UK hills could be used as energy “batteries” after engineers developed a pioneering hydropower system embedded underground.

The hillside projects would mimic the UK’s traditional hydropower plants by using surplus electricity to pump water uphill, and later releasing the water back down the hill through turbines to generate electricity when needed.

It could unlock hundreds of potential hydropower sites across the UK, which would be quicker and cheaper to build than traditional hydropower dams and also lead to fewer negative environmental impacts.

Uma equipe de engenheiros desenvolveu um sistema que adapta uma das formas mais antigas de armazenamento de energia, a energia hidrelétrica, para liberar eletricidade.

Read textand answer question.

Text

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a booklet entitled “Getting your workforce ready for Covid-19”. The eight-page document is organized by topics and in one of them, it is possible to read as follows:

Promote regular and thorough hand-washing by employees, contractors and customers:

a. Put sanitizing hand rub dispensers in prominent places around the workplace;

b. Make sure these dispensers are regularly refilled;

c. Display posters promoting hand-washing – ask your local public health authority for these or look on www.WHO.int;

d. Combine this with other communication measures such as offering guidance from occupational health and safety officers, briefings at meetings and information on the intranet to promote hand-washing;

e. Make sure that staff, contractors and customers have access to places where they can wash their hands with soap and water;

f. Why? Because washing kills the virus on your hands and prevents the spread of Covid-19.

Read the following text and answer the following questionbased on it.

The Family Role During Patient’s Hospitalization

Family has a significant role in hospital treatment of patients, since it can provide effective psychological and emotional support to patients undergoing treatment to hospital. Additionally, the above role of family is not only significant for adults but also for children and pregnant women, who need their husbands during their childbirth. Consequently, the medical and nursing staff needs to maintain a continuous contact with parents and relatives of patients, and provide them with the appropriate information concerning the condition of their patient and the progress of the therapeutic programme.

Moreover, the role of family, friends, and relatives is of vital importance for the maintenance of quality of life in hospitalized patients with chronic problems. This, because family can satisfy basic needs of the patient in the hospital to a large extent. Additionally, family can help him decrease his stress, while it can encourage him to correspond effectively in the therapeutic form he follows.

The reciprocal effect takes place because family is a social system, which is constituted by individuals interacting with each other. Thus, any change in the system influences its stability. Since family constitutes a system, illness of a member of the system has a direct effect on all the system. Moreover, the way that the system reacts has a direct effect on the member that suffers. Consequently, the more effectively the system functions, the better its members are adapted. For this reason, all the members of family need to adapt to various problems of patients, in order to provide them with effective psychological and emotional support.

According to the text

1) families can effectively contribute for their member’s recovery.
2) relatives are of no psychological or emotional help whatsoever.
3) patients can be better off if their family keeps company in hospital.
4) hospitalization should be void of patients’ family participation.
5) families should take over the responsibilities of staff in hospitals.

Texto

Brazil is brilliant at vaccinations. So what went wrong this time?

When it comes to Covid-19 vaccination programs, there are some countries that have exceeded expectations and others that have fallen surprisingly short. And then there is Brazil. Vaccinating over 210 million people may sound daunting, but for Brazil it really shouldn’t be. With one of the largest universal, free-of-charge public health systems in the world, the country has a distinguished track record of vaccinations and disease control. The National Immunization Program, founded in 1973, helped to eradicate polio and rubella in the country and currently offers more than 20 vaccines free in every municipality.

Along with the infrastructure to distribute vaccines, there’s also the expertise to do so: in 1980, the country vaccinated 17.5 million children against polio in a single day. In 2010, over 89 million doses of the swine flu vaccine were administered in under four months. And last year, more than 70 million Brazilians received their annual shot against influenza.

But despite these advantages, Brazil’s vaccine rollout has been painfully slow, inconsistent and marred by shortages. The nationwide program began on Jan. 18, later than over 50 countries, and its current rate will take more than four years to complete. Several major cities, such as Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, have already had to stop their campaigns because of problems in supply. In a country where the pandemic has wrought terrible damage, the failure amounts to a disaster. So what went wrong? Perhaps we should look to "Zé Gotinha", Joe Droplet: He seems to know exactly who to blame.

From the beginning, Mr. Bolsonaro’s government downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic. The president fought against masks and social distancing measures, comparing the coronavirus to rain that would fall on most people while drowning just some of them. ("It’s no use staying home crying," he recently said, after the country registered 1,452 deaths on a single day.) In the middle of the outbreak, he managed to get rid of two health ministers - both doctors - who threatened to contradict him, replacing them with an army general.

Muere el astronauta Michael Collins, uno de los tres miembros del Apolo 11

Miami (EE.UU.) / El histórico vuelo del Apolo 11, la primera misión de aterrizaje lunar en 1969, perdió este miércoles a su piloto, el astronauta Michael Collins, quien murió a los 90 afios después de batallar contra un cancer.

“Collins escribió y ayudó a contar la historia de los notables logros de nuestra nación en el espacio”, manifestó e! presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden.

Con su fallecimiento, el único sobreviviente de la hazafia en suelo marciano es el astronauta Buzz Aldrin, quien lamentó hoy la pérdida de su compafero.

“Querido Mike, dondequiera que hayas estado o estés, siempre tendrás el fuego para llevarnos habilmente a nuevas alturas”, expresó el astronauta.

Neil Armstrong. el otro de los pioneros de la Luna, murió a los 82 afios en 2012 debido a complicaciones tras someterse a una cirugia.

En julio de 1969 alrededor de un millón de personas se congregaron en Cabo Cafiaveral, en Florida, para presenciar el lanzamiento del Apolo 11 con los tres astronautas.

Armstrong y Aldrin fueron los primeros humanos en pisar la superficie lunar. A diferencia de ellos, Collins nunca caminó sobre la Luna pero pilotó el módulo de comando.

“Puede que no haya recibido la misma gloria, pero fue un socio igualitario, lo que le recordó a nuestra nación la importancia de la colaboración al servicio de las grandes metas”, manifestó el presidente Biden.

Desde Miami para la Agencia EFE, Ivonne Malaver. (29 de abril de 2021, EFE/Practica Espariol)

Leia o texto para responder a questão.

Ever heard of the gnu goat, the red-eared guenon or the Gila monster? They could be the future icons of conservation, according to a study. Scientists say these little-known animals are key to raising money for protecting vulnerable ecosystems. The likes of tigers and elephants, which appeal to the masses, are often selected for fundraising campaigns. But this approach has been criticised for neglecting many other species that need our help.

“It’s time for us to put some science behind the species we use to market and fundraise for conservation — rather than framing our approach around what’s popular or seen as ‘cute’ by the public,” said Dr Hugh Possingham, chief scientist at conservation NGO, The Nature Conservancy.

To test whether a more scientific approach could have wider benefits for vulnerable ecosystems, the researchers compiled data on protected areas, human impacts, and the ranges of thousands of animals. They identified priority places for conservation in the world and suitable “flagship species” to fundraise for them. “We can’t afford to waste a single conservation dollar. Given the state of the biodiversity crisis we need to be strategic, effective and efficient with the conservation work that we do”, said Dr Jennifer McGowan of Australia’s Macquarie University. Flagship species are a good way “to appeal to hearts and minds”, she said, citing images from the recent wildfires in Australia showing injured koalas. “Millions of dollars were raised — because no-one can look at those pictures and not have their hearts break.”

The study, published in Nature Communications, compiled a list of hundreds of mammals, birds and reptiles that could act as new flagship species. They are charismatic in their own right, but often overlooked in favour of more iconic alternatives. Animals highlighted include:

- The Andean bear from the Andean mountain forests.
- The fossa, a cat-like predator from Madagascar.
- The rhinoceros hornbill of south-east Asia.
- The secretary bird of the East African savannahs.
- The Gila monster, which lives in the deserts of Mexico and the US.

Texto

What impact have technologies generated in this changing role?

Faced with the pandemic, countries have combined high-tech and low- tech approaches to help teachers better support student learning. In Cambodia, for example, education leaders designed a strategy that combines SMS, printed handouts, and continuous teacher feedback, taking advantage of the high mobile phone penetration in the country. The approach goes beyond providing low-tech materials: it gives information on how to access learning programs, ensures students access paper-based learning materials, and includes home visits to monitor distance learning activities. Teachers are also expected to provide weekly paper-based resources to students and meet them weekly to provide their marked worksheets and issue new ones for the weck ahead,

Technology has also enhanced government-teacher support, adapting existing coaching programs to be delivered remotely (as the mentioned cases of Nigeria and Uruguay), creating spaces for peer support programs (for example the Virtual EdCamps initiative, created to facilitate peer-topeer learning among teachers) or establishing EdTech hotlines for teachers (like in Estonia, where the HITSA - the Information Technology Foundation for Education - opened an educational technology information line to solve any technological question teachers might have).

Technology interventions should enhance teacher engagement with students, through improved access to content, data and networks, helping teachers better support student learning, as laid out in the World Bank's Platform for Successful Teachers, where effective use of technology is one of the key principles to ensure cadres of effective teachers.

Read the text below to answer question.

The climate leadership that inspires me: Greta Thunberg

Greta speaks unapologetically and truthfully about the threat of climate change. Too many people moderate what they say, and Greta‘s ability to state the science and its implications without spin regardless of whether she‘s speaking to another 16-year-old or a world leader is exactly what we need.

Being young and having such a simple way of protesting, yet making the difference that she has, makes every young person believe that they have power. She‘s challenged young people to join the frontlines and have a say in the affairs of their future. The new generation needs to know they‘re important right now as inheritors of inaction.

Her impact has been indelible and inspirational for me since she first started her protest. She has inspired many school children to pay attention to climate and environmental issues and the climate strike movement shows the power that lies in each and every one of us when we relentlessly dedicate ourselves to positive change. In a time of competing headlines, being able to draw attention to an issue of such importance is a critical part of creating unstoppable momentum in confronting the climate crisis we all face.

In his apology for Greta Thunberg, Rocky Dawuni calls our attention to different aspects in the personality of the young girl who has been protesting for better environmental conditions in our planet.

Leia o texto para responder à questão.

The business of climate change

A UN assessment published this week on the progress made in stemming the global loss of species made depressing reading. Not one of the 20 targets adopted by 196 countries in a convention on biodiversity in 2010 has been met. And the latest biennial Living Planet Report from the WWF, an environmental group, found that animal populations worldwide shrank by an average of two-thirds between 1970 and 2016. The falls were greatest in the tropics. In Latin America and the Caribbean animal populations fell by 94%, on average, during the period. It is some comfort that around the world biodiversity and climate change have become big political issues. In Australia koala bears have almost brought down a state government.