Questões para Concursos

TEXT I What is the definition of translanguaging? For years, research into the best instructional approaches for students identified as English learners has pointed to the concept of translanguaging. Identified by bilingual education researcher Ofelia García, it’s both a skill set and a total shift in the way language is thought of, used, and taught in K-12 classrooms where multiple languages are honored and addressed, even as English remains the dominant language of instruction, said Marybelle Marrero-Colon, the associate director of professional development for the Center for Applied Linguistics. Researchers are looking into how it can be applied to formal assessments, such as state standardized tests on which English learners might struggle to demonstrate their academic proficiency because they are tested in an unfamiliar language. Translanguaging is the ability to move fluidly between languages and a pedagogical approach to teaching in which teachers support this ability. In translanguaging, students are able to think in multiple languages simultaneously and use their home language as a vehicle to learn academic English. A student could be reading an article about the solar system in English, but in their brain, they are also thinking and making connections in Spanish. They might annotate in Spanish or first write down reading comprehension responses in Spanish and then figure out how to provide the responses in English, said MarreroColon. […] Teachers can engage in a variety of activities that deliberately encourage translanguaging, ranging from providing vocabulary in multiple languages to collaborative translation opportunities. The goal is to get students translanguaging as a practice that can be leveraged toward supporting literacy outcomes and engagement, as well as other academic endeavors. For example, two students could be assigned to solve a word problem, and one might be stuck on a word in English. The two students can then use an equivalent word in their home language to make sense of what the word problem is asking of them, Phillips Galloway said. Or in group activities, students can be prompted to share with the rest of the class how something taught in English would make sense in Spanish by highlighting similar and different grammatical structures between the two languages, Marrero-Colon said. “When you translate, you don’t have to do it word for word. You’re really trying to capture the feeling of that text,” MarreroColon said. Once teachers start doing these activities, research has found that students who have not spoken before start speaking and students who were not as engaged in text-comprehension activities suddenly are, she added. That's occurring because they are being encouraged to use their home language in class to think about language use overall. Adapted from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-translanguagingand-how-is-it-used-in-the-classroom/2023/07

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).

Text III Aside from the difficulties of operating a decidedly multinational staff organization, once it is formed, the problem of reconciling the principle of equitable geographical distribution of recruits with that of “securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity” is a formidable one. This delicate task was politically imposed upon the League of Nations secretary-general, and is constitutionally required of his counterpart in the United Nations. For better or for worse, recruitment policy cannot be based exclusively upon the criterion of the individual’s personal qualifications; in the field of international employment, the relevant irrelevancy is not “whom do you know” but “where are you from?” From a strictly administrative point of view, there is some positive value in securing broad nationality distribution, even at the expense of sheer quality; for some purposes, a slightly incompetent man’s nationality may make him more useful than a more expert civil servant of inappropriate nationality. For the most part, however, the Charter principle of geographical distribution is a concession to political necessity. It licenses a kind of international spoils system in which states seek to nourish their national self-esteem by securing an adequate quota of international jobs for their citizens. Ironically, perhaps, because it is politically necessary it is also politically and administratively desirable; what shall it profit an international organization to maintain its administrative purity and lose its own members or their political support? Inis L. and Claude Jr. Swords into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984, pp. 196-197 (adapted).

Text III Aside from the difficulties of operating a decidedly multinational staff organization, once it is formed, the problem of reconciling the principle of equitable geographical distribution of recruits with that of “securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity” is a formidable one. This delicate task was politically imposed upon the League of Nations secretary-general, and is constitutionally required of his counterpart in the United Nations. For better or for worse, recruitment policy cannot be based exclusively upon the criterion of the individual’s personal qualifications; in the field of international employment, the relevant irrelevancy is not “whom do you know” but “where are you from?” From a strictly administrative point of view, there is some positive value in securing broad nationality distribution, even at the expense of sheer quality; for some purposes, a slightly incompetent man’s nationality may make him more useful than a more expert civil servant of inappropriate nationality. For the most part, however, the Charter principle of geographical distribution is a concession to political necessity. It licenses a kind of international spoils system in which states seek to nourish their national self-esteem by securing an adequate quota of international jobs for their citizens. Ironically, perhaps, because it is politically necessary it is also politically and administratively desirable; what shall it profit an international organization to maintain its administrative purity and lose its own members or their political support? Inis L. and Claude Jr. Swords into Plowshares: The Problems and Progress of International Organization. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984, pp. 196-197 (adapted).

