Questões de Inglês

Nutrition group petitions for federal
regulation of sugary drinks


A nutrition advocacy group joined with scientists and

health agencies to ask the federal government to decide just how
much sugar is “safe” in sodas, raising the bar in its crusade to curb
the “dangerously high” amounts Americans consume.
Drinks are the single largest source of added sugar in the

diet, and the request to the government is one way to fight back
against the “ubiquitous marketing and heavy consumption” of
sugar-sweetened beverages, the executive director of the Center for
Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Michael Jacobson, said at a
news conference in Washington.
The average American consumes “far more” added sugar

than is recommended by the federal government, the World Health
Organization and the American Heart Association. The Dietary
Guidelines for Americans and the Heart Association recommend
that of a 2,000-calorie daily diet, about 32 grams, or about 8
teaspoons, could be added sugars. Surveys have shown the average
consumption at 18 to 23 teaspoons a day.
By sugar, CSPI means sweeteners from cane and beets,

corn, honey, brown rice, malt and other sources of what Jacobson
called “nutritionally worthless calories.”
At present, sweetened beverages are considered GRAS, or

generally recognized as safe, by the government agencies. Sugar,
Jacobson noted, is not a toxin and is “perfectly fine” in moderation.
But Americans, on average, eat 78 pounds of added sugar

a year, or 385 calories a day — and many scientists have concluded
that is not safe, Jacobson said. One in seven Americans gets at least
a quarter of their calories from added sugar, he said.



Internet: ( adapted ).


In relation to the consumption of sugar, one can say, based on the text, that

a) the problem affects only one in seven Americans.
b) overconsumption is harmful regardless of the source from which sugar is extracted.
c) the average American consumes over ten times the recommended amount.
d) the American federal government does not have any guidelines for safe consumption.
e) the average American seems to ignore that any amount, however small, is harmful.

A resposta correta é:

Taking a Cue From Bernanke a Little Too Far


Financial advisers have been fielding calls from
shaken investors in recent weeks, particularly retirees, who are
nervous that a bond market crash is on the horizon.
You can hardly blame them. Investors have been
fleeing bonds in droves; a record $ 76.5 billion poured out of
bond funds and exchange-traded funds since June. That
exceeds the previous record, according to TrimTabs, when
$ 41.8 billion streamed out of the funds in October 2008 and
the financial crisis was in full force.
But the rush for the exits really means one thing:
investors are betting that interest rates are about to begin their
upward trajectory, something that’s been expected for several
years now.

Their cue came from the Federal Reserve chairman,
Ben Bernanke, who recently suggested that the economic
recovery might allow the central bank to ease its efforts to
stimulate the economy. That includes scaling back its bondbuying
program beginning later this year.
So the big fear is that interest rates are poised to rise
much further, driving down bond prices; the two move in
opposite directions.
A Barclays index tracking a broad swath of
investment-grade bonds lost 3.77 percent from the beginning
of May through Thursday, according to Morningstar. United
States government notes with maturities of 10 years or longer,
however, lost an average of 10.8 percent over the same period.

Making a bet on interest rates is no different from
trying to predict the next big drop in stocks, or jumping into
the market when it appears to be poised to surge higher. These
sort of emotional moves are exactly why research shows that
investors’ returns tend to trail the broader market.

And it’s also why many financial advisers suggest
ignoring the noise, as long as you have a smart assortment of
bond funds that will provide stability when stocks inevitably
tumble once again.

“It’s a futile game to base portfolio moves on interest
rate guesses,” said Milo Benningfield, a financial adviser in
San Francisco. “We don’t have to look any further than highly
regarded Pimco manager Bill Gross, whose horrible interest
rate bet against Treasuries in 2011 landed him in the bottom 15
percent of fund managers in his category that year. Investors
should take a strategic approach designed around the reason
they hold bonds — and then sit tight whenever hedge funds
and other institutions shake the ground around them.”

The main reason longer-term investors hold bonds, of
course, is to provide a steadying force. And though today’s
lower yields provide less of a cushion — the 10-year Treasury
is yielding about 2.5 percent — bonds still remain the best, if
imperfect, foil to stocks.

“The role of bonds in a portfolio has always been to
be a ballast or a diversifier to equity risk,” said Francis
Kinniry, a principal in the Vanguard Investment Strategy
Group. “And that is very true today. Yields are low, but this is
what a bear market in bonds looks like.”

