Texto para a pergunta
STORMY WEATHER
1 On earth, weather is defined, for the most part, by atmospheric wind (direction and velocity), water (precipitation and humidity), and temperature.
These elements are never in a steady state, and intermittently their level of activity – individually or collectively – can become violent. The giant blob
[bolha] of plasma that Earth orbits also has its mood swings. When activity on the Sun becomes violent, solar flares fling [arremessar] radiation at the
speed of light in all directions, and clouds of plasma break away [se separam], traveling at up to 7 million miles per hour. Radiation can reach Earth’s
atmosphere in eight minutes, and plasma clouds follow in a matter of hours.
2 Storms come and go on both spheres, with varying degrees of impact. Meteorologists, with their measuring instruments and computer models, can
forecast most Earthly weather events in time to forewarn [avisar antecipadamente] the public of impending catastrophes. Solar events are less
predictable.
3 The Sun can have storms of sufficient magnitude that plasma shock waves affect Earth’s magnetic field, creating a violent distortion called a
“geomagnetic storm” that can last six to twelve hours. According to a 2015 BBC report, “the rapidly changing magnetic field generates an electrical
current in any conductive material near the ground, including telephone and power lines, undersea cables, and oil and gas pipelines. Once the electrical
surges reach the power grid, they overload [sobrecarregar] transformers and trip [acionar] their circuit breakers, causing widespread blackouts.” Such an
event happened in 1989, knocking out power for the entire Canadian province of Quebec for twelve hours. In 1859, a “blaze lit the heavens…visible
from Hawaii to London…caused by a super-explosion on the Sun, equivalent to ten billion atomic bombs. In our solar system, it was the biggest stellar
outburst of the last 500 years.” The blast was three times the size of the one in 1989. If one that size were to occur today, according to a UK government
report, it “would likely cause unprecedented chaos. It would disrupt satellite communications and GPS navigation, and trigger [causar, iniciar] global
blackouts lasting up to a year.”
4 “Today, scientists know when a storm is headed toward us, but it’s impossible to predict where on Earth it will hit hardest,” according to a 2016
University of Michigan report. In October 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center began using a
geospace forecast model – developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and Rice University – that can “give unique data for each 350-squaremile plot [pedaço] of Earth, and up to 45 minutes before a solar storm hits.” It may be enough time for utility companies and satellite operators to “limit
damage to their systems by shutting off key components.”
Adapted from Natural History, February 2018.
With respect to solar storms and their effects, the information in the article most supports which of the following?
Texto para a pergunta
CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY AT 100
1 One party has ruled China for 72 years, without a mandate from voters. That is not a world record. Lenin and his dismal [sombrios, lúgubres, sinistros] heirs
[herdeiros] held power in Moscow for slightly longer, as has the Workers’ Party in North Korea. But no other dictatorship has been able to transform itself from
a famine-racked [assolado pela fome] disaster, as China was under Mao Zedong, into the world’s second-largest economy, whose cutting-edge [da vanguarda]
technology and infrastructure put America’s decaying roads and railways to shame. China’s Communists are the world’s most successful authoritarians.
2 The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless [cruel, implacável]. Yes, it delayed before
crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered the demonstrators [manifestantes] with bullets, terrorizing the country into
submission.
3 China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any regrets about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Xinping laments that the Soviet Union
collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts
[coragem] to slaughter [massacrar] unarmed protesters with machine-guns.
4 A second reason for the party’s longevity is its ideological agility. Within a couple of years of Mao’s death in 1976, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began
abandoning the late chairman’s productivity-destroying “people’s communes” and setting market forces to work in the countryside. Maoists complained, but
production soared. In the aftermath of Tiananmen and the Soviet Union’s downfall, Deng fought off Maoist diehards [da linha-dura] and embraced capitalism
with even greater fervor. This led to the closure of many state-owned firms and the privatization of housing. Millions were laid off, but China boomed.
5 Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again, to focus on ideological orthodoxy. His recent predecessors allowed a measure of mild dissent; he has crushed it.
Mao is lauded [lovado] once more. Party cadres [quadros] study “Xi Xinping thought.” The bureaucracy, army, and police have undergone purges of deviant and
corrupt officials. Big business is being brought into line. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at the grassroots [na base], creating a network of neighborhood spies and
injecting cadres into private firms to watch over them. Not since Mao’s day has society been so tightly controlled.
6 The third cause of the party’s success is that China did not turn into a straightforward [pura, aberta] kleptocracy in which wealth is sucked up exclusively by
the well-connected. Corruption did become rampant [desmedida, galopante], and the most powerful families are indeed super-rich. But many people felt their
lives were improving too, and the party was astute enough to acknowledge their demands. It abolished rural taxes and created a welfare system that provides
everyone with pensions and subsidized health care. The benefits were not abundant, but they were appreciated.
