TEXT

Bolsa Família - a decade of social inclusion in Brazil A decade debunking myths and exceeding expectations

    In 2003, the Bolsa Família Program (BFP) was taking its first steps, with a broad set of challenges still ahead. Its objectives were to contribute to the social inclusion of families constrained by extreme poverty by providing immediate relief to their situation, and to stimulate improvements to their education and health, in order to cease the intergenerational cycle of poverty reproduction. It was necessary to unify existing sectoral programs of cash transfer, consolidate the Unified Registry for Social Programs (Cadastro Único para Programas Sociais – CadÚnico), create a federal strategy for its management, monitor the conditionalities and ensure supply and access to basic services. Ten years later, the objectives were fully achieved and, in most cases, surpassed. Based on its wide coverage, excellent focus and significant impacts on the living conditions of the population, the success of the BFP is evident

Adaptado de: CAMPELLO, T.; NERI, M.C. (org). Bolsa Família Program – a decade of social inclusion in Brazil – Executive Summary. Brasília: IPEA, 2014. Disponível em: https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=a rticle&id=21864. Acesso em 20 out. 2021.

T E X T

    Now, according to an annual survey
by the Babson Survey Research Group and
the Online Learning Consortium, more than
6.3 million students took at least one
[5] distance education course in the Fall 2016
semester (the most recent academic year
for which data is available). That’s 31.6
percent of all higher education
enrollments, according to the study, and
[10] about half of them were taking all of their
classes online.

    Many of these students are traditional
age. But for adult students (generally
defined as those 25 and over, working full

[15] time jobs or with parenting
responsibilities) online education is a
particularly attractive option. Citing several
studies, Louis Soares, chief learning and
innovation officer for the American Council
[20] on Education, says that about a third of all
adult students — roughly 13 million — are
pursuing advanced degrees online.

    “I think it has given adult students
more opportunities,” Mr. Soares said. “If
[25] done correctly, online education can create
a robust learning experience.”

    Research has shown that students can
learn as well online as they can in a face to
face classroom, according to Jovita Ross

[30] Gordon, a professor at Texas State
University.

    “In terms of pros and cons, it offers
great convenience and access for
populations who might not otherwise have
[35] it,” said Professor Ross-Gordon, an expert
on adult education. “But a certain degree
of self-direction is required. And it can be
isolating for some folks.”

    The vast majority of colleges and
[40] universities in the United States offer at
least some online classes, but there are
still those who question its legitimacy and
also the quality of for-profit colleges whose
curriculum is offered solely online.

[45]    Walden University, where Mr. Haynes
is earning his doctoral degree, is one such
institution. He said that he researched the
school through the V.A. and other sources,
and heard positive reports from a friend
[50] who was also pursuing his doctorate in
business administration at Walden, which
Mr. Haynes learned was accredited by the
Accreditation Council for Business Schools.

    For Manda Gibson, online education is
[55] the preferred mode of learning. “I love it,”
said Ms. Gibson, 45, the mother of four,
who works full-time as an instructional
designer at Simpson College in Indianola,
Iowa. Ms. Gibson is pursuing her master’s
[60] in business administration online with

Colorado State University-Global Campus,
and before that earned a bachelor of arts
in management, taking mostly online
classes, at Simpson.

[65]    “When I sit in a regular class, my
mind wanders,” she says. “`Did I do this
for my kids?’ ‘What am I making for dinner
tonight?’ When I do online, I can say, ‘this
hour is my hour.’”

[70]    But she says, with the flexibility of
online education comes responsibility. “You
have to take it seriously,” she said. “Some
people think online classes are easier. I
think it’s actually more work. Because you
[75] might have to spend more time with the
content.”

    Time is a commodity that Mr. Haynes,
like many adult learners, has little of. He
and his wife — Sgt. Chelsea Aiko Haynes
[80] of the Army — have six children, ranging
in age from 1 to 17. He is also active with
the Semper Fi Fund, a nonprofit
organization that provides financial
assistance for catastrophically injured
[85] servicemen and women. But most days,
after the children are off to school and his
wife is at her job at the Pentagon, he sits
down in the living room with his MacBook
Air and gets ready to learn. “I open the
[90] blinds to get some natural sunlight in,” he
said. “The TV’s off, the phone’s on vibrate.
And I commit myself fully to my studies.”

