Questões de Concursos Interpretação de texto Reading comprehension

Plurilingualism and translanguaging: commonalities and divergences

Both plurilingual and translanguaging pedagogical practices in the education of language minoritized students remain controversial, for schools have a monolingual and monoglossic tradition that is hard to disrupt, even when the disrupting stance brings success to learners. At issue is the national identity that schools are supposed to develop in their students, and the Eurocentric system of knowledge, circulated through standardized named languages, that continues to impose what Quijano (2000) has called a coloniality of power.

All theories emerge from a place, an experience, a time, and a position, and in this case, plurilingualism and translanguaging have developed, as we have seen, from different loci of enunciation. But concepts do not remain static in a time and place, as educators and researchers take them up, as they travel, and as educators develop alternative practices. Thus, plurilingual and translanguaging pedagogical practices sometimes look the same, and sometimes they even have the same practical goals. For example, educators who say they use plurilingual pedagogical practices might insist on developing bilingual identities, and not solely use plurilingualism as a scaffold. And educators who claim to use translanguaging pedagogical practices sometimes use them only as a scaffold to the dominant language, not grasping its potential. In the United States, translanguaging pedagogies are often used in English-as-a-Second Language programs only as a scaffold. And although the potential for translanguaging is more likely to be found in bilingual education programs, this is also at times elusive. The potential is curtailed, for example, by the strict language allocation policies that have accompanied the growth of dual language education programs in the last decade in the USA, which come close to the neoliberal understanding of multilingualism espoused in the European Union.

It is important to keep the conceptual distinctions between plurilingualism and translanguaging at the forefront as we develop ways of enacting them in practice, even when pedagogies may turn out to look the same. Because the theoretical stance of translanguaging brings forth and affirms dynamic multilingual realities, it offers the potential to transform minoritized communities sense of self that the concept of plurilingualism may not always do. The purpose of translanguaging could be transformative of socio-political and socio-educational structures that legitimize the language hierarchies that exclude minoritized bilingual students and the epistemological understandings that render them invisible. In its theoretical formulation, translanguaging disrupts the concept of named languages and the power hierarchies in which languages are positioned. But the issue for the future is whether school authorities will allow translanguaging to achieve its potential, or whether it will silence it as simply another kind of scaffold. To the degree that educators act on translanguaging with political intent, it will continue to crack some openings and to open opportunities for bilingual students. Otherwise, the present conceptual differences between plurilingualism and translanguaging will be erased.

Source: GARCÍA, Ofelia; OTHEGUY, Ricardo. Plurilingualism and translanguaging: Commonalities and divergences. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v. 23, n. 1, p. 17-35, 2020.

Garcia e Otheguy (2020)

What does a Theatrical Company Manager do?

NO MAN'S LAND

Mystery of world's only stretch of unclaimed land with NO laws that farmer tried to seize to make daughter a princess

Hidden deep in the African desert lies one of the strangest pieces of land on Earth — not for its beauty, wealth, or strategic value, but because no country wants it.

Bir Tawil is a 2,060-square-kilometre patch of barren desert between Egypt and Sudan, which remains an unusual geopolitical anomaly after decades of being unclaimed.

Those daring to go there face a tough journey, driving through remote desert roads past relics of gold mines and, at times, crossing paths with armed gangs and bandits.

Bir Tawil has long been a quirky favourite for small, often tongue-in-cheek, self-declared "countries" - usually founded by ordinary people across the globe.

With no laws, the land has even drawn would-be "kings," including a US dad who trekked there to fulfil his young daughter's wish of becoming a princess.

Jeremiah Heaton, a Virginia farmer, planted a flag and declared Bir Tawil the "Kingdom of North Sudan" so that his daughter Emily could have a royal title. While the move had no legal bearing, it sparked global interest and debate over land claims and the nature of sovereignty.

As the dad tells it, Emily had casually asked if she could be a princess, and Heaton, wanting to make her dream come true, started looking for a way to make that happen. While most parents might have gently explained the impracticality of such a request, Heaton took it as a challenge. He began researching unclaimed land where he could theoretically establish a kingdom for Emily, at the time aged six.

In June 2014, Heaton headed to northeastern Africa, reaching Bir Tawil after a challenging journey through the desert. With a homemade blue flag bearing a crown symbol and the name "Heaton," he ceremoniously planted it in the sand, declaring Bir Tawil the "Kingdom of North Sudan" and himself its king. He immediately proclaimed Emily to be a princess, therefore "granting" her the royal title she had wished for.

