Questões de Concursos

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While plastic refuse littering beaches and oceans draws high-profile attention, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Assessment of agricultural plastics and their sustainability: a call for action suggests that the land we use to grow our food is contaminated with even larger quantities of plastic pollutants. “Soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics and are known to contain larger quantities of microplastics than oceans”, FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo said in the report’s foreword.

According to data collated by FAO experts, agricultural value chains each year use 12.5 million tonnes of plastic products while another 37.3 million are used in food packaging. Crop production and livestock accounted for 10.2 million tonnes per year collectively, followed by fisheries and aquaculture with 2.1 million, and forestry with 0.2 million tonnes. Asia was estimated to be the largest user of plastics in agricultural production, accounting for almost half of global usage. Moreover, without viable alternatives, plastic demand in agriculture is only set to increase. As the demand for agricultural plastic continues surge, Ms. Semedo underscored the need to better monitor the quantities that “leak into the environment from agriculture”.

Since their widespread introduction in the 1950s, plastics have become ubiquitous. In agriculture, plastic products greatly help productivity, such as in covering soil to reduce weeds; nets to protect and boost plant growth, extend cropping seasons and increase yields; and tree guards, which protect young plants and trees from animals and help provide a growth-enhancing microclimate. However, of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastics produced before 2015, almost 80 per cent had never been properly disposed of. While the effects of large plastic items on marine fauna have been well documented, the impacts unleashed during their disintegration potentially affect entire ecosystems.

(https://news.un.org, 07.12.2021. Adaptado.)

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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)

Climate change poses significant challenges to cattle farming, a sector vital to global food security. Among the most pressing concerns is the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts. Reduced rainfall diminishes pasture quality and availability, limiting feed for livestock and increasing water scarcity. This can lead to decreased animal growth rates, reduced milk production, and increased mortality rates. Moreover, prolonged droughts can contribute to desertification, shrinking available grazing land and forcing farmers to adopt costly alternative feeding strategies.

Beyond drought, other climate-related impacts include heat stress, which can significantly impact animal health and productivity. Rising temperatures can exacerbate heat stress, leading to decreased feed intake, reduced fertility, and increased mortality in livestock. Furthermore, extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall and flooding, can cause infrastructure damage, contaminate water sources, and lead to the loss of livestock.

The cattle farming sector itself contributes to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, primarily methane produced during animal digestion and nitrous oxide from manure management. Deforestation for pasture expansion also releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide.

To address these challenges, a multi-pronged approach is crucial.

• Genetic selection: Breeding programs focused on developing drought-resistant livestock breeds are vital. and heat-tolerant

• Sustainable feeding strategies: Implementing precision feeding techniques, improving feed efficiency, and exploring alternative drought-resistant forage livestock resilience. feed sources, varieties, such as can enhance

• Integrated farming systems: Integrating crop and livestock production, such as through agroforestry systems, can improve soil health, enhance water retention, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• Technological innovations: Utilizing technologies such as precision livestock farming, remote sensing for pasture monitoring, and renewable energy sources can improve resource efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint of cattle production.

Furthermore, strong policy support, including incentives for sustainable farming practices, investments in research and development, and improved access to climate information services, are essential for the long-term sustainability of the cattle farming sector.

Addressing the challenges posed by climate change requires a collaborative effort involving farmers, researchers, policymakers, and consumers. By embracing innovative solutions, prioritizing sustainable practices, and fostering a collective understanding of the importance of climate-resilient livestock production, we can ensure a future when this vital sector continues to thrive while minimizing its environmental impact.

Internet:<conafer.org.br> (adapted).

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Valdivia Figurines and the appeal of 'the oldest'

(1º§) The logo for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture website is about my favourite thing of the afternoon which is saying a lot since I spent much of the day reading about giant Olmec heads. Three Valdivia Figurines in the colours of the Ecuadorian flag? I am sold! Golly, I love Valdivia figurines for all the right and all the wrong reasons.