Internet: (adapted).


Regarding the text, judge if the items below are right (C) or wrong (E).

The word "from" in the excerpt "Making a bet on interest rates is no different from trying to predict the next big drop in stocks, or jumping into the market when it appears to be poised to surge higher." [l.27- may be replaced by the word then with no interference in the grammar correction of the sentence.

A resposta correta é:

An Economic History of Patent Institutions


Scholars such as Max Weber and Douglass North have suggested that intellectual property systems had an important
impact on the course of economic development. However, questions from other eras are still current today, ranging from
whether patents and copyrights constitute ideal policies toward intellectual inventions and their philosophical rationale to the
growing concerns of international political economy. Throughout their history, patent and copyright regimes have confronted
and accommodated technological innovations that were no less significant and contentious for their time than those of the
twenty-first century.
The British Patent System
Britain is noted for the establishment of a patent system which has been in continuous operation for a longer period than
any other in the world. English monarchs frequently used patents to reward favorites with privileges, such as monopolies over
trade that increased the retail prices of commodities. It was not until the seventeenth century that patents were associated
entirely with awards to inventors, when Section 6 of the Statute of Monopolies repealed the practice of royal monopoly grants
to all except patentees of inventions.
The British patent system established significant barriers in the form of prohibitively high costs that limited access to
property rights in invention to a privileged few. Patent fees provided an important source of revenues for the Crown and its
employees, and created a class of administrators who had strong incentives to block proposed reforms.
In addition to the monetary costs, complicated administrative procedures that inventors had to follow made transactions
costs also high. Thus nation-wide lobbies of manufacturers and patentees expressed dissatisfaction with the operation of the
British patent system. However, it was not until after the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 that their concerns were finally
addressed, in an effort to meet the burgeoning competition from the United States. In 1852 the efforts of numerous societies
and of individual engineers, inventors and manufacturers that had been made over many decades were finally rewarded.
Parliament approved the Patent Law Amendment Act, which authorized the first major adjustment of the system in two
centuries.
However, the adjustments made at that time were not completely satisfactory. One source of dissatisfaction that endured
until the end of the nineteenth century was the state of the common law regarding patents. British patents were granted "by the
grace of the Crown" and therefore were subject to any restrictions that the government cared to impose. According to the
statutes, as a matter of national expediency, patents were to be granted if "they be not contrary to the law, nor mischievous to
the State, by raising prices of commodities at home, or to the hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient." The Crown possessed
the ability to revoke any patents that were deemed inconvenient or contrary to public policy. [...]
The Patent System in the United States
The United States stands out as having established one of the most successful patent systems in the world. American
industrial supremacy has frequently been credited to its favorable treatment of inventors and the inducements held out for
inventive activity. The first Article of the U.S. Constitution included a clause to "promote the Progress of Science and the
useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries." Congress complied by passing a patent statute in April 1790. In 1836 the United States created the first modern
patent institution in the world, a system whose features differed in significant respects from those of other major countries.
The primary feature of the "American system" is that all applications are subject to an examination for conformity with
the laws and for novelty. An examination system was set in place in 1790, when a select committee consisting of the Secretary
of State (Thomas Jefferson), the Attorney General and the Secretary of War scrutinized the applications. These duties proved to
be too time-consuming for highly ranked officials who had other onerous duties, so three years later it was replaced by a
registration system. The validity of patents was left up to the district courts, which had the power to set in motion a process that
could end in the repeal of the patent.
Another important feature of the American patent system is that it was based on the presumption that social welfare
coincided with the individual welfare of inventors. Accordingly, legislators rejected restrictions on the rights of American
inventors.
Nevertheless, economists such as Joseph Schumpeter have linked market concentration and innovation, and patent rights
are often felt to encourage the establishment of monopoly enterprises. Thus, an important aspect of the enforcement of patents
and intellectual property in general depends on competition or antitrust policies. The attitudes of the judiciary towards patent
conflicts are primarily shaped by their interpretation of the monopoly aspect of the patent grant. The American judiciary in the
early nineteenth century did not recognize patents as monopolies, arguing that patentees added to social welfare through
innovations which had never existed before, whereas monopolists secured to themselves rights that already belong to the
public.[...]

B. Zorina Khan. In: Internet: (adapted).


According to the information provided by text, judge the items below.

The American judiciary argues that the difference between patentees and monopolists lies in the innovative skills that the former display.

