Questão 36. Considering the ideas and the vocabulary of text II, decide whether the statements below are right (C) or wrong (E).

1. The word “ineluctability” (l.13) is synonymous with questionability.

ERRADO. Ineluctability e questionability não têm o mesmo sentido.

2. The expression “sleight of hand” (l.14) carries the notion of skilful deception.

CERTO. Veja o sentido de sleight of hand.

3. The author asserts that, even though “space” is an extension to be travelled, it is nowadays intertwined with the notion of time.

O texto afirma que “it is perhaps less often made explicit that one of the crucial manouevres at work within it, to convince us of the ineluctability of of this globalisation, is a sleight of hand in terms of conceptualisation of space and time“. Então, sim, a noção de espaço está relacionada à noção de tempo hoje em dia nessa visão de que a globalização é algo inevitável. Minha única ressalva está relacionada a “‘space’ is an extension to be travelled”, na qual extension parece estar sendo usado no item para parafrasear expanse em “an expanse we travel across”. Extension não tem esse sentido – compare as definições em outros dicionários também, como no OLD (aqui e aqui) – e nem parece fazer sentido na oração (como alguém poderia travel an extension, considerando os sentidos mencionados nos verbetes?). De qualquer forma, imagino que o gabarito preliminar vai dar a questão como certa.

4. The adjective “coeval” (l.19) could be replaced by coetaneous without changing the meaning of the sentence.

CERTO. (Aqueles momentos em que estudar latim ajuda na prova de inglês do TPS rs) Quando li as duas palavras, notei que o prefixo era o mesmo e me questionei se -val e -taneous poderiam ter o mesmo valor semântico. Me lembrei de medieval, do latim medium aevum, e logo lembrei que aevum quer dizer algo como “idade, época” (pensei em “medium aevum” e “Idade Média”). Daí inferi que coeval queria dizer algo como “contemporâneo“. No caso de coetaneous, me lembrei de momentaneous e simultaneous, que são vocábulos que remetem a uma noção de tempo, e lembrei que aetas também tem esse sentido de “idade”. Mas só tive certeza de que o raciocínio estava certo