Q206827 - CESGRANRIO Assistente em Ciência e Tecnologia 2008
In "So, there must be a dramatic departure from the factorymodel education on the past." (lines 57-58), "must" is correctly replaced by
Confira abaixo as principais questões de concursos sobre Verbos modais | Modal verbs que cairam em provas de concursos públicos anteriores:
In "So, there must be a dramatic departure from the factorymodel education on the past." (lines 57-58), "must" is correctly replaced by
Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
10 one.
Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
"Android science."
Besides the justification for making robots
20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
environments with architectural features such as stairs,
Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
natural communication. "Appearance is very important
25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
our future is to interact naturally with people."
Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
35 to understand more about ourselves.
To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
cognitive science research can use the robot to study
human perception, communication and other faculties.
40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
to implement processes that support it in the android."
One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
his artificial creations on real people. He began research
four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
people's comfort zones. Because the android's
appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
natural way it moves.
Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
answering his own questions.
adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006
In "An Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be answering his own questions." (lines 64-66), "might" can be correctly substituted by:
Good Stuff? - A Consumption Manifesto:
The Top Ten Principles of Good Consumption
Consumption is one of life's great pleasures. Buying
things we desire, traveling to beautiful places, eating
delectable food: icing on the cake of life. But too often the
effects of our blissful consumption make for a sad story.
Giant cars exhaling dangerous exhaust, hog farms pumping
out harmful pollutants, toxic trash pestering poor
neighborhoods - none of this if there weren't something
to sell.
But there's no need to trade pleasure for guilt. With
thoughtfulness and commitment, consumption can be a force
for good. Through buying what we need, produced the way
we want, we can create the world we'd like to live in.
To that end and for the future, a Consumption Manifesto:
Principle One. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This brilliant triad
says it all. Reduce: Avoid buying what you don't need-
and when you do get that dishwasher/lawnmower/toilet,
spend the money up front for an efficient model. Re-use:
Buy used stuff, and wring the last drop of usefulness out of
most everything you own. Recycle: Do it, but know that
it's the last and least effective leg of the triad. (Ultimately,
recycling simply results in the manufacture of more things.)
Principle Two. Stay close to home. Work close to home
to shorten your commute; eat food grown nearby; support
local businesses; join local organizations. All of these will
improve the look, shape, smell, and feel of your community.
Principle Three. Internal combustion engines are polluting,
and their use should be minimized. Period.
Principle Four. Watch what you eat. Whenever possible,
avoid food grown with pesticides, in feedlots, or by
agribusiness. It's an easy way to use your dollars to vote
against the spread of toxins in our bodies, land, and water.
Principle Five. Private industries have very little incentive
to improve their environmental practices. Our consumption
choices must encourage and support good behavior; our
political choices must support government regulation.
Principle Six. Support thoughtful innovations in
manufacturing and production. Hint: Drilling for oil is no
longer an innovation.
Principle Seven. Prioritize. Think hardest when buying
large objects; don't drive yourself mad fretting over the small
ones. It's easy to be distracted by the paper bag puzzle,
but an energy-sucking refrigerator is much more worthy of
your attention. (Small electronics are an exception.)
Principle Eight. Vote. Political engagement enables the
spread of environmentally conscious policies. Without
public action, thoughtful individuals are swimming
upstream.
Principle Nine. Don't feel guilty. It only makes you sad.
Principle Ten. Enjoy what you have-the things that are
yours alone, and the things that belong to none of us. Both
are nice, but the latter are precious. Those things that we
cannot manufacture and should never own-water, air, birds,
trees-are the foundation of life's pleasures. Without them,
we're nothing. With us, there may be nothing left. It's our
choice.
Umbra Fisk, Grist Magazine.
Slightly adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1470
Access on June 1, 2007.
In "we can create the world we'd like to live in." (line 12), "can" is correctly substituted by:
What are the best energy sources? "Best" depends
on many factors - how the energy is being used, where
it is being used, what energy sources are available,
which sources are most convenient and reliable, which
5 are easiest to use, what each costs, and the effects on
public safety, health, and the environment. Making smart
energy choices means understanding resources and their
relative costs and benefits.
Some energy sources have advantages for specific
10 uses or locations. For example, fuels from petroleum
are well suited for transportation because they pack a
lot of energy in a small space and are easily transported
and stored. Small hydroelectric installations are a good
solution for supplying power or mechanical energy close
15 to where it is used. Coal is widely used for power
generation in many fast-developing countries - including
China, India, and many others - because domestic
supplies are readily available.