A resposta correta é:

School Wi-Fi ‘not fit for 21st Century learning’



Pupils in England are at risk of missing out because

their schools do not have good enough Wi-Fi. Schools need
fully accessible Wi-Fi if they are to embrace digital learning in

all subjects, argues Valerie Thompson of the E-Learning

Foundation. But only a quarter of schools achieve this,
suggests the British Educational Suppliers Association

( BESA ). “It"s vital to a 21st Century learning environment,”

said Ms Thompson.
The data comes from surveys of a representative panel

of some 600 state schools across England, carried out by

market research company C3 Education for BESA.

Of 250 secondary schools, about 22% said they had

Wi-Fi in most or all classrooms, 39% had it in some

classrooms, leaving 39% with Wi-Fi in only a few or no
classrooms.
Of 350 primary schools about 28% had Wi-Fi in most

or all classrooms, 22% had it in some classrooms, leaving half
of all schools with Wi-Fi in only a few or no classrooms.
Ms Thompson argues that good wireless networks are

essential if schools are to use digital technology to its full
potential to transform education.
She says that the technology, along with informed and

enthusiastic teachers, could give pupils the freedom to learn “in
the sports hall, the playground or over lunch”.
The government has already taken steps to update the

teaching of computing in English schools. Education Secretary
Michael Gove has said he wants children to learn basic

computer code in primary school and to be able to create basic

animations and simple websites by the age of 11.

But Professor Sean Larner, from the Education

Department of Oxford University, says that coding is only part

of what could be done once “robust Wi-Fi networks” allow
schools to detach digital technology from the IT suite.
Pupils use them to download assignments, carry out

research and ask questions of teachers, fellow pupils and even
subject experts from outside school — but without adequate

Wi-Fi the use of these devices is limited, says Dr Larner.



Internet: ( adapted ).


Based on the article, it can be affirmed that

a) the situation of secondary schools is worse than that of primary schools.
b) the survey mentioned in the text was carried out in all state schools in England.
c) teachers are not enthusiastic enough because of the lack of Wi-Fi in most schools.
d) experts say without Wi-Fi schools will not be able to meet the expectation of modern education.
e) wireless technology is the biggest problem in British schools.

A resposta correta é:

Taking a Cue From Bernanke a Little Too Far


Financial advisers have been fielding calls from
shaken investors in recent weeks, particularly retirees, who are
nervous that a bond market crash is on the horizon.
You can hardly blame them. Investors have been
fleeing bonds in droves; a record $ 76.5 billion poured out of
bond funds and exchange-traded funds since June. That
exceeds the previous record, according to TrimTabs, when
$ 41.8 billion streamed out of the funds in October 2008 and
the financial crisis was in full force.
But the rush for the exits really means one thing:
investors are betting that interest rates are about to begin their
upward trajectory, something that’s been expected for several
years now.

Their cue came from the Federal Reserve chairman,
Ben Bernanke, who recently suggested that the economic
recovery might allow the central bank to ease its efforts to
stimulate the economy. That includes scaling back its bondbuying
program beginning later this year.
So the big fear is that interest rates are poised to rise
much further, driving down bond prices; the two move in
opposite directions.
A Barclays index tracking a broad swath of
investment-grade bonds lost 3.77 percent from the beginning
of May through Thursday, according to Morningstar. United
States government notes with maturities of 10 years or longer,
however, lost an average of 10.8 percent over the same period.

Making a bet on interest rates is no different from
trying to predict the next big drop in stocks, or jumping into
the market when it appears to be poised to surge higher. These
sort of emotional moves are exactly why research shows that
investors’ returns tend to trail the broader market.

And it’s also why many financial advisers suggest
ignoring the noise, as long as you have a smart assortment of
bond funds that will provide stability when stocks inevitably
tumble once again.

“It’s a futile game to base portfolio moves on interest
rate guesses,” said Milo Benningfield, a financial adviser in
San Francisco. “We don’t have to look any further than highly
regarded Pimco manager Bill Gross, whose horrible interest
rate bet against Treasuries in 2011 landed him in the bottom 15
percent of fund managers in his category that year. Investors
should take a strategic approach designed around the reason
they hold bonds — and then sit tight whenever hedge funds
and other institutions shake the ground around them.”

