Leia o texto para responder a questão.

    The effects of alcohol on young people are not the same as they are on adults. While alcohol misuse can present health risks and cause careless behaviour in all age groups, it is even more dangerous for young people.

    Because young people’s bodies are still growing, alcohol can interfere with their development. This makes young people particularly vulnerable to the long-term damage caused by alcohol. This damage can include: cancer of the mouth and throat; sexual and mental health problems, including depression and suicidal thoughts; liver cirrhosis and heart disease.

    Drinking alcohol in adolescence can harm the development of the brain. Young people might think that any damage to their health caused by drinking lies so far in the future that it’s not worth worrying about. However, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people in their twenties dying from liver disease as a result of drinking heavily in their teens.

    Alcohol interferes with the way people think and makes them far more likely to act carelessly. If young people drink alcohol, they are more likely to end up in dangerous situations. For example, they are more likely to climb walls or other heights and fall off. Or they might verbally abuse someone who could hit them. They are also more likely to become aggressive themselves and throw a punch.

(www.nidirect.gov.uk. Adaptado.)

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

The longstanding mystery surrounding Antarctica’s Blood Falls has finally been solved. The deep red falls were first discovered in Antarctica in 1911 where scientists noticed a river had stained the surrounding cliff of ice with a dark red color. Previously, they had believed it was due to algae discoloring the water, however that hypothesis was never verified.

Now, thanks to research by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we know the true origin of the Blood Falls flowing from the Taylor Glacier. The deep red coloring is due to oxidized iron in brine saltwater, the same process that gives iron a dark red color when it rusts. When the iron bearing saltwater comes into contact with oxygen the iron undergoes oxidation and takes on a red coloring, in effect dying the water to a deep red color.

The research team calculates that the brine water takes approximately 1.5 million years to finally reach the Blood Falls as it makes its way through fissures and channels in the glacier.

https://tinyurl.com/22vb439j%20Acesso%20em:%2016.08.2023.

TEXT FOR QUESTION

Available at: https://midwaycare.org/information/patient-resource-guide/ Accessed on: July 28,2023.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

    Heatwaves have a huge impact on our physical and mental health. Doctors usually fear them, as emergency rooms quickly fill up with patients suffering from dehydration, delirium and fainting. Recent studies suggest at least a 10% rise in hospital emergency room visits on days when temperatures reach or exceed the top 5% of the normal temperature range for a given location.

    Soaring temperatures can also make symptoms worse in those with mental health conditions. Heatwaves — as well as other weather events such as floods and fires — have been linked to a rise in depressive symptoms in people with depression, and a rise in anxiety symptoms in those with generalised anxiety disorder — a disorder that makes people feel anxious most of the time.

    A Boston University study found that those in rooms without air conditioning during a heatwave performed 13% worse than their peers in cognitive tests and had 13% slower reaction time. When people are not thinking clearly due to heat, it is more likely they will become frustrated, and this, in turn, can lead to aggression. There is strong evidence linking extreme heat with a rise in violent crime. Even just a one or two degrees Celsius increase in ambient temperatures can lead to a 3-5% spike in assaults.

(Laurence Wainwright e Eileen Neumann. https://theconversation.com, 12.07.2022. Adaptado.)

TEXT

Americans May Add Five Times More Plastic to the Oceans Than Thought

    The United States is using more
plastic than ever, and waste exported for
recycling is often mishandled, according
to a new study.
[5]    The United States contribution
to coastal plastic pollution worldwide is
significantly larger than previously
thought, possibly by as much as five
times, according to a study published
[10] Friday. The research, published in Science
Advances, is the sequel to a 2015 paper
by the same authors. Two factors
contributed to the sharp increase:
Americans are using more plastic than
[15] ever and the current study included
pollution generated by United States
exports of plastic waste, while the earlier
one did not.
    The United States, which does
[20] not have sufficient infrastructure to
handle its recycling demands at home,
exports about half of its recyclable waste.
Of the total exported, about 88 percent
ends up in countries considered to have
[25] inadequate waste management.
    “When you consider how much
of our plastic waste isn’t actually
recyclable because it is low-value,
contaminated or difficult to process, it’s
[30] not surprising that a lot of it ends up
polluting the environment,” said the
study’s lead author, Kara Lavender Law,
research professor of oceanography at
Sea Education Association, in a
[35] statement.
    The study estimates that in
2016, the United States contributed
between 1.1 and 2.2 million metric tons of
plastic waste to the oceans through a
[40] combination of littering, dumping and

mismanaged exports. At a minimum,
that’s almost double the total estimated
waste in the team’s previous study. At the
high end, it would be a fivefold increase
[45] over the earlier estimate.
    Nicholas Mallos, a senior
director at the Ocean Conservancy and an
author of the study, said the upper
estimate would be equal to a pile of
[50] plastic covering the area of the White
House Lawn and reaching as high as the
Empire State Building.
    The ranges are wide partly
because “there’s no real standard for
[55] being able to provide good quality data on
collection and disposal of waste in
general,” said Ted Siegler, a resource
economist at DSM Environmental
Solutions, a consulting firm, and an
[60] author of the study. Mr. Siegler said the
researchers had evaluated waste-disposal
practices in countries around the world
and used their “best professional
judgment” to determine the lowest and
[65] highest amounts of plastic waste likely to
escape into the environment. They settled
on a range of 25 percent to 75 percent.
    Tony Walker, an associate
professor at the Dalhousie University
[70] School for Resource and Environmental
Studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said that
analyzing waste data can amount to a
“data minefield” because there are no
data standards across municipalities.
[75] Moreover, once plastic waste is shipped
overseas, he said, data is often not
recorded at all.
    Nonetheless, Dr. Walker, who
was not involved in the study, said it
[80] could offer a more accurate accounting of
plastic pollution than the previous study,
which likely underestimated the United
States’ contribution. “They’ve put their
best estimate, as accurate as they can be

