Questões para Concursos

The role of the police in a healthy democracy is radically different from their role in authoritarian societies. In autocratic regimes, the police serve mainly to protect not the people, but the regime. The police are therefore typically politicized, with appointments being part of the patronage system that rewards regime loyalists. Police officers spend a great deal of time spying on the populace to unmask political opposition; crime against citizens is less of a concern. Abuse and corruption are usually rife, because police are not held accountable for their actions. Rather, political leaders tolerate abuses by the police in return for police loyalty to the regime.
By contrast, in democratic societies the primary mission of the police is to protect citizens against crime and disorder, including illegal or corrupt behavior by officials. In democracies, police have carefully circumscribed roles that require close and positive relations with ordinary citizens. The use of arms and pursuit of criminals are rare and take up only a tiny fraction of police time. Instead, police officers spend the vast bulk of their time building relationships with the community through patrols, community-enhancing activities, and listening to citizens. The goal of democratic policing is to build a web of relationships between the community and the police that helps to control crime by making police aware of the persons and activities in the communities that they are assigned to protect and by inclining citizens to trust and cooperate with police. This also achieves the primary goal of making citizens feel secure in their daily activities, thereby fostering a climate that encourages increased legitimate business activity, investment, and planning for the future.

Michael D. Wiatrowski and Jack A. Goldstone. The ballot and the badge: democratic policing. In: Journal of Democracy, Volume 21, Number 2. Internet: (adapted).

Concerning the previous text, judge the following items.

As prominent artificial intelligence (AI) researchers eye limits to the current phase of the technology, a different approach is gaining attention: using living human brain cells as computational hardware. These "biocomputers" are still in their early days. They can play simple games such as Pong, and perform basic speech recognition.
But the excitement is fueled by three converging trends. First, venture capital is flowing into anything adjacent to AI, making speculative ideas suddenly fundable. Second, techniques for growing brain tissue outside the body have matured, with the pharmaceutical industry jumping on board. Third, rapid advances in brain‒computer interfaces have seen growing acceptance of technologies that blur the line between biology and machines.
Nevertheless, plenty of questions remain. Are we witnessing genuine breakthroughs, or another round of tech-driven hype? And what ethical questions arise when human brain tissue becomes a computational component? For almost 50 years, neuroscientists have grown neurons on arrays of tiny electrodes to study how they fire under controlled conditions.
By the early 2000s, researchers attempted rudimentary two-way communication between neurons and electrodes, planting the first seeds of a bio-hybrid computer. But progress stalled until another strand of research took off: brain organoids.
In 2013, scientists demonstrated that stem cells could self-organise into three-dimensional brain-like structures. These organoids spread rapidly through biomedical research, increasingly aided by “organ-on-a-chip” devices designed to mimic aspects of human physiology outside the body.
Today, using stem-cell-derived neural tissue is commonplace ⸺ from drug testing to developmental research. Yet the neural activity in these models remains primitive, far from the organised firing patterns that underpin cognition or consciousness in a real brain. While complex network behaviour is beginning to emerge even without much external stimulation, experts generally agree that current organoids are not conscious, nor close to it.

Internet: (adapted).

About the previous text, judge the following items.

The changes to Earth’s natural patterns reveal an interconnected web of ecological systems that are undergoing profound changes beyond what many researchers have predicted. Scientists say the culprit is clear: Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the relentless burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas has been adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, leading to a sharp rise in global temperatures. The hottest year in recorded history was 2024, and each of the 10 warmest years on record have come in the past decade.
Since 1997, when nations agreed to limit planet-warming gases as part of the landmark Kyoto Protocol, humanity has released more greenhouse gases than in all prior history. The temperature rise associated with the growing volume of heat-trapping gas has kicked in, and it is continuing to rise. And at the same time, the ability of the planet’s natural systems to absorb planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide appears to be diminishing.

David Gelles. One thing’s for sure, the weather is getting wilder. The New York Times International Edition, Nova York, 21-22 mar. 2026, p. 2 (adapted).

Considering the preceding text, judge the following items.