The main reason longer-term investors hold bonds, of
course, is to provide a steadying force. And though today’s
lower yields provide less of a cushion — the 10-year Treasury
is yielding about 2.5 percent — bonds still remain the best, if
imperfect, foil to stocks.

“The role of bonds in a portfolio has always been to
be a ballast or a diversifier to equity risk,” said Francis
Kinniry, a principal in the Vanguard Investment Strategy
Group. “And that is very true today. Yields are low, but this is
what a bear market in bonds looks like.”

Internet: (adapted).


Regarding the text, judge if the items below are right (C) or wrong (E).

In the sentence "Their cue came from the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, who recently suggested that the economic recovery might allow the central bank to ease its efforts to stimulate the economy." [l.14- the relative pronoun "who" may be replaced by whom in more formal contexts.

A resposta correta é:

According to Jose Antonio Felez, president of the
Spanish producer association AEC, the film industry is
suffering on all fronts. Spanish film releases are down 24
percent from last year, with 61 films compared to last year’s 80
— a far cry from the 230 foreign films released so far this year,
as of last week.
Overall box office earnings are down 13.5 percent at
$486 million (360 million euros), with homegrown films
earning $55 million (41 million euros), 7 million euros less
than the same period in 2012, representing an 18 percent drop.

The number of shoots dropped 28.7 percent from 2012
and budgets are shrinking, with more than half of Spanish films
operating on a budget of less than $1.35 million (1 million
euros). Even so, 15 films cost more than $4 million (3 million
euros), with eight of those weighing in over $5.4 million
(4 million euros).

P. Rolfe. Spanish producers urge government to revamp film financing

model. Internet: (adapted).


According to the text above, judge the items below.

There was an increase in the total box office earnings in 2013 destined for Spanish films.

A resposta correta é:

The nature of television programming in the current
era is one of hybridity. Comedy programs take the appearance
of news programs, and news programs are increasingly
adopting techniques from comedy programs. The televised
interview, in particular, is by nature a hybrid format, often
mixing the formality of traditional journalism with the
informality of a talk show. In the second quarter of 2011,
viewership of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show trumped
other late-night programs in key demographics, with well over
two million viewers per episode. At the same time, news and
opinion programs like Hannity on Fox can draw an average of
2.5 million viewers. But the format and style — not to mention
the content — of these shows and their interview segments can
vary drastically from one episode to the next, depending on
whether they are structured more traditionally or not.
In theory, the televised journalistic interview —
especially with a candidate for high office — represents that
idealistic version of Habermas’ public sphere. In this vision,
the candidate is asked about his or her policy stances, and is
then forced by the interviewer to defend those positions in the
face of opposition. But in reality, these interviews take the form
of rule-governed speech situations that rely on specified rituals.
Deluca and Peeples argue that televised political discourse —
as seen in political interviews — does not reflect rational
debate, but rather, emphasizes image, emotion, and style. Baym
suggests, however, that there is a space in between the ideal of
the public sphere and the image-centered focus of the televised
interview. His textual analyses of interviews on programs like
The Daily Show reveal that these interviews reflect a traditional
perspective on the journalistic interview combined with a more
conversational, celebrity-type chat — a “hybrid mode of
publicity and political discourse”.

International Journal of Communication, 7 (2013),

p. 471. Internet: (adapted).



Judge the following items according to the text above.

News and opinion programs can vary from one episode to the next, regardless of how traditionally structured they may be.

A resposta correta é:

Taking a Cue From Bernanke a Little Too Far


Financial advisers have been fielding calls from
shaken investors in recent weeks, particularly retirees, who are
nervous that a bond market crash is on the horizon.
You can hardly blame them. Investors have been
fleeing bonds in droves; a record $ 76.5 billion poured out of
bond funds and exchange-traded funds since June. That
exceeds the previous record, according to TrimTabs, when
$ 41.8 billion streamed out of the funds in October 2008 and
the financial crisis was in full force.
But the rush for the exits really means one thing:
investors are betting that interest rates are about to begin their
upward trajectory, something that’s been expected for several
years now.

Their cue came from the Federal Reserve chairman,
Ben Bernanke, who recently suggested that the economic
recovery might allow the central bank to ease its efforts to
stimulate the economy. That includes scaling back its bondbuying
program beginning later this year.
So the big fear is that interest rates are poised to rise
much further, driving down bond prices; the two move in
opposite directions.
A Barclays index tracking a broad swath of
investment-grade bonds lost 3.77 percent from the beginning
of May through Thursday, according to Morningstar. United
States government notes with maturities of 10 years or longer,
however, lost an average of 10.8 percent over the same period.

