Texto para Prova Integrada de Inglês - Maio - 1º Médio

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.

   The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes, "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations," which leads to warming of the surface and lower atmosphere by increasing the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes have probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950, but a cooling effect since 1950. The basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists is the only scientific society that rejects these conclusions, and a few individual scientists also disagree with parts of them.

   Remaining scientific uncertainties include the exact degree of climate change expected in the future, and how changes will vary from region to region around the globe. There is ongoing political and public debate regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at combating greenhouse gas emissions.

Texto para Prova Integrada de Inglês - Maio - 2º Médio

Anabolic steroid use

in adolescents and high schools

Anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) are extremely powerful drugs.  “Anabolic” means to grow and “androgenic,” pertains to the development of male characteristics.  AAS are a synthetic version of the body’s naturally occurring hormone testosterone, the same chemical responsible for male sexual traits and the fundamental component in muscle development.  AAS are used medically to boost testosterone in males whose natural production is insufficient, to block or eliminate estrogen production in females with breast or reproductive cancers, to aid in anemia, and to preserve lean body tissue in patients with immune system and muscle wasting diseases.  Although AAS usage has the potential for negative side effects, they are often outweighed by the benefits patients receive when administered under a physician’s care.

Though most commonly seen in bodybuilding, AAS are also prevalent in non-bodybuilder circles when there is dissatisfaction with one’s physique, a desire to shed unwanted fat, or the need to gain additional muscle mass.  Jack is a member of a local health club and former football player at Virginia Tech who exclaims, “I wanted the body of a 25-year old pro athlete at eighteen years old.  What I didn’t understand was that at 18, I was still growing.”  A consistent steroid user throughout his high school and college careers, Jack was like many teenagers who seek chemical assistance in fulfilling social and athletic goals.  According to the Monitoring the Future Survey by The University of Michigan, in 2006, 2.7% of high school seniors reported they had tried steroids at least once in their lifetime.  The majority of those who fall victim to teenage steroid abuse are male athletes seeking to better their performance in sports, be more competitive in the pursuit of athletic scholarships, or to gain recognition outside of the arena.  Females as well as males have shockingly admitted trying steroids as early as age 11, and are said to most commonly do so for aesthetic purposes.

Texto para Prova Integrada de Inglês - Maio - 3º Médio

Tarzan of the Apes

   I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.

   When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so much, and that I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride assumed the task the old vintage had commenced, and so he unearthed written evidence in the form of a musty manuscript, and dry official records of the British Colonial Office to support many of the salient features of his remarkable narrative.

   I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the happenings which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to you I have taken fictitious names for the principal characters quite sufficiently evidences the sincerity of my own belief that it MAY be true.

   The yellow, mildewed pages of the diary of a man long dead, and the records of the Colonial Office dovetail perfectly with the narrative of my convivial host, and so I give you the story as I painstakingly pieced it out from these several various agencies.

   If you do not find it credible you will at least be as one with me in acknowledging that it is unique, remarkable, and interesting.

   From the records of the Colonial Office and from the dead man's diary we learn that a certain young English nobleman, whom we shall call John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, was commissioned to make a peculiarly delicate investigation of conditions in a British West Coast African Colony from whose simple native inhabitants another European power was known to be recruiting soldiers for its native army, which it used solely for the forcible collection of rubber and ivory from the savage tribes along the Congo and the Aruwimi. The natives of the British Colony complained that many of their young men were enticed away through the medium of fair and glowing promises, but that few if any ever returned to their families.

   The Englishmen in Africa went even further, saying that these poor blacks were held in virtual slavery, since after their terms of enlistment expired their ignorance was imposed upon by their white officers, and they were told that they had yet several years to serve.

   And so the Colonial Office appointed John Clayton to a new post in British West Africa, but his confidential instructions centred on a thorough investigation of the unfair treatment of black British subjects by the officers of a friendly European power. Why he was sent, is, however, of little moment to this story, for he never made an investigation, nor, in fact, did he ever reach his destination.

   Clayton was the type of Englishman that one likes best to associate with the noblest monuments of historic achievement upon a thousand victorious battlefields: a strong, virile man, mentally, morally, and physically.

   In stature he was above the average height; his eyes were grey, his features regular and strong; his carriage that of perfect, robust health influenced by his years of army training.

   Political ambition had caused him to seek transference from the army to the Colonial Office and so we find him, still young, entrusted with a delicate and important commission in the service of the Queen.

   When he received this appointment he was both elated and appalled. The preferment seemed to him in the nature of a well-merited reward for painstaking and intelligent service, and as a stepping stone to posts of greater importance and responsibility; but, on the other hand, he had been married to the Hon. Alice Rutherford for scarce three months, and it was the thought of taking this fair young girl into the dangers and isolation of tropical Africa that appalled him.

   For her sake he would have refused the appointment, but she would not have it so. Instead she insisted that he accept, and, indeed, take her with him.

   There were mothers and brothers and sisters, and aunts and cousins to express various opinions on the subject, but as to what they severally advised history is silent.

   We know only that on a bright May morning in 1888, John, Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice sailed from Dover on their way to Africa.

   A month later they arrived at Freetown where they chartered a small sailing vessel, the Fuwalda, which was to bear them to their final destination.