Questões de Concursos Inglês

Leia o trecho abaixo e responda às questões de 41 a 45.

Brazilian Forces Claim Victory in Gang Haven

RIO DE JANEIRO – In a quick and decisive military operation, Brazilian security forces took control of this city?s most notorious slum on Sunday, celebrating victory over drug gangs after a weeklong battle.
In the early afternoon, the military police raised the flags of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro atop a building on the highest hill in the Alemão shantytown complex, providing a rare moment of happiness and celebration in a decades–long battle to rid this city?s violent slums of drug gangs. An air of calm and relief swept through the neighborhood, as residents opened their windows and began walking the streets. Dozens of children ran from their houses in shorts and bikinis to jump into a swimming pool that used to belong to a gang leader. Residents congregated around televisions in bars and restaurants, cheering for the police as if they were cheering for their favorite soccer teams. "Now the community is ours," Jovelino Ferreira, a 60–year–old pastor, said, his eyes filling with tears. "This time it will be different. We have to have faith. Many people who didn?t deserve have suffered here."

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).

Read the text below to answer questions 13–15.

Margarine vs. butter: are synthetic spreads toast?

Sales of margarine are in decline, due to a combination of reformulated recipes, price, health and taste. Do you defend margarine, or is butter simply better?
Butter vs. margarine: it?s a fight that has gone on for decades. On one side, there?s butter — rich, creamy, defiantly full–fat and made for millennia by churning the milk or cream from cattle. On the other, there?s margarine: the arriviste spread invented in the 1860s. It might not taste delicious, and it doesn?t sink into your toast like butter, but for decades margarine has ridden a wave of success as the "healthy" alternative.
No longer. Sales of margarine have plummeted in the last year, according to Kantar, with "health" spreads dropping 7.4% in sales. Flora has been particularly badly hit, losing £24m in sales, partly due to reformulating its recipe.
Meanwhile, butter is back in vogue. Brits bought 8.7% more blocks of butter last year, and 6% more spreadable tubs. This is partly due to the "narrowing price gap between butter and margarine", Tim Eales of IRI told The Grocer, but also to the home baking revival led by Mary Berry, Paul Hollywood and co. We?re all sticking unsalted butter in our sponges these days.
A yen for natural, unprocessed produce could also be a factor. "Since all the food scandals of the last 10 years, people are thinking about where their food comes from — butter is perceived as ?pure?", says food writer Signe Johansen. But is margarine really out for the count? Big brands are owned by powerful multinationals such as Unilever, with huge marketing budgets. Don?t rule spreads out just yet.
Margarine was invented in 1869 by a French food scientist, Hippolyte Mège–Mouriès, who responded to a challenge by Napoleon III. Napoleon wanted to find a long–life alternative to butter to feed troops in the Franco–Prussian war. Mège–Mouriès mixed skimmed milk, water and beef fat to create a substance similar to butter in texture, if not in taste. He called it "oleomargarine" after margarites, the Greek word for pearls — a reference to its pearly sheen. In 1871 he sold the patent to Jurgens, a Dutch firm now part of Unilever.
Beef fat was soon replaced by cheaper hydrogenated and non–hydrogenated vegetable oils. "Margarine gained a foothold during the first world war", says food writer and historian Bee Wilson. "George Orwell wrote of the ?great war? that what he remembered most was not all the deaths but all the margarine. But at this stage people recognized it was an inferior substitute for butter: an ersatz food, like drinking chicory instead of coffee."
In the second world war, British margarine brands were legally required to add vitamins to their recipes. "The move in status to margarine as a health food, marketing itself as a superior alternative, happened after the war", says Wilson. Added "healthy" extras — vitamins, omega–3s, unpronounceables that lower your cholesterol — are still a mainstay of the market.
But while margarine has spent decades fighting butter on the health front, what about taste? "Margarine has never been able to replicate the flavour of true butter", says Johansen. This despite the fact many brands add milk and cream to their spreads. "I Can?t Believe It?s Not Butter"? Really? I can.
Unsurprisingly, it?s hard to find a defendant of margarine among food writers and chefs. One of the few exceptions is Marguerite Patten, who is a fan of baking with Stork® . Indeed, Stork® does make for wonderfully crisp shortcrust pastry.
Margarine has taken a bashing on the health front in recent years, too. Negative press about trans fats in the 00s saw many brands remove hydrogenated fats from their spreads and reformulate their recipes. Growing suspicion of processed foods has led many consumers to return to butter. As Johansen puts it: "If you want a healthy heart, eat more vegetables."
And yet, and yet. I?m looking at a tub of Pure Dairy–Free Soya Spread. It contains 14g saturated fat per 100g, compared to butter?s 54%. For many consumers, such stats still outweigh taste when it comes to deciding what?s on their toast. And what about vegans, and those with lactose intolerance? Margarine can fulfill needs that butter can?t.
It will never win any taste awards, but there is still a place for margarine on the supermarket shelves — even if there isn?t one for it in most food lovers? fridges.
Margarine vs. butter: are synthetic spreads toast? Adapted. Available in:http://www.guardian.co.uk