In 2017, Suyash Dixit, an IT entrepreneur from Indore, India, also claimed Bir Tawil as his own, naming it the "Kingdom of Dixit." After a challenging journey across the desert, he planted a flag, declared himself king, and even "appointed" his father as prime minister. He posted his claim and experience on social media, where it garnered significant attention and sparked a wave of jokes and memes.

There are rumours, though largely unsubstantiated, that Bir Tawil contains hidden gold deposits.

While Egypt and Sudan have both had ancient ties to gold mining, particularly in the Nubian Desert, Bir Tawil itself is rarely studied or mined. These rumours, however, have attracted a few treasure hunters and adventurers over the years, hoping to uncover hidden riches in the desert.

Some have even joked about Bir Tawil as a potential "backup homeland" for populations affected by natural disasters. While obviously impractical, the idea underscores the paradox of unclaimed land in a time when territorial disputes are common.

Despite several stunts and theories, Bir Tawil remains unclaimed due to a unique border dispute between Egypt and Sudan.

The journey to Bir Tawil is lengthy and can take anywhere from two days to a week, depending on the starting point, route, and conditions. Due to its isolation and extreme desert environment, the journey requires careful planning, local knowledge, and permission from authorities in Egypt or Sudan.

Most travellers begin in Aswan, Egypt, or Khartoum, Sudan, as these are the nearest large cities with transportation infrastructure. From Aswan, the trip typically involves a long desert drive heading southward toward the Egypt-Sudan border.

Both countries monitor the border area closely, with visitors needing permits and a good guide familiar with the region. Egypt, in particular, restricts movement near the border, especially in sensitive zones close to the Hala'ib Triangle.

The trip to Bir Tawil from either Egypt or Sudan covers hundreds of kilometres across remote, rugged desert terrain. Explorers often follow dirt tracks used by nomadic tribes, miners, or military patrols, though few roads are mapped or maintained. The drive can take days and usually involves off-road vehicles capable of handling deep sand and rough trails.

There are no towns, water sources, or services along the way, so travellers must bring ample water, food, fuel, and spare parts. And to make matters worse, armed gangs, smugglers, and bandits often prey upon those venturing in the desert, particularly along less-monitored routes.

The origins of this unclaimed desert stretch back to Britishcolonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when overlapping boundary lines inadvertently left Bir Tawil in a legal limbo.

In 1899, while both Egypt and Sudan were under British administration, a formal border was established along the 22nd parallel north. This placed Bir Tawil, an arid and resource-poor patch of desert, in Egyptian territory, while a more valuable area, the Hala'ib Triangle, was assigned to Sudan.

But in 1902, the British changed the boundary to fit the local tribes' movements, putting Bir Tawil in Sudan instead and giving Egypt control over the fertile Hala'ib Triangle.

When Egypt and Sudan became independent, each country wanted the Hala'ib Triangle because it has good land and access to the Red Sea.

Egypt claims it based on the 1899 line, while Sudan uses the 1902 line to support its claim. Bir Tawil, a barren desert with no resources, has no value to either country.

To claim the Hala'ib Triangle, each country must reject Bir Tawil — because they can't claim both under their chosen boundary line. So by claiming Hala'ib, they essentially "give away" Bir Tawil, leaving it unwanted.

The territory is therefore unclaimed because Egypt and Sudan only want the valuable land next to it, not Bir Tawil itself.

For now, Bir Tawil endures as a strange relic of colonial history and an unlikely symbol of modern-day geopolitics — a land still ungoverned and, in all likelihood, destined to remain unclaimed.

Source:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30658172/bir-tawil-land-that-bel ongs-to-no-nation/ (adapted)

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30658172/bir-tawil-land-that-belongs-to-no-nation/

“There is a kind of sleep that steals upon us sometimes, which, while it holds the body prisoner, does not free the mind from a sense of things about it, and enable it to ramble at its pleasure. So far as an overpowering heaviness, a prostration of strength, and an utter inability to control our thoughts or power of motion, can be called sleep, this is it; and yet we have a consciousness of all that is going on about us; and if we dream at such a time, words which are really spoken, or sounds which really exist at the moment, accommodate themselves with surprising readiness to our visions, until reality and imagination become so strangely blended that it is afterwards almost a matter of impossibility to separate the two. Nor is this, the most striking phenomenon, incidental to such a state. It is an undoubted fact, that although our senses of touch and sight be for the time dead, yet our sleeping thoughts, and the visionary scenes that pass before us, will be influenced, and materially influenced, by the mere silent presence of some external object: which may not have been near us when we closed our eyes: and of whose vicinity we have had no waking consciousness. ”

— Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

To answer question, read the article from “The New York Times” below:

How healthy is broccoli?

