other neighbours started a communications network that enabled them to provide Internet access to remote rural areas and disseminate content in their mother tongue. That’s how Jxa’h Wejxia Casil — “Wind’s Net” in Nasa Yuwe — came to be.
Currently, Jxa’h Wejxia Casil has about 200 families subscribed to their Internet service and provides a tool that allows communities to preserve the use of their language. With support from other project partners, Juan Pablo leveraged this new communication tool to produce and disseminate original communication materials in Nasa Yuwe.

Internet: (adapted).

According to the text CB1A2-I, judge the following items.

Read the following cartoons to answer questions 6 to 8.

Adapted from: https://www.instagram.com/newyorkercartoons/. Access on: 10 nov. 2023.

Read the following article to answer questions 11 to 15.

Essen: Germany's 'ugly duckling' city success (by Norman Miller)

Thanks to an innovative approach, the Germany city has catapulted from an industrial wasteland to one of Europe’s greened cities.

Located in the heart of western Germany's long-time industrial Ruhr region, the city of Essen spent much of the past 150 years marred by pollution, tainted by filthy mines and belching factories and lined by poisoned waterways. In just one year in the 1960s, a study noted that some 1.5 million tons of toxic dust, ashes and soot rained down on Essen's inhabitants, along with four million tons of sulphur dioxide. But a remarkable transformation has seen Essen go from being Germany's ugly duckling to one of Europe's greenest cities.
"Green urban development has acted as a driving force in Essen over the last decade," explained Simone Raskob, who helped oversee Essen's transformation through a mix of so-called Blue Green solutions: "Blue" for water-focused initiatives, and "Green" for land-based projects. This two-pronged approach helped catapult Essen to be declared the European Green Capital for 2017.
Essen's most high-profile project is the transformation of the Zollverein industrial complex – once the world's largest coal and coke production facility – from toxin-spewing industrial blackspot to an inspiring eco-park granted Unesco World Heritage status. Inside its giant former coal washing building, the impressive Ruhr Museum enthrals visitors with displays on the site's history and transformation between towering old machinery. A short walk away, the Red Dot Design Museum showcases examples of innovative global design in a former boiler house building repurposed by renowned architect Norman Foster. Ever since mining at Zollverein and the surrounding region ended in the late 1980s, woodland has spread across the vast site, and its trail-laced expanses are now home to more than 800 animal and plant species.
Yet, Essen isn't resting on its green laurels and is continuing to add eco-friendly initiatives. A 100km cycling 'super-highway’ is slowly taking shape atop old industrial railways. A string of nature-walking trails have also been created in and around the city to help boost local engagement with – and appreciation of – natural habitats. All the trails are easily accessible by public transport.
Among the city's many transformations are the creation of lakes and ponds by harvesting rainwater. But perhaps the toughest of Essen's solutions involved restoring the River Emscher, considered a biologically dead "open sewer" since the end of the 19th Century, thanks to the dumping of mining and factory slurry and waste water. After a two-decade clean-up programme, trout once again returned to the rejuvenated river in 2015. A recent count found more than 1,000 fish and animal species living along the Emscher, including previously endangered lapwings, kingfishers and beavers.
Though humans aren't yet encouraged to join the trout in the Emscher, an arena for swimming and boating hums with activity at Lake Baldeney, a broad expanse of water created behind a 9m dam on the similarly cleaned-up Ruhr river. When swimmers splashed here back in 2017, it was the first time bathing had been officially allowed there for 46 years.
From German eyesore to proud green city, Essen's green-and-blue approach isn't just benefitting outdoor enthusiasts and the environment but is also providing a shining example of how other cities can look to their industrial past to embrace a cleaner future.

Adapted from: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231106-essen-germanys-ugly-duckling-city-success. Access on: 13 nov. 2023.

Leia o texto para responder à questão. What does a Theatrical Company Manager do? It’s difficult to pin down exactly what a theatrical company manager does simply because they do so much: negotiate contracts, organize payroll, pay for purchases of outside materials, organize rehearsals, arrange transportation and lodging for cast and crew, assist the director, and – of course – handle emergencies inside and outside of the theater. Crucially, company managers also act as the link between the general manager – their boss – and the rest of the company. A generalized problem solver with a focus on human resources and logistics, the company manager’s work is never over, and rarely the same from day to day. Expected Professional Education The company manager is one of the highest-ranking professionals in any theater company or production, responsible for overseeing almost all logistical and administrative processes. While a company manager could possibly do well with no more than a bachelor’s degree, most theater companies prefer a master’s degree in theater management, business management, or arts administration. Many company managers get started as stage managers, working directly with the director, actors, and designers in rehearsal and calling the show. Over time, they may move gradually towards the broader logistical duties of a company manager, perhaps progressing first to become the head of operations or audience services. As this is a high-ranking position, most company managers advance by seeking longterm positions with prestigious and well-funded companies. They can also progress to become general managers, or even choose to become production managers. (https://www.berklee.edu. Adaptado)