Questões

        Indigenous languages appear to be disappearing at a concerning rate around the world. Current data indicates that at least 43% of the world’s spoken languages are being forgotten, with indigenous languages making a significant part. According to ONIC (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia), there are 65 indigenous languages in the country. Nearly one-third of them are at a critical risk of disappearing — and only three of them, including Nasa Yuwe, are spoken by more than 50,000 people. This is the reality that Juan Pablo Camayo seeks to change.

         Two years ago, in Caldono, Colombia, Juan Pablo and other neighbours started a communications network that enabled them to provide Internet access to remote rural areas and disseminate content in their mother tongue. That’s how Jxa’h Wejxia Casil — “Wind’s Net” in Nasa Yuwe — came to be.

         Currently, Jxa’h Wejxia Casil has about 200 families subscribed to their Internet service and provides a tool that allows communities to preserve the use of their language. With support from other project partners, Juan Pablo leveraged this new communication tool to produce and disseminate original communication materials in Nasa Yuwe.

Internet: <https://unsdg.un.org>

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    SAO PAULO (AP) — Around 1.4 million households in Sao Paulo, Brazil, were without power on Saturday almost 24 hours after a brief but powerful storm swept through South America’s largest metropolis. At least seven people were killed.

    Officials in Sao Paulo state said that record winds of up to 67 mph (108 kph) knocked down transmission lines and destroyed trees, causing severe damage in some parts. The storm also shut down several airports and interrupted water service in several areas, according to the state government.

    Authorities originally expected to restore power within a few hours. But several neighborhoods in the metropolitan area, which is home to 21 million people, were still in the dark on Saturday, and authorities were urging residents to limit their consumption of water.

https://apnews.com. Adaptado. Acesso em 24.04.2025

    Remember the good old days, when you could have a heated-yet-enjoyable debate with your friends about things that didn’t matter that much — times when you could be a true fan of the Manchester United soccer team when you didn’t come from the city of Manchester?

    How things have changed.

    Now disagreements feel deadly serious. Like when your colleague pronounces that wearing a face mask in public is a threat to his liberty. Or when you see that one of your friends has just tweeted that, actually, all lives matter. Before you know it, you’re feeling angry and forming harsh new judgments about your colleagues and friends. Let’s take a collective pause and breathe: there are some ways we can all try to have more civil disagreements in this febrile age of culture wars.

1. ‘Coupling’ and ‘decoupling’

    The first is to consider how inclined people are to ‘couple’ or ‘decouple’ topics involving wider political and social factors. Swedish data analyst John Nerst has used the terms to describe the contrasting ways in which people approach contentious issues. Those of us more inclined to ‘couple’ see them as inextricably related to a broader matrix of factors, whereas those more predisposed to ‘decouple’ prefer to consider an issue in isolation. To take a crude example, a decoupler might consider in isolation the question of whether a vaccine provides a degree of immunity to a virus; a coupler, by contrast, would immediately see the issue as inextricably entangled in a mesh of factors, such as pharmaceutical industry power and parental choice.

2.____________________

    Most of us are deeply committed to our beliefs, especially concerning moral and social issues, such that when we’re presented with facts that contradict our beliefs, we often choose to dismiss those facts, rather than update our beliefs.

    A study at Arizona State University, U.S., analysed more than 100,000 comments on a forum where users post their views on an issue and invite others to persuade them to change their mind. The researchers found that regardless of the kind of topic, people were more likely to change their mind when confronted with more evidence-based arguments. “Our work may suggest that while attitude change is hard-won, providing facts, statistics and citations for one’s arguments can convince people to change their minds,” they concluded.

3. Just be nicer?

    Finally, it’s easier said than done, but let’s all try to be more respectful of and attentive to each other’s positions. We should do this not just for virtuous reasons, but because the more we create that kind of a climate, the more open-minded and intellectually flexible we will all be inclined to be. And then hopefully, collectively, we can start having more constructive disagreements — even in our present very difficult times.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has transitioned from a futuristic concept to an integral part of daily life. From virtual assistants and recommendation algorithms to advanced robotics and autonomous vehicles, AI has permeated various sectors, promising unprecedented levels of efficiency and innovation. Proponents argue that AI has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by enabling faster diagnoses, improve education through personalized learning experiences, and address global challenges such as climate change through predictive modeling. However, the rapid integration of AI into society has not been without controversy. Critics raise alarms over ethical dilemmas stemming from its deployment. Concerns include the displacement of millions of jobs as automation replaces human labor, the erosion of privacy due to pervasive surveillance technologies, and the potential misuse of AI in creating deepfakes or autonomous weapons. Moreover, there are fears that AI systems, if left unchecked, could exacerbate existing inequalities by embedding biases into algorithms or concentrating power in the hands of a few corporations and governments.

Adding to these challenges is the looming question of control. Experts debate whether AI, in its pursuit of optimizing tasks, could surpass human oversight and act in ways that conflict with human values. This raises the specter of existential risks, as advanced AI could inadvertently or deliberately cause harm on a global scale. While international organizations have begun discussions on regulating AI development, a global consensus remains elusive, leaving many unanswered questions about the future of humanity in an AI-driven world.

Text I

Read the text below and answer the question that follow:

Text 1:

What makes a school good? (Part I)

Everyone is concerned about the quality of education a school offers, but how is quality measured? We often hear that schools in some countries are excellent, while schools in other countries are filled with problems. What factors should we be looking at to judge how 'good' schools are or aren't? I decided to do some research on the topic to see if I could come up with some answers.

One way of deciding if a school is good is by looking at how many students go on to university when they leave. If you look at all the schools in the world, the country which sends the highest numbers of its students to university is Finland. So, I looked at conditions in Finnish schools to see what made them so successful.

Often you will hear people say that the best schools are those that are strict. So, are the schools in Finland very strict? The answer is no, they aren't. They are usually very informal places with teachers and students sharing ideas. In fact, Finnish schools have a unique way of dealing with students and this could be the reason why they are so successful. While students in many countries spend long hours in school studying boring subjects, lucky students in Finland have short school days and ten weeks of summer holidays.Added to that, lunch is free and there are lots of lessons in sport, music and art.

Also, Finnish schools seem to have a different philosophy. They believe in equality and making school seem like a home away from home, so students feel comfortable and enjoy going there. The aim of the schools is not only to focus on 'good' students but also to provide extra help to students that need it. The result of this is that less able students do much better in Finland than they would in other countries.

Taken from: Chapman, Joanne. Laser B1 +. Teacher's book. Macmillan, 2008.