Making a bet on interest rates is no different from
trying to predict the next big drop in stocks, or jumping into
the market when it appears to be poised to surge higher. These
sort of emotional moves are exactly why research shows that
investors’ returns tend to trail the broader market.

And it’s also why many financial advisers suggest
ignoring the noise, as long as you have a smart assortment of
bond funds that will provide stability when stocks inevitably
tumble once again.

“It’s a futile game to base portfolio moves on interest
rate guesses,” said Milo Benningfield, a financial adviser in
San Francisco. “We don’t have to look any further than highly
regarded Pimco manager Bill Gross, whose horrible interest
rate bet against Treasuries in 2011 landed him in the bottom 15
percent of fund managers in his category that year. Investors
should take a strategic approach designed around the reason
they hold bonds — and then sit tight whenever hedge funds
and other institutions shake the ground around them.”

The main reason longer-term investors hold bonds, of
course, is to provide a steadying force. And though today’s
lower yields provide less of a cushion — the 10-year Treasury
is yielding about 2.5 percent — bonds still remain the best, if
imperfect, foil to stocks.

“The role of bonds in a portfolio has always been to
be a ballast or a diversifier to equity risk,” said Francis
Kinniry, a principal in the Vanguard Investment Strategy
Group. “And that is very true today. Yields are low, but this is
what a bear market in bonds looks like.”

Internet: (adapted).


Regarding the text, judge if the items below are right (C) or wrong (E).

In the sentence "That includes scaling back its bondbuying program beginning later this year." [l.17-, the pronoun "its" refers to "economy", in the previous sentence.

A resposta correta é:

According to Jose Antonio Felez, president of the
Spanish producer association AEC, the film industry is
suffering on all fronts. Spanish film releases are down 24
percent from last year, with 61 films compared to last year’s 80
— a far cry from the 230 foreign films released so far this year,
as of last week.
Overall box office earnings are down 13.5 percent at
$486 million (360 million euros), with homegrown films
earning $55 million (41 million euros), 7 million euros less
than the same period in 2012, representing an 18 percent drop.

The number of shoots dropped 28.7 percent from 2012
and budgets are shrinking, with more than half of Spanish films
operating on a budget of less than $1.35 million (1 million
euros). Even so, 15 films cost more than $4 million (3 million
euros), with eight of those weighing in over $5.4 million
(4 million euros).

P. Rolfe. Spanish producers urge government to revamp film financing

model. Internet: (adapted).


According to the text above, judge the items below.

The number of films produced in Spain in 2013 is smaller in comparison with 2012.

A resposta correta é:

The nature of television programming in the current
era is one of hybridity. Comedy programs take the appearance
of news programs, and news programs are increasingly
adopting techniques from comedy programs. The televised
interview, in particular, is by nature a hybrid format, often
mixing the formality of traditional journalism with the
informality of a talk show. In the second quarter of 2011,
viewership of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show trumped
other late-night programs in key demographics, with well over
two million viewers per episode. At the same time, news and
opinion programs like Hannity on Fox can draw an average of
2.5 million viewers. But the format and style — not to mention
the content — of these shows and their interview segments can
vary drastically from one episode to the next, depending on
whether they are structured more traditionally or not.
In theory, the televised journalistic interview —
especially with a candidate for high office — represents that
idealistic version of Habermas’ public sphere. In this vision,
the candidate is asked about his or her policy stances, and is
then forced by the interviewer to defend those positions in the
face of opposition. But in reality, these interviews take the form
of rule-governed speech situations that rely on specified rituals.
Deluca and Peeples argue that televised political discourse —
as seen in political interviews — does not reflect rational
debate, but rather, emphasizes image, emotion, and style. Baym
suggests, however, that there is a space in between the ideal of
the public sphere and the image-centered focus of the televised
interview. His textual analyses of interviews on programs like
The Daily Show reveal that these interviews reflect a traditional
perspective on the journalistic interview combined with a more
conversational, celebrity-type chat — a “hybrid mode of
publicity and political discourse”.

International Journal of Communication, 7 (2013),

p. 471. Internet: (adapted).



Judge the following items according to the text above.

There has been a noticeable hybridization of different kinds of television programming lately.

A resposta correta é: