AULA 4 – LÍNGUA INGLESA

Attention:
The answers are in bold and the explanation will be in blue right below the question.

PART 1. GRAMMAR
CLAUSES.
For questions 1 and 2, read the excerpt below and decide if the statements are right or wrong:
“The only large organisation that functions adequately in Liberia is the UN. Besides keeping the
peace, it helps refugees return home, inoculates babies, feeds a fifth of the population and trains
local teachers, policemen, judges, army officers and so forth. This is helpful, but it is hard to
support such a weak government without supplanting it. Because the UN offers the best salaries
in town, and actually pays them, it often ends up poaching the most able public servants.
The transitional government is better than its predecessor, in that it is less murderous. But it is
not noticeably less corrupt. A senior UN official accuses it of making “no effort at all” to deliver
social services.
The hope is that this will change after elections in October. There are dozens of possible
candidates for the presidency, many of whom have no agenda beyond securing the top job, but
there is at least a chance that someone honest will be elected. George Weah, a retired soccer
star, is uniformly popular and far too rich to need to steal, but he has no political experience.
The worst fear is that Charles Taylor or another warlord might sponsor a successful candidate
and then pull the strings 1.”
[“From chaos, order”, The Economist, 03/03/2005]

QUESTION 1.
A. (C) In line 1, the clause “that functions adequately in Liberia” could be rewritten as
“functioning adequately in Liberia” without loss in meaning. This is a relative clause, we can
notice by the use of the relative pronoun “that”. This sentence aims to specify, it functions as an
adjective because it is qualifying the noun.
B. (E) In line 1, the clause “that functions adequately in Liberia” is not essential to the meaning
of the sentence. It is what we call a restrictive clause, it doesn’t come between commas and it is
essential for the meaning of the sentence.
C. (E) In line 1, the clause “[b]esides keeping the peace” is used to introduce examples. Besides
may mean “in addition to”, “as well as”. The idea is not to introduce examples but to add
information.
D. (C) In line 2, the clause “many of whom have no agenda beyond securing the top job” acts an
adjective, introducing additional information about the “possible candidates for the
presidency”. Instead of line 2, it is line 8. Whom refers to “the dozen of possible candidates”.
Whenever we see a comma before a relative pronoun, it means it is a non-restrictive clause (it is
not fundamental for the meaning), it is just adding information.

QUESTION 2.
A. (C) In line 5, the clause “than its predecessor” could be rewritten as “than the transitional
government’s predecessor is” without loss in grammar correction. It is what we call an elliptical
clause. There is no loss in grammar correction but there’s a problem in style.
B. (C) In line 5, the clause “than its predecessor” acts as a noun.
C. (C) In line 5, the clause “in that it is less murderous” expresses the idea of reason. “In that”
can always be used in the place of “as” to introduce an explanation about something we have
just said.
D. (C) In line 9, the clause “but he has no political experience” carries the idea of contrast.

1 Treat someone as a puppet, decides one’s actions.

For question 3, read the excerpt below and decide if the statements are right or wrong:
“When a country has seen as much repression as Iran, outsiders hoping for a better future for
the place instinctively want to celebrate along with all those ordinary Iranians who took to the
streets. The smiling Mr Rohani’s public pronouncements encourage optimism, for he sounds like
a different sort of president from the comedy-villain, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who precedes
him. Yet even if his election bodes well for Iranians, it does not necessarily hold equal promise
for the rest of the world. Iran’s regional assertiveness and its nuclear capacity mean that it is a
more dangerous place than it ever was before.”
[“Can Iran be stopped?”, The Economist, 18/10/2013]

QUESTION 3.
A. (C) In line 2, the clause “who took to the streets” functions as an adjective to identify “all
those ordinary Iranians”. Who introduces a relative clause.
B. (E) In line 3, the clause “for he sounds like a different sort of president from the comedy-
villain, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad” carries the idea of purpose and “for” could be perfectly
replaced by “as”. The idea is not an idea of purpose, but an idea of reason.
C. (E) In line 3, the clause “who precedes him” is a restrictive clause. Because of the commas.
D. (C) In line 4, the clause “even if his election bodes well for Iranians” carries the underlying
meaning that the unlikely condition of successful elections is not sufficient to ensure peace for
the rest of the world. Even if carries the idea of a real strong contrast and creates hypothesis.

