Questões de Inglês

South Korea banks in rate-rigging investigation


A South Korea financial regulator has started an investigation into alleged interest rate rigging by some of the country"s banks. The Fair Trade Commission is looking at possible collusion over setting certificates of deposit ( CD ), used as a benchmark to set lending rates. It follows the Libor-rigging scandal involving Barclays and possibly several other UK banks.
A CD is a way of saving with a fixed interest rate and maturity sold by banks and circulated in the secondary market by brokerages. Financial firms benefit from a high CD rates as many household loans are linked to them. They are frequently used to help South Koreans buy homes. The possible rigging of CD can help flatter companies" financial health.
The indebtedness of South Koreans has become a particular worry to the authorities as the economy slows.

From: www.bbc.com/news [slightly adpated]



Officials in South Korea are concerned about

a) high levels of personal debt in a sluggish economy.
b) poor credit-ratings and economic over-heating.
c) rising household expenditures and house prices.
d) broken homes and inability to support flattery.
e) the national debt and how to pay it off.

A resposta correta é:

Water Wars May Lie Ahead

By Neena Rai

June 29, 2011, 9:20 AM GMT



There is a famous Chinese proverb that warns
“not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.”

And with global water shortages on the horizon,
climate change supporters say an extreme response
will be needed from international governments to stem
the potential for conflict it will create around the world.

Professor Patricia Wouters at the IHP-HELP
Centre for water law, policy and science at University
of Dundee, said the world could face a future of “water
wars” as deterioration in climatic patterns and global
population growth leave people struggling to stake
their claim to the natural resource.

The World Bank in a report said that 1.4 million
people could be facing water scarcity by 2025. But
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD ) forecast is even more gloomy.
It estimates that 47% of the world’s population could
face water stress in the same period – equivalent to
more than three billion people.
The issue isn’t restricted to countries that typically
see temperatures soar, such as Cyprus, which in
2009 was forced to import water in tankers and ration
its use. Northern hemisphere nations like the U.K. are
also finding themselves in the midst of a drought in
some regions, forcing governments to start to take
action. The U.K. government, for instance, plans
to issue a Water White Paper this December that
will focus on the future challenges facing the water
industry and measures to increase protection of river
flows during summer months.

Parts of the U.K. are currently marked as having
drought status and other areas of the country are
deemed to be at risk of drought. The U.K.’s Department
for Environment Food and Rural Affairs held a second
drought summit Monday, at which Secretary of State
Caroline Spelman warned the prospect of a dry
summer and dry winter could have a serious impact
on the country’s water reserves.

“We’re going to keep working with farmers, water
companies and environmental groups to minimize
the impacts of drought, because this year is sign of
things to come,” she said. “The climate is changing
and these extreme weather events will become more
common. How we deal with that problem will be one
of the key parts of our Water White Paper, which will
be published later this year.”

This may be a far cry from a declaration of war
on other more water-abundant nations, but reaching
this stage in some countries isn’t beyond the realms
of imagination. Egypt and Ethiopia have been battling
the issue for the share of the Nile’s water reserves,
and Israel – already fighting Palestine for territory
that includes precious water reserves – has started
to charge the agricultural sector high rates for using
the resource.

Even in the U.K., the armed forces are being
prepared for potential conflicts over water.

Professor Wouters said that military plans are
being prepared on a 30-year horizon, but that the
water security topic had somewhat fallen off the
table since the financial crisis. Portugal and Spain
are facing serious water scarcity issues but the
agricultural sector there is having to shout loudly for
its voice to be heard above the noise of the countries’
current financial woes.

Maybe Israel’s entrepreneurial approach to
the issue is the way forward. Nevertheless, the fact
remains that water scarcity is now firmly on the
agenda of the world’s governments, and isn’t going to
vanish overnight.

Available at:. Retrieved on: March 11, 2012.



