INSTRUCTION: Answer questionin relation to text.

TEXT

If you think the food airline companies serve up is bland
or unappetising, it’s not necessarily their fault. Essentially,
you leave your normal sense of taste behind at the airport
departure gate. Get on board a plane and cruise to a level
[5] of thousands of feet, and the flavour of everything from
a pasta dish to a mouthful of wine becomes manipulated
in a whole host of ways that we are only beginning to
understand.

Taste buds and sense of smell are the first things to go at
[10] 30,000 feet, says Russ Brown, director of In-flight Dining
& Retail at American Airlines. “Flavour is a combination
of both, and our perception of saltiness and sweetness
drop when inside a pressurised cabin.”

Everything that makes up the in-flight experience affects
[15] how your food tastes. There are several reasons for this:
lack of humidity, lower air pressure, and the background
noise. The combination of dryness and low pressure
reduces the sensitivity of your taste buds to sweet and
salty foods by around 30%, according to a 2010 study.
[20] Interestingly, the study found that we take leave of our
sweet and salty senses only. Sour, bitter and spicy
flavours are almost unaffected.

But it’s not just about our taste buds. Up to 80% of what
people think is taste, is in fact smell. We need evaporating
[25] nasal mucus to smell, but in the parched cabin air our
odour receptors do not work properly, and the effect is
that this makes food taste twice as bland.

So airlines have to give in-flight food an extra kick, by
salting and spicing it much more than a restaurant on the
[30] ground ever would. “Proper seasoning is key to ensure
food tastes good in the air,” says Brown at American
Airlines. “Often, recipes are modified with additional salt
or seasoning to account for the cabin dining atmosphere.”

The American tourist had little money on him (just a few dollars) as he knew that there were a lot of thieves in that area. He walked for some minutes and then entered a little restaurant near his hotel. There were a lot of people in the restaurant, and there weren’t many tables, but he finally found a free table near the kitchen.

He looked at the menu. There were a lot of dishes with complicated names, but the tourist had a little trouble in finding the name of that famous Brazilian dish: “feijoada”. He didn’t eat much (there was too much salt in the beans) and after finishing dinner he decided to “practice” his Portuguese. He took a small dictionary out of his pocket and looked up the word “how”. Naturally he found “como”. Next, he looked up “much”, and found “muito”.

“I can’t understand why so many Americans find Portuguese difficult”, he thought to himself. The waiter was near him, so the tourist touched him in the arm anda sked with a smile: “Como muito?”

Brazil cotton deal perpetuates an unhealthy status quo of subsidies

1. When is a victory for the United States not a victory

for the American taxpayer? When it’s an international

agreement like the one the Obama administration has

just reached to settle a long-running dispute with

Brazil over cotton subsidies. The roots of that dispute

lie in this country’s history of showering federal funds

on crop producers, including cotton growers. That

particular business received $32.9 billion from

Washington between 1995 and 2012, according to

the Environmental Working Group, largely through

programs that had the effect of rewarding farmers for

increasing production. The extra supply dampened

prices on the world market, so, in 2002, Brazil

complained to the World Trade Organization, which

ruled that US cotton subsidies were indeed

“trade-distorting” and authorized Brazil to retaliate

against US exports. The United States avoided

sanctions — not by reforming its programs but by

agreeing in 2010 to pay Brazil’s cotton farmers

$147.3 million per year.

2. In short, the US government bought off Brazil’s

cotton farmers so that it could keep on buying off its

own. Under the new settlement, announced

Wednesday, Brazil agreed to drop its case at the

WTO and to forgo any new ones during the five-year

term of the farm bill Congress enacted last year. In

return, the United States agreed to trim the modest

US cotton export credit subsidy program and, most

important, to pay Brazil one last dollop of taxpayer

cash, in the amount of $300 million.

3. This is good news to the extent that it fortifies

US-Brazil relations on the eve of a new presidential

term in that country and that it spares US exporters

from the threat of Brazilian retaliation, which could

have reached a total of $829 million per year. Yet, in

essence, the new deal perpetuates the unhealthy

status quo whereby the United States pays Brazil

____ the right ____ continue propping ________ a

domestic cotton industry that can ____ should learn

to compete ____ its own.

Leia o texto a seguir, extraído do livro He knows too much, e responda à questão.

Chapter 1 - Madras 1986

“He knows too much. I must ask you to do nothing.”

“But this time I caught him in the act. I have proof, witnesses, everything. There is no possible doubt.”

“I said he knows too much! The company can’t afford to have any problems. Our position is very sensitive in this country. We can’t afford to take risks. I am telling you once again – you will do nothing. And if there is any trouble, I’m afraid I shall have to hold you personally responsible. So be sensible for once in your life.”

“I see. So you are telling me to close my eyes to corruption and behave as if nothing has happened. Is that right?”

“I didn’t put it quite like that. But, if you insist, yes. What Vish does or doesn’t do is a minor matter compared with the company’s global strategy. Just try to get things in perspective. After all, you won’t be stuck in Madras for ever – I’ll make sure that you are not. So just go with the flow for a bit longer. When you’re in your next post this will all seem a very long way away, I can assure you. But meantime, no trouble. I hope I’ve made myself clear. Oh, and, by the way, I advise you to forget that we have had this conversation. Goodbye.”

