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.

“Brookings advocates spreading the knowledge as well as the wealth.” (l. 22-23)

Leia os anúncios abaixo:

Anúncio A

“I own my own businesse and I’m getting ready for expansion. I need a new partner. I’m active, energetic and outgoing and guess what? No black hair!

Anúncio B

“Are there any tall yet clean ladies out there looking for insurance and assurance? If so, give me a call. My hair may be thinning, but who needs hair?

TEXT 1

'Twerking' bounces into Oxford dictionary

LONDON – Twerking, the rump-busting up-and-down dance move long beloved on

America's hip-hop scene, has officially gone mainstream. It's got the English dictionary

entry to prove it.

Britain's Oxford Dictionaries said the rapid-fire gyrations employed by U.S. pop starlet

Miley Cyrus to bounce her way to the top of the charts had become increasingly visible

in the past 12 months and would be added to its publications under the entry: "Twerk,

verb."

Although Cyrus's eye-popping moves at Monday's MTV Video Music Awards may have

been many viewers' first introduction to the practice, Oxford Dictionaries' Katherine

Connor Martin said "twerking" was some two decades old.

"There are many theories about the origin of this word, and since it arose in oral use, we

may never know the answer for sure," Martin said. "We think the most likely theory is

that it is an alteration of work, because that word has a history of being used in similar

ways, with dancers being encouraged to 'work it.' The 't' could be a result of blending

with another word such as twist or twitch."

"Twerk" will be added to the dictionary as part of its quarterly update, which includes

words such as "selfie," the word typically used to describe pouty smartphone self-

portraits, "digital detox" for time spent way from Facebook and Twitter, and "Bitcoin," for

the nationless electronic currency, whose gyrations have also caught the world's eye.

Oxford Dictionaries is responsible for a range of reference works, including Oxford

Dictionaries Online, which focuses on modern usage, and the historically-focused Oxford

English Dictionary, which probably won't be adding "twerk" to its venerable pages any

time soon.

The definition: "Twerk, v.: dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner

involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance."

Accessed on: august 10th, 2014.

Read the cartoon and answer question.

GLOSSARY
snap – perder o controle, não se conter

TEXTO:

Nowhere to hide

How retailers can find — and up-sell — you in the aisles

Thanks to GPS, the apps on your phone have long
been able to determine your general location. But what
if they could do so with enough precision that a
supermarket, say, could tempt you with digital coupons
[5] depending on whether you were hovering near the white
bread or bagels?
It may sound far-fetched, but there’s a good chance
the technology is already built into your iPhone or Android
device. All it takes for retailers to tap into it are small,
[10] inexpensive transmitters called beacons. Here’s how it
works: using Bluetooth technology, handsets can
pinpoint their position to within as little as 2 cm by receiving
signals from the beacons stores install. Apple’s version
of the concept is called iBeacon; it’s in use at its own
[15] stores and is being tested by Macy’s, American Eagle,
Safeway, the National Football League and Major League
Baseball.
Companies can then use your location to pelt you
with special offers or simply monitor your movements.
[20] But just as with GPS, they won’t see you unless you’ve
installed their apps and granted them access. By melding
your physical position with facts they’ve already collected
about you from rewards programs, brick-and-mortar
businesses can finally get the potentially profitable insight
[25] into your shopping habits that online merchants now take
for granted.
The possibilities go beyond coupons. PayPal is
readying a beacon that will let consumers pay for goods
without swiping a card or removing a phone from their
[30] pocket. Dough Thompson of industry site Beek.net
predicts the technology will become an everyday reality
by year’s end. But don’t look for stores or venues to call
attention to the devices. “People won’t know theses
beacons are there,” he says. “They’ll just know their app
[35] has suddenly become smarter.”

Four Ways Beacons Could Change Shopping and Leisure

1. LINE HINTS AT BALLPARKS OR STADIUMS

When you step away to buy a hot dog, an app directs you to the closest concession stand with the shortest line.

2. INSTANT COUPONS IN DEPARTMENT STORES

Linger in the jewelry department without buying anything and a coupon will pop up on your phone.

3. MORE CONTEXT AT MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

An app tells you historical information about each piece of art as you walk through the room.

4. REMINDERS AT GROCERY STORES

An app reminds you of each item on your list when you’re in the right aisle to pick it up.

brick-and-mortar businesses” (l. 23-24): traditional businesses that do not operate on the Internet.

What is the synonym of the idiomatic expression underlined below?

The Future of Women’s and Children’s Health and
the Sustainable Development Goals

Next year, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) will be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) -- a set of even more ambitious targets for global development. In a bold attempt to create the healthiest generation of young women and children in the world, the new SDGs will require the near elimination of preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030.
What we have learned from the MDGs is that making the world healthier for women and children has a transformative effect on economic and social development. One recent study in the Lancet, Global Health 2035, found that reductions in premature death accounted for 11% of recent economic growth in low and middle income countries.
But despite this compelling evidence, public and private sector financing for women's and children’s health has not been adequate to achieve the MDGs and without additional investment the ambitious new SDG goals will not be reached.
The major sources of public-sector financing for global health in the MDG-era included the US President’s AIDS and malaria initiatives (PEPFAR and PMI), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) and the GlobalAlliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The private pharmaceutical, energy, mining, and consumer goods sectors all rallied around these massive global efforts and as a result there has been strong progress in reversing the spread of AIDS and malaria and impressive reductions in vaccine-preventable child deaths, particularly from measles and tetanus.
We have not seen the same levels of investment in some of the most critical areas affecting women’s and children’s health. 2.5 billion people do not have access to a toilet. And pneumonia, the disease that causes more child deaths than AIDS, TB, and malaria combined -- still lacks public and private sector financial support with the majority of children who die from pneumonia each year failing to receive the recommended antibiotic treatment or oxygen therapy.
Adaptado de: <http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/blog/post/future-women-sand-
children-s-health-and-sustainable-development-goals/41836 >
Acessado em 18 de outubro de 2014.

[1] The study of game aesthetics is a very

recent practice, spanning less than two

decades. Unlike game studies in mathematics

or the social sciences, ........ are much older,

[5] games became subject to humanistic study

only after computer and video games became

popular. This lack of persistent interest might

seem odd, but only if we see traditional

games and computer games as intrinsically

[10] similar, ........ they are not. We might try to

explain this lack by noting that games are

usually seen as trivial and lowbrow by the

aesthetic and theoretical elites ........ cultivate

the analysis of artistic media objects:

[15] literature, the visual arts, theatre, music, etc.

But this does not explain the fact that

aesthetic studies of games are now not only

possible, but even encouraged and supported

with funding. What happened to cause this

[20] change?

A possible explanation could be that digital

games, unlike traditional games or sports,

consist of non-ephemeral content (stored

words, sounds and images), which places

[25] them much closer to the ideal object of the

Humanities, the work of art. Thus, they

become visible and textualizable for the

aesthetic observer, in a way the previous

phenomena were not.

[30] However, this sudden visibility, probably

also caused by the tremendous economic and

cultural success of computer games, produces

certain blind spots in the aesthetic observer,

especially if he/she is trained in textual/visual

[35] analysis, as is usually the case. Instead of

treating the new phenomena carefully, and as

objects of a study for which no methodology

yet exists, they are analyzed with tools that

happen to be at hand, such as film or

[40] narrative theories. Therefore we need to

outline and promote a methodology for the

aesthetic study of games, which, given the

current nascent state of the field, will

doubtlessly give way to more sophisticated

[45] approaches in the years to come.