TEXTO:

Anna had been depressed for much of her adult
life, seeking a range of treatments that might help her
condition. She took anti-depressants, underwent
psychotherapy and even experienced electroconvulsive
[5] therapy – which involves passing electricity through the
whole brain.
Treatments like these were only effective for short
periods, and her depression would soon return. Another
issue she faced was that she was morbidly obese,
[10] weighing 183kg. This resulted in severely limited
mobility which, naturally, exacerbated her depression,
putting in place a vicious circle of poor health.
Gastric bypass surgery helped her lose some
weight but not as much as expected from such a
[15] procedure, and it had little impact on her depression.
As a last resort treatment, psychiatrists took a drastic
decision to implant an electrical device in her brain, an
invasive therapy known as deep brain stimulation. It’s
a treatment that’s already frequently used to alleviate
[20] the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
Not only did this treatment significantly help her
depression, it had another astonishing outcome – she
lost more weight than she had with any previous
treatment, losing almost 50% more weight (2.8kg or
[25] 6.1lbs) per month than she had done after the gastric
bypass surgery. Thomas Munte, the neurologist who
treated Anna, says that while the initial goal was to treat
her depression, the weight loss was the “secondary
target” of the surgery. In her case, the two were
[30] seemingly linked.
That Anna successfully lost weight following the
treatment is opening up new discussions about how to
tackle what we know is a world-wide epidemic. It is
also revealing that in some rare cases, the brain can
[35] be “de-tuned” from debilitating behaviors, like addiction.

Read the text.

The Key to Weight Loss Is Diet Quality, Not Quantity, a New Study Finds

Anyone who has ever been on a diet knows that the standard prescription for weight loss is to reduce the amount of calories you consume. But a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, may turn that advice on its head. It found that people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories or limiting portion sizes — lost significant amounts of weight over the course of a year. The strategy worked for people whether they followed diets that were mostly low in fat or mostly low in carbohydrates. And their success did not appear to be influenced by their genetics or their insulin-response to carbohydrates, a finding that casts doubt on the increasingly popular idea that different diets should be recommended to people based on their DNA makeup or on their tolerance for carbs or fat.

Hot or Cold? The Benefits of Both Kinds of Showers

Showering is an essential part of a healthy routine, but depending on the temperature, your time spent under the water can offer different benefits. Whether you like it hot or prefer it cold, learn how your showering routine can affect your health. After reading, you might rethink which way you turn the dial.
Some Like It Hot
Hot showers can relieve tension and soothe stiff muscles. If you have a powerful showerhead, even better! Let the hot water work like a minimassage on your shoulders, neck, and back.
Studies have shown that taking a hot shower can amp up your oxytocin levels and ease anxiety. Anyone working with stress can use more of the love hormone in their life! A hot shower also acts as a natural decongestant to relieve cold symptoms, since the hot steam moisturizes nasal passages.
Some Like It Cold
Cold showers — as unbearable as they are — are actually really good for our bodies! Turning your shower cold for the last five minutes can help "shock" your body awake. This instant change in temperature relieves your body of fatigue and increases your mental alertness.
A "cooler" shower (around 68 degrees) for two to three minutes once or twice daily is recommended by researchers as a treatment for depression. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out!
On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin.
Disponível em: Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

Britain needs to go on a diet, says top health officials

The portion sizes of some of Britain’s most popular foods are to be cut, with health officials telling the public it is time “to get on a diet”. Public Health England (PHE) is targeting pizzas, ready meals, processed meat and takeaways, in a new obesity drive. The government agency has also urged the food industry to start using healthier ingredients and encourage the public to opt for lower calorie foods. It is all part of a drive to cut calorie consumption by 20% by 2024.

The target will apply to 13 different food groups, responsible for a fifth of the calorie intake of children. But PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie said the steps were as much about influencing the diets of adults. “Britain needs to go on a diet. Children and adults routinely eat too many calories, and it’s why so many are overweight or obese,” he said.

The agency is also launching a campaign encouraging adults to consume 400 calories at breakfast and 600 each at lunch and dinner. It is being seen as a rough guide for consumers to follow when they buy meals away from home. A quarter of food is now bought from cafes, restaurants, takeaways or as food-to-go from shops. PHE said major groups such as McDonald’s, Subway and Greggs would be promoting foods that kept people within these guidelines.

