Questões de Inglês - Grammar

TEXT

The end of life on Earth?

    It weighted about 10,000 tons, entered the
atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km/h and exploded
over a city with a blast of 500 kilotons. But on 15
February 2013, we were lucky. The metereorite that
[05] showered pieces of rock over Chelyabinsk, Russia, was
relatively small, at only about 17 metres wide. Although
many people were injured by falling glass, the damage
was nothing compared to what had happened in Siberia
nearly one hundred years ago, when a relatively small
[10] object (approximately 50 metres in diameter) exploded in
mid-air over a forest region, flattening about 80 million
trees. If it had exploded over a city such as Moscow or
London, millions of people would have been killed. 

    By a strange coincidence, the same day that the
[15] meteorite terrified the people of Chelyabinsk, another
50m-wide asteroid passed relatively close to Earth.
Scientists were expecting that visit and know that the
asteroid will return to fly close by us in 2046, but the
Russian meteorite earlier in the day had been too small
[20] for anyone to spot.

    Most scientists agree that comets and asteroids
pose the biggest natural threat to human existence. It
was probably a large asteroid or comet colliding with
Earth which wiped out the dinosaurs about 65 million
[25] years ago. An enormous object, 10 to 16 km in diameter,
struck the Yucatan region in Mexico with the force of 100
megatons. That is the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb
for every person alive on Earth today

    Many scientists, including the late Stephen
[30] Hawking, say that any comet or asteroid greater than
20km in diameter that hits Earth will result in the
complete destruction of complex life, including all
animals and most plants. As we have seen even a much
smaller asteroid can cause great damage.

 [35]   The Earth has been kept fairly safe for the last 65
million years by good fortune and the massive
gravitational field of the planet Jupiter. Our cosmic
guardian, with its stable circular orbit far from the sun,
sweeps up and scatters away most of the dangerous
[40]comets and asteroids which might cross Earth’s orbit. 

    After the Chelyabinsk meteorite, scientists are now
monitoring potential hazards even more carefully but, as
far as they know, there is no danger in the foreseeable
future.

 [45]   Types of space rocks

    • Comet – a ball of rock and ice that sends out a
tail of gas and dust behind it. Bright comets only appear
in our visible night sky about once every ten years. 

    • Asteroid – a rock a few feet to several kms in
[50] diameter. Unlike comets, asteroids have no tail. Most
are to small to cause any damage and burn up in the
atmosphere.

    • Meteoroid – part of an asteroid or comet.
    • Meteorite – what a meteoroid is called when it
[55] hits Earth.

Taken from: http://learningenglishteens.britishcouncil.org - Access on 29/06/2020

Texto para a questão

Samsung developing technology to create fake videos from one single photo.

With new technology like this in development, seeing will no longer mean believing.

news.com.au MAY 28, 2019

Researchers at Samsung’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Centre in Moscow have created an algorithm that can generate videos using only one image.

The development has caused some worry among technology experts and commentators, ¹who see it as a worrying step towards making fake content creation easier.

In a paper published in the preprint journal ArXiv, and in an accompanying video demo, the algorithm creates a video using a single still image, such as the Mona Lisa painting or a photo of Salvador Dali.

The video can be created using one single image but the more images are used, the better the quality.

A sample of 32 images produces a video of near lifelike accuracy

Current AI systems usually require the algorithm to scan large sets of data of a body and face before it can produce a moving picture based on it.

With this new technology, however, creating fake videos will become a lot easier.

The Samsung algorithm was trained using the publicly available VoxCeleb database which has more than 7000 images of celebrities from YouTube videos.

Since the algorithm recognises common characteristics of a person’s face and body, as opposed to specific traits of a subject, it’s able to quickly extrapolate images with little input.

This method also means that the technology is applicable toward non-celebrities and can be used on anyone, even people ²who died a long time ago and were never captured on video.

The AI is currently only able to produce “talking head” style videos from the shoulders up.

Skeptics of deepfake technology, as it is referred to, worry it will be used to spread misinformation and fake news or to steal people’s identity.

Read the text and answer the question.