The dinnertime standard is a nutritional multitasker.

New York Times

By Caroline Hopkins Legaspi.

Oct. 14, 2024

Children may not want to hear this, but broccoli more than deserves its place on our plates. The florets and stems are filled with nutrients that help keep your heart and bones healthy — and may reduce the risk of cancer.

“Broccoli is a multitasking vegetable,” said Emily Ho, a professor of nutrition and the director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University: It has a range of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that give your body “a boost.”

Along with cauliflower, brussels sprouts and other cruciferous vegetables, broccoli is a source of a sulfur-based nutrient called sulforaphane. It’s the compound behind broccoli’s odor and slightly bitter flavor. It also has anticancer properties, scientists believe.

Research suggests the sulforaphane in broccoli could help your body produce more of the enzymes that get rid of toxins like air pollution and cigarette smoke, Dr. Ho said.

In addition, sulforaphane is an antioxidant that can protect your body from inflammation. The theory “is that broccoli is protecting cells from the inflammation that promotes the growth of cancer,” said Ingrid Adams, a registered dietitian and associate professor of medical dietetics at Ohio State University.

In a recent analysis, 17 out of 23 studies found associations between eating broccoli and having lower risks of common cancers, including lung, colon and breast cancer. Taken together, the studies suggested that people who ate broccoli at least once a week were 36 percent less likely to develop cancer than those who didn’t.

Still, researchers haven’t definitively proven that broccoli helps prevent cancer, said Trygve Tollefsbol, a distinguished professor of biology at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. People who regularly eat broccoli tend to have other healthy habits, too, Dr. Tollefsbol said, so studies can’t single out broccoli as the reason someone doesn’t develop a disease.

The vitamin K in broccoli helps your body regulate blood circulation and clotting, said Anna L. Fogel, a registered dietitian at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Dietary guidelines generally recommend that adult women consume around 90 micrograms and men consume around 120 micrograms of vitamin K per day. One cup of chopped raw broccoli has about 93 micrograms.

That cup of broccoli also contains a decent amount (288 milligrams) of potassium. Potassium can help lower high blood pressure, Dr. Adams said.

Broccoli is high in fiber, as well, which can lower your bad cholesterol levels and risk of coronary heart disease.

Those high levels of vitamin K could also benefit your bones, Dr. Ho said. The vitamin plays a key role in activating several of the proteins that form your bones and keep them strong.

The vitamin C in broccoli is also important here. Vitamin C helps with bone mineralization, which keeps bones from becoming brittle, in part by stimulating collagen production. One cup of raw broccoli contains more vitamin C than a cup of grapefruit.

Is there a best way to eat broccoli?

Just avoid boiling or overcooking it, the experts said.

Broccoli contains an active enzyme, called myrosinase, that’s released when you chew and digest it. Myrosinase activates the broccoli’s sulforaphane — but if you cook broccoli too long, you risk losing much of its myrosinase.

You’re fine as long as there’s still a slight crunch to the vegetable, Dr. Ho said. “If it’s not fully mushy, you still have some live cell walls, which means you still have some active enzyme.”

There’s another reason that boiling broccoli isn’t the first choice of experts: Some of broccoli’s water-soluble vitamins, like vitamin C, can leach out during the boiling process, Ms. Fogel said.

Disponível em: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/well/eat/broccoli-health-benefitsrecipes.html#:~:text=The%20dinnertime%20standard%20is%20a%20nutritional%20multitasker.&text=Children%20may%20not%20want%20to,reduce %20the%20risk%20of%20cancer. Acesso em: 10 out. 2024.

PART 1: READING COMPREHENSION

Based on the text below, answer the question.

Exercising Body and Mind at the Same Time?

New Device Lets You Read While You Run

Engineers from Purdue University have devised a new System that will facilitate a very specific type of physical and mental multitasking - helping treadmill runners to read text on a display screen.

The System, called ReadingMate, compensates for constantly bobbing eyes so runners can train for a marathon while reading their favorite novel.

"Not many people can run and read at the same time," said Ji Soo Yi, an assistant professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University. "This is because the relative location of the eyes to the text is vigorously changing, and our eyes try to constantly adjust to such changes, which is burdensome."

