Interpretação de Texto - UFRRJ

The earth supported a mere 2.5 billion people in 1950, but by the millennium there’ll be 6 billion mouths to feed. These people will also need parking spaces, copies of Microsoft Windows and vacuum cleaners. Or maybe not. Virtually all of the 86 million new human beings per year – 98 per cent of them – are being born to mothers in the developing world, where luxuries are rare. Central Africa leads the procreation race, followed by parts of Asia and Latin America.

The explosive growth in these regions is due not only to high birth rates but to the young age at which mothers have their children, telescoping the time between generations. Such factors mean the human explosion won’t just end with industrialization. And unless education, cultural changes and family planning can radically reduce fertility rates, economists may soon need to dust off their copies of the Malthusian Doctrine.

Mac McKean. Time. May, 1998.

Vocabulário do texto:

1. The text is about

a) globalização
b) industrialização
c) superpopulação
d) sociedade de consumo
e) crise econômica mundial

Resposta correta: c

Resolução: O assunto do texto é a superpopulação. A primeira frase afirma que em 1950, havia 2.5 bilhões de pessoas na Terra, mas que se estimava que até 2000, haveria seis bilhões. A resposta é, portanto, a alternativa c.

2. The subject of "followed by parts of Asia and Latin American" is

a) the procreation race.
b) mothers in the developing world.
c) 86 million new human beings.
d) Central Africa.
e) the developing world.

Resposta correta: d

Resolução: A resposta se encontra na última frase do primeiro parágrafo do texto: “Central Africa leads the procreation race, followed by parts of Asia and Latin America”. (A América Central lidera a corrida da procriação, seguida por partes da Ásia e da América Latina). A resposta correta é, portanto, a alternativa d.

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