(2º§) There are two things that can easily be said about Valdivia figurines: they are VERY Ecuadorian and they are VERY looted. The first explains why they appear prominently on the Ministry of Culture website (and on stencilled graffiti around Quito circa 2007). Ancient Ecuador has played second fiddle to Ancient Peru since the early days of archaeology. The Valdivia culture, however, represents something that Peru doesn't have, 'the oldest'. Everyone loves 'the oldest', national pride, etc. etc.

(3º§) Who else loves 'the oldest'? Collectors and Museums. If the Valdivia pottery sequence is the oldest in the new world, collectors want a slice of that pie. Heck, even better than some junky pottery, the Valdivia made interesting figurines: lovely ladies that look good on stark black backgrounds in auction catalogues. They are part of 'the oldest' yet they also look good.

(4º§) Valdivia sites are famously looted and Valdivia figurines are famously faked. A few years back I started doing some initial work into looting in Ecuador (which led to fieldwork in Quito and the cloud forest that didn't really go anywhere as of yet) and I, like anyone else going down that road, came across Bruhns and Hammond's 1983 Journal of Field Archaeology piece 'A Visit to Valdivia'. Knowing nothing at all about Ecuador at the time, I had never heard of Valdivia, a wonder since the only Ecuadorian archaeology books that Cambridge owns are a few by the late Betty Meggars and Emilio Estrada from the 1950s and 1960s which link uber-ancient Ecuador to Jomon Period Japan (yeah...I know). As Bruhns and Hammond relate, Meggars detected faking at Valdivia immediately after the start of her excavations: practical jokers who discovered a market for their copies. As the market for the pieces grew, the presumed fakes get more and more elaborate and fanciful...and Valdivia sites were just looted to pieces.

(5º§) So really with Valdivia we are left with a situation where we don't know what is real. It is directly comparable to the Cycladic Figurine problem: the corpus is mostly looted, it contains tons of forms not found in the limited archaeological excavations that have been conducted, and we intellectual consumers of artefacts don't know what to believe. To me Valdivia figurines are the perfect looting Catch 22: they warrant study so that the interested public can learn about 'the oldest', but they can't be studied because collectors wanted 'the oldest' so sites were looted and buckets of fakes were produced.

(6º§) In 2007 I bought a fake Valdivia figurine in Otavalo which now stands in a Spondylus shell on my counter and watches me cook. The fella selling it to me told me it was real. I knew it wasn't but made to put it back saying something along the lines that law breaking makes me sick. He quickly agreed that it wasn't real and cut his asking price by a ton. Que Sera. Three cheers, Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture, your logo is the best.

https://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2012/09/valdivia-figurines-a

nd-appeal-of-oldest.html

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The last century of language teaching history, operating within this theory-practice, researcher teacher dichotomy, has not been completely devoid of dialogue between the two sides. We moved in and out of paradigms (Kuhn, 1970) as inadequacies of the old ways of doing things were replaced by better ways. These trends in language teaching were partly the result of teachers and researchers communicating with each other.

The custom of leaving theory to researchers and practice to teachers has become, in Clarke’s (1994) words, “dysfunctional”. What is becoming clearer in this profession now is the importance of viewing the process of language instruction as a cooperative dialog among many technicians, each endowed with special skills, such as program developing, textbook writing, measuring variables of acquisition, designing experiments, and the list goes on.

We are all practitioners and we are all theorists. Whenever that understanding calls for putting together diverse bits and pieces of knowledge, you are doing some theory building. Or, if you have observed some learners in classrooms and you discern common threads of process among them, you have created a theory. And whenever you, in the role of a teacher, ask pertinent questions about Second Language Acquisition (SLA), you are beginning the process of research that can lead to a theoretical statement.

(Brown, H.D. 2006. Adaptado)

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Text I

More More More: What Is Money Dysmorphia?