Currently adults consume between 200 and 300 calories more than they should each day. PHE chief nutritionist Dr. Alison Tedstone said the campaign would make it easier for “people to make healthier choices” by being able to judge what they should be eating in each sitting. “To get traction on this, the big-selling things need to change. A few healthy options on the end of a menu won’t help solve the nation’s obesity problem – we need the regular, everyday products to change,” she said.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

Britain needs to go on a diet, says top health officials

The portion sizes of some of Britain’s most popular foods are to be cut, with health officials telling the public it is time “to get on a diet”. Public Health England (PHE) is targeting pizzas, ready meals, processed meat and takeaways, in a new obesity drive. The government agency has also urged the food industry to start using healthier ingredients and encourage the public to opt for lower calorie foods. It is all part of a drive to cut calorie consumption by 20% by 2024.

The target will apply to 13 different food groups, responsible for a fifth of the calorie intake of children. But PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie said the steps were as much about influencing the diets of adults. “Britain needs to go on a diet. Children and adults routinely eat too many calories, and it’s why so many are overweight or obese,” he said.

The agency is also launching a campaign encouraging adults to consume 400 calories at breakfast and 600 each at lunch and dinner. It is being seen as a rough guide for consumers to follow when they buy meals away from home. A quarter of food is now bought from cafes, restaurants, takeaways or as food-to-go from shops. PHE said major groups such as McDonald’s, Subway and Greggs would be promoting foods that kept people within these guidelines.

Currently adults consume between 200 and 300 calories more than they should each day. PHE chief nutritionist Dr. Alison Tedstone said the campaign would make it easier for “people to make healthier choices” by being able to judge what they should be eating in each sitting. “To get traction on this, the big-selling things need to change. A few healthy options on the end of a menu won’t help solve the nation’s obesity problem – we need the regular, everyday products to change,” she said.

To grasp water scarcity, researchers probe links between human and natural systems

Understanding the fine-level interactions between nature and people is essential in determining whether a region will suffer water scarcity in the future. That's a key finding of a study titled "Finding Water Scarcity Amid Abundance Using Human-Natural System Models," to be published next week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Up to 2 billion people around the world face water shortages now and in the future, said the study's lead author, William Jaeger, an economist in Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences. Emerging scarcities are tied to factors such as growing populations, rising standards of living and climate change.

"Recent droughts across the West have underscored the vulnerability of even highly developed economies to water scarcity," Jaeger said. "And climate change will only heighten the need to anticipate water shortages worldwide." It's a daunting task, he said, because the interactions between natural water supply and human water demands are complex, and involve "linkages and feedbacks" that are difficult to anticipate.

Hot or Cold? The Benefits of Both Kinds of Showers

Showering is an essential part of a healthy routine, but depending on the temperature, your time spent under the water can offer different benefits. Whether you like it hot or prefer it cold, learn how your showering routine can affect your health. After reading, you might rethink which way you turn the dial.
Some Like It Hot
Hot showers can relieve tension and soothe stiff muscles. If you have a powerful showerhead, even better! Let the hot water work like a minimassage on your shoulders, neck, and back.
Studies have shown that taking a hot shower can amp up your oxytocin levels and ease anxiety. Anyone working with stress can use more of the love hormone in their life! A hot shower also acts as a natural decongestant to relieve cold symptoms, since the hot steam moisturizes nasal passages.
Some Like It Cold
Cold showers — as unbearable as they are — are actually really good for our bodies! Turning your shower cold for the last five minutes can help "shock" your body awake. This instant change in temperature relieves your body of fatigue and increases your mental alertness.
A "cooler" shower (around 68 degrees) for two to three minutes once or twice daily is recommended by researchers as a treatment for depression. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out!
On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin.
Disponível em: Acessado em 25 de março de 2018.

Big U.S. tobacco companies are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered gadgets feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and flavorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale. Some past research has suggested that using e-cigarettes may help smokers cut down on use of traditional tobacco products, or even transition entirely away from tobacco – an idea aggressively marketed by e-cigarette and tobacco companies.
But a recent European study says that smokers who also use e-cigarettes may be half as likely to give up tobacco as smokers who never vape at all.
Researchers analyzed data from a 2014 survey of more than 13,000 current or former smokers in the European Union. About 2,500 had tried vaping at least once; 46% of the participants were former smokers and 19% currently or previously used e-cigarettes. The study revealed that people smoked an average of about 14 cigarettes a day when they didn’t vape, and around 16 cigarettes a day when they did.

