Questões de Concursos Inglês

As regards language teaching methods, judge the following items.

One of the basic assumptions of the Grammar-Translation Method is that by learning to communicate students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language.

Based on the text above, judge the following items.
Virus writers know more about computers than hackers.

With regard to lexical understanding, check the following item as right (C) or wrong (E). In “their prospects of happiness.” (lines 17 and 18) the underlined word can be correctly replaced with chances or possibilities.

Read the text below to answer the questions 11-15. 

NASA Researchers Studying Advanced Nuclear Rocket Technologies 

January 9, 2013 

By using an innovative test facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., researchers are able to use non-nuclear materials to simulate nuclear thermal rocket fuels - ones capable of propelling bold new exploration missions to the Red Planet and beyond. The Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage team is tackling a three-year project to demonstrate the viability of nuclear propulsion system technologies. A nuclear rocket engine uses a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen to very high temperatures, which expands through a nozzle to generate thrust. Nuclear rocket engines generate higher thrust and are more than twice as efficient as conventional chemical rocket engines. 

The team recently used Marshall’s Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator, or NTREES, to perform realistic, non-nuclear testing of various materials for nuclear thermal rocket fuel elements. In an actual reactor, the fuel elements would contain uranium, but no radioactive materials are used during the NTREES tests. Among the fuel options are a graphite composite and a “cermet” composite - a blend of ceramics and metals. Both materials were investigated in previous NASA and U.S. Department of Energy research efforts. 

Nuclear-powered rocket concepts are not new; the United States conducted studies and significant ground testing from 1955 to 1973 to determine the viability of nuclear propulsion systems, but ceased testing when plans for a crewed Mars mission were deferred. 

The NTREES facility is designed to test fuel elements and materials in hot flowing hydrogen, reaching pressures up to 1,000 pounds per square inch and temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit - conditions that simulate space-based nuclear propulsion systems to provide baseline data critical to the research team.

“This is vital testing, helping us reduce risks and costs associated with advanced propulsion technologies and ensuring excellent performance and results as we progress toward further system development and testing,” said Mike Houts, project manager for nuclear systems at Marshall. 

A first-generation nuclear cryogenic propulsion system could propel human explorers to Mars more efficiently than conventional spacecraft, reducing crews’ exposure to harmful space radiation and other effects of long-term space missions. It could also transport heavy cargo and science payloads. Further development and use of a first-generation nuclear system could also provide the foundation for developing extremely advanced propulsion technologies and systems in the future - ones that could take human crews even farther into the solar system. 

Building on previous, successful research and using the NTREES facility, NASA can safely and thoroughly test simulated nuclear fuel elements of various sizes, providing important test data to support the design of a future Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. A nuclear cryogenic upper stage - its liquid- hydrogen propellant chilled to super-cold temperatures for launch - would be designed to be safe during all mission phases and would not be started until the spacecraft had reached a safe orbit and was ready to begin its journey to a distant destination. Prior to startup in a safe orbit, the nuclear system would be cold, with no fission products generated from nuclear operations, and with radiation below significant levels. 

“The information we gain using this test facility will permit engineers to design rugged, efficient fuel elements and nuclear propulsion systems,” said NASA researcher Bill Emrich, who manages the NTREES facility at Marshall. “It’s our hope that it will enable us to develop a reliable, cost-effective nuclear rocket engine in the not-too-distant future." 

The Nuclear Cryogenic Propulsion Stage project is part of the Advanced Exploration Systems program, which is managed by NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and includes participation by the U.S. Department of Energy. The program, which focuses on crew safety and mission operations in deep space, seeks to pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future vehicle development and human missions beyond Earth orbit. 

Marshall researchers are partnering on the project with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls; Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. 

The Marshall Center leads development of the Space Launch System for NASA. The Science & Technology Office at Marshall strives to apply advanced concepts and capabilities to the research, development and management of a broad spectrum of NASA programs, projects and activities that fall at the very intersection of science and exploration, where every discovery and achievement furthers scientific knowledge and understanding, and supports the agency’s ambitious mission to expand humanity’s reach across the solar system. The NTREES test facility is just one of numerous cutting-edge space propulsion and science research facilities housed in the state-of- the-art Propulsion Research & Development Laboratory at Marshall, contributing to development of the Space Launch System and a variety of other NASA programs and missions. 

Available in: http://www.nasa.gov 
 
Read the excerpt below taken from the text. 

“The program, which focuses on crew safety and mission operations in deep space, seeks to pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future vehicle development and human missions beyond Earth orbit.” 

Choose the alternative that presents the words that best substitutes, respectively, the bold and underlined ones in the sentences above

Having in mind the established rules for the formation of comparative forms, judge the following items.

Gisele Bündchen is at least 20 centimeters taller that the average Brazilian man.

       When investigators try to discover what caused an airliner to crash, the first thing they hope to find are the flight data recorders, popularly known as “black boxes”. These devices, usually painted bright orange, record how the aircraft was flying and the last 30 minutes or so of conversation in the cockpit. The information extracted from them has helped to determine the cause of air crashes and to improve aviation safety. Similar recording systems are fitted to some trains, ships and lorries. Now a bill in America’s Congress seeks to make it compulsory for data recorders to be fitted to all cars by 2015.
       The idea is that data captured by the recorders would give investigators and road-safety officials a better understanding of how certain crashes come about.
Internet: <www.economist.com> (adapted).
 
Based on the text, judge the items below.

Every train, ship and lorry in the U.S. is now equipped with data recording systems similar to the ones used in aircrafts.

Consider the following sentences:

1."The teacher encouraged her students to read aloud every day".
2."Reading aloud every day, the teacher encouraged her students".

What syntactic difference between these two sentences impacts their interpretation?

In 2013, agents rescued 337 children and took 964 alleged predators __________ the street. 

According to text LI-I, software systems are becoming more complex.

With regard to verb tenses and verb forms, judge the items below.

The sentence “I wouldn’t have to deal with pollution if I lived in the countryside” describes a real present situation.

The verb “reduce" in “reduce capital intensity" (l. 7) has the same meaning as:

About ideas stated in the text above and the words used in it, judge the following item.

There are places in the world where wind power works well in freezing temperatures.