Do you ever worry that you don't have enough money, even though your bank account suggests you're doing fine? You might be experiencing "money dysmorphia.” This is a term for when a person has a distorted view of their financial situation — particularly when a wealthy person believes they don't have enough money to be secure. The idea is similar to body dysmorphia, where a person agonizes about flaws they perceive in their body, even if they are not noticeable to others.

American lawyer and financial expert Ali Katz may have been the first to use the term, having written about money dysmorphia extensively in 2016. But it wasn't until late 2023 that it started trending. Because, as it turns out, the feeling can be pretty common — especially among young people.

In August 2023, Bloomberg published the results of a survey of over 1,000 Americans making over $175,000 a year. And while earning this much would put these people among the 10% richest in the country, a quarter of them said they felt "very poor," "poor,” or that they were just managing to get by.

In addition, a December 2023 survey for Intuit Credit Karma found that, out of 1,006 Americans, 29% experienced money dysmorphia — which the survey defined as "having a distorted view of one's finances that could lead them to make poor decisions.” That figure rose to 41% among millennials, who are usually defined as those born between 1981 and 1996. And it was 43% among Generation Z, typically considered to have been born between 1997 and 2012.

Some believe social media is to blame. With Instagram and TikTok full of influencers flaunting lavish lifestyles, it's understandable that young people might feel insecure about their own financial situations. And as well as causing stress, money dysmorphia might make people stay in jobs they don't like, or choose work over spending time with their families.

Speaking to Business Insider, Katz said it's important to actually calculate how much is enough for you — and "know the difference between what you need and what you want."

Adapted from: https://engoo.com.br/app/dailynews/article/more-more-more-what-is-moneydysmorphia/eMBHgsr7Ee6RxDeDj30Epw

Text 2

Autism Teaching Methods: Applied

Behavior Analysis and Verbal Behavior

Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, is a method of teaching children with autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. It is based on the premise that appropriate behavior – including speech, academics and life skills – can be taught using scientific principles.

ABA assumes that children are more likely to repeat behaviors or responses that are rewarded (or “reinforced”), and they are less likely to continue behaviors that are not rewarded. Eventually, the reinforcement is reduced so that the child can learn without constant rewards.

Research shows that ABA works for kids with autism. “Thirty years of research demonstrated the efficacy of applied behavioral methods in reducing inappropriate behavior and in increasing communication, learning, and appropriate social behavior,” according to a U.S. Surgeon General’s Report.

The most well-known form of ABA is discrete trial training (DTT). Skills are broken down into the smallest tasks and taught individually. Discrete, or separate, trials may be used to teach eye contact, imitation, fine motor skills, self-help, academics, language and conversation. Students start with learning small skills, and gradually learn more complicated skills as each smaller one is mastered. […]

Source adapted from:

www.teaching-methods-childrens-with-autism

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Abstract

Over the past few decades, South Korean culture has gained popularity worldwide. Since the 1990s, government-led cultural policies have transitioned from focusing on economic strategy to national branding and soft power and have had a positive impact on the domestic ecosystem of cultural industry and contributed to promoting South Korea abroad. There are three aspects contributing to the development of South Korean soft power—the successful history with economic development and democratization, the development of creative content that led to global competitiveness due to the compressed growth experience and the limited domestic market, and the development of digital technology, especially the change in the media environment. However, this increased soft power is still limited as a tool to handle problems facing South Korea, mainly because of the nation’s geopolitical situation. South Korea should pay more attention to active participation in specific global agendas— especially in development and cooperation, emerging technology, and human rights issues. As a beneficiary of the existing liberal international order, South Korea achieved a prosperous economy and democracy. This aspect provides a cornerstone upon which to build South Korean cultural resources and promote them beyond its borders. South Korea should contribute creating public goods through its active engagement and leadership on various global agendas. This dedication to the international community ultimately benefits South Korea in the long run.

KIM, Minsung. The Growth of South Korean Soft Power and Its Geopolitical Implications. Disponível em: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/JIPA/Display/Article/3212634/the-growth-ofsouth-korean-soft-power-and-its-geopolitical-implications/. Acesso em: 12 ago. 2024. Adaptado.