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

How urban legends work

   In 1994, the Las Vegas police reported a disturbing series of crimes along the Vegas strip. The first victim in this wave was an Ohio man in town for a sales convention. At the bar in his hotel, the man happened to strike up a conversation with an attractive young woman. According to the man, the two hit it off, sharing several drinks over the course of a couple hours. At some point, the man blacked out, and when he came to, he found himself lying in a hotel bathtub, covered in ice. There was a phone resting on the floor beside the tub, with an attached note that said, "Call 911or you will die." He called an ambulance and was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors informed him that he had undergone massive surgery. One of his kidneys had been removed, apparently by a gang selling human organs on the black market. Following this occurrence, many similar crimes were reported, leading Las Vegas police to issue warnings to travellers visiting the city.

   There is a good chance that you have heard this story, or some variation of it. News of the Vegas "organ harvesters" has been passed on by thousands and thousands of people over the course of 10 years. It has been relayed by word of mouth, e-mail and even printed fliers. But there is absolutely no evidence that any such thing ever occurred, in Las Vegas or anywhere else. This fictional story is a quintessential urban legend, an incredible tale passed from one person to another as truth.

   In this article, we'll look at urban legends to see what they are, where they come from and why they spread so quickly. We'll also explore some ideas regarding the social significance of urban legends, as well as take a look at how the stories have changed over the years.

   Generally speaking, an urban legend is any modern, fictional story, told as truth, that reaches a wide audience by being passed from person to person. Urban legends are often false, but not always. A few turn out to be largely true, and a lot of them were inspired by an actual event but evolved into something different in their passage from person to person. More often than not, it is not possible to trace an urban legend back to its original source -- they seem to come from nowhere.

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

The Secret Language

   More than half of what we communicate is communicated not through words but through body language. This includes our posture, facial expressions, and gestures. Because body language is so important, you’ll want to know what yours is saying and how to interpret other people’s, too. Here are some examples of body language and its meaning. (Note: These meanings are for North America. Interpretations may differ a bit in other cultures.) If your posture is slumped and your head is down, this could mean that you are sad or lack confidence. If your posture is straight, but relaxed, you are expressing confidence and friendliness.

   A smile is a sign of friendliness and interest. But people sometimes smile just to be polite. To get another clue from people’s faces, notice their eyes. Friendliness and interest are expressed when a person’s eyes meet yours (especially when you’re the one who’s talking) and then look away and meet yours again. A person who doesn’t look away is expressing challenge. A person who doesn’t look at you is expressing lack of interest or is shy. Hand gestures can mean a person is interested in the conversation. But repeated movements – like a pencil or tapping a foot – often mean the person is either impatient or nervous. Stay away from someone who points at you while talking with you: that person might be angry at you or feel surprised to you.

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

Why Brazil loved him

To many Brazilians, Senna communicated a vulnerability that they appreciated all the more because they knew he had to set his fears aside whenever he climbed into the cockpit. What sealed the love affair the country had with Senna was his willingness, or perhaps his need, to share the glory: after every win he would reach for a Brazilian flag and hoist it high above his head for the victory lap. His popularity was magnified by the contrast with his country’s sense of collective demise. As his career revvep up in the ‘80s, Brazil was headed the other way, descending into economic and political disarray, frustration and self-doubt. Senna, presidential adviser Augusto Marzagão said last week, "was the luminous flip side of the negative state in which lay the Brazilian soul." In short, his success was seen as proof that despite a 45%-a-month inflation rate, growing poverty and never-ending corruption scandals, Brazil could still come out a winner.