Efficiency is an important factor in energy costs.
20 How efficiently can the energy be produced, delivered,
and used? How much energy value is lost in that process,
and how much ends up being transformed into useful
work? Industries that produce or use energy continually
look for ways to improve efficiency, since this is a key to
25 making their products more competitive.
The ideal energy source - cheap, plentiful, and
pollution-free - may prove unattainable in our lifetime,
but that is the ultimate goal. The energy industry is
continuing to improve its technologies and practices, to
30 produce and use energy more efficiently and cleanly.
Energy resources are often categorized as
renewable or nonrenewable.
Renewable energy resources are those that can be
replenished quickly - examples are solar power,
35 biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind power, and
fast-reaction nuclear power. They supply about seven
percent of energy needs in the United States; the other
93 percent comes from nonrenewables. The two largest
categories of renewable energy now in use in the U.S.
40 are biomass - primarily wood wastes that are used by
the forest products industry to generate electricity and
heat - and hydroelectricity.
Nonrenewable energy resources include coal, oil,
natural gas, and uranium-235, which is used to fuel
45 slow-reaction nuclear power. Projections of how long a
nonrenewable energy resource will last depend on many
changeable factors. These include the growth rate of
consumption, and estimates of how much of the remaining
resources can be economically recovered. New exploration
50 and production technologies often increase the ability of
producers to locate and recover resources. World
reserves of fossil energy are projected to last for many
more decades - and, in the case of coal, for centuries.
In: http://www.classroom-energy.org/teachers/energy_tour/pg5.html
According to Paragraph 4, the "ideal energy source":
Read the text below in order to answer questions 26
to 30:
Anthony Harrington, American Ambassador in
Brazil
From 1999 through 2001
"Because I departed my post less than a year
ago, the changes have been neither entirely
monumental nor unforeseen. Most prominently
perhaps, Brazil has faced the effects of the severe
economic challenges of neighboring Argentina,
together with an international slow-down. Two
things stand out in this regard: first, Brazil is
weathering the storm better than most observers
anticipated, primarily because Brazil, under
President Cardoso, has already implemented
much of the key reform with which others are
struggling. Secondly, Brazil is uniquely positioned
and well-disposed to play a constructive role in
helping its neighbor through this storm.
Otherwise, I am pleased that Presidents Bush
and Cardoso are off to a positive start in their
relationship, beginning with an early visit in
Washington before I left Brasilia and another good
meeting recently".
According to the text, Presidents Bush and Cardoso
Read the text below in order to answer questions 16
to 20:
Brazil-UK Relations
Brazilian President Fernando Henrique
Cardoso paid a brief visit to the United Kingdom
on 27-28 October 2001, accepting a last minute
invitation by British Prime Minister Tony Blair for a
private meeting. The two leaders met at
Chequers, Buckinghamshire, and were joined by
former American President Bill Clinton.
During the meeting, Blair and Cardoso had
the opportunity to discuss current global affairs
issues such as the ongoing international
campaign against terrorism, the forthcoming
World Trade Organization meeting in Doha and
the reform of the United Nations Security Council.
Speaking to the press before departing for
France, President Cardoso stated that during the
meeting they had agreed on the need for
immediate reform of the UN Security Council so
that the "fate of countries is not decided by a small
group of nations, as it is today".
According to the Brazilian President, a small group of nations
Your answers to questions 23 to 27 must be based
on the review below, which is entitled "Illusions of
Empire: Defining the New American Order".
Illusions of Empire: Defining the New
American Order
Source: www.foreignaffairs.org
March/April 2004 (Adapted)
In his book The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism,
Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, Chalmers
Johnson advances the disturbing claim that the United
States' Cold War-era military power and far-flung base
system have, in the last decade, been consolidated in a
new form of global imperial rule. The United States,
according to Johnson, has become "a military
juggernaut intent on world domination."
Driven by a triumphalist ideology, an
exaggerated sense of threats, and a self-serving
military-industrial complex, this juggernaut is tightening
its grip on much of the world. The Pentagon has
replaced the State Department as the primary shaper of
foreign policy. Military commanders in regional
headquarters are modern-day proconsuls, warriordiplomats
who direct the United States' imperial reach.
Johnson fears that this military empire will corrode
democracy, bankrupt the nation, spark opposition, and
ultimately end in a Soviet-style collapse.
According to the text, "the primary shaper of foreign policy"