Based on the meanings in Text, the two items are synonymous in

a) stem (line 5) - stop
b) gloomy (line 16) - encouraging
c) soar (line 21) - drop
d) prospect (line 36) - impossibility
e) vanish (line 70) - emerge

A resposta correta é:

Rio+20: reasons to be cheerful


Read the commentaries from Rio+20, and you"d think a global disaster had taken place. The UN multilateral system is said to be in crisis. Pundits and NGOs complain that it was "the greatest failure of collective leadership since the first world war", "a bleak day, a disastrous meeting" and "a massive waste of time and money".
Perspective, please. Reaction after the 1992 Rio summit was uncannily similar. Countries passed then what now seem far-sighted treaties and embedded a slew of aspirations and commitments into international documents – but NGOs and journalists were still distraught. In short, just like Rio 2012, the meeting was said to be a dismal failure of governments to co-operate.
I was pretty downhearted then, too. So when I returned I went to see Richard Sandbrook, a legendary environmental activist who co-founded Friends of the Earth, and profoundly influenced a generation of governments, business leaders and NGOs before he died in 2005. Sandbrook made the point that NGOs always scream blue murder because it is their job to push governments and that UN conferences must disappoint because all views have to be accommodated. Change, he said, does not happen in a few days" intense negotiation. It is a long, muddled, cultural process that cannot come from a UN meeting.. Real change comes from stronger institutions, better public information, promises being kept, the exchange of views, pressure from below, and events that make people see the world differently.
Vast growth in global environmental awareness has taken place in the past 20 years, and is bound to grow in the next 20.

[From The Guardian PovertyMatters blog- adapted]



According to the text, the general reaction to the Rio+20 Conference was

a) generally optimistic.
b) absolutely singular.
c) relatively cheerful.
d) extremely gloomy.
e) remarkably sanguine.

A resposta correta é:

- Read the text below and answer the question.


The Five Generations of Computers


Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.
The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. Read about each generation and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.
The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/FiveGenerations.asp (consultado em 11/04/12)



The very first computers

a) were small, cheap and easy to operate.
b) could deal with many tasks at the same time.
c) were very similar to the ones we have nowadays.
d) could be light and small enough to be carried or moved.
e) were very big, expensive and wasted much energy.

A resposta correta é:

Rio+20: reasons to be cheerful


Read the commentaries from Rio+20, and you"d think a global disaster had taken place. The UN multilateral system is said to be in crisis. Pundits and NGOs complain that it was "the greatest failure of collective leadership since the first world war", "a bleak day, a disastrous meeting" and "a massive waste of time and money".
Perspective, please. Reaction after the 1992 Rio summit was uncannily similar. Countries passed then what now seem far-sighted treaties and embedded a slew of aspirations and commitments into international documents – but NGOs and journalists were still distraught. In short, just like Rio 2012, the meeting was said to be a dismal failure of governments to co-operate.
I was pretty downhearted then, too. So when I returned I went to see Richard Sandbrook, a legendary environmental activist who co-founded Friends of the Earth, and profoundly influenced a generation of governments, business leaders and NGOs before he died in 2005. Sandbrook made the point that NGOs always scream blue murder because it is their job to push governments and that UN conferences must disappoint because all views have to be accommodated. Change, he said, does not happen in a few days" intense negotiation. It is a long, muddled, cultural process that cannot come from a UN meeting.. Real change comes from stronger institutions, better public information, promises being kept, the exchange of views, pressure from below, and events that make people see the world differently.
Vast growth in global environmental awareness has taken place in the past 20 years, and is bound to grow in the next 20.

[From The Guardian PovertyMatters blog- adapted]



The author of the article believes that immediately after the 1992 environmental conference

a) his only hope was to visit a famous environmentalist.
b) the response to the event was much the same as now.
c) the United Nations failed to foster any agreements.
d) everybody praised the far-sighted accords reached.
e) the climate began to change all around the world.

A resposta correta é:

Water Wars May Lie Ahead

By Neena Rai

June 29, 2011, 9:20 AM GMT



There is a famous Chinese proverb that warns
“not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.”

And with global water shortages on the horizon,
climate change supporters say an extreme response
will be needed from international governments to stem
the potential for conflict it will create around the world.

Professor Patricia Wouters at the IHP-HELP
Centre for water law, policy and science at University
of Dundee, said the world could face a future of “water
wars” as deterioration in climatic patterns and global
population growth leave people struggling to stake
their claim to the natural resource.

