Questões de Inglês - Grammar

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

    Because it is locked away inside the skull, the brain is hard to study. Looking at it requires finicky machines which use magnetism or electricity or both to bypass the bone. There is just one tendril of brain tissue that can be seen from outside the body without any mucking about of this sort. That is the retina. Look into someone’s eyes and you are, in some small way, looking at their brain.

    This being so, a group of researchers decided to study the structure of the eye for signs of cognitive decline. Changes in the brain, they reasoned, might lead to changes in the nervous tissue connected to it. They focused on a part of the eye called the retinal nerve-fibre layer (RNFL). This is the lowest layer of the retina and serves to link the light-sensitive tissue above to the synapses which lead to the brain. The team’s results show that people with a thin RNFL are more likely to fail cognitive tests than those with a thick one. They are also more likely to suffer cognitive decline as they age.

(www.economist.com, 30.06.2018. Adaptado.)

TEXTO:

The latest innovation that’s changing the way
you break a sweat is likely to have even the most
internet-savvy millennials starry-eyed with workout
wonder.Today marks the release of the interactive
[5] gym, Mirror ($1,495, plus a $39 monthly subscription).
    At first glance, the device looks like a sleek, no
frills reflective surface you might hang up to checkout
your leggings-sports bra combo before heading off to
spin class. Switch the device on however, and you’ll
[10] come face-to-face with a trainer who can lead you
through a full class of cardio, strength, yoga, Pilates,
barre, boxing, and stretch—all of which you can tailor
by time and skill-level to your personal fitness goals.
Visual feedback is at the center of the smart decor’s
[15] design. Not only can you see yourself and the trainer
as you perform each move in front of the device, but in
the live classes, the trainer can see you and offer you
feedback, like “Make sure you can see your toes in
chair pose!”
[20]    If you can’t catch one of the 50 or more real-time
sweat sessions offered per week, each category of
class is also available on-demand for midnight HIIT
(High Intensity Interval Training) sessions or spur of
the moment afternoon pick-me-ups.

Disponível em: https://www.wellandgood.com/good-sweat/mirror-athome-workout-equipment/. Acesso em: 05 mar. 2008. Adaptado.

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TEXTO - Lung Cancer In Non Smoker

    A group of respiratory medicine and public health experts are calling for lung cancer in never-smokers to be given greater recognition. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they say that lung cancer in people who have never smoked is under recognised and presents a diagnostic challenge, particularly for GPs seeking to balance overinvestigation with early diagnosis and high quality care.
    It is estimated that around 6,000 people in the UK who have never smoked die of lung cancer every year, greater than the numbers of people who die of cervical cancer (900), lymphoma (5,200), leukaemia (4,500) and ovarian cancer (4,200).
    Major contributors to lung cancers in never-smokers include second-hand smoke, occupational carcinogen exposure and outdoor pollution. Globally, the use of solid fuels for indoor cooking and second-hand smoke exposure are important contributions to lung cancer in never-smokers and disproportionately affect women
    Lead author, Professor Paul Cosford, Director for Health Protection & Medical Director, Public Health England, said: "This paper demonstrates an estimated 6,000 people who have never smoked die each year from lung cancer in the UK. This makes it, by itself, the eighth most common cause of cancer related death in the UK.
    "For too long having lung cancer has only been thought of as a smoking related disease. This remains an important association but, as this this work shows, the scale of the challenge means there is a need to raise awareness with clinicians and policy makers of the other risk factors including indoor and outdoor air pollution.
    "This is one reason why PHE published its review of the evidence and recommended specific actions local authorities can take to improve their air quality. By delivering on the promise of a clean air generation we can reduce the number of lung cancers among those who have never smoked."
    Co-author Professor Mick Peake, clinical director of the Centre for Cancer Outcomes, University College London Hospitals Cancer Collaborative, said: "Despite advances in our understanding, most people who have never smoked do not believe they are at risk and often experience long delays in diagnosis, reducing their chances of receiving curative treatment."
    Prof Peake added: "The stigma of smoking has been the major factor behind the lack of interest in, knowledge of and research into lung cancer. Therefore, in many ways, neversmokers who develop lung cancer are, as a result, disadvantaged.
    "Drawing attention to the contribution of underlying risk factors to lung cancer in never-smokers presents opportunities to reinforce efforts to tackle other major public health challenges. For example, the impact of passive smoking and air pollution on lung cancers adds weight to the government's ambitions to improve air quality and the public, clinicians and policy makers must all be aware of this relationship

(Adapted from: www.sciencedaily.com)

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  With the objective of promoting literacy all over the world, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created, on September 8, the International Literacy Day. Nevertheless, five decades later, estimates point to a worldwide total of 738 million persons who cannot read or write. In Brazil, they were 13 million in 2015, according to data from the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad 2015).

PNAD shows that the illiteracy rate (percentage of illiterate persons by age group in the total number of persons in the same group) fell from 11.5%, in 2004, to 8%, in 2015. Illiteracy is more concentrated in the Northeast Region, where the rate reaches 16.2%, way above the figure in the South, 4.1%. Older groups record higher illiteracy rates: 25.7% among persons aged 65 and over, versus 0.8% in the group aged 15 to 19.

One of the solutions to change this situation is the Youth and Adult Education Program (Peja), attended by 26,230 students in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone, according to the Municipal Secretariat of Education. “Peja has a diversity of students”, says Fatima Valente, director of the Youth and Adult Education Municipal Reference Center (Creja). Due to that diversity, our classes fulfill different needs. “We do not have working students, we have workers who study. That’s why our schedule cannot be the same as in regular education”.

These programs have helped change the lives of many people, like Luciana Muniz, age 35, and Antônio Alves, age 65, both Peja students. Luciana states that having no education has been very humiliating. “At church I could never take part in Bible reading, and that made me sad”. Today she is very active in Church, wishes to keep on studying, to graduate in Gastronomy and dreams of opening up her own company. Antônio, in turn, quit studying to work in crops at the age of 7, and now says he will not stop again. “I study at home too. My wife finds it funny that I’m always holding a book. I can even read the small print on TV.”

(Fragment available on http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/informal_logic/article)

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A civil rights 'emergency': justice, clean air and water in the age of Trump
by Oliver Milman in New York

The Trump administration’s dismantling of environmental regulations has intensified a growing civil rights battle over the deadly burden of pollution on minorities and low-income people. Black, Latino and disadvantaged people have long been disproportionately afflicted by toxins from industrial plants, cars, hazardous housing conditions and other sources. But political leaders, academics and activists spoke of a growing urgency around the struggle for environmental justice as the Trump administration peels away rules designed to protect clean air and water.

“What we are seeing is the institutionalization of discrimination again, the thing we’ve fought for 40 years,” said Robert Bullard, an academic widely considered the father of the environmental justice movement. “There are people in fence-line communities who are now very worried. If the federal government doesn’t monitor and regulate, and gives the states a green light to do what they want, we are going to get more pollution, more people will get sick. There will be more deaths.”

(Excerpt from the site: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/20/environmental-justice-in-the-age-of-trump. Researched on November 2017.)