Questões de Concursos Inglês

Judge the following items, which refer to text tipology.

A deep freeze this week in the Lone Star state, which relies on electricity to heat many homes, is causing power demand to skyrocket. At the same time, natural gas, coal, wind and nuclear facilities in Texas have been knocked offline by the unthinkably low temperatures.

“The extreme cold is causing the entire system to freeze up,” said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “All sources of energy are underperforming in the extreme cold because they’re not designed to handle these unusual conditions.”

The ripple effects are being felt around the nation as Texas’ prolific oil-and-gas industry stumbles.

It’s striking that these power outages are happening in a state with abundant energy resources. Texas produces more electricity than any other US state — generating almost twice as much as Florida, the next-closest, according to federal statistics.

Wind power is also booming in Texas, which produced about 28% of all the US wind-powered electricity in 2019, the EIA said. But the problem is that not only is Texas an energy superpower, it tends to be an above-average temperature state. That means its infrastructure is ill-prepared for the cold spell currently wreaking havoc. And the consequences are being felt by millions.

Critics of renewable energy have pointed out that wind turbines have frozen or needed to be shut down due to the extreme weather.

Even though other places with colder weather (like Iowa and Denmark) rely on wind for even larger shares of power, experts said the turbines in Texas were not winterized for the unexpected freeze.

But this is not just about wind turbines going down. Natural gas and coal-fired power plants need water to stay online. Yet those water facilities froze in the cold temperatures and others lost access to the electricity they require to operate.

It’s too early to definitively say what went wrong in Texas and how to prevent similar outages. More information will need to be released by state authorities. Still, some experts say the criticism of wind power appears overdone already. “In terms of the blame game, the focus on wind is a red herring. It’s more of a political issue than what is causing the power problems on the grid,” said Dan Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.

The energy crisis in Texas raises also questions about the nature of the state’s deregulated and decentralized electric grid. Unlike other states, Texas has made a conscious decision to isolate its grid from the rest of the country.

That means that when things are running smoothly, Texas can’t export excess power to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, it can’t import power either.

Internet: <www.cnn.com> (adapted).

A deep freeze this week in the Lone Star state, which relies on electricity to heat many homes, is causing power demand to skyrocket. At the same time, natural gas, coal, wind and nuclear facilities in Texas have been knocked offline by the unthinkably low temperatures.

“The extreme cold is causing the entire system to freeze up,” said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “All sources of energy are underperforming in the extreme cold because they’re not designed to handle these unusual conditions.”

The ripple effects are being felt around the nation as Texas’ prolific oil-and-gas industry stumbles.

It’s striking that these power outages are happening in a state with abundant energy resources. Texas produces more electricity than any other US state — generating almost twice as much as Florida, the next-closest, according to federal statistics.

Wind power is also booming in Texas, which produced about 28% of all the US wind-powered electricity in 2019, the EIA said. But the problem is that not only is Texas an energy superpower, it tends to be an above-average temperature state. That means its infrastructure is ill-prepared for the cold spell currently wreaking havoc. And the consequences are being felt by millions.

Critics of renewable energy have pointed out that wind turbines have frozen or needed to be shut down due to the extreme weather.

Even though other places with colder weather (like Iowa and Denmark) rely on wind for even larger shares of power, experts said the turbines in Texas were not winterized for the unexpected freeze.

But this is not just about wind turbines going down. Natural gas and coal-fired power plants need water to stay online. Yet those water facilities froze in the cold temperatures and others lost access to the electricity they require to operate.

It’s too early to definitively say what went wrong in Texas and how to prevent similar outages. More information will need to be released by state authorities. Still, some experts say the criticism of wind power appears overdone already. “In terms of the blame game, the focus on wind is a red herring. It’s more of a political issue than what is causing the power problems on the grid,” said Dan Cohan, associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University.

The energy crisis in Texas raises also questions about the nature of the state’s deregulated and decentralized electric grid. Unlike other states, Texas has made a conscious decision to isolate its grid from the rest of the country.

That means that when things are running smoothly, Texas can’t export excess power to neighboring states. And in the current crisis, it can’t import power either.

Internet: <www.cnn.com> (adapted).

Para as questões 36 e 37, leia o texto abaixo.