7 Over the years Western observers have found plenty of reasons to predict the collapse of Chinese communism. Surely the control required by a one-party
state was incompatible with the freedom required by a modern economy? One day China’s economic growth must run out of steam, leading to disillusion and
protests. And, if it did not, the vast middle class that such a growth created would inevitably demand greater freedoms – especially because so many of their
children had encountered democracy first-hand, when they got their education in the West.
8 These predictions have been confounded by the Communist Party’s continuing popularity. Many Chinese credit it for the improvement in their livelihoods
[sustentos, meios de vida]. True, China’s workforce is ageing, shrinking, and accustomed to ridiculously early retirement, but those are the sorts of difficulties
every government faces, authoritarian or not. Vigorous economic growth looks as if it will continue for some time yet.
Adapted from The Economist, June 26 – July 2, 2021.
With respect to China’s development, the information in the article most supports which of the following?
Texto para a pergunta
CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY AT 100
1 One party has ruled China for 72 years, without a mandate from voters. That is not a world record. Lenin and his dismal [sombrios, lúgubres, sinistros] heirs
[herdeiros] held power in Moscow for slightly longer, as has the Workers’ Party in North Korea. But no other dictatorship has been able to transform itself from
a famine-racked [assolado pela fome] disaster, as China was under Mao Zedong, into the world’s second-largest economy, whose cutting-edge [da vanguarda]
technology and infrastructure put America’s decaying roads and railways to shame. China’s Communists are the world’s most successful authoritarians.
2 The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless [cruel, implacável]. Yes, it delayed before
crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered the demonstrators [manifestantes] with bullets, terrorizing the country into
submission.
3 China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any regrets about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Xinping laments that the Soviet Union
collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts
[coragem] to slaughter [massacrar] unarmed protesters with machine-guns.
4 A second reason for the party’s longevity is its ideological agility. Within a couple of years of Mao’s death in 1976, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began
abandoning the late chairman’s productivity-destroying “people’s communes” and setting market forces to work in the countryside. Maoists complained, but
production soared. In the aftermath of Tiananmen and the Soviet Union’s downfall, Deng fought off Maoist diehards [da linha-dura] and embraced capitalism
with even greater fervor. This led to the closure of many state-owned firms and the privatization of housing. Millions were laid off, but China boomed.
5 Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again, to focus on ideological orthodoxy. His recent predecessors allowed a measure of mild dissent; he has crushed it.
Mao is lauded [lovado] once more. Party cadres [quadros] study “Xi Xinping thought.” The bureaucracy, army, and police have undergone purges of deviant and
corrupt officials. Big business is being brought into line. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at the grassroots [na base], creating a network of neighborhood spies and
injecting cadres into private firms to watch over them. Not since Mao’s day has society been so tightly controlled.
6 The third cause of the party’s success is that China did not turn into a straightforward [pura, aberta] kleptocracy in which wealth is sucked up exclusively by
the well-connected. Corruption did become rampant [desmedida, galopante], and the most powerful families are indeed super-rich. But many people felt their
lives were improving too, and the party was astute enough to acknowledge their demands. It abolished rural taxes and created a welfare system that provides
everyone with pensions and subsidized health care. The benefits were not abundant, but they were appreciated.
7 Over the years Western observers have found plenty of reasons to predict the collapse of Chinese communism. Surely the control required by a one-party
state was incompatible with the freedom required by a modern economy? One day China’s economic growth must run out of steam, leading to disillusion and
protests. And, if it did not, the vast middle class that such a growth created would inevitably demand greater freedoms – especially because so many of their
children had encountered democracy first-hand, when they got their education in the West.
8 These predictions have been confounded by the Communist Party’s continuing popularity. Many Chinese credit it for the improvement in their livelihoods
[sustentos, meios de vida]. True, China’s workforce is ageing, shrinking, and accustomed to ridiculously early retirement, but those are the sorts of difficulties
every government faces, authoritarian or not. Vigorous economic growth looks as if it will continue for some time yet.
Adapted from The Economist, June 26 – July 2, 2021.
With respect to China’s socio-political situation, the information in the article most supports which of the following?
Texto para a pergunta
CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY AT 100
1 One party has ruled China for 72 years, without a mandate from voters. That is not a world record. Lenin and his dismal [sombrios, lúgubres, sinistros] heirs
[herdeiros] held power in Moscow for slightly longer, as has the Workers’ Party in North Korea. But no other dictatorship has been able to transform itself from
a famine-racked [assolado pela fome] disaster, as China was under Mao Zedong, into the world’s second-largest economy, whose cutting-edge [da vanguarda]
technology and infrastructure put America’s decaying roads and railways to shame. China’s Communists are the world’s most successful authoritarians.