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) had a broad and distinguished career both inside and outside the literary realm. She is most famous for her work as a poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She also worked in entertainment as a singer, a dancer, an actor, and a director. Her poetry was inspired and informed by her life and work, and this personal connection made her poems profound and powerful. Over the course of a career spanning the 1960s to her death in 2014, she captured, provoked, inspired, and ultimately transformed American people and culture. Internet: (adapted).

Text 9A1 Research into how multilingual people juggle more than one language in their minds is complex and sometimes counterintuitive. It turns out that when a multilingual person wants to speak, the languages they know can be active at the same time, even if only one gets used. These languages can interfere with each other, for example intruding into speech just when you do not expect them. And interference can manifest itself not just in vocabulary slip-ups, but even on the level of grammar or accent. “From research we know that whenever a bilingual or multilingual is speaking, both languages or all the languages that they know are activated,” says Mathieu Declerck, a senior research fellow at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels. “For example, when you want to say ‘dog’ as a French-English bilingual, not just ‘dog’ is activated, but also its translation equivalent, so ‘chien’ is also activated.” As such, the speaker needs to have some sort of language control process. If you think about it, the ability of bilingual and multilingual speakers to separate the languages they have learned is remarkable. How they do this is commonly explained through the concept of inhibition — a suppression of the non-relevant languages. However, when this control system fails, intrusions and lapses can occur. For example, insufficient inhibition of a language can cause it to “pop up” and intrude when you are meant to be speaking in a different one. Tamar Gollan, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, has been studying language control in bilinguals for years. Her research has often led to counterintuitive findings. She explains that when mixing languages, multilinguals are navigating a sort of balancing act, inhibiting the stronger language to even things out — and sometimes, they go too far in the wrong direction. “When bilinguals are mixing languages, it seems like they inhibit the dominant language so much that they actually are slower to speak in certain contexts. I think the best analogy is: imagine you suddenly become better at writing in your non-dominant hand. We have been calling this reversed dominance.” Reversed dominance effects can be particularly evident when bilinguals switch between languages in a single conversation, says Gollan. Navigating such interference could perhaps be part of what makes it hard for an adult to learn a new language, especially if they have grown up monolingual. One thing that might help is immersing yourself in the environment of the foreign language. “You are creating a context in which you are strongly holding back this other language, so that gives room for the other (new) language to become stronger,” says Matt Goldrick, a professor of linguistics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “When you return from that immersion experience, hopefully you can better manage that competition,” he adds. “That competition will never go away, you just get better at managing it.” Managing competition is certainly something that multilinguals do tend to have a lot of practice in. Many researchers argue that this brings them certain cognitive advantages — although it is worth noting that the jury’s still out on this, with others saying their own research does not show reliable evidence for a bilingual cognitive advantage. In any case, using languages is arguably one of the most complex activities humans learn how to do. And having to manage multiple languages has been linked to cognitive benefits in many studies, depending on task and age. Some studies have shown bilinguals perform better, for example, in activities when participants have to focus on counterintuitive information. Speaking multiple languages has also been linked to delayed onset of dementia symptoms. And of course, multilingualism brings many obvious benefits beyond the brain, not least the social benefit of being able to speak to many people. Internet:http://www.bbc.com/ (adapted).