The World Bank in a report said that 1.4 million
people could be facing water scarcity by 2025. But
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD ) forecast is even more gloomy.
It estimates that 47% of the world’s population could
face water stress in the same period – equivalent to
more than three billion people.
The issue isn’t restricted to countries that typically
see temperatures soar, such as Cyprus, which in
2009 was forced to import water in tankers and ration
its use. Northern hemisphere nations like the U.K. are
also finding themselves in the midst of a drought in
some regions, forcing governments to start to take
action. The U.K. government, for instance, plans
to issue a Water White Paper this December that
will focus on the future challenges facing the water
industry and measures to increase protection of river
flows during summer months.

Parts of the U.K. are currently marked as having
drought status and other areas of the country are
deemed to be at risk of drought. The U.K.’s Department
for Environment Food and Rural Affairs held a second
drought summit Monday, at which Secretary of State
Caroline Spelman warned the prospect of a dry
summer and dry winter could have a serious impact
on the country’s water reserves.

“We’re going to keep working with farmers, water
companies and environmental groups to minimize
the impacts of drought, because this year is sign of
things to come,” she said. “The climate is changing
and these extreme weather events will become more
common. How we deal with that problem will be one
of the key parts of our Water White Paper, which will
be published later this year.”

This may be a far cry from a declaration of war
on other more water-abundant nations, but reaching
this stage in some countries isn’t beyond the realms
of imagination. Egypt and Ethiopia have been battling
the issue for the share of the Nile’s water reserves,
and Israel – already fighting Palestine for territory
that includes precious water reserves – has started
to charge the agricultural sector high rates for using
the resource.

Even in the U.K., the armed forces are being
prepared for potential conflicts over water.

Professor Wouters said that military plans are
being prepared on a 30-year horizon, but that the
water security topic had somewhat fallen off the
table since the financial crisis. Portugal and Spain
are facing serious water scarcity issues but the
agricultural sector there is having to shout loudly for
its voice to be heard above the noise of the countries’
current financial woes.

Maybe Israel’s entrepreneurial approach to
the issue is the way forward. Nevertheless, the fact
remains that water scarcity is now firmly on the
agenda of the world’s governments, and isn’t going to
vanish overnight.

Available at:. Retrieved on: March 11, 2012.



In terms of numerical reference in Text,

a) 1.4 million (line 13) refers to the number of people who have been involved in conflicts over water.
b) 47% (line 17) refers to the percentage of countries in the world already facing water scarcity.
c) more than three billion people (line 19) refers to the number of people who might suffer from water shortage by 2025.
d) 2009 (line 22) refers to the only year when Cyprus faced an unparalleled rise in temperature.
e) 30-year horizon (line 59) refers to the period of time the financial crisis in Europe will last.

A resposta correta é:

Rio+20: reasons to be cheerful


Read the commentaries from Rio+20, and you"d think a global disaster had taken place. The UN multilateral system is said to be in crisis. Pundits and NGOs complain that it was "the greatest failure of collective leadership since the first world war", "a bleak day, a disastrous meeting" and "a massive waste of time and money".
Perspective, please. Reaction after the 1992 Rio summit was uncannily similar. Countries passed then what now seem far-sighted treaties and embedded a slew of aspirations and commitments into international documents – but NGOs and journalists were still distraught. In short, just like Rio 2012, the meeting was said to be a dismal failure of governments to co-operate.
I was pretty downhearted then, too. So when I returned I went to see Richard Sandbrook, a legendary environmental activist who co-founded Friends of the Earth, and profoundly influenced a generation of governments, business leaders and NGOs before he died in 2005. Sandbrook made the point that NGOs always scream blue murder because it is their job to push governments and that UN conferences must disappoint because all views have to be accommodated. Change, he said, does not happen in a few days" intense negotiation. It is a long, muddled, cultural process that cannot come from a UN meeting.. Real change comes from stronger institutions, better public information, promises being kept, the exchange of views, pressure from below, and events that make people see the world differently.
Vast growth in global environmental awareness has taken place in the past 20 years, and is bound to grow in the next 20.

[From The Guardian PovertyMatters blog- adapted]



The main aim of the third paragraph is to report on

a) the views of a well-known environmentalist on how change occurs.
b) the failure of the UN to achieve any significant results in 1992.
c) the life and work of a late-lamented UN environmental activist.
d) he author"s despondent mood in 1992 and the reasons for it.
e) the similarities between the conference results in 2012 and 1992.

