Questões para Concursos

Researchers can turn a single photo into a video

Sometimes photos cannot truly capture a scene. How much more epic would that vacation photo of Niagara Falls be if the water were moving? Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a deep learning method that can do just that: if given a single photo of a waterfall, the system creates a video showing that water cascading down. All that’s missing is the roar of the water and the feeling of the spray on your face.
This method can animate any flowing material, including smoke and clouds. This technique produces a short video that loops seamlessly, giving the impression of endless movement.
An expert says that a picture captures a moment frozen in time, but a lot of information is lost in a static image. That makes people wonder what led to that moment, and how things are changing. If people think about the last time that they found themselves fixated on something really interesting, chances are, it was’t totally static.
What is special about that method is that it doesn’t require any user input or extra information. All that is needed is a picture. And it produces as output a high-resolution, seamlessly looping video that quite often looks like a real video. Developing a method that turns a single photo into a believable video has been a challenge for the field.
The system consists of two parts: first, it predicts how things were moving when the photo was taken, and then uses that information to create the animation. Then the system uses that information to determine if and how each pixel should move. Finally, the researchers want their animation to loop seamlessly to create a look of continuous movement. The animation network follows a few tricks to keep things clean, including transitioning different parts of the frame at different times and deciding how quickly or slowly to blend each pixel depending on its surroundings.
This method works best for objects with predictable fluid motion, like water, fire or smoke. These types of motions obey the same set of physical laws, and there are usually cues in the image that tell us how things should be moving. Currently, the technology struggles to predict how reflections should move or how water distorts the appearance of objects beneath it. In the future, the researchers would like to extend their work to operate on a wider range of objects, like animating a person’s hair blowing in the wind.
Internet: (adapted).
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Text 3A2-I

“Millions of children, every year, start school excited about what they will learn, but quickly become disillusioned when they get the idea they are not as ‘smart’ as others,” writes Jo Boaler. That’s because parents and teachers inadvertently give out the message that talent is inborn — you either have it or you don’t.
As a math professor, Boaler has seen this firsthand. Many young adults enter her class anxious about math, and their fear about learning impacts their ability to learn.
“The myth that our brains are fixed and that we simply don’t have the aptitude for certain topics is not only scientifically inaccurate; it is omnipresent and negatively impacts not only education, but many other events in our everyday lives,” she writes. Even though the science of neuroplasticity — how our brains change in response to learning — suggests learning can take place at any age, this news has not made it into classrooms, she argues.
Some of our misguided visions of talent have led to racist and sexist attitudes, she writes. For example, many girls get the message early on that math is for boys and that boys are better at it, interfering with their ability to succeed and leading to gender disparities in fields of study related to math. Similarly, people of color may also have to overcome stereotypes about fixed intelligence in order to thrive.

How understanding your brain can help you learn.
Internet: (adapted).

First study of all Amazon greenhouse gases suggests the
damaged forest is now worsening climate change

The Amazon rainforest is most likely now a net contributor to warming of the planet, according to a first-of-itskind analysis from more than 30 scientists.
For years, researchers have expressed concern that rising temperatures, drought, and deforestation are reducing the capacity of the world’s largest rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and help offset emissions from fossil-fuel burning. Recent studies have even suggested that some portions of the tropical landscape already may release more carbon than they store.
But the inhaling and exhaling of CO 2 is just one way this damp jungle, the most species-rich on Earth, influences the global climate. Activities in the Amazon, both natural and human-caused, can shift the rainforest’s contribution in significant ways, warming the air directly or releasing other greenhouse gases that do.
Yet no team had ever tried to assess the cumulative impact of these processes, even as the region is being rapidly transformed. The research estimates that atmospheric warming from all of these sources combined now appears to swamp the forest’s natural cooling effect.
The damage, however, can still be reversed. Halting global emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas would help restore balance, but curbing Amazon deforestation is a must, along with reducing dam building and increasing efforts to replant trees. Continuing to clear land at current rates appears certain to make warming worse for the entire world.

Internet: (adapted).

Based on the text above, judge the following items.

General observation suggests that it is those who start to learn English after their school years who are most likely to have serious difficulties in acquiring intelligible pronunciation, with the degree of difficulty increasing markedly with age. This difficulty has nothing to do with intelligence or level of education, or even with knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary.
Of course, there is no simple answer to why pronunciation is so difficult to learn — indeed, there is a whole range of theoretical perspectives on the question. What is generally accepted among psycholinguists and phonologists who specialized in this area is that the difficulty in learning to pronounce a foreign language is cognitive rather than physical, and that it has something to do with the way “raw sound” is categorized or conceptualized in using speech.
Many learners of English as a second language have major difficulties with English pronunciation even after years of learning the language. This often results in them facing difficulties in areas such as finding employment. Up to a certain proficiency standard, the fault which most severely impairs the communication process in EFL/ESL learners is pronunciation, not vocabulary or grammar.
A. Gilakjani and M. Ahmadi. Why is Pronunciation So Difficult to Learn? In : English Language
Teaching , Vol. 4, No. 3. Richmond Hill: Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2011 (adapted).
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A Brazilian company has agreed to pay nearly $ 7 billion in compensation after a dam collapsed at one of its mines in Brazil two years ago, killing 270 people and causing huge damage to the local environment. The settlement with the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, which was announced on Thursday, is the largest in the country’s history, according to local media.
The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais mediated the agreement, which will provide funds for affected communities, emergency aid and resources for urban mobility. In January 2019, a dam holding waste water from the company’s iron ore mine in the town of Brumadinho burst, burying the workers’ cafeteria and dozens of homes under a toxic wave of sludge. It also polluted local rivers.
Minas Gerais, a state whose name translates to “general mines”, is a mining hub in the southeast of Brazil. The 2019 disaster came after another mining dam in the state burst in November 2015, inundating the small village of Mariana and killing 19 people.
“Our company is committed to fully repair and compensate the damage caused by the tragedy in Brumadinho and to increasingly contribute to the improvement and development of the communities in which we operate,” the company’s CEO said in a statement.
In 2016, a mining company reached a deal with the Brazilian government to pay up to 24 billion reais ($ 6,2 billion) over the Mariana dam collapse.
The disasters, which left thousands of families in mourning, have renewed scrutiny of the company’s practices and of environmental regulations in Minas Gerais. The company involved in the Brumadinho disaster has said that since the latest breach two years ago, it has tried to work with “the impacted families, providing assistance to restore their dignity, well-being and livelihoods.”
“In addition to meeting the most immediate needs of the affected people and regions, it is also working to deliver projects that promote lasting change to recover communities and benefit the population effectively,” the company said in its statement.
Internet: < edition.cnn.com > (adapted).

According to the previous text, judge the following items.

A Brazilian company has agreed to pay nearly $ 7 billion in compensation after a dam collapsed at one of its mines in Brazil two years ago, killing 270 people and causing huge damage to the local environment. The settlement with the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, which was announced on Thursday, is the largest in the country’s history, according to local media.
The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais mediated the agreement, which will provide funds for affected communities, emergency aid and resources for urban mobility. In January 2019, a dam holding waste water from the company’s iron ore mine in the town of Brumadinho burst, burying the workers’ cafeteria and dozens of homes under a toxic wave of sludge. It also polluted local rivers.
Minas Gerais, a state whose name translates to “general mines”, is a mining hub in the southeast of Brazil. The 2019 disaster came after another mining dam in the state burst in November 2015, inundating the small village of Mariana and killing 19 people.
“Our company is committed to fully repair and compensate the damage caused by the tragedy in Brumadinho and to increasingly contribute to the improvement and development of the communities in which we operate,” the company’s CEO said in a statement.
In 2016, a mining company reached a deal with the Brazilian government to pay up to 24 billion reais ($ 6,2 billion) over the Mariana dam collapse.
The disasters, which left thousands of families in mourning, have renewed scrutiny of the company’s practices and of environmental regulations in Minas Gerais. The company involved in the Brumadinho disaster has said that since the latest breach two years ago, it has tried to work with “the impacted families, providing assistance to restore their dignity, well-being and livelihoods.”
“In addition to meeting the most immediate needs of the affected people and regions, it is also working to deliver projects that promote lasting change to recover communities and benefit the population effectively,” the company said in its statement.
Internet: < edition.cnn.com > (adapted).