The idea of evolution (which is gradual change) was not a new one. The Greeks had thought of it, so Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles, and also the Frenchman, Lamarck. It is one thing to have an idea; we can all of us guess and sometimes make a lucky guess.

TEXTO:

    What might your office or apartment have in
common with a NASA spaceship? Unfortunately the
answer may be poor air quality. Indoor air pollutants have
been ranked among the top five environmental risks to
[5] public health. Living and working in places rife with air
contaminants and lacking decent ventilation can cause
“Sick Building Syndrome”, which can cause headaches,
dizziness, nausea, and eye, ear, and nose
irritations.Given that people spend more than 90 percent
[10] of their time indoors, air quality matters. Furnishings,
upholstery, synthetic building materials, and cleaning
products in homes and offices can emit a variety of toxic
compounds, like formaldehyde. Indoor air pollution can
also be caused by pollen, bacteria, and molds, as
[15] outdoor air contaminants like car exhaust finds its way
into buildings. All of these are made worse in small
or poorly-ventilated spaces.
    Lucky for us, NASA scientists have been working
to understand this problem and find solutions.The good
[20] news is that there’s an easy and affordable way to
combat the presence of the yucky stuff we may be
breathing in, and it comes right from the natural world:
Use houseplants to clean the air. Plants purify theair,
making them part of what NASA calls “nature’s life
[25] support system,” although plants in bloom may be
contributing their own compounds to the air.
    So, how do houseplants clean the air? Plants
absorb some of the particulates from the air at the same
time that they take in carbon dioxide, which is then
[30] processed into oxygen through photosynthesis. But
that’s not all—microorganisms associated with the
plants are present in the potting soil, and these microbes
are also responsible for much of the cleaning effect.
    Beyond air quality, plants just make people feel
[35] better. For example, hospital patients with plants in their
rooms were more positive and had lower blood pressure
and stress levels. Similarly, indoor plants may make
people smarter by allowing them to stay alert and
reducing mental fatigue.

JANOWIAK, Maria. Disponível em: greatist.com/connect/houseplantsthat-clean-air. Acesso em: 1 nov. 2018. Adaptado.

INSTRUÇÃO: Leia o texto que segue para responder à questão proposta.

THE STORY OF ELLIS ISLAND
Mass migrations have marked the history of the human race ever since people began to dream of a better life 

    Migration is in the news these days, as Donald Trump tries to set up new physical and administrative barriers
against people wanting to enter the USA – mostly from Central America, Asia and Africa. But a century ago, the USA
welcomed immigrants, most of them people from Europe who were migrating in mass, looking for a better life in the
USA. Ellis Island, the small island in New York Harbor was, for millions of would-be immigrants, their first experience
[5] of the promised land.
    The year is 1906, the date November 16th. Franz and Ulrike Schumacher and their three children have just
disembarked from the Hamburg-Amerika line steamship that has carried them across the stormy North Atlantic
Ocean from Germany.
    Like the thousands of other people milling around them, they are totally bewildered, caught up in a mixture of
[10] hope and apprehension, as they crowd into a vast waiting room. The room sounds like the Tower of Babel, for few of
those in it speak a word of English. They speak German, Polish, Dutch, Hungarian, or Russian maybe, yet they have
come, seeking a new life in a new world; and now they are on American soil for the first time. This is America!
America! Or at least it is Ellis Island.
    After interminable hours of waiting, the Schumacher family are finally called to a desk; immigration officials
[15] study their papers, and ask them where they intend to go. They don't ask how long they're planning to stay, however,
since they know the answer already. All those who pass through Ellis Island – and that could mean over 11,000
people per day – are would-be immigrants. They are looking to start a new life in a new world.
    For many, passing through Ellis Island was not so much a matter of stepping into a new world, it was stepping
into a new life, a new character. And so it was that the man who finally led his family through the door and onto the
[20] ferry packed with a jostling crowd of new Americans was not Franz Schumacher any more, but Frank Shoemaker,
even if he still didn't understand more than a couple of words of English.

Disponível em: https://linguapress.com/advanced/ellis-island.htm. Acesso em: 7 out. 2019. Adaptado.