A new study suggests that the number of children a woman has might affect her rate of ageing and her lifespan. Research from the University of Helsinki in Finland found that women who had five children or more, or no children, aged faster than those who had a small number of kids. Researcher Mikaela Hukkanen said: "From an evolutionary biology perspective, organisms have limited resources, such as time and energy. When a large amount of energy is invested in reproduction, it is taken away from bodily maintenance and repair mechanisms, which could reduce lifespan." She added that the finding of shorter lifespans of women who never gave birth was "surprising".
The researchers used historical data in their analysis of parenthood and ageing. They analysed the health data on 14,836 women. Researchers examined DNA data and blood samples, then modelled the effects of reproduction on women’s rates of ageing and longevity. Ms. Hukkanen postulated that having a smaller number of pregnancies could have favourable effects on a mother’s health. One benefit is a possible lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer. However, the "wear and tear" and physical demands of multiple childbirths can negate this lowered risk. Another factor that could increase longevity is the increased social support a mother receives from the state for having children.

Internet: < b r e a k i n g n e w s e n g l i s h . c o m > (adapted).
Based on the preceding text, judge the following items.

A new study suggests that the number of children a woman has might affect her rate of ageing and her lifespan. Research from the University of Helsinki in Finland found that women who had five children or more, or no children, aged faster than those who had a small number of kids. Researcher Mikaela Hukkanen said: "From an evolutionary biology perspective, organisms have limited resources, such as time and energy. When a large amount of energy is invested in reproduction, it is taken away from bodily maintenance and repair mechanisms, which could reduce lifespan." She added that the finding of shorter lifespans of women who never gave birth was "surprising".
The researchers used historical data in their analysis of parenthood and ageing. They analysed the health data on 14,836 women. Researchers examined DNA data and blood samples, then modelled the effects of reproduction on women’s rates of ageing and longevity. Ms. Hukkanen postulated that having a smaller number of pregnancies could have favourable effects on a mother’s health. One benefit is a possible lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer. However, the "wear and tear" and physical demands of multiple childbirths can negate this lowered risk. Another factor that could increase longevity is the increased social support a mother receives from the state for having children.

Internet: < b r e a k i n g n e w s e n g l i s h . c o m > (adapted).
Based on the preceding text, judge the following items.

The claim to reason or rationality is the ultimate validation of the affirmation and assertion of the human condition. Aristotle’s definition of man as "a rational animal" was not spoken of the African and the Amerindian. Little did he realise that his definition of "man" laid down the foundation for the struggle for reason between colonialists and colonized peoples.
Aristotle’s definition of man was deeply inscribed in the social ethos of those communities and societies which undertook the so-called voyages of discovery apparently driven by innocent curiosity. It seems then that the entire process of decolonisation has upheld and not jettisoned the questionable belief that "man is a rational animal" was not spoken of the African and of the Amerindian.
The term African philosophy renders the idea that history repeats itself easy to believe. The term tends to revive innate skepticism on the one hand and to stimulate ingrained condescension on the other. The skeptic, unswervingly committed to the will to remain ignorant, is simply dismissive of any possibility let alone the probability of African philosophy. Impelled by the will to dominate, the condescendor is often ready to entertain the probability of African philosophy provided the judgement pertaining to the experience, knowledge and truth about African philosophy is recognised as the sole and exclusive right of the condescendor. The self-appointed heirs to the right to reason have thus established themselves as the producers of all knowledge and the only holders of the truth.

Mogobe B. Ramose. African philosophy through Ubuntu. Harare, Zimbabwe: Mond Books Publishers, 2005, pp. 5-6 (adapted).

Considering the preceding text, judge the following items.

Text CB1A6

First established in 2002 by the Brazilian government, and later expanded with the support of WWF and private donors, the conservation program known as ARPA helps protect 120 conservation areas spanning more than 60 million hectares — about the size of Ukraine — of the Brazilian Amazon. The program initially worked on creating new protected areas and then on designing a durable financial mechanism to support their protection.
A new phase, called ARPA Comunidades (Communities), is now shifting the focus to the traditional communities who live within the forest and help protect it. Half of the conservation areas covered by ARPA are sustainable-use conservation units like the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, inhabited by local communities who live sustainably off the forest‘s resources.
Announced during the COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belém, ARPA Comunidades will focus on these 60 sustainable-use reserves, which together cover an area of 23.7 million hectares, nearly the size of the U.K. The aim is to help reduce deforestation and improve the well-being of the local populations by supporting the development of local bioeconomies. Over 15 years, the program hopes to directly impact 130,000 people. It will also seek to add a further 3 million hectares of protected areas.
A 2023 paper by the Escolhas Institute, a Brazilian research organization, found that a 1% reduction in extreme poverty in the Brazilian Amazon has the potential to reduce deforestation by 27,000 hectares in the region.
Greater recognition of local communities‘ needs and role in protecting the forest is not a new demand, said Carlos Durigan, a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).
Internet: (adapted).