2 The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless [cruel, implacável]. Yes, it delayed before
crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered the demonstrators [manifestantes] with bullets, terrorizing the country into
submission.
3 China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any regrets about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Xinping laments that the Soviet Union
collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts
[coragem] to slaughter [massacrar] unarmed protesters with machine-guns.
4 A second reason for the party’s longevity is its ideological agility. Within a couple of years of Mao’s death in 1976, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began
abandoning the late chairman’s productivity-destroying “people’s communes” and setting market forces to work in the countryside. Maoists complained, but
production soared. In the aftermath of Tiananmen and the Soviet Union’s downfall, Deng fought off Maoist diehards [da linha-dura] and embraced capitalism
with even greater fervor. This led to the closure of many state-owned firms and the privatization of housing. Millions were laid off, but China boomed.
5 Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again, to focus on ideological orthodoxy. His recent predecessors allowed a measure of mild dissent; he has crushed it.
Mao is lauded [lovado] once more. Party cadres [quadros] study “Xi Xinping thought.” The bureaucracy, army, and police have undergone purges of deviant and
corrupt officials. Big business is being brought into line. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at the grassroots [na base], creating a network of neighborhood spies and
injecting cadres into private firms to watch over them. Not since Mao’s day has society been so tightly controlled.
6 The third cause of the party’s success is that China did not turn into a straightforward [pura, aberta] kleptocracy in which wealth is sucked up exclusively by
the well-connected. Corruption did become rampant [desmedida, galopante], and the most powerful families are indeed super-rich. But many people felt their
lives were improving too, and the party was astute enough to acknowledge their demands. It abolished rural taxes and created a welfare system that provides
everyone with pensions and subsidized health care. The benefits were not abundant, but they were appreciated.
7 Over the years Western observers have found plenty of reasons to predict the collapse of Chinese communism. Surely the control required by a one-party
state was incompatible with the freedom required by a modern economy? One day China’s economic growth must run out of steam, leading to disillusion and
protests. And, if it did not, the vast middle class that such a growth created would inevitably demand greater freedoms – especially because so many of their
children had encountered democracy first-hand, when they got their education in the West.
8 These predictions have been confounded by the Communist Party’s continuing popularity. Many Chinese credit it for the improvement in their livelihoods
[sustentos, meios de vida]. True, China’s workforce is ageing, shrinking, and accustomed to ridiculously early retirement, but those are the sorts of difficulties
every government faces, authoritarian or not. Vigorous economic growth looks as if it will continue for some time yet.
Adapted from The Economist, June 26 – July 2, 2021.
With respect to the 1989 incident in Tiananmen Square, the information in the article most supports which of the following
Texto para a pergunta
CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY AT 100
1 One party has ruled China for 72 years, without a mandate from voters. That is not a world record. Lenin and his dismal [sombrios, lúgubres, sinistros] heirs
[herdeiros] held power in Moscow for slightly longer, as has the Workers’ Party in North Korea. But no other dictatorship has been able to transform itself from
a famine-racked [assolado pela fome] disaster, as China was under Mao Zedong, into the world’s second-largest economy, whose cutting-edge [da vanguarda]
technology and infrastructure put America’s decaying roads and railways to shame. China’s Communists are the world’s most successful authoritarians.
2 The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless [cruel, implacável]. Yes, it delayed before
crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered the demonstrators [manifestantes] with bullets, terrorizing the country into
submission.
3 China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any regrets about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Xinping laments that the Soviet Union
collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts
[coragem] to slaughter [massacrar] unarmed protesters with machine-guns.
4 A second reason for the party’s longevity is its ideological agility. Within a couple of years of Mao’s death in 1976, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began
abandoning the late chairman’s productivity-destroying “people’s communes” and setting market forces to work in the countryside. Maoists complained, but
production soared. In the aftermath of Tiananmen and the Soviet Union’s downfall, Deng fought off Maoist diehards [da linha-dura] and embraced capitalism
with even greater fervor. This led to the closure of many state-owned firms and the privatization of housing. Millions were laid off, but China boomed.
5 Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again, to focus on ideological orthodoxy. His recent predecessors allowed a measure of mild dissent; he has crushed it.
Mao is lauded [lovado] once more. Party cadres [quadros] study “Xi Xinping thought.” The bureaucracy, army, and police have undergone purges of deviant and
corrupt officials. Big business is being brought into line. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at the grassroots [na base], creating a network of neighborhood spies and
injecting cadres into private firms to watch over them. Not since Mao’s day has society been so tightly controlled.