According to the previous text, judge the following items.

In the old days, we didn’t much write like talking because there was no mechanism to reproduce the speed of conversation. But texting and instant messaging do — and a revolution has begun. It involves the brute mechanics of writing, but in its economy, spontaneity and even vulgarity, texting is actually a new kind of talking. There is a virtual cult of concision and little interest in capitalization or punctuation. The argument that texting is “poor writing” is analogous, then, to one that the Rolling Stones is “bad music” because it doesn’t use violas. Texting is developing its own kind of grammar and conventions.

Internet: .
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First study of all Amazon greenhouse gases suggests the
damaged forest is now worsening climate change

The Amazon rainforest is most likely now a net contributor to warming of the planet, according to a first-of-itskind analysis from more than 30 scientists.
For years, researchers have expressed concern that rising temperatures, drought, and deforestation are reducing the capacity of the world’s largest rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and help offset emissions from fossil-fuel burning. Recent studies have even suggested that some portions of the tropical landscape already may release more carbon than they store.
But the inhaling and exhaling of CO 2 is just one way this damp jungle, the most species-rich on Earth, influences the global climate. Activities in the Amazon, both natural and human-caused, can shift the rainforest’s contribution in significant ways, warming the air directly or releasing other greenhouse gases that do.
Yet no team had ever tried to assess the cumulative impact of these processes, even as the region is being rapidly transformed. The research estimates that atmospheric warming from all of these sources combined now appears to swamp the forest’s natural cooling effect.
The damage, however, can still be reversed. Halting global emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas would help restore balance, but curbing Amazon deforestation is a must, along with reducing dam building and increasing efforts to replant trees. Continuing to clear land at current rates appears certain to make warming worse for the entire world.

Internet: (adapted).

Based on the text above, judge the following items.

Text 3A3-II

Why Joe Biden Saw Mixed Success With Latinos

Democrats' long-term hopes for electoral success have long cited the growing Latino population in the country. But former Vice President Joe Biden's performance in heavily Latino areas of key states has concerned members of his party — and may have cost him Electoral College votes, according to groups and activists working to mobilize Latino voters.
Nationally, Biden appears to have gotten support from roughly twice as many Latino voters as President Trump, but that support looked very different depending on where you looked in three key states with large Latino populations.
Democrats were pleased with their performance in Arizona, where The Associated Press awarded Biden the state's 11 electoral votes early Wednesday morning, while anxiety ran high about the results in Florida, where President Trump's strength with conservative Cuban American voters helped secure him that state's 29 electoral votes, according to AP. And while Texas was a long shot for Biden, Democrats had seen opportunity in the explosive growth in the state's Latino population.
During a post-election virtual press conference on Wednesday, leaders from groups aimed at mobilizing Latino voters expressed frustration that the votes of Latinos were not more aggressively pursued, even as they cheered record levels of turnout among Latinos in some key states.
Internet: (adapted)

Teachers sometimes assume that more outgoing learners will be able to learn pronunciation better than shyer students, and there may be some truth to this. Confident students might speak more and be more willing to try new sounds, and this extra practice could help them improve their pronunciation. However, this improvement is certainly not guaranteed. Some outgoing students may be producing a lot of language, but they may also be jumping ahead without paying attention to the accuracy of their pronunciation. If listeners are impressed by their fluency and accept their imperfect pronunciation, they have no way to know that they need to improve.
Some more introverted students might actually be thinking carefully about sounds and practicing “within themselves,” even if they don’t speak much in class. Don’t underestimate the quiet students. Appreciate the strengths and possibilities of all your students and encourage everyone. All students can learn and improve in their own way.
Another aspect of personality that can affect pronunciation is the degree to which a person is willing or able to change the way they sound. Most of us have been speaking and listening to language in the same, familiar way since we learned to talk. Our voice and our pronunciation are a central part of the way we see ourselves. It can be uncomfortable, and possibly even frightening, to try out unfamiliar sounds and melodies of language. For some people this process seems like a small bump on the road, but for others, it’s a serious roadblock.

M.T. Yoshida. Beyond Repeat After Me : Teaching Pronunciation to
English Learners. Alexandria: TESOL Press, 2016 (adapted).

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