Questões para Concursos

Village’s Amateur Archaeologists Find Lost Tudor Palace When a group of amateur archaeologists set out to find the buried remains of a Tudor palace in their Northamptonshire village five years ago, they knew the odds were against them. “Many of us were brought up in the village, and you hear about this lost palace, and wonder whether it’s a myth or real. So we just wanted to find it”, said Chris Close, the chair of the Collyweston Historical and Preservation Society (Chaps) which made the discovery of the Palace of Collyweston in a back garden this year. “But we’re a bunch of amateurs. We had no money, no expertise, no plans, no artist impressions to go off, and nothing remaining of the palace. It was naivety and just hard work that has led us to it”. The site was found using geophysical surveys and ground-penetrating radar. Various attempts had been made in the 1980s and 90s to find Collyweston Palace, the home of Henry VII’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. However, without the advantage of modern technology, none had succeeded. The palace was famous during the 15th century and several historic events took place there. The pre-wedding celebrations of Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland in 1503 took place in the palace, and Henry VIII is recorded as holding court there on 16 and 17 October 1541. By the mid-17th century, it had fallen into disrepair, and until the Chaps dig uncovered the palace walls in March, there was very little remaining evidence of its existence. “A number of things have only really come to light as we’ve done this project”, said Close. “As you do more and more research, and various different records start to become unearthed, we realized Collyweston had privy councils being run from here, which is of massive national importance”. Historians from the University of York helped verify the group’s findings and identify the palace through some uncovered stone moldings, and will work with Chaps on more excavations to further reveal the structure and conserve it for the future. The Chaps team, which comprises more than 80 members ranging from teenagers to people in their 70s and 80s, first set out their plan to find the palace in March 2018, using “local folktales and hearsay” to help refine their search area. They carried out geophysical surveys and used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to help reveal the location of the palace walls, before securing permission from homeowners to excavate in gardens. “We’ve done it all on an absolute shoestring”, said Close. “We’ve basically done an £80,000-£90,000 project for roughly £13,000. For us, being a little society, to have achieved this with no money, or expertise, or plans, I think it’s something that the whole society should be proud of”. (Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/06/tudor-collyweston-palace-northamptonshire-found-in-garden-by-amateur-archeologists - text especially adapted for this test).

Text 2 Olympic Games The name comes from Olympia, a sacred place in Ancient Greece, where the first Ancient Olympic Games took place . The Games were a very important event for the Ancient Greeks and they took place every four years, from 776 BCE to at least 393 CE. The Games were very different from the ones we know now! They were essentially a religious festival, the athletes were mainly soldiers, and women were not allowed to compete. Married women were not even allowed to attend! Sports included boxing, wrestling and chariot racing. Athletes competed completely naked, and occasionally even died during combat sport competitions. From Ancient Greece, we fast forward .................. the 1896 Olympics in Athens, which marked the beginning ................... a new era of the Games. The 1896 Olympic Games saw 280 athletes .................. 12 countries competing ................... 43 events, including the first marathon competition. By the time the Paris Olympics took place in 1924, there were around 3,000 athletes, including more than 100 women, from more than 44 different countries. This was also the year that the first Winter Olympics were held. The Paralympic Games first took place in Rome, Italy, in 1960, with 400 athletes from 23 countries. The ‘Olympic rings’ are a globally known symbol of the Olympic movement and were introduced in 1913. The colours of the five linked rings are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red, and they appear on a white background. They represent the union of five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world.

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.

Conclusions and Recommendations Given the panorama of English instruction in Brazil, particularly in the states of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso, and considering the results of the surveys conducted with universities and teachers in both states, some conclusions and recommendations could be drawn. Nationally, English instruction has been gaining importance and visibility through curriculum reform and the new model of upper secondary school. It is an enormously significant achievement that, for the first time, English has become mandatory in all public and private schools from 6th grade onward. The BNCC offers clarity on the competencies and abilities that students should develop at each education level. However, if, on the one hand, making English compulsory was an important step, on the other hand, the implementation of this policy is still incomplete. The main issue is the limited amount of instructional time in English in the national curriculum guidelines. As the cases of Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais illustrate, the result is that students have insufficient exposure to the language, with only two classes per week in secondary schools and one class per week in upper secondary. Under these conditions, it is unlikely that learners will develop full proficiency in the language, and teachers will have the instructional time to focus on all the necessary competencies and abilities required by the BNCC. Another important consideration is the link between initial training for English teachers and how it interacts with the routines and challenges of the classroom. There is room for improvement when considering the mismatch between the programs of study at universities and the pedagogical practice required of English teachers and strengthened ties and communication between State Education Departments and the teacher training programs at universities. Universities face additional challenges, such as the low English proficiency of students in the initial training courses. Initial training institutions face difficulties in thoroughly preparing future teachers regarding language proficiency and the pedagogical elements related to being an effective teacher. In this sense, the situation can create a vicious cycle; students leave schools with a low proficiency level in English, and those who decide to take the initial training courses to become English teachers and enter universities cannot fully develop proficiency as pedagogical competencies. Therefore, they enter schools not fully prepared to be teachers and face all the challenges of a classroom. Another critical challenge is class size and the heterogeneity of students’ ability levels, which could limit teachers’ ability to implement some pedagogical practices, such as working with practicing speaking. This is not only a challenge faced by English teachers, but all teachers and that policymakers need to keep in mind. In addition, teachers commonly work in more than one school at a time and sometimes teach other subjects to meet the required hours of instructional time stipulated in their contracts. The surveys with teachers demonstrated that many have never participated in a professional development session specifically designed for English teachers. For those who have, not all considered the helpful training to improve their knowledge and practice. This points to the fact that more attention needs to be paid to the continuous training courses offered to English teachers. These training courses should be frequent and address specific challenges, taking into account the pedagogical issues and areas that English teachers identify as most critical. Briefly, it is important to highlight the windows of opportunity that have been opened in Brazil with the BNCC and the new upper secondary model. Through their education ministries, state governments have made significant efforts to adapt their regional curricula to the competencies and abilities listed on the BNCC and implement the first pilots and designed pathways for upper secondary schools. It remains a question of how the rest of those two processes will be implemented, but there are positive signs that English may gain more importance at a national level. At least in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso, there is already a movement to increase the importance of the discipline. While Minas Gerais has developed a few specific training courses for English teachers focused on improving their pedagogical knowledge through the program “Pathways for Educators” and intends to create a training pathway for upper secondary students focused in English, Mato Grosso has implemented English in all primary schools in the state and launched the program “More English,” with resources to help teachers and students. Those efforts are aligned with the national reforms and illustrate the political willingness of states to promote more actions to improve teachers’ and students’ proficiency in English. In these states and, to some extent, at the national level, the foundations have been set to put English instruction in the spotlight as a crucial discipline to the integral development of students. However, much work and resources are still needed to realize this goal. Therefore, the following recommendations are intended to advise decision-makers at universities and State Education Departments.

(Source: https://www.thedialogue.org/wp-content/. Access: October 2024.)

Examine the set of sentences to answer question. 1. Sam has stayed in Los Angeles for two years, and completed his course. 2. Raj has just gone out to the market since we’ve run out of coffee. 3. We have been to many amazing foreign countries. 4. My brothers have waited for hours at the train station last week. 5. My last birthday was the worst day I have ever had. 6. Sheila has been working on that project for over a month. 7. Hasn’t he been trying to get into Jawaha University? Is there any progress? 8. As the weather was fine, the old man sat down to read outdoors. 9. I can’t get in my house because I lost my keys, and my wife isn’t home. 10 . Scientists have recently discovered a new breed of monkey.