UNICAMP 2009 Inglês - Questões

ADVERTISING TODAY

People are starting to blame invasive advertising for the stress in their lives. A few generations ago, people encountered only a few dozen ads in a typical day. Today, 3,000 marketing messages a day flow into the average North American brain. That’s more than many of us can handle on top of all the other pressures of modern life. The fun image that advertising has traditionally enjoyed is now giving way to a much darker picture of advertising as mental pollution.

(Adaptado de Adbusters Magazine, 30/07/2007, n$^\circ$ 73, p. 5.)

1. a) Segundo o texto, a percepção que as pessoas têm da propaganda está mudando. Como a propaganda era vista antes e como ela está começando a ser vista hoje?
   

2. b) A que se refere o número 3.000 mencionado no texto?
   

Mobile phone users slow traffic down

By Brian Osborne

Sick of traffic congestion? Well, part of the blame needs to go to motorists who talk on mobile phones. At least, that is the conclusion of a study conducted by the University of Utah. The study found that if you use your mobile phone while driving, you are less likely to pass slower vehicles. If you think the study is not talking about you, because you have a hands-free device, then you are wrong. According to previous studies performed by psychology Professor Dave Strayer of the University of Utah, the ultimate distraction for drivers is the conversation - not just holding the mobile phone.

(Adaptado de www.geek.com/mobile-phone-users-slow-traffic-down/ Acessado em 05/08/2008.)

1. a) Por que motoristas que dirigem enquanto conversam ao celular retardam o fluxo do tráfego?
   

2. b) A que conclusão chegou o Professor Dave Strayer em suas pesquisas?
   

At the market’s mark

By Sonia Racy

The number of Brazilians living alone grows. IBGE - Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - discovered, in its last survey, that 5 million Brazilians live alone. Of this total, 63% are senior citizens, but 22% are people in the 20 to 29 years old age range. It is a market that grows 6 to 7% a year and draws attention from different segments of the economy. After all, most of these consumers earn from 10 to 20 minimum wages and have college degrees.

(Adaptado de TAM Magazine, ano 4, n$^\circ$ 44, outubro de 2007, p. 72.)

1. a) A que se refere o índice de 63% mencionado no texto?
   

2. b) O que caracteriza a maior parte dos consumidores brasileiros retratados no texto?
   

Autism and its cause

Some parents of children with autism believe that there is a link between measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and this disorder. But there is no sensible reason to believe that any vaccine can cause autism. Typically, symptoms of this disorder are first noted by parents as their child begins to have difficulty with delays in speaking after age one. MMR vaccine is first given to children at 12-15 months of age. Since this is also an age when autism commonly becomes apparent, it is not surprising that autism follows MMR immunization in some cases. However, by far the most logical explanation is coincidence, not cause-and-effect.

(Adaptado de www.quackwatch.com/03HealthPromDtion/immu/autism.html Acessado em 22/03/2008.)

1. a) Qual seria, para alguns pais, a causa do autismo de seus filhos?
   

2. b) Por que esses pais teriam tal crença?
   

Why am I unemployed?

Persons who become unemployed often feel at fault; often feel that they have failed in some way. This is a common sense view, but there are many complicated reasons why somebody might be made redundant. The reasons for unemployment could be, for instance, technological changes: the introduction of new machines in the work market does take jobs away from people. Changes in government policies or lack of new requisite skills due to no access to education or retraining are also often responsible for unemployment. None of these has anything to do with the individual worker. The fact is that one out of ten thousand might be made redundant because of laziness, but the rest are surplus because society has changed.

(Adaptado de R. Osborne e B. Van Loon, Introducing Sociology. Londres: Icon Books, 2004, p. 9-10.)

1. a) Qual é o argumento central desse texto?
   

2. b) Indique dois fatores que, segundo o texto, podem, de fato, responder à pergunta "Why am I unemployed?".