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Sat Out of Politics for 40 Years. Now They Want in the Game.

Faith leaders whose politics fall to the left of center are getting more involved in politics to fight against President Trump’s policies.

In Nashville, a crowd of ministers carrying palm fronds occupied the governor’s office during Holy Week, demanding the expansion of Medicaid to cover more of the uninsured. In California and 16 other states, an interfaith network has organized thousands of volunteers to swoop into action when immigrants are arrested or houses of worship are vandalized.

Across the country, religious leaders whose politics fall to the left of center, and who used to shun the political arena, are getting involved — and even recruiting political candidates — to fight back against President Trump’s policies on immigration, health care, poverty, and the environment.

Some are calling the holy ruckus a “religious resistance”. Others, mindful that periodic attempts at a resurgence on the religious left have all failed, point to an even loftier ambition than taking on the current White House: after 40 years in which the Christian right has dominated the influence of organized religion on American politics — souring some people on religion altogether, studies show — left-leaning faith leaders are hungry to break the right’s grip on setting the nation’s moral agenda.

Frustrated by Christian conservatives’ focus on reversing liberal successes in legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, those on the religious left want to turn instead to what they see as truly fundamental biblical imperatives — caring for the poor, welcoming strangers and protecting the earth — and maybe even change some minds about what it means to be a believer.

TEXTO:

During a total solar eclipse, the sky darkens to twilight
levels and air temperatures drop. Over the centuries,
people who have witnessed these effects have also
noted that a variety of animals seem to change their
[5] behaviors in response.
Reports of unusual animal reactions to solar eclipses
date back centuries. One of the earliest stories comes
from Italian monk Ristoro d'Arezzo, who described what
happened during a total eclipse on June 3, 1239. As
[10] the sun disappeared and the sky turned dark, “all the
animals and birds were terrified; and the wild beasts
could easily be caught,” he wrote.
During an eclipse seen in Portugal on August 21,
1560, astronomer Christoph Clavius wrote that during
[15] totality, “stars appeared in the sky and the birds fell
down from the sky to the ground in terror of such horrid
darkness.”
While it’s hard to confirm such colorful anecdotes
from history, modern astronomers and eclipse chasers
[20] have also reported wild and domestic animals noticeably
reacting to eclipses: Dairy cows return to the barn,
crickets begin chirping, birds either go to roost or
become more active, and whales breach in the seas.
Eclipse-chaser and author Dave Balch was in Kona,
[25] Hawaii, for the 1991 total eclipse and noticed excited
activity among the birds along the pier during the partial
phases before and after totality. “We could hardly hear
each other talk! Then came totality – not a sound. It was
deathly quiet. The difference between the noise levels
[30] before and during totality was stunning.”

Now we know how events in Texas turned out.
Dr. Shepherd and his colleagues have spent their careers issuing a larger warning, one that much of the public still chooses to ignore. I speak, of course, about the risks of climate change.
Because of atmospheric emissions from human activity, the ocean waters from which Harvey drew its final burst of strength were much warmer than they ought to have been, most likely contributing to the intensity of the deluge. If the forecasts from our scientists are anywhere close to right, we have seen nothing yet.
In their estimation, the most savage heat waves that we experience today will likely become routine in a matter of decades. The coastal inundation that has already begun will grow worse and worse, forcing millions of people to flee. The immense wave of refugees that we already see moving across continents may be just the beginning.

TEXTO:

British scientists have developed a lightweight and
highly sensitive brain imaging device that can be worn
as a helmet, allowing the patient to move about naturally.
Results from tests of the scanner showed that patients
[5] were able to stretch, nod and even drink tea or play
table tennis while their brain activity was being
recorded, millisecond by millisecond, by the
magnetoencephalography (MEG) system.
Researchers who developed the device said they
[10] hoped the new scanner would improve research and
treatment for patients who can’t use traditional fixed
MEG scanners, such as children with epilepsy, babies,
or patients with disorders like Parkinson’s disease.
Current MEG scanners are cumbersome and weigh
[15] as much as half a ton, partly because the sensors they
use to measure the brain’s magnetic field need to be
kept very cold - at minus 269 degrees Celsius, Barnes’
team explained. They also run into difficulties when
patients are unable to stay very still — very young

[20] children or patients with movement disorders for
example — since even a 5-millimeter movement can
mean the images are unusable.
In the helmet scanner, the researchers overcame
these problems by using quantum sensors, which are
[25] lightweight, work at room temperature and can be
placed directly onto scalp — increasing the amount of
signal they are able to pick up. Moreover, the wearable
scanner offers new possibilities in measuring peoples’
brain function during real world tasks and social
[30] interactions. “This has significant potential for impact
on our understanding of not only healthy brain function
but also on a range of neurological, neurodegenerative
and mental health conditions.”

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.

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England’s Mental Health Experiment: No-Cost Talk Therapy

England is in the midst of a unique national experiment, the world’s most ambitious effort to treat depression, anxiety and other common mental illnesses. The rapidly growing initiative, which has gotten little publicity outside the country, offers virtually open-ended talk therapy free of charge at clinics throughout the country: in remote farming villages, industrial suburbs and isolated immigrant communities. The goal is to eventually create a system of primary care for mental health for all of Britain.
At a time when many nations are debating large-scale reforms to mental health care, researchers and policy makers are looking hard at England’s experience, observing both its popularity and its limitations. Mental health care systems vary widely across the Western world, but none have gone nearly so far to provide unlimited access to talk therapies backed by hard evidence. Experts say the English program is the first broad real-world test of treatments that have been studied mostly in carefully controlled lab conditions.

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Unexpected effects of nutrition

In the late 1960s, a team of researchers began distributing a nutritional supplement to families with young children in rural Guatemala. They were testing the assumption that providing enough protein in the first few years of life would reduce the incidence of stunted growth.

It did. Children who received added nutrition grew 1 to 2 centimetres taller than those in a control group. But the benefits didn’t stop there. These children went on to score higher on reading and knowledge tests as adolescents, and when researchers returned in the early 2000s, women who had received the supplements in the first three years of life completed more years of schooling and men had higher incomes.

“Had there not been these follow-ups, this study probably would have been largely forgotten,” says Reynaldo Martorell, a specialist in maternal and child nutrition who led the followup studies. Instead, he says, the findings made financial institutions such as the World Bank think of early nutritional interventions as long-term investments in human health. Since the Guatemalan research, studies around the world — in Brazil, Peru, Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya and Zimbabwe — have all associated poor or stunted growth in young children with lower cognitive test scores and worse school achievement. A picture slowly emerged that being too short early in life is a sign of adverse conditions — such as poor diet and regular episodes of diarrhea — and a predictor for intellectual deficits and mortality.

Read the movie review below and answer question.

The Cutting Edge

Skating fans, listen up! The Cutting Edge is a romantic movie with ________ skaters. The stars are practicing for the Winter Olympics. Kate Mosely looks ________________ on the ice, but she isn’t a ________________ person. All her partners leave ________. Then her coach introduces her to Doug Dorsey. Doug was a hockey star, so he skates well. At first, they argue. To Kate, Doug is the wrong choice (he is not a dancer). To Doug, ice dancing isn’t a serious sport.
Adapted from: Grammar Express Basic – For Self-Study and Classroom Use.

Para que um satélite seja utilizado para transmissões de televisão, quando em órbita, deve ter a mesma velocidade angular de rotação da Terra, de modo que se mantenha sempre sobre um mesmo ponto da superfície terrestre.