    Here are some tips for success in
online education for adult learners, from
[95] Jeremy Haynes and Manda Gibson, two
students who have flourished in this
learning environment, and from George
Haber, an adjunct professor at Vaughn
College in Queens, and a veteran of over
[100] 25 years of teaching online.

    Set aside specific time periods when
you can do required reading or writing and
stick to the schedule, whether it’s an hour
a night three nights a week; Saturday or
[105] Sunday morning; or some combination.

    Get acquainted with your academic
adviser from the start, as he or she is your
lifeline for anything at the institution.

    Choose a subject for your first
[110] online class that you’re interested in, if
possible. You will be more likely to become
engaged in the material and learn the
technology.

    Ask questions and reach out for help
[115] early. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t
understand something; a quality online
program will not only have self-help
tutorials, but also good student services to
help with the details.

[120]    Take part in any online discussions
or forums. Your lack of participation will be
easily noted by the instructor.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/

Read the text and answer question.

Investigators trying to find out what happened to a Malaysia Airlines jet that disappeared en route to Beijing on Saturday morning were examining the causes of plane crashes: mechanical failure, pilot error, bad weather. But the discovery that two of the passengers were carrying stolen passports also raised the possibility of criminal violence.

(Adapted from “Passport Theft adds mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines Jet”)

GLOSSARY
raised — aumentou, ampliou

Instrução: A questão referem-se ao texto abaixo.

This couple’s jungle honeymoon became a total nightmare

by Jane Ridley

[1]    It was the going to be a weeklong romantic adventure for Holly Fitzgerald, now 71, and her husband,
Fitz, 70, rafting like Huck Finn down a fast-flowing tributary of the Amazon. Instead, it wound up becoming
a nearly month long ordeal, stranding two honeymooners on a parasite-ridden lake in the Bolivian jungle
– with nothing to eat but slugs, snails and frogs.
[5]    The epic tale began in February 1973, five months into the couple’s yearlong honeymoon backpacking
around South America. There was a general plan to reach Rio de Janeiro and then board a ship bound
for Africa, but the newlyweds were frequently sidetracked while meeting interesting people en route. One
such encounter, with some anthropologists, aroused their curiosity about the Amazon basin. So they
booked seats on a small plane to the Peruvian frontier town of Puerto Maldonado. It would be their first
[10] mistake. “The wobbly plane began to descend very fast, pushing me sideways, causing me to grasp the
seat,” Holly writes in her book. “We were thrown back and forth, held by our wide seat belts . . . I caught
sight of the plane’s right wing and engine out of the window. They’d been snapped entirely.”
    The DC-3 – with 13 people onboard – crash-landed in the jungle. Incredibly, no one was badly hurt
in the accident, which was likely a result of pilot error. The survivors were escorted across a river to the
[15] nearest shelter: an open penal colony full of convicted murderers and rapists. Although the passengers
slept in separate barracks from the inmates, there was a sense of menace in the air. Despite daily promises
from prison guards that help was on the way, it was four long days before a plane appeared on the muddy
pasture that served as a runway. When they finally reached Puerto Maldonado, the Fitzgeralds discovered

