Questões para Concursos

Text 1 Companies know how we think Companies can now find out exactly how you think through the science of neuromarketing. Advertisers are currently collaborating with scientists to test their products directly on our brains. Some experts believe that one in ten TV commercials have already been designed using neuromarketing. The reasons are obvious.The technique allows companies to discover exactly what people like about their products. For example, when we eat a type of potato chip, it may be the color, the flavor, or the pleasant noise it makes when you crunch it in your mouth that we like most. In order ................ tap into what’s going ................ in consumers’ brains, it all begins laboratories and office buildings. Groups of volunteers submit themselves to a simple process. Wearing a special headset called an electrode cap, they watch commercials or test products. The caps allow researchers to monitor brain activity. When something attracts the attention of the volunteers, this is highlighted on a computer. They literally use this device to read the minds of their volunteers. This may sound a little scary, but advertisers are just tapping into our existing thoughts and desires. And that’s what advertisers have always tried to do. Previously, companies would give people a survey or questionnaire to complete in order to research their customers. The problem was that people didn’t always tell the truth. They may not want to be critical of a product or advertisement because they don’t want to upset the interviewer. The electrode cap overcomes this problem. It shows when someone really is interested in something. Neuromarketing is also used to develop packaging for the world’s most famous brands. The aim is to make their products stand out in a busy marketplace. This will become standard as more companies capitalize on the technology. With millions invested in advertising, companies simply cannot afford to hope that their ads and products will be a success. If they can find out what we think first, and change their products to make them more successful, they will quickly pay off the high cost of neuromarketing and dominate their market.

Google News, Thursday, June 16, 2021 Teaching methods keep changing with the times,................... the blackboard of the old days ........... electronic teaching today. Mr. Kam, physics instructor the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is one of those who has changed ......... the times. Mr. Kam employs a two-pronged approach. First , he uses multimedia teaching materials during lectures. Second , he arranges internships for undergraduates. These can take the form of learning assistantships at the university or teaching assistantships at secondary schools, and also there’s always the odd science project at the Space Museum. The initiatives have earned him the Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award 2020. A CUHK alumnus, he is grateful for the chance to teach at the university after earning his doctoral degree there. His teaching position actually represents the fulfillment of a dream, for the status of professors during his days as a university student was extremely high and he could meet them only during lectures. After being a teacher for 10 years, Mr. Kam has found no apparent regression in the learning abilities of students, but he believes teachers should not just force knowledge on students - they have to pay careful attention to their needs too. The multimedia materials that Mr. Kam uses to illustrate his area of interest includes animation and video clips. He encourages students to read popular astronomy magazines and share any note-worthy content they find. Mr. Kam also gets his undergraduates to help prepare students sitting for physics papers in public exams or to help out on research projects undertaken by meteorological officers at the observatory. He also arranges for his undergraduates to teach students from other faculties during physics liberal studies classes through talks and star-gazing expeditions. Such responsibilities serve two greater purposes. First, undergraduates become even more motivated to learn when they find out they have to guide other students. Second, physics students are, unlike arts students, not at their best when called upon to express themselves. Acting as assistants allows them to practice their skills and build up their self- confidence. I asked Mr. Kam what he found most satisfying in teaching. And the answer is obvious. It is the deep friendship he forms with students. Mr. Kam says many former students still come back to see him occasionally despite being busy parents. He draws considerable satisfaction from seeing his students grow into mature adults. For Mr. Kam, the best teachers will never find extracurricular activity a burden because the good work that is done today plants the seed for future generations.