Qatar has made itself into the diplomatic capital of the world. Dotted across Doha are the many palaces and offices that have hosted, over recent years, negotiations about the many intractable diplomatic issues that have taken place the world over.
The power Qatar has come to wield has taken many observers by surprise. As a traditional Muslim monarchy in the Middle East, Qatar is a new kind of location for the sort of high-stakes geopolitical deal-making transacted until recently in Geneva and Oslo. Yet since October, the nation’s massive investment in becoming the world’s go-between has come into its own. Having long cultivated close relations with both the US and Hamas, Qatar became the locus of ceasefire negotiations in major local conflicts, as well as discussions over aid and evacuating the wounded. Its mediation has grown from a strategy to enhance its own safety into a role that underpins the entire world’s security.

Nesrine Malik. The go-between: how Qatar became the global capital of diplomacy. In: The Guardian. Internet: (adapted).

About the preceding text, judge the following items.

In recent years, awareness has grown of the scope and scale of violence and discrimination directed at lesbian, gay, bi, trans (LGBT) and intersex people around the world ⸺ including killings, torture, arbitrary detention and widespread discrimination in access to health care, education, employment and housing.
United Nations, regional and national human rights bodies have identified critical gaps in the implementation of international standards to address these and related violations, and have issued a plethora of recommendations, including, among them, the repeal of discriminatory legislation and measures to protect LGBT and intersex people from discrimination, violence, torture and ill treatment, and safeguard rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
Increasingly, governments are taking action ⸺ whether in the form of legislation and policy measures or through targeted social and education programmes. At the United Nations Human Rights Council, more than one hundred countries from all regions around the world have voluntarily committed to take measures to end violence and discrimination linked to sexual orientation and gender identity, based on recommendations generated during the first two cycles of the Universal Periodic Review.
However, serious challenges remain. While many countries have taken encouraging steps, in most cases, these efforts have fallen short of the concerted strategy required to tackle violence and discrimination against LGBT and intersex people. Even in countries that have arguably recorded the most progress in respect of the rights of gay men and lesbians, there has been far less attention given to protecting the rights of trans people and only incipient attention to the rights of intersex people.

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Living Free and Equal: What States are doing to tackle violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. (2016). Internet: (adapted).

Considering the ideas and linguistic aspects of the previous text, judge the following items.

Cyber issues have become increasingly central in international affairs and the breadth of issues discussed under this rubric has grown, including questions of peace and conflict, the fight against cybercrime and controversies around internet governance. In this context, three issue characteristics have affected the practice of cyber diplomacy.
First, cybersecurity retains a strong technical undercurrent that not only poses a challenge to conventional diplomatic skills but also introduces a distinct temporal quality. Reflecting broader trends in digital connectivity, cybersecurity evolves at the speed of technology, contributing to the transient nature of diplomatic practices, the limits of which are "constantly being renegotiated". These conceptual ambiguities have imbued cyber governance with a distinct political dynamic, offering ample opportunity for varied policy solutions to find "rhetorical shelter".
Second, perceptions of the stakes involved are equally evolving, with initial concerns about cyber war and cyberterrorism being supplemented with a focus on attacks below the level of armed attack. Relatedly, dichotomies across cybercrime and international security are blurring as cybercriminals are enlisted in state-sponsored campaigns.
Third, cyber issues exhibit a cross-cutting nature that breaches institutional and epistemic boundaries, calling into action a swath of actors across the public-private divide and requiring coordination across knowledge domains, including technical, legal and policy knowledge.

Johann Ole Willers, Lars Gjesvik. Cybersecurity as an issue of international affairs. In: Diplomacy in the age of expertise: the case of cyber diplomacy. International Affairs, Oxford University Press, fev./2026. Internet: (adapted).

Based on the ideas presented in the preceding text, as well as on its linguistic aspects, judge the following items.