“This is important because e-cigarettes are widely promoted as a smoking cessation tool”, said senior author Stanton Glantz of California, San Francisco. “And, while there is no question that some smokers do successfully quit with e-cigarettes, they keep many more people smoking”, he added.
“Most adult smokers express a desire to quit, and many try and fail”, said Samir Soneji, a health policy researcher in New Hampshire. “E-cigarettes might seem like an appealing cessation tool because the devices in some ways mimic the smoking, but nicotine gum or patches may be more effective.”
RAPAPORT, Lisa. Disponível em: <www.foxnews.com>. Acesso em: abr. 2018. Adaptado.

TEXTO

Yaqub partiu para o Líbano com os amigos do pai e regressou a Manaus cinco anos depois. Sozinho. “Um rude, um pastor, um ra’í. Olha como o meu filho come!”, lamentava-se Zana.

Ela tentou esquecer a cicatriz do filho, mas a distância trazia para mais perto ainda o rosto de Yaqub. As cartas que ela escreveu!

Dezenas? Centenas, talvez. Cinco anos de palavras. Nenhuma resposta. As raras notícias sobre a vida de Yaqub eram transmitidas por amigos ou conhecidos que voltavam do Líbano. Um primo de Talib que visitara a família de Halim avistara Yaqub no porão de uma casa. Estava sozinho e lia um livro sentado no chão, onde havia um monte de figos secos. O rapaz tentou falar com ele, em árabe e português, mas Yaqub o ignorou. Zana passou a noite culpando Halim, e ameaçou viajar para o Líbano durante a guerra. Então ele escreveu aos parentes e mandou o dinheiro da passagem de Yaqub.

Isso Domingas me contou. Mas muita coisa do que aconteceu eu mesmo vi, porque enxerguei de fora aquele pequeno mundo. Sim, de fora e às vezes distante. Mas fui o observador desse jogo e presenciei muitas cartadas, até o lance final.

Text says that Yaqub has been to Lebanon and came back to Brazil five years later. Lebanon is a country in the Middle East.

So here I am, upside down in a woman. Arms

patiently crossed, waiting, waiting and

wondering who I'm in, what I’m in for. My

eyes close nostalgically when I remember

[5] how I once drifted in my translucent body

bag, floated dreamily in the bubble of my

thoughts through my private ocean in slow-

motion somersaults, colliding gently against

the transparent bounds of my confinement,

[10] the confiding membrane that vibrated with,

even as it muffled, the voices of conspirators

in a vile enterprise. That was in my careless

youth. Now, fully inverted, not an inch of

space to myself, knees crammed against

[15] belly, my thoughts as well as my head are

fully engaged. I’ve no choice, my ear is

pressed all day and night against the bloody

walls. I listen, make mental notes, and I’m

troubled. I’m hearing pillow talk of deadly

[20] intent and I’m terrified by what awaits me, by

what might draw me in.

I’m immersed in abstractions, and only the

proliferating relations between them create

the illusion of a known world. When I hear

[25] "blue," which I’ve never seen, I imagine some

kind of mental event that's fairly close to

"green"—which I’ve never seen. I count

myself an innocent, unburdened by

allegiances and obligations, a free spirit,

[30] despite my meagre living room. No one to

contradict or reprimand me, no name or

previous address, no religion, no debts, no

enemies. My appointment diary, if it existed,

notes only my forthcoming birthday. I am, or

[35] I was, despite what the geneticists are now

saying, a blank slate. But a slippery, porous

slate no school-room or cottage roof could

find use for, a slate that writes upon itself as

it grows by the day and becomes less blank. I

[40] count myself an innocent, but it seems I'm

party to a plot. My mother, bless her

unceasing, loudly squelching heart, seems to

be involved.

Assinale com V (verdadeiro) ou F (falso) as seguintes afirmações acerca do texto.

( ) O narrador nostalgicamente rememora sua juventude despreocupada, anterior ao seu confinamento.

( ) O narrador, por encontrar-se de cabeça para baixo, está confuso e imerso em ilusões acerca do mundo ao seu redor.

( ) O texto reveste-se de ironia em função do descompasso entre a condição do narrador e seu domínio de linguagem.

( ) O texto apresenta um relato incomum que instiga o leitor a conjecturar acerca do desenvolvimento humano e da formação da consciência.