Text 9A1 Research into how multilingual people juggle more than one language in their minds is complex and sometimes counterintuitive. It turns out that when a multilingual person wants to speak, the languages they know can be active at the same time, even if only one gets used. These languages can interfere with each other, for example intruding into speech just when you do not expect them. And interference can manifest itself not just in vocabulary slip-ups, but even on the level of grammar or accent. “From research we know that whenever a bilingual or multilingual is speaking, both languages or all the languages that they know are activated,” says Mathieu Declerck, a senior research fellow at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels. “For example, when you want to say ‘dog’ as a French-English bilingual, not just ‘dog’ is activated, but also its translation equivalent, so ‘chien’ is also activated.” As such, the speaker needs to have some sort of language control process. If you think about it, the ability of bilingual and multilingual speakers to separate the languages they have learned is remarkable. How they do this is commonly explained through the concept of inhibition — a suppression of the non-relevant languages. However, when this control system fails, intrusions and lapses can occur. For example, insufficient inhibition of a language can cause it to “pop up” and intrude when you are meant to be speaking in a different one. Tamar Gollan, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, has been studying language control in bilinguals for years. Her research has often led to counterintuitive findings. She explains that when mixing languages, multilinguals are navigating a sort of balancing act, inhibiting the stronger language to even things out — and sometimes, they go too far in the wrong direction. “When bilinguals are mixing languages, it seems like they inhibit the dominant language so much that they actually are slower to speak in certain contexts. I think the best analogy is: imagine you suddenly become better at writing in your non-dominant hand. We have been calling this reversed dominance.” Reversed dominance effects can be particularly evident when bilinguals switch between languages in a single conversation, says Gollan. Navigating such interference could perhaps be part of what makes it hard for an adult to learn a new language, especially if they have grown up monolingual. One thing that might help is immersing yourself in the environment of the foreign language. “You are creating a context in which you are strongly holding back this other language, so that gives room for the other (new) language to become stronger,” says Matt Goldrick, a professor of linguistics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. “When you return from that immersion experience, hopefully you can better manage that competition,” he adds. “That competition will never go away, you just get better at managing it.” Managing competition is certainly something that multilinguals do tend to have a lot of practice in. Many researchers argue that this brings them certain cognitive advantages — although it is worth noting that the jury’s still out on this, with others saying their own research does not show reliable evidence for a bilingual cognitive advantage. In any case, using languages is arguably one of the most complex activities humans learn how to do. And having to manage multiple languages has been linked to cognitive benefits in many studies, depending on task and age. Some studies have shown bilinguals perform better, for example, in activities when participants have to focus on counterintuitive information. Speaking multiple languages has also been linked to delayed onset of dementia symptoms. And of course, multilingualism brings many obvious benefits beyond the brain, not least the social benefit of being able to speak to many people. Internet:http://www.bbc.com/ (adapted).

Drones are an integral part of the defense and supply-chain industry. However, their prowess and versatility extend beyond these sectors. As the demand for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) continues to increase, the drone market is now estimated to be valued at over 127 billion dollars. These uncrewed aircrafts can potentially develop numerous sectors, including transport and travel, exponentially. This is primarily due to their remarkable evolution of collision-avoidance technologies through computer vision and artificial intelligence, allowing them to operate autonomously. The dynamic innovation of drone transportation can positively impact emergency services by decreasing emergency response time, offering valuable data from inaccessible regions, and identifying victims via thermal imaging. Though the concept of a UAV emerges from being “unmanned,” its autonomous power can be used to create functional, personal transportation. Well-known companies like Uber, Airbus, and Boeing are constantly working on developing self-flying drones that can take people from one place to another. In conclusion, drone transportation has a lot of untapped potential beyond supply chain and security surveillance. Whether it is for emergencies, luxury, or space exploration, the future is optimistic for the travel industry. Internet: (adapted).

Text CB1A7 Whenever a global economic transformation takes place, a single city usually drives it forward. Ghent, in modern-day Belgium, was at the core of the burgeoning global wool trade in the 13th century. The first initial public offering took place in Amsterdam in 1602. London was the financial centre of the first wave of globalisation during the 19th century. Today the city is San Francisco. California’s commercial capital has no serious rival in generative artificial intelligence (AI), a breakthrough technology that has caused a bull market in American stocks and which, many economists hope, will power a global productivity surge. Almost all big AI start-up companies are based in the Bay Area, which comprises the city of San Francisco and Silicon Valley (largely based in Santa Clara county, to the south). OpenAI is there, of course; so are Anthropic, Databricks and Scale AI. Tech giants, including Meta and Microsoft, are also spending big on AI in San Francisco. According to Brookings Metro, a think tank, last year San Francisco accounted for close to a tenth of generative AI job postings in America, more than any other city of the country. New York, with four times as many residents, was second. Internet: (adapted).