Predicting the unpredictable Some years ago, a devastating earthquake struck the Italian town of L’Aquila. More than 300 people lost their lives, over 1,500 people were injured, and many buildings were destroyed. Two years later, seven earthquake experts were involved in a court case: Did they adequately warn the public after the initial tremors began? At the heart of the debate is whether they could have predicted a disaster like this. Although a lot of scientists are working to improve our ability to predict natural disasters, so far no one has come up with a reliable method to forecast earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, days or weeks beforehand . Most of the research focuses on the areas most likely to experience seismic activity – but even our knowledge about where these areas are, is very limited. One reason for this is that human beings have only been around for a very small part of the Earth’s history. In geological terms, we all arrived on the scene very recently. Records from the past 2,000 years are incomplete, and the biggest earthquakes nearly always happen in areas where there have been no earthquakes in recorded history. So, is there any hope for improving our ability to predict disasters? A solution may come from an unexpected source. Four years ago, a team of US physicists at Rutgers University in New Jersey were studying why pharmaceutical powders stick together. They observed that the powder stuck together when placed in a spinning cylinder, but then developed cracks and collapsed. Just before the cracks developed, an electric signal, like a small bolt of lightning, was created. The scientists repeated the experiment with a wide range of different materials, and they got similar results every time. This phenomenon might also exist in nature. Some scientists believe that rocks may become electrically charged under unusual pressure, such as before an earthquake. This electric charge then causes changes in the surrounding air or water, which animals may be able to sense before humans do. For example, while biologists were studying a colony of frogs in a pond near L’Aquila, they noticed that nearly all the animals left the water days before the earthquake. A similar thing happened in China, when snakes were hibernating for the winter in caves, but escaped just before a large earthquake. The same kind of electric charge , like the small bolt of lightning felt in the experiment at Rutgers, may have been responsible. At the moment, there is no reliable way ............ using such findings to predict earthquakes, and further studies may be necessary to give us a better understanding of the interactions involved, but one day, the technology may be used ............ predict future catastrophes. For example, two science institutions in Russia and Britain are already developing a new micro-satellite, which could detect these electric signals and help rescue people ................ natural disasters in time. Scientists are planning to launch the first of these satellites ............... space. Will these satellites be the solution? Only time will tell. For the time being, the best defense is to be prepared.

Text 1 Youth and Adult Literacy in Brazil: learning from practice The Concept of functional ILLITERACY […] A person is considered functionally literate ..................... he or she is capable ................. using reading and writing skills ........................ meet the demands of his or her social context, using them to continue learning and developing over their lifetimes. With the expansion of the access to schooling beyond literacy, the focus was shifted to the quality of the educational process offered to all. The issue here is not simply whether people know how to read or write, but what they are capable of doing with those skills. This means that, besides the issue of illiteracy, a social problem that still persists in Brazil, there is also the issue of functional illiteracy; in other words, the inability to effectively use reading and writing skills in the various areas of social life after a certain number of years of schooling. According to census criteria, individuals with less than 4 years of schooling are considered functionally illiterate. […] Source : https://unesdoc.unesco.org

Something in the water? Why we love shark films From the Steven Spielberg classic Jaws, to predators stalking the Seine in Under Paris, there is no shortage of shark films. Hollywood and audiences love them, seemingly never tiring of the suspense, gore and terror. There are prehistoric giant sharks in The Meg, genetically engineered ones in Deep Blue Sea, and sharks high on cocaine in the ingeniously named Cocaine Shark. Even Donald Trump is a fan – he was reportedly due to play the US president in a Sharknado film, before becoming the actual president. I became hooked on them after watching James Bond film Thunderball, where the villain keeps sharks in his swimming pool. It led to a lifelong interest in shark films, as well as an irrational fear of swimming pools, even ones filled with chlorine inside leisure centres. Hayley Easton Street is the British director behind a new shark film, Something in the Water, which tells the story of a group of women stranded at sea. She explains that, as fan of shark films herself, she “absolutely wanted” to make the movie. So why are shark movies so popular? “It's the fear of what could be going on with the unknown of [the sea]” she tells BBC News. “Just being stuck in the middle of the ocean is scary enough. You're trapped in something else's world and anything could happen.” But despite Street's love of shark films, she did not want the ones in hers to be portrayed as marine serial killers. “We kill 100 million sharks every year” she notes. The director was also aware that the release of Jaws led to a huge rise in the hunting of sharks, partly because they had been portrayed as merciless killers. “As much as I love shark films, I love sharks.” “I was really conscious of that, because it's easy for people to start seeing them as killing machines... or monsters, which they are not.” She adds: “I feel it's more scary to have the realistic theme of it, that, you know, if you are out in the ocean and there are sharks and they do mistake you for something else, they will kill you.” Despite the huge success of Jaws, Spielberg has said he “truly regrets the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film”. Spielberg is not the only person concerned about Hollywood's portrayal of sharks and the impact it continues to have. US marine biologist Andriana Fragola dedicates herself to educating people about sharks, often sharing videos of her diving with them. She says they are “misunderstood predators” that have been harmed by movies and the media. Andriana tells me that she has watched Netflix's new shark film, Under Paris, and was not impressed. “Their whole thing was it's about conservation, about studying them, but then the sharks are still eating people.” “So it's giving a little bit more of a rounded education and a little bit more depth to the story, it's not just people swimming at the beach and getting attacked and eaten.” “But the bottom line and what people can draw from the movie is that sharks are still really dangerous to people and they're just going to continuously hunt and eat people.” “If that was true, we would be reduced as a human species. Everyone who goes to the beach, they would be threatened.” Andriana says the perception of sharks causes a real issue for conservation. “It's a huge problem because people don't want to protect something that they're scared of.” “The perception from people is that they're dangerous to humans so we should eradicate them, and that's obviously a huge problem for conservation and getting people to want to empathise or sympathise with sharks and wanting to actually protect them.” “It's unfortunate because 100 million sharks are killed every year, and globally sharks kill fewer than 10 people every year.” “We're really focused on the sharks being the monsters and them being out to get us. In reality it's the opposite.” It is unlikely that Hollywood will stop making shark films, or we will stop watching them. But the figures show that far from being the serial killers of the sea, sharks are actually much more likely to be the victims of humans. (Charlotte Gallagher, Culture reporter, BBC 2024. Accessed: 29 July 2024. Available in: . Adapted.)