For question 4, read the excerpt below and decide if the statements are right or wrong:
“Soldiers from Germany have been sent to Bosnia and Kosovo. So why not to Macedonia, and
only 500 of them at that? Yet of the 12 countries that have signed up for the NATO arms -
collecting mission there, Germany alone is still not sure whether it will be able to honour its
pledge. Its government requires parliamentary approval before it can deploy troops abroad. And
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is still not certain he will get it when the Bundestag meets in special
session next week.
The debate is no longer over whether German troops, banned from foreign missions for over 50
years after the second world war, should be sent abroad at all. That argument was basically won
two years ago when Joschka Fischer, the foreign minister, convinced his formerly solidly pacifist
fellow Greens to support the government's decision to send troops to keep the peace in Kosovo.
Most Germans now accept, however reluctantly, the government's argument that their re -
united and fully sovereign country has to honour its international obligations.”
[“NATO yes, Macedonia maybe”, The Economist, 23/08/2001]

QUESTION 4.
A. (E) In lines 2 and 3, the clause “whether it will be able to honour its pledge” is a noun clause
that functions as an object. It is a subject complement of “sure”. It doesn’t function as an object.
B. (E) In line 3, the word “before” in the clause “before it can deploy troops abroad” functions
as an adverb and conveys the idea of condition. Before is a conjunction and it creates the idea
of time condition.
C. (C) In line 4, the clause “when the Bundestag meets in special session next week” could be
replaced by an adverb of time.
D. (E) In line 8, the word “however” in the excerpt “however reluctantly” is a regular adverb that
introduces the idea of “in whatever way”. The idea here is more of concession, embora
relutantemente a maioria dos alemães…

For question 5, read the excerpt below and decide if the statements are right or wrong:
“It seems to me obviously correct to characterise the military conflict between Libyan factions
as a "civil war", and thus to characterise the actions of the Americans, French, and British, which
target the Libyan state's air defences, as "taking sides in a civil war". However, as Mr Tesón
suggests, this framing may very well make a difference to public opinion, which is why I felt
as though I was drawing a line and stepping across it in my opening sentence by choosing to
refer to the war between Libyans as the ‘Libyan civil war’. But that's what it is!
It seems important to note, however, that humanitarian intervention often requires taking sides
in a civil war. Thus a proponent of allied attacks on the Libyan government's air defences might
argue that taking sides in the civil war is incidental to the intended aim of protecting civilians.
But then an opponent of allied intervention might argue that this argument makes it a mite too
easy for the duplicitous to hide the intention to take a side in a civil war—to provide military
assistance to a native insurgency's attempt to overthrow their government—behind the rhetoric
of humanitarian intervention.”
[W.W. “On ‘taking sides in a civil war’”, The Economist, 21/03/2011]

QUESTION 5.
A. (E) In line 2, the clause “which target the Libyan state’s air defences” is a restrictive relative
clause that specifies which actions of the Americans, French, and British are characterized as
taking sides in a civil war. It is a non-restrictive clause because of the commas.
B. (C) In line 3, the clause “However… this framing may very well make a difference to public
opinion” introduces an idea of opposition. However indeed has an idea of contrast.
C. (C) In line 4, the clause “as though I was drawing a line” functions as an adverb. Idea of adverb
of manner
D. (E) In line 8, the clause “[b]ut then an opponent of al lied intervention might argue” is
introduced by the conjunction “but”. It is introduced by “but then” not only by “but”.

For question 6, read the excerpt below and decide if the statements are right or wrong:
“In September 1982, President Ronald Reagan authorized the deployment of up to 1,800
Marines to Lebanon as part of a Multinational Force (MNF)—consisting of French, Italian, and
later British troops—“with the mission of enabling the Lebanese Government to resume full
sovereignty over its capital, the essential precondition for extending its control over the entire
country.”
In a diplomatic note exchanged between Washington and the nascent government in Lebanon,
it was agreed that the MNF would fulfill its mission by serving as an “interposition force at agreed
locations and thereby provide the Multinational presence requested by the Lebanese
Government.” Soon after the first Marines arrived at Beirut International Airport, Secretary of
Defense Caspar Weinberger was asked to clarify the scope of the U.S. military’s mission, to which
he replied: “What we need is a multinational force until certain conditions have been achieved.
Nobody knows when those conditions can be achieved. It is not an open-ended commitment.”

