Questões de Concursos Inglês

Text 3

If you visit Japan, you might choose to travel around the country by shinkansen train. These high-speed trains connect the major cities of Japan. They are nicknamed “bullet trains” because they go very fast and have pointy noses like a bullet.

Bullet trains are a good way to travel for several reasons other than their speed. They are very punctual, often leaving on time to the second. They are also comfortable. All the seats face forward, and there is plenty of leg room. Most importantly, bullet trains are very safe. In their 35-year history, there have been only a few accidents and no deaths.

The only downside to bullet trains is that they are expensive. A ticket to travel to another city can cost almost as much as an airline ticket would. However, if you fly, you will land at an airport at the edge of a city. Train stations are usually right in the middle of a city. This means that it is often more convenient to take a bullet train instead of flying, because you will arrive exactly where you want to be.

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2009 the American population was 80% white, 16% Hispanic 13% African-American, 5% Asian, 1% American Indian and 0.2% Native Hawaiian. It is important to note that each race contains various ethnic groups, and that the large numbers of the ethnic population can be credited to the significant immigrant population. Geographically, in the South as well as West, there are specific areas that have large portions of the total population that are a minority. Notably, close to half of the people in the West was a minority in 2010. California emerges as the state that contains the largest minority population at 22.3 million. Additionally, the years between 2000 and 2010, Texas joined California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii as well as New Mexico in having the largest population of the minority. Additionally, the examination of racial as well as ethnic group distributions countrywide assert that while the non-Hispanic white alone population is still the largest major race in the United States, it is growing at the slowest rate. On the other hand, the Hispanic and Asian populations have grown extensively in part because of moderately higher levels of immigration.

Culture is the lens with which individuals in a society assess everything around them, therefore. Cultural diversity matters because culture enables people to analyze what is proper or improper, what is viewed as normal or insane. Notably, when one encounters or associates himself with a culture that is not his, he may get a shock or get disoriented due to the different culture. Therefore, most individuals employ their culture as a basis to judge other cultures, thus the risk of people beginning to discriminate other’s way of life. Thus the need for cultural diversity, America as a country, as workplaces, as schools gradually consist of people of various cultural, racial as well as ethnic groups. Hence, as a diverse society, we can learn from one another, acknowledge different perspectives within the world in which we live, eliminate negative stereotypes, and personal biases regarding different groups.

(Available In: https://collegeessay.org. Adapted.)

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No one who speaks English has any difficulty understanding the meaning of a sentence like ‘It’s warm in here’. We all recognise that it is a comment on the temperature in some place or other. But why it is being said, and what the speaker wishes to convey by saying it, depends entirely on two things: the context in which it is said and what the speaker wants people to understand (...) The meaning of language depends on where it occurs within a larger stretch of discourse, and thus the relationship that the different language elements have with what comes before and after them. In other words, speakers and writers have to be able to operate with more than just words and grammar; they have to be able to string utterances together.

Our ability to function properly in conversation or writing depends not only on reacting to the context in which we are using the language, but also on the relationship between words and ideas in longer texts.

Words can also mean more than one thing, for example, ‘book’ (= something to read, to reserve, a list of bets, etc.), ‘beat’ (= to win, to hit, to mix, e.g. an egg, the ‘pulse’ of music/a heart) and ‘can’ (= ability, permission, probability – and a container made of metal). Notice that, in these examples, not only can the same form have many meanings, but it can also be different parts of speech.

With so many available meanings for words and grammatical forms, it is the context the word occurs in which determines which of these meanings is being referred to. If we say, ‘I beat him because I ran faster than he did’, ‘beat’ is likely to mean won rather than physically assaulted or mixed (though there is always the possibility of ambiguity, of course).

(Harmer, 1998. Adaptado)

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Structure of education in Singapore

The complete control and management of Singapore’s education is in the hands of the Ministry of Education (MOE). With continuous endeavour from MOE, today Singapore can be considered to have a strong and well-reputed education system. As per recent study Singapore is ranked fourth in terms of World’s Best Education System.

The preschools are run by the private sector, including religious bodies, community foundations, business groups, etc. However, every preschool need to register itself with the Singapore Ministry of Education before being functional.

After completion of 6 years of primary education, students have to appear for a Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE). All those students who passed the exam are admitted in a secondary level course, which is usually completed in 4-5 years. It is similar to attending seventh grade through tenth grade in the American education system.

After completion of the secondary education, the students need to appear in Singaporean GCE ‘O’ Level exam. Based on the merit in that exam, students proceed to pre-university education, which is similar to attending eleventh grade and twelfth grade as per the American education system. At this level students can opt for a wide range of subjects from varied academic areas covering Humanities, Arts and Languages, Sciences and Mathematics streams.

www.singaporeeducation.info/Education-System/ Structure-of-Education