6 The third cause of the party’s success is that China did not turn into a straightforward [pura, aberta] kleptocracy in which wealth is sucked up exclusively by
the well-connected. Corruption did become rampant [desmedida, galopante], and the most powerful families are indeed super-rich. But many people felt their
lives were improving too, and the party was astute enough to acknowledge their demands. It abolished rural taxes and created a welfare system that provides
everyone with pensions and subsidized health care. The benefits were not abundant, but they were appreciated.
7 Over the years Western observers have found plenty of reasons to predict the collapse of Chinese communism. Surely the control required by a one-party
state was incompatible with the freedom required by a modern economy? One day China’s economic growth must run out of steam, leading to disillusion and
protests. And, if it did not, the vast middle class that such a growth created would inevitably demand greater freedoms – especially because so many of their
children had encountered democracy first-hand, when they got their education in the West.
8 These predictions have been confounded by the Communist Party’s continuing popularity. Many Chinese credit it for the improvement in their livelihoods
[sustentos, meios de vida]. True, China’s workforce is ageing, shrinking, and accustomed to ridiculously early retirement, but those are the sorts of difficulties
every government faces, authoritarian or not. Vigorous economic growth looks as if it will continue for some time yet.
Adapted from The Economist, June 26 – July 2, 2021.
Which of the following is most likely an irony supported by the information in the article?
Texto para a pergunta
CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY AT 100
1 One party has ruled China for 72 years, without a mandate from voters. That is not a world record. Lenin and his dismal [sombrios, lúgubres, sinistros] heirs
[herdeiros] held power in Moscow for slightly longer, as has the Workers’ Party in North Korea. But no other dictatorship has been able to transform itself from
a famine-racked [assolado pela fome] disaster, as China was under Mao Zedong, into the world’s second-largest economy, whose cutting-edge [da vanguarda]
technology and infrastructure put America’s decaying roads and railways to shame. China’s Communists are the world’s most successful authoritarians.
2 The Chinese Communist Party has been able to maintain its grip on power for three reasons. First, it is ruthless [cruel, implacável]. Yes, it delayed before
crushing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But eventually it answered the demonstrators [manifestantes] with bullets, terrorizing the country into
submission.
3 China’s present leaders show no signs at all of having any regrets about the massacre. On the contrary, President Xi Xinping laments that the Soviet Union
collapsed because its leaders were not “man enough to stand up and resist” at the critical moment. For which read: unlike us, they did not have the guts
[coragem] to slaughter [massacrar] unarmed protesters with machine-guns.
4 A second reason for the party’s longevity is its ideological agility. Within a couple of years of Mao’s death in 1976, a new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began
abandoning the late chairman’s productivity-destroying “people’s communes” and setting market forces to work in the countryside. Maoists complained, but
production soared. In the aftermath of Tiananmen and the Soviet Union’s downfall, Deng fought off Maoist diehards [da linha-dura] and embraced capitalism
with even greater fervor. This led to the closure of many state-owned firms and the privatization of housing. Millions were laid off, but China boomed.
5 Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again, to focus on ideological orthodoxy. His recent predecessors allowed a measure of mild dissent; he has crushed it.
Mao is lauded [lovado] once more. Party cadres [quadros] study “Xi Xinping thought.” The bureaucracy, army, and police have undergone purges of deviant and
corrupt officials. Big business is being brought into line. Mr. Xi has rebuilt the party at the grassroots [na base], creating a network of neighborhood spies and
injecting cadres into private firms to watch over them. Not since Mao’s day has society been so tightly controlled.
6 The third cause of the party’s success is that China did not turn into a straightforward [pura, aberta] kleptocracy in which wealth is sucked up exclusively by
the well-connected. Corruption did become rampant [desmedida, galopante], and the most powerful families are indeed super-rich. But many people felt their
lives were improving too, and the party was astute enough to acknowledge their demands. It abolished rural taxes and created a welfare system that provides
everyone with pensions and subsidized health care. The benefits were not abundant, but they were appreciated.
7 Over the years Western observers have found plenty of reasons to predict the collapse of Chinese communism. Surely the control required by a one-party
state was incompatible with the freedom required by a modern economy? One day China’s economic growth must run out of steam, leading to disillusion and
protests. And, if it did not, the vast middle class that such a growth created would inevitably demand greater freedoms – especially because so many of their
children had encountered democracy first-hand, when they got their education in the West.
8 These predictions have been confounded by the Communist Party’s continuing popularity. Many Chinese credit it for the improvement in their livelihoods
[sustentos, meios de vida]. True, China’s workforce is ageing, shrinking, and accustomed to ridiculously early retirement, but those are the sorts of difficulties
every government faces, authoritarian or not. Vigorous economic growth looks as if it will continue for some time yet.
Adapted from The Economist, June 26 – July 2, 2021.
In the first sentence of paragraph 5, the phrase “Under Mr. Xi the party has shifted again…” is most likely connected to which of the following statements?