QUESTION 6.
A. (C) In lines 4-6, the excerpt “that the MNF would fulfill its mission by serving as an
‘interposition force at agreed locations and thereby provide the Multinational presence
requested by the Lebanese Government” works as a subject. That is indeed the subject.
B. (C) In line 6, the clause “Soon after the first Marines arrived at Beirut International Airport” is
a dependent clause that conveys the idea of time. It is a dependent clause because it depends
on the other clause to have full meaning.
C. (E ) In line 9, placing the clause “until certain conditions have been achieved” before the clause
“What we need is a multinational force” would incur in no transformation in the meaning of the
sentence. There is a difference in emphasis.
D. (C) In line 9, the clause “when those conditions can be achieved”, introduced by the adverb
“when”, functions as an object.
PART 2. USE OF ENGLISH.
For questions 7 to 13, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of
the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line.
“The differences between tiny Rwanda and the rest of Africa are immediately 7. palpable 2 even
to the most casual visitor. The discarded plastic bottles and bags that pollute almost every other
country on the continent are nowhere to be seen: the government has banned them. The
8.tarred3 roads are usually in good shape; speed limits are actually enforced, by smart traffic
police who fill out paperwork in exchange for a statutory fine rather than shaking you down for
a bribe. Transparency International, an anti-corruption 9.watchdog4 , rates Rwanda as one of
the more honest countries in Africa. The World Bank says it is the fastest-improving as a place
to do business. Hotels in the capital, Kigali, brim with Westerners attending conferences. Paul
Kagame (above), the president who has 10.overseen all this, is a darling of the aid-giving world.
Western governments and prominent religious leaders have hailed him as the sort of man in
whom to put their faith—and money.”
Considering that Rwanda witnessed one of the most appalling waves of barbarity in history just
16 years ago, when around 800,000 people were hacked to death in three months, the efficiency
is extraordinary. So much has gone admirably right in terms of development. But a lot is going
11.depressingly wrong in politics. Mr Kagame has become more ruthless and authoritarian. In
the 12.run-up5 to the election on August 9th the opposition has suffered 13.grievously . So
where should the balance between development and freedom lie? Can democracy be shoved
aside in the battle against poverty? And what should outsiders do to tilt the balance back?”
[“Efficiency versus freedom”, in The Economist, 05/08/2010]

COLLOCATIONS (It refers to how terms usually go together.)

For questions 14 to 18, consider the excerpts and fill in the blanks with terms synonymous with
the idea between brackets.
Excerpt 1.
“By almost all of these measures, foreign aid is failing. It is as co-ordinated as a demolition
derby6. Much goes neither to poor people nor to 14.well-run [managed smoothly, well-
managed] countries, and on some measures the 15.targeting [the establishment of targets or
priorities] of is getting worse. Donors try to reward decent regimes and punish bad ones, but
their efforts are undermined by other countries and by their own impatience. It is extraordinary
that so many clever, 16.well-intentioned [well-meaning] people have made such a mess.”
[“Misplaced Charity”, in The Economist, 11/06/2016. Available at
<http://www.economist.com/news/international/21700323-development-aid-best-spent-
poor-well-governed-countries-isnt-where-it>]

Excerpt 2.
“Despite the Bush Administration’s 17.unyielding [inflexible] stance, an eventual increase in the
level of financial assistance to poor countries is not completely out of the question. Ultimately,
history suggests, aid policy is driven by broader considerations than cost-benefit analysis. In a
message to Congress, in 1961, the newly elected President Kennedy described existing aid
programs as “bureaucratically fragmented, awkward and slow,” but he nonetheless proposed a
big 18.increase [expansion] in the aid budget, for reasons that sound eerily modern.
“Widespread poverty and chaos lead to a collapse of existing political and social structures,
which would inevitably invite the advance of totalitarianism into every weak and unstable area,”

2 adjective that comes from palpate

3 tar means covered in asphalt
4 Serves as a guard
5 the final period before an important event
6 It is a kind of race between trucks which one aims to destroy the other.
Kennedy said. “Thus our own security would be endangered and our prosperity imperiled 7. A
program of assistance to the underdeveloped nations must continue because the Nation’s
interest and the cause of political freedom require it.”
[“Helping Hand”, The New Yorker, 18/03/2002. Available at
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/18/helping-hands>]

PART 3. READING COMPREHENSION & STRATEGIES

TOPIC: INTERNATIONAL AID & DEVELOPMENT
TEXT 1: When it comes to aid, learn from those who know what poverty is really like -
Vocabulary
To lift people out of poverty (l.1) = to remove, to take people away from poverty
Fivefold (l.5) = five times
Currency swap (l.16) = foreign exchange derivative between two institutions
Outsource (l.19) = to relocate, transfer job to another labor market
Freed up (l.30) = made available
Sovereign wealth (l.30) = state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets
tn (l.31) = trillions