For seven frustrating years, though, Senna’s dream of a victory at home, in the Brazilian Grand Prix, eluded him. He finally won the race in 1991, but only after a cliff-hanger finish and typical heroics. He was leading comfortably, with only a few kilometres to go, when the gearbox of his car jammed. By the last lap only one gear was functioning, but Senna wrestled his McLaren-Honda to the checkered flag. So exhausted he could barely lift his arms, grimacing from the pain, he hoisted the trophy and the flag. Senna won in Brazil again in 1993 in equally dramatic fashion – this time against his archrival, the Frenchman Alain Prost. (Over the years, Senna’s flat-out duels with Prost, including several dangerous collisions, had fostered an enmity that Prost says did not ease until just before Senna’s death.) Prost and his teammate Damon Hill had been much faster in practice, and the fans knew that only a race-day downpour would give Senna, the acknowledged master of wet-track driving, a chance. Brazil prayed for rain. The next day, with Prost in the lead, the heavens opened. The Frenchman promptly crashed; Senna catapulted into first place and stayed there. As the race ended, the sun came out.

[Time International, Nº 20 (May 16, 1994), p. 36.

Texto para Prova Mensal de Inglês - Agosto - 3º Médio

VIVA LA VIDA (Martin, C. - Coldplay)

I used to rule the world

Seas would rise when I gave the word

Now in the morning I sleep alone

Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice

Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes

Listened as the crowd would sing

Now the old king is dead long live the king

One minute I held the key

Next the walls were closed on me

And I discovered that my castles stand

Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing

Roman cavalry choirs are singing

Be my mirror, my sword and shield

My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can't explain

Once you'd gone there was never

Never an honest word

And that was when I ruled the world

It was a wicked and wild wind

Blew down the doors to let me in

Shattered windows and the sound of drums

People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait

For my head on a silver plate

Just a puppet on a lonely string

Oh who would ever want to be king?

Texto para Prova Mensal de Inglês - Agosto - 2º Médio

Medical Jokes

A man goes to his doctor and says: "I don't think my wife is hearing as good as it used to be. What should I do?

The doctor replies: "Try this test to find out for sure. When your wife is in the kitchen doing dishes, stand fifteen feet behind her and ask her a question, if she doesn't respond keep moving closer asking the question until she hears you."

The man goes home and sees his wife preparing dinner. He stands fifteen feet behind her and says: "What's for dinner, honey?" He gets no response, so he moves to ten feet behind her, and ask again. Still no answer. Finally he stands directly behind her and says: "Honey, what's for dinner?" She replies: "For the fourth time: I SAID CHICKEN."

Texto para Prova Mensal de Inglês - Agosto - 1º Médio

What would life be like without the Internet?

Read the following text and then answer the questions 1 to 3.

How would having no Internet affect the general personal user? Well apart from every teenager screaming because they can’t log on to Facebook, it all comes down to how much we personally use the Internet and what for.

Many of us use the Internet to communicate, especially those in the lower age brackets above 10 years. From email to chat forums, social networks, dating sites and even virtual worlds our demands on the Internet for social communication and networking are huge. So it’s easy to anticipate that a life without the Internet would force people to turn back to grass roots and socialize and communicate on a very basic level.

My worry with this though, specifically within the lower age brackets is will the people who’ve grown up with the Internet around them be able to embrace social engagement on a grass roots level and know how to socialize?

We use the Internet to communicate more than ever and it’s become an integral part of any standard means of communication. So with no Internet our means of communication would have to adapt. I very much doubt we’ll be sending smoke signals, but letters would fulfill the whole emails left and phones would fulfill the gaps that instant messaging, chat and social media created.

An increase in posted mail and phone calls would surely benefit our local postal services and telephone network providers, but what we loved about the Internet was that communication was free!

We all know the Internet is a massive resource directory, full of useful and useless information,  all beautifully at our finger tips. So without it where would we find out the chemical compound of silver, or the world record time for eating after eights?

Books! Quite simply, we’d resort back to the old school principle of reading books from libraries. It would definitely be harder finding the equivalent information that the Internet can provide in your local library but if you think about it the Internet basically took the concept of a library and expanded it by about a million times!

Above all we have to remember we got to where we are today without the Internet. The Internet was a technological advancement that excelled us into the 21st century and changed the way we socialized, did business and purchased goods.

It paved the way to the future and still has many exciting advancements ahead of itself. Witnessing the loss of the Internet is probably very unlikely, but either way I’m quite sure as a human race we’d adapt and persevere as we have done for thousands of years.  

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.