Student on Homesickness

When the homesickness hits, I usually get lazy and tired and just feel like going home and sleeping. I miss the safety of my family and the comfort of home, but most of all I miss my mother and just being able to talk to her whenever I want.

The homesickness usually hits when I feel out of place, or when I hear a song, or see something that reminds me of them. Usually, when I Skype them, it makes me feel worse because I can see them and talk to them, but I can't be with them.

Lara Wyatt, 20, Boston.

O texto descreve uma situação muito comum entre as pessoas que passam a viver fora de sua cidade.

Read the text below for question.

Rates of newly diagnosed HIV increasing in over-50s

The news is based on a European study that found more over-50s are being diagnosed with HIV compared with 12 years ago. The study collected data on more than 360,000 people who had been newly diagnosed with HIV between 2004 and 2015 in Europe.

The researchers looked at infection rates over time according to age, route of transmission and country. They found a number of differences between the patterns of infection and diagnosis in those aged 15 to 49 and in those aged 50 and over. (Source: www.nhs.uk).

Can plants hear?

Flora may be able to detect the sounds of flowing water or munching insects

Pseudoscientific claims that music helps plants grow have been made for decades, despite evidence that is shaky at best. Yet new research suggests some flora may be capable of sensing sounds, such as the gurgle of water through a pipe or the buzzing of insects.

In a recent study, Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues placed pea seedlings in pots shaped like an upside-down Y. One arm of each pot was placed in either a tray of water or a coiled plastic tube through which water flowed; the other arm had dry soil. The roots grew toward the arm of the pipe with the fluid, regardless of whether it was easily accessible or hidden inside the tubing. “They just knew the water was there, even if the only thing to detect was the sound of it flowing inside the pipe,” Gagliano says. Yet when the seedlings were given a choice between the water tube and some moistened soil, their roots favored the latter. She hypothesizes that these plants use sound waves to detect water at a distance but follow moisture gradients to home in on their target when it is closer.

The research, reported earlier this year in Oecologia, is not the first to suggest flora can detect and interpret sounds. A 2014 study showed the rock cress Arabidopsis can distinguish between caterpillar chewing sounds and wind vibrations – the plant produced more chemical toxins after “hearing” a recording of feeding insects. “We tend to underestimate plants because their responses are usually less visible to us. But leaves turn out to be extremely sensitive vibration detectors,” says lead study author Heidi M. Appel, an environmental scientist now at the University of Toledo.

1984 (excerpt)

'Is it your opinion, Winston, that the past has real existence?’ [...] O'Brien smiled faintly. ‘I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?

'No.'
'Then where does the past exist, if at all?'
'In records. It is written down.'
'In records. And –– ––?'
'In the mind. In human memories.'
'In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?'

O romance 1984 descreve os perigos de um Estado totalitário.

Ainda com TV em preto e branco, a segunda metade da década de 1960 foi fértil em festivais da canção. Em 1968, a segunda classificada − “Pra não dizer que não falei das flores” − foi composta por Geraldo Vandré e marcou a juventude universitária daquela época. Considere um pequeno trecho da canção abaixo:

[...]
Pelos campos há fome
Em grandes plantações
Pelas ruas marchando
Indecisos cordões
Ainda fazem da flor
Seu mais forte refrão
E acreditam nas flores
Vencendo o canhão [...]

Pelos campos há fome / Em grandes plantações, esses dois primeiros versos da estrofe fazem lembrar uma fase da história agrária recente do Brasil denominada modernização conservadora. Sobre essa fase são feitas as seguintes afirmações.

I. Na década de 1960, a agricultura atravessou um processo de transformação passando a se integrar à dinâmica industrial de produção; iniciava-se a criação dos complexos agroindustriais.

II. Foi reduzido o assalariamento da mão de obra do campo e ampliaram-se os espaços dos arrendatários, parceiros e posseiros devido à intensa migração em direção ao interior do país.

III. O processo de modernização ampliou a mecanização agrícola que por sua vez promoveu a concentração de terra e a intensificação do êxodo rural.

Read the cartoon and answer question.

Read the following text to answer question.

Life on Earth has always been exposed to a certain amount of radiation ffom natural sources which comes in part from cosmic rays. Also present in our environment is radiation from the radioactive elements that occur naturally such as radium, thorium, and uranium.

One of the most serious problems that can result from radiation given off by nuclear reactions is damage to the genes, the cells in living organisms that control hereditary factors. Exposure to radiation can cause a mutation, a change in some inherited characteristics of the organisms. Only a very small proportion of mutations are beneficial to the organism.

The nuclear reactors that have been developed for experimental and peaceful purposes are surrounded by a heavy protective shield of concrete, or sometimes of lead, to protectthe people who work with them.

A further problem involves the disposal of radioactive wastes. As the number of nuclear reactors in existence has increased into the environment because they could create a potential hazard for all living things in the world.

Experimentation is going on constantly to find safe methods of getting rid ofthe harmful by-products of nuclear reactions.

Admita que certa cidade brasileira tenha 8 canais de TV aberta, todos com transmissões diárias. Se uma pessoa pretende assistir três dos oito canais em um mesmo dia, ela pode fazer isso de x maneiras diferentes sem levar em consideração a ordem em que assiste os canais, e pode fazer de y maneiras diferentes levando em consideração a ordem em que assiste os canais.

Can plants hear?

Flora may be able to detect the sounds of flowing water or munching insects

Pseudoscientific claims that music helps plants grow have been made for decades, despite evidence that is shaky at best. Yet new research suggests some flora may be capable of sensing sounds, such as the gurgle of water through a pipe or the buzzing of insects.

In a recent study, Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues placed pea seedlings in pots shaped like an upside-down Y. One arm of each pot was placed in either a tray of water or a coiled plastic tube through which water flowed; the other arm had dry soil. The roots grew toward the arm of the pipe with the fluid, regardless of whether it was easily accessible or hidden inside the tubing. “They just knew the water was there, even if the only thing to detect was the sound of it flowing inside the pipe,” Gagliano says. Yet when the seedlings were given a choice between the water tube and some moistened soil, their roots favored the latter. She hypothesizes that these plants use sound waves to detect water at a distance but follow moisture gradients to home in on their target when it is closer.

The research, reported earlier this year in Oecologia, is not the first to suggest flora can detect and interpret sounds. A 2014 study showed the rock cress Arabidopsis can distinguish between caterpillar chewing sounds and wind vibrations – the plant produced more chemical toxins after “hearing” a recording of feeding insects. “We tend to underestimate plants because their responses are usually less visible to us. But leaves turn out to be extremely sensitive vibration detectors,” says lead study author Heidi M. Appel, an environmental scientist now at the University of Toledo.