[85] with this data,” he said, and used ranges,
which underscores that the figures are
estimates.
    Of the plastics that go into the
United States recycling system, about 9
[90] percent of the country’s total plastic
waste, there is no guarantee that they’ll
be remade into new consumer goods. New
plastic is so inexpensive to manufacture
that only certain expensive, high-grade
[95] plastics are profitable to recycle within the
United States, which is why roughly half
of the country’s plastic waste was shipped
abroad in 2016, the most recent year for
which data is available.
[100]     Since 2016, however, the
recycling landscape has changed. China
and many countries in Southeast Asia
have stopped accepting plastic waste
imports. And lower oil prices have further 

[105] reduced the market for recycled plastic.
“What the new study really underscores is
we have to get a handle on source
reduction at home,” Mr. Mallos said. “That
starts with eliminating unnecessary and
[110] problematic single-use plastics.”

From: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/

TEXT

Americans May Add Five Times More Plastic to the Oceans Than Thought

    The United States is using more
plastic than ever, and waste exported for
recycling is often mishandled, according
to a new study.
[5]    The United States contribution
to coastal plastic pollution worldwide is
significantly larger than previously
thought, possibly by as much as five
times, according to a study published
[10] Friday. The research, published in Science
Advances, is the sequel to a 2015 paper
by the same authors. Two factors
contributed to the sharp increase:
Americans are using more plastic than
[15] ever and the current study included
pollution generated by United States
exports of plastic waste, while the earlier
one did not.
    The United States, which does
[20] not have sufficient infrastructure to
handle its recycling demands at home,
exports about half of its recyclable waste.
Of the total exported, about 88 percent
ends up in countries considered to have
[25] inadequate waste management.
    “When you consider how much
of our plastic waste isn’t actually
recyclable because it is low-value,
contaminated or difficult to process, it’s
[30] not surprising that a lot of it ends up
polluting the environment,” said the
study’s lead author, Kara Lavender Law,
research professor of oceanography at
Sea Education Association, in a
[35] statement.
    The study estimates that in
2016, the United States contributed
between 1.1 and 2.2 million metric tons of
plastic waste to the oceans through a
[40] combination of littering, dumping and

mismanaged exports. At a minimum,
that’s almost double the total estimated
waste in the team’s previous study. At the
high end, it would be a fivefold increase
[45] over the earlier estimate.
    Nicholas Mallos, a senior
director at the Ocean Conservancy and an
author of the study, said the upper
estimate would be equal to a pile of
[50] plastic covering the area of the White
House Lawn and reaching as high as the
Empire State Building.
    The ranges are wide partly
because “there’s no real standard for
[55] being able to provide good quality data on
collection and disposal of waste in
general,” said Ted Siegler, a resource
economist at DSM Environmental
Solutions, a consulting firm, and an
[60] author of the study. Mr. Siegler said the
researchers had evaluated waste-disposal
practices in countries around the world
and used their “best professional
judgment” to determine the lowest and
[65] highest amounts of plastic waste likely to
escape into the environment. They settled
on a range of 25 percent to 75 percent.
    Tony Walker, an associate
professor at the Dalhousie University
[70] School for Resource and Environmental
Studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said that
analyzing waste data can amount to a
“data minefield” because there are no
data standards across municipalities.
[75] Moreover, once plastic waste is shipped
overseas, he said, data is often not
recorded at all.
    Nonetheless, Dr. Walker, who
was not involved in the study, said it
[80] could offer a more accurate accounting of
plastic pollution than the previous study,
which likely underestimated the United
States’ contribution. “They’ve put their
best estimate, as accurate as they can be

[85] with this data,” he said, and used ranges,
which underscores that the figures are
estimates.
    Of the plastics that go into the
United States recycling system, about 9
[90] percent of the country’s total plastic
waste, there is no guarantee that they’ll
be remade into new consumer goods. New
plastic is so inexpensive to manufacture
that only certain expensive, high-grade
[95] plastics are profitable to recycle within the
United States, which is why roughly half
of the country’s plastic waste was shipped
abroad in 2016, the most recent year for
which data is available.
[100]     Since 2016, however, the
recycling landscape has changed. China
and many countries in Southeast Asia
have stopped accepting plastic waste
imports. And lower oil prices have further 

[105] reduced the market for recycled plastic.
“What the new study really underscores is
we have to get a handle on source
reduction at home,” Mr. Mallos said. “That
starts with eliminating unnecessary and
[110] problematic single-use plastics.”

From: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/