Advice for new students from those who know (old students)
The first day of college I was a ball of nerves. I remember
walking into my first class and running to the first seat I
found, thinking everyone would be staring at me. But
nobody seemed to notice and then it hit me: The fact that
nobody knew me meant nobody would judge, which, upon
reflection, was what I was scared of the most. I told myself
to let go. All along the year, I forced myself into situations
that were uncomfortable for me – for example, auditioning
for a dance piece. Believe it or not, that performance was a
highlight of my freshman year. My advice: challenge
yourself to try something new, something you couldn’t have
done in high school. – Ria Jagasia, Vanderbilt University,
’18.

(Adaptado de http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/ education/edlife/
advice-for-new-students-from-those-who-know-old-students.html?ref=
edlife.)

Leia o trecho abaixo e responda às questões de 36 a 40.
Life and the Movies
Joey Potter looked at her friend Dawson Leery and she smiled sadly.
"Life isn?t like a movie, Dawson," she said. "We can?t write happy endings to all our relationships."
Joey was a pretty girl with long brown hair. Both Joey and Dawson were nearly sixteen years old. The two teenagers had problems. All teenagers have the same problems – life, love, school work, and parents. It isn?t easy to become an adult.
Dawson loved movies. He had always loved movies. He took film classes in school. He made short movies himself. Dawson wanted to be a film director. His favorite director was Steven Spielberg. Dawson spent a lot of his free time filming with his video camera. He loved watching videos of great movies from the past. Most evenings, he watched movies with Joey.
"These days, Dawson always wants us to behave like people in movies," Joey thought. And life in the little seaside town of Capeside wasn?t like the movies.
Joey looked at the handsome, blond boy who was sitting next to her. She thought about the years of their long friendship. They were best friends...

As questões 79 e 80 referem–se ao texto a seguir.

A team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference. Scientists found that when mice ate at unusual hours, they put on twice as much weight, despite exercising and eating as much as the other mice. The study, in the journal Obesity, is said to be the first to show directly that there is a "wrong" time to eat. Recent studies have suggested that circadian rhythms, the body?s internal clock, have a role in how our bodies use up energy. However, this had been difficult to prove definitively.
Deanna Arble, the main author of the study, said: "One of our research interests is shift workers¹, who tend to be overweight. This got us thinking that eating at the wrong time of day might be contributing to weight gain".
The researchers looked at two groups of mice over a six–week period. Both groups were fed a high–fat diet, but at different times of the mice "waking cycle". One group of mice ate at times when they would normally be asleep. They put on twice as much weight. This was despite the fact that they did the same level of activity, and ate the same amount of food, as the other mice. The researchers believe that the findings may have implications for people worried about their weight.

¹ shift workers = people who work at night

(http//www.bbc.co.uk – 08/09/2009. Adapted.)

READ TEXT I AND ANSWER QUESTIONS 21 TO 25:

TEXT I

The integral approach strategies adopted by
Favela-Bairro consist of proposals of integrated and
participative actions. The path that goes from welfare
to work should combine programs and services for
human and social development with labor and incomegeneration
opportunities. To be viable, however, social
promotion interventions should be focused on
geographical areas with a high concentration of poverty,
specifically on the poorest families.
An intersectoral decentralized and participative
approach can produce synergetic effects capable of
providing greater impact for poverty and inequality
reduction policies, and capable of contributing to their
sustainability.
Although Favela-Bairro has been based on the idea
of integrated urban infrastructure interventions, initially
the program did not incorporate all the basic components
of an integral approach strategy. These components
weregradually incorporated into its design as a result
of the participatory process and the transformations
that occurred in the municipal administration.
Favela-Bairro is the result of an evolving process
that resulted in the creation of a typical integral
development model with a territorial base that
incorporates life-cycle perspectives.
Rio de Janeiro inhabitants, either living in favelas
or not, recognize the importance of the Favela-Bairro
program. A public opinion poll carried out in 2003 asked
cariocas (as Rio residents are called) to choose from
a list of governmental programs the one to which the
next mayor should give priority. Favela-Bairro was
chosen in first place in all three rounds of the survey.
The same institute asked respondents about the most
important project for the city, and again Favela-Bairro
ranked first: 26.1 percent of respondents have elected
Favela-Bairro as more important than programs such
as minimum income, popularrestaurants, and even
essential works in major city roads.

(www.worldbank.org on September 10, 2005)