A resposta correta é:

- Read the text below and answer the question.


The Five Generations of Computers


Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.
The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. Read about each generation and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.
The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/FiveGenerations.asp (consultado em 11/04/12)



How many problems could the computer of the first generation solve?

a) Several at the same time.
b) It was the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.
c) Around a hundred.
d) Just one at a time.
e) Between one to five at a time.

A resposta correta é:

Water Wars May Lie Ahead

By Neena Rai

June 29, 2011, 9:20 AM GMT



There is a famous Chinese proverb that warns
“not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.”

And with global water shortages on the horizon,
climate change supporters say an extreme response
will be needed from international governments to stem
the potential for conflict it will create around the world.

Professor Patricia Wouters at the IHP-HELP
Centre for water law, policy and science at University
of Dundee, said the world could face a future of “water
wars” as deterioration in climatic patterns and global
population growth leave people struggling to stake
their claim to the natural resource.

The World Bank in a report said that 1.4 million
people could be facing water scarcity by 2025. But
the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD ) forecast is even more gloomy.
It estimates that 47% of the world’s population could
face water stress in the same period – equivalent to
more than three billion people.
The issue isn’t restricted to countries that typically
see temperatures soar, such as Cyprus, which in
2009 was forced to import water in tankers and ration
its use. Northern hemisphere nations like the U.K. are
also finding themselves in the midst of a drought in
some regions, forcing governments to start to take
action. The U.K. government, for instance, plans
to issue a Water White Paper this December that
will focus on the future challenges facing the water
industry and measures to increase protection of river
flows during summer months.

Parts of the U.K. are currently marked as having
drought status and other areas of the country are
deemed to be at risk of drought. The U.K.’s Department
for Environment Food and Rural Affairs held a second
drought summit Monday, at which Secretary of State
Caroline Spelman warned the prospect of a dry
summer and dry winter could have a serious impact
on the country’s water reserves.

“We’re going to keep working with farmers, water
companies and environmental groups to minimize
the impacts of drought, because this year is sign of
things to come,” she said. “The climate is changing
and these extreme weather events will become more
common. How we deal with that problem will be one
of the key parts of our Water White Paper, which will
be published later this year.”

This may be a far cry from a declaration of war
on other more water-abundant nations, but reaching
this stage in some countries isn’t beyond the realms
of imagination. Egypt and Ethiopia have been battling
the issue for the share of the Nile’s water reserves,
and Israel – already fighting Palestine for territory
that includes precious water reserves – has started
to charge the agricultural sector high rates for using
the resource.

Even in the U.K., the armed forces are being
prepared for potential conflicts over water.

Professor Wouters said that military plans are
being prepared on a 30-year horizon, but that the
water security topic had somewhat fallen off the
table since the financial crisis. Portugal and Spain
are facing serious water scarcity issues but the
agricultural sector there is having to shout loudly for
its voice to be heard above the noise of the countries’
current financial woes.

Maybe Israel’s entrepreneurial approach to
the issue is the way forward. Nevertheless, the fact
remains that water scarcity is now firmly on the
agenda of the world’s governments, and isn’t going to
vanish overnight.

Available at:. Retrieved on: March 11, 2012.



According to Professor Wouters, in Text, paragraph 10 (lines 58-65),

a) Portugal and Spain are more worried about water shortage than about political and financial problems.
b) security issues regarding water problems have been somewhat put aside because of the economic crisis.
c) the agricultural sector is not really worried about the problems that may come up if the water resources dry up.
d) in the UK, the army is fully prepared to fight the countries interested in the British hydroenergy sources.
e) the military forces intend to overlook the serious challenges to control the oceans and rivers in the next decade.

A resposta correta é:

- Read the text below and answer the question.


The Five Generations of Computers


Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.
The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. Read about each generation and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.
The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 1950s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer—from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls—on a single chip.
In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.
As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/FiveGenerations.asp (consultado em 11/04/12)



Old vacuum tubes and ushered were substituted by

a) widespred.
b) predecessors.
c) transistors.
d) damage.
e) punched cards.

A resposta correta é: