Questões de Concursos Inglês

(ESPM SP/2010)

TV Will Save the World
By Charles Kenny

‘Forget Twitter and Facebook, Google and the Kindle. Forget the latest sleek iGadget. Television is still the most influential medium around. Indeed, for many of the poorest regions of the world, it remains the next big thing – poised, finally, to attain truly global ubiquity. And that is a good thing, because the TV revolution is changing lives for the better.

Across the developing world, around 45% of households had a TV in 1995; by 2005 the number had climbed above 60%. That’s some way behind the U.S., where there are more TVs than people, but it dwarfs worldwide Internet access. Five million more households in sub-Saharan Africa will get a TV over the next five years. In 2005, after the fall of the Taliban, which had outlawed TV, 1 in 5 Afghans had one. The global total is another 150 million by 2013 – pushing the numbers to well beyond two-thirds of households.

Television’s most transformative impact will be on the lives of women. In India, researchers Robert Jensen and Emily Oster found that when cable TV reached villages, women were more likely to go to the market without their husbands’ permission and less likely to want a boy rather than a girl. They were more likely to make decisions over child health care and less likely to think that men had the right to beat their wives. TV is also a powerful medium for adult education. In the Indian state of Gujarat, Chitrageet is a hugely popular show that plays Bollywood song and dance clips. The routines are subtitled in Gujarati. Within six months, viewers had made a small but significant improvement in their reading skills.

Too much TV has been associated with violence, obesity and social isolation. But TV is having a positive impact on the lives of billions worldwide, and as the spread of mobile TV, video cameras and YouTube democratize both access and content, it will become an even greater force for humbling tyrannical governments and tyrannical husbands alike.

(Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2010 http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1971133_1971110_1971118,00.html)

Your answers to questions 28 to 30 must be based on
the text below entitled "The real medicine":

The real medicine
Source: Newsweek (adapted)
Oct 17th 2005

People who survive a heart attack often
describe it as a wake-up call. But for a 61-year old
executive I met recently, it was more than that. This
man was in the midst of a divorce when he was
stricken last spring, and he had fallen out of touch
with friends and family members. The executive´s
doctor, unaware of the strife in his life, counseled him
to change his diet, start exercising and quit smoking.
He also prescribed drugs to lower cholesterol and
blood pressure. It was sound advice, but in combing
the medical literature, the patient discovered that he
needed to do more. Studies suggested that his risk of
dying within six months would be four times greater
if he remained depressed and lonely. So he joined
a support group and reordered his priorities, placing
relationships atthe top of the list instead of the bottom.
His health has improved steadily since then, and so
has his outlook on life. In fact he now describes his
heart attack as the best thing that ever happened to
him. "Yes, my arteries are more open," he says. "But
even more important, I´m more open."

O texto a seguir é referência para as questões 77 a 80.
School Curriculum Falls Short on Bigger Lessons
By Tara PARKER-POPE
Now that children are back in the classroom, are they really learning the lessons that will help them succeed?
Many child development experts worry that the answer may be no. They say the ever-growing emphasis on academic performance and test scores means many children aren?t developing life skills like self-control, motivation, focus and resilience, which are far better predictors of long-term success than high grades. And it may be distorting their and their parents? values.
In one set of studies, children who solved math puzzles were praised for their intelligence or for their hard work. The first group actually did worse on subsequent tests, or took an easy way out, shunning difficult problems. The research suggests that praise for a good effort encourages harder work, while children who are consistently told they are smart do not know what to do when confronted with a difficult problem or reading assignment.
Academic achievement can certainly help children succeed, and for parents there can be a fine line between praising effort and praising performance. Words need to be chosen carefully: Instead of saying, "I?m so proud you got an ?A? on your test", a better choice is "I?m so proud of you for studying so hard". Both replies rightly celebrate the ?A?, but the second focuses on the effort that produced it, encouraging the child to keep trying in the future.
Praise outside of academics matters, too. Instead of asking your child how many points she scored on the basketball court, say, "Tell me about the game. Did you have fun? Did you play hard?". Parents also need to teach their children that they do not have to be good at everything, and there is something to be learned when a child struggles or gets a poor grade despite studying hard. One strategy is to teach children that the differences between easy and difficult subjects can provide useful information about their goals and interests. Subjects they enjoy and excel in may become the focus of their careers. Challenging but interesting classes or sports can become hobbies.

(Adapted from www.nyt.com)