Dick Sterling put the phone down. His hands were trembling. He was furious with himself for failing to persuade his boss in Delhi, Keith Lennox, to support him, and was disgusted at the mixture of veiled threats and vague promises Lennox had made.

1 The primary cause for the Arab-Israeli conflict lies in

the claim of two national movements on the same land, and

particularly the Arab refusal to accept Jewish self4

determination to hold part of that land. Furthermore

fundamentalist religious concepts regarding the right of either

side to the entire land have played an increasing role, on the

7 Jewish side particularly in the religious settler movement, on

the Palestinian side in the Hamas and similar groups. But

whereas the settlers received a blow when they failed to

10 prevent the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, Hamas won the

Palestinian elections, and after their breakup with Fatah and

their take-over of the Gaza Strip, they remain a dominant force

13 capable of blocking any peace agreement.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is further complicated by

preconceptions and demonizing of the other by both sides. The

16 Israelis see around them mostly undemocratic Arab states with

underdeveloped economies, backward cultural and social

standards and an aggressive religion inciting to hatred and

19 terrorism. The Arabs consider the Israelis colonial invaders and

conquerors, who are aiming to control the entire Middle East.

Since the Oslo peace process however, a broad

22 consensus has been formed that an independent Palestinian

Arab state should be established within the areas occupied in

1967. Polls on both sides show that majorities among Israelis

25 and Palestinians accept a two-state solution, but Palestinians

almost unanimously stick to the right of return of the refugees

to Israel, and most Israelis oppose a Palestinian capital in East

28 Jerusalem.

INSTRUCTION: Answer questionaccording to text.

TEXT

As the familiar story goes, not long ago there was an
orphan who on his 11th birthday discovered he had
a gift that set him apart from his preteen peers. Over
the years he endured the usual adolescent challenges
[5] – maturation, relationships, social conflicts, general
teenage neuroses. He also faced the less common
challenge of battling a murderous, psychopathic
wizard set on establishing a eugenic police state.
I’m referring to the young wizard Harry Potter, the
[10] protagonist in author JK Rowling’s wildly popular
fantasy book series; his nemesis is Lord Voldemort,
the story’s malevolent antagonist. And new research
suggests that Rowling’s world of house-elves, half-

giants and three-headed dogs has the potential to
[15] make us nicer people.

For decades it’s been known that an effective means of
improving negative attitudes and prejudices between
differing groups of people is through intergroup contact
– particularly through contact between “in-groups,”
[20] or a social group to which someone identifies, and
“out-groups,” or a group they don’t identify with or
perceive as threatening. Even reading short stories
about friendship between in- and out-group characters
is enough to improve attitudes toward stigmatized
[25] groups in children. A new study ___________ in the Journal
of Applied Social Psychology ___________ that reading
the Harry Potter books in particular ________________ similar
effects, likely in part because Potter is continually in
contact with stigmatized groups. The “muggles” get no
[30] respect in the wizarding world as they lack any magical
ability. The “half-bloods,” or “mud-bloods” – wizards
and witches descended from only one magical parent
– don’t fare much better, while the Lord Voldemort
character believes that power should only be held by
[35] “pure-blood” wizards. He’s Hitler in a cloak.

O turista americano tinha pouco dinheiro com ele (apenas alguns dólares), pois sabia que havia muitos ladrões nessa área.Ele caminhou por alguns minutos e depois entrou em um pequeno restaurante perto de seu hotel. Havia muitas pessoas no restaurante, e não havia muitas mesas, mas finalmente encontrou uma mesa livre perto da cozinha.

Ele olhou para o menu. Havia muitos pratos com nomes complicados, mas o turista teve um pequeno problema em encontrar o nome desse famoso prato brasileiro: "feijoada". Ele não comeu muito (havia muito sal nos feijões) e, depois de jantar, decidiu "praticar" seu português. Ele tirou um pequeno dicionário do bolso e olhou a palavra "como". Naturalmente, ele encontrou "como". Em seguida, ele olhou "muito" e encontrou "muito".

"Não consigo entender por que tantos americanos acham difícil o português", pensou ele mesmo. O garçom estava perto dele, então o turista o tocou no braço e escondeu com um sorriso: "Como muito?"

TEXTO:

The ‘STEM’ sell

When people think of jobs related to science,

technology, engineering, and math, or STEM as

America’s relentless acronym makers would have it, they

don’t usually think of blue-collar workers or applicants

[5] without full college education. But a new report from

Brookings Institution reveals what it calls “the hidden

STEM economy.” It estimates that about 26 million jobs

in the United States require a high level of knowledge in

one STEM field or another , but about half of those are

[10] attainable, in fact, to workers without a four-year college

degree. These are in manufacturing, health care,

construction installation, maintenance, and repair, and

they pay on average $53,000 a year, which sure beats

not working at all and is about 10 percent higher than

[15] jobs with similar educational requirements. Moreover,

these sort of jobs are spread all over the country, not

just in urban centers. But here’s the problem: of the

$4.3 billion the federal government spends to

stimulate and improve education in science, technology,

[20] engineering, and math, only about one fifth goes toward

the training of people who won’t get a bachelor’s degree.

Community colleges are virtually ignored. Brookings

advocates spreading the knowledge as well as the wealth.

The text says that STEM is the ________________ science, technology, engineering and math.