QUESTION 19. Based on the ideas conveyed in the text, decide if the following statements are
right (R) or wrong (W):
A. (W) The author states that Chinese and Indian companies are transferring Chinese and Indian
employees to work for cheaper wages in Africa. They are outsourcing (l.19 and 20)
B. (W) Turkey invests more in international aid than the OECD countries do. We only know about
the average countries (l.5 and 6)
C. (W) The mitigation of financial risks is a new form of international aid. The text doesn’t
mention a new form (l.24 and 25)
D. (R) Commerce involving countries of the South has become almost as profitable as commerce
involving countries of the North. L.14 and 15

QUESTION 20. Considering the grammatical and semantic aspects of the text, decide whether
the following items are right (R) or wrong (W).
A. (R) Traditional aid can also be guided to helping less developing countries make the transition
from exporting raw materials to building manufacturing industries [l. 20-21]. Guide is another
way of saying channeled
B. (W) The noun “powerhouse” [l. 27] can be perfectly replaced by “leader” without meaning
loss. powerhouse shows the idea of power (l.24)
C. (R) The noun “holdings” [l. 38] is similar to the noun “assets” in meaning.
D. (W) “Untapped resources” [l. 40-41] are resources that have been used, but not yet fully
exploited. Something untapped is something available but which is not being used

QUESTION 21. Each of the fragments from the text presented below is followed by a suggestion
of rewriting. Decide whether the suggestion given maintains the meaning, coherence and
grammar correction of the text (R) or not (W).
A. (W) “China, which is poised to become the world’s largest economy” [l. 3]: China, which is
expected to become the world’s largest economy. Poised means ready
B. (W) “Developing countries now account for more than a third of global trade” [l.15]:
Developing countries now stand for more than a third of global trade. To account for is to
represent and stand for is to support something
C. (R) “including by helping to mitigate financial risk” [l. 28-29]: also by helping to reduce
financial risk.

7 Endangered and imperiled are synonyms and they mean to put in danger.
D. (W) “Large sums could be mobilised if funds in OECD countries followed the lead of those in
Latin American” [l. 37-38]: Large amounts could be scattered if funds in OECD countries followed
the Latin American example. Scatter means to disperse

TEXT 2: Hunger games – Vocabulary

Wretched town (l.1) = it’s a town in a deplorable state
Pinprick (l.3) = a very small hole in
Bundle off (l.3) = to be sent away
Shoulder-blades (l.7) = escápula
Woo (l.15) = to attract
Pillage (l.16) = saquear
Staple (l.22) = basic, necessary
Outpost (l.31) = small military place
Full-blown (l.46) = full developed
Snail-paced (l.50) = passo de lesma

QUESTION 22. Considering the grammatical and semantic aspects of the text, decide whether
the following items are right (R) or wrong (W).
A. (R) In Maiduguri, its capital, camps for the internally displaced are swarming with bloated-
bellied babies [l. 6]. To swarm is to abandon
B. (W) “Sorghum” [l. 32] is a beard style that religious Nigerian Muslims grow. Sorghum is a
cultivated grass
C. (W) The verb “underplayed” [l. 33] could be perfectly replaced by “curtailed” without meaning
loss. To underplay is to play something down, with restrain. Curtailed is to cut short, to reduce
something
D. (W) Either way, it must not bolt: eight months into the year, its campaign is only a third
funded. [l. 49-50] To dally is to linger, to delay. To bolt means to withdraw support from

QUESTION 23. In text II, without altering the meaning of the sentence, “scrawl” [l. 26] could be
replaced by – mark right (R) or wrong (W): Scrawl é uma inscriçao rascunhada
A. (R) scribble
B. (W) dialect
C. (R) graffiti In this text, they are synonyms
D. (W) slang

QUESTION 24. Decide whether the following statements are right (R) or wrong (W) according to
text II.
A. (W) The staff of a clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières have become so used to seeing
women getting desperate about the loss of their children that they are reactionless. They are
almost reactionless (l.7 to 9)
B. (W) The Nigerian government boasts about sending displaced people home. L.26 and 27
C. (R) International partners show resentment for Nigeria’s choice to ignore to downplay the
Boko Haram crisis in order to ignore aid offers. L.36 and 37
D. (R) The United Nations has not yet publicly classified the Boko Haram crisis as a “Leve l 3”
emergency. L.38 to 40 and l.52 to 53