they’d missed their boat to Bolivia. It was flood season, and the next available trip downriver was likely
[20] three months away.
    Encouraged by locals, the young couple decided to build a raft – using four logs and a makeshift tent
fashioned from plastic sheeting lined with mosquito netting – and navigate 500 miles of the Madre de
Dios river to Riberalta, Bolivia, themselves. “At first, it was idyllic,” recalled Holly, who reveled in the jungle
scents of ripe mangoes and gardenia.
[25]    However, on their fourth night, fortunes changed. While the couple was sleeping, a raging thunderstorm
brewed. Torrential rain pelted the tent, threatening its collapse. “Just then, something slammed the bow,
pulling the raft downwards,” Holly writes. She heard the horror-movie rip of the plastic tent as a large tree
trunk crashed through, pinning her to the raft. Her husband struggled to pull the tree off her as the small
watercraft rocked back and forth, threatening to capsize at any second.
[30]    Once the storm quieted, the sun soon came up to reveal a frightening reality: The couple were now
off course, with no idea of their location. “We didn’t know it at the time, but we were stranded in the middle
of a swamp – a seasonal lake formed because of flooding,” said Holly. “Most of our food and supplies had
fallen overboard during the night. Our tent was ripped to shreds, so we had to replace it with spare plastic
sheeting we’d managed to hold onto”.
[35]    As the land around them was submerged, there was no question of getting anywhere on foot. Tying
the raft and their few remaining possessions to a bush above the water line, the duo swam for hours at a
time – only to travel less than half a mile. They gave up after trying for two days.
    For 26 days, they were marooned – knowing no one was looking for them, as they had written to their
family that they’d be exploring for at least a month. The couple were besieged by bees, mosquitoes and
[40] other biting insects. They tried to catch fish but had zero luck. Strange noises from the jungle terrified
them at night, and they felt themselves weaken by the hour. Holly and Fitz became skeletal and frequently
doubled over in pain because of the lack of food. One morning, Holly initially couldn’t wake her husband
and feared he had died in his sleep.
    On their 26th day in the swamp, Holly had a premonition. “We’re going to make it out of here. I just
[45] know it,” she told her ailing husband, who lost 40 pounds during the ordeal. (Holly herself shed 20 pounds.)
Hours later, after nearly a month of not seeing a single soul, they spotted two Indians hunting turtles from
a canoe. Using made-up hand signs and broken Spanish, the honeymooners convinced the men to take
them to their village. They later traveled to their original destination of Riberalta.
    Over the next two weeks, the Fitzgeralds were treated in a hospital for exhaustion, severe malnutrition,
[50] and the bites and stings they’d received. In April 1973, they finally returned home.
    Remarkably, their brush with death didn’t curb the couple’s enthusiasm for travel. They have since
visited far-flung destinations including Bali, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Sudan and the Himalayas. “With hindsight,
it does seem rather bold to have taken the raft on such a big river, but I can’t say I have deep regrets,” said
Holly. “The whole experience brought Fitz and I closer together. 

Disponível em: https://nypost.com/2017/07/22/this-couples-jungle-honeymoon-became-a-total-nightmare/. Acesso em: 10 ago. 2021. (Parcial e
adaptado.)

Secret life of the dodo revealed
By Helen Briggs BBC News
24 August 2017

The dodo lived on the island of Mauritius until it died out about 350 years ago.

Scientists are piecing together clues about the life of the dodo, hundreds of years after the flightless bird was driven to extinction
 

Few scientific facts are known about the hapless bird, which was last sighted in 1662. A study of bone specimens shows the chicks hatched in August and grew rapidly to adult size.

[1]     The bird shed its feathers in March revealing fluffy grey plumage recorded in historical accounts by
mariners.
   Delphine Angst of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, was given access to some of the
dodo bones that still exist in museums and collections, including specimens that were recently donated to a
[5] museum in France.
    Her team analysed slices of bone from 22 dodos under the microscope to find out more about the
bird’s growth and breeding patterns.
    “Before our study we knew very very little about these birds,” said Dr. Angst.
   “Using the bone histology for the first time we managed to describe that this bird was actually
[10] breeding at a certain time of the year and was moulting just after that.”

    The scientists can tell from growth patterns in the bones that the chicks grew to adult size very
rapidly after hatching from eggs around August.

    This would have given them a survival advantage when cyclones hit the island between November
and March, leading to a scarcity of food.
[15]    However, the birds probably took several years to reach sexual maturity, possibly because the adult
birds lacked any natural predators.
    The bones of adult birds also show signs of mineral loss, which suggests that they lost old damaged
feathers after the breeding season.
    Ancient mariners gave conflicting accounts of the dodo, describing them as having “black down” or
[20] “curled plumes of a greyish colour”.
    The research, published in Scientific Reports, backs this historical evidence.
    “The dodo was quite a brown-grey bird, and during the moulting it had downy, black plumage,”
explained Dr. Angst.
    “What we found using our scientific methods fit perfectly with what the sailors had written in the
[25] past.”

Egg theft

    The research could also shed light on the dodo’s extinction about 350 years ago, less than 100 years
after humans arrived on the island.
    Hunting was a factor in the dodo’s demise, but monkeys, deer, pigs and rats released on the island
from ships probably sealed their fate.
[30]   Dodos laid their eggs in nests on the ground, meaning they were vulnerable to attack by feral
mammals.
   Dr. Angst said the dodo is considered “a very big icon of animal-human induced extinction”,
although the full facts are unknown. [...]
Disponível em: <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41002562>. Acesso em: 27 ago. 2017. Adaptado.