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will By Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie Digital life is augmenting human capacities and disrupting eons-old human activities. Code-driven systems have spread to more than half of the world’s inhabitants in ambient information and connectivity, offering previously unimagined opportunities and unprecedented threats. As emerging algorithm-driven artificial intelligence (AI) continues to spread, will people be better off than they are today? The experts predicted networked artificial intelligence will amplify human effectiveness but also threaten human autonomy, agency and capabilities. They spoke of the wide-ranging possibilities; that computers might match or even exceed human intelligence and capabilities on tasks such as complex decision-making, reasoning and learning, sophisticated analytics and pattern recognition, visual acuity, speech recognition and language translation. They said “smart” systems in communities, in vehicles, in buildings and utilities, on farms and in business processes will save time, money and lives and offer opportunities for individuals to enjoy a morecustomized future. Many focused their optimistic remarks on health care and the many possible applications of AI in diagnosing and treating patients or helping senior citizens live fuller and healthier lives. They were also enthusiastic about AI’s role in contributing to broad public-health programs built around massive amounts of data that may be captured in the coming years about everything from personal genomes to nutrition. Additionally, a number of these experts predicted that AI would abet long-anticipated changes in formal and informal education systems. Yet, most experts, regardless of whether they are optimistic or not, expressed concerns about the long-term impact of these new tools on the essential elements of being human. All respondents in this non-scientific canvassing were asked to elaborate on why they felt AI would leave people better off or not. Many shared deep worries, and many also suggested pathways toward solutions. The main themes they sounded about threats and remedies are outlined in future reports. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/12/10/artificial-intelligence-and-thefuture-of-humans/

Text II This book wants to show the newcomer the lie of the land without confusing him with details. In writing it I thought first and foremost of readers in their teens. But I have never believed that books for young people should differ from books for adults except for the fact that they must reckon with the most exacting class of critics, critics who are quick to detect and resent any trace of pretentious jargon or bogus sentiment. I know from experience that these are the vices which may render people suspicious of all writings. I have striven to use plain language even at the risk of sounding casual or unprofessional. I hope that no reader will attribute my decision to get along with a minimum of the art historian’s conventional terms to any desire on my part of ‘talking down’ to him. Apart from this decision, I have tried to follow a number of more specific self-imposed rules, such as limiting myself to real works of art and cutting out anything which might merely be interesting as a specimen of taste or fashion. This decision entailed a considerable sacrifice of literary effects. Praise is so much duller than criticism, and the inclusion of some amusing monstrosities might have offered some light relief. Thus, while I do not claim that all the works illustrated represent the highest standard of perfection, I did make an effort not to include anything which I considered to be without a peculiar merit of its own. A second rule also demanded a little self-denial. I vowed to resist any temptation to be original in my selection, lest the well-known masterpieces be crowded out by my own personal favourites. This book, after all, is not intended merely as an anthology of beautiful things; it is meant for those who look for bearings in a new field, and for them the familiar appearance of apparently ‘hackneyed’ examples may serve as welcome landmarks. One more rule I have followed. When in doubt I have always preferred to discuss a work which I had seen in the original rather than one I knew only from photographs. I should have liked to make this an absolute rule, but I did not want the reader to be penalized by the accidents of travel restrictions which sometimes dog the life of the art-lover. E. H. Gombrich. The Story of Art. Phaidon , New York – London: 1995, p. 7-8 (adapted).