Instead of increasing the size of the displayed font, Yi and his colleagues decided to compensate for a runner's head motion.

"You could increase the font size and have a large-screen monitor on the wall, but that's impractical because you cannot have numerous big screen displays in an exercise room," Yi said.

According to a report on the system published recently in Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the engineers recruited 15 multitasking volunteers to perform a "letter-counting" test while jogging on a treadmill and using ReadingMate. The participants were asked to tally how many times the letter 'F' appeared in two lines of text nested in 10 lines of text that were displayed on a computer monitor.

While performing the test, the participants wore goggles equipped with infrared LEDs. An infrared camera tracked the motion of the LEDs, essentially recording the movement of the runner's head. To compensate for the head motion, the displayed text was moved as the volunteers ran along the treadmill with their heads bobbing.

The researchers found those who used the ReadingMate system performed better at multi-tasking their physical and mental assignments, particularly when it carne to reading smaller font sizes and smaller line-spaced text.

Besides aiding people with the novel task of reading while running, the researchers said their system could be used to assist airline pilots or those working in heavy industry.

"Both may experience heavy shaking and turbulence while reading information from a display," Kwon said. "ReadingMate could stabilize the content in such cases."

(Adapted from http://www.redorbit.com/news)

Read the text and answer the question.

What Happens to Your Body When You Drink Milk Every Day

Milk (and dairy in general) gets the blame for a lot of unwanted health outcomes. We're sure you've heard that dairy causes acne, increases inflammation and can even be the reason you're not losing weight. Spoiler: For those who aren't lactose-intolerant or allergic to dairy, research doesn't back up those claims. In fact, there are actually some impressive benefits that come with drinking a nutritious glass of milk.

Your Bone Health Might Improve

Not only is milk a great vegetarian protein source, but it's also packed with calcium and vitamin D—two nutrients that are vital for bone health. Calcium is a mineral needed to build and maintain strong bones, and vitamin D helps our body absorb calcium from the foods we eat. Since milk is a great source of both of thesenutrients, it's one of the best things to keep in your diet for bone health throughout life.

You Might Reach Your Weight Loss Goals

There are lots of misconceptions about how drinking milk can affect weight, but research shows regular consumption probably won't hurt your cause if you're trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. This is largely due to the satisfying combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat found in milk. Protein and fat can help make milk super filling, which can help with weight loss. Carbs give you energy and help your body function at its best. When you're more satisfied from the foods you eat, it's easier to honor your hunger and fullness levels and stick to a healthy, balanced eating pattern.

A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (the gold standard of research) published in the journal Nutrients found that including dairy in a calorie-restricted diet resulted in greater weight loss and fat loss, while reducing loss of lean muscle. This doesn't mean milk is a miracle weight-loss food, though. Another review of studies found that consuming milk or other dairy products didn't result in significant weight loss, but didn't lead to weight gain either. If your goal is to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, drinking a glass of milk each day might help, if it's a food you enjoy. You Might Lower Your Risk of Cognitive Decline

The impressive nutrition profile of milk could be a reason why it can help you stay more mentally sharp as you age. A 2021 review of studies published in Nutrition & Metabolism found that milk intake was connected with a decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Another study published in 2020 in the journal Nutrients found that skimmed dairy, fermented dairy and buttermilk were associated with better executive functioning. So adding some milk to your morning oats or as a side to a snack may help boost your brain health.

Researchers hypothesize that one reason milk might support healthy aging is the nutrition that it provides. Milk is a good source of calcium, protein and vitamin B12, all of which are critical nutrients for older adults.

The Bottom Line

If you aren't lactose-intolerant or allergic to dairy, it's totally OK to enjoy a regular glass of milk each day. From improving bone health to helping mitigate cognitive decline, drinking milk and incorporating other dairy items into your diet can come with some health benefits. As with any food, remember that moderation is key (an 8-ounce serving of milk probably wouldn't completely fill many of the glasses in your cupboard). Since there are dairy farmers all across the U.S., try choosing milk that is produced locally. Making a connection with a local farmer can help you get a better-quality product that takes less of a toll on the environment, too.

FONTE: Adapted from: https://www.eatingwell.com/article/7961444/what-happensto-your-body-if-you-drink-milk-every-day/#:~:text=Not%20only%20is% 20milk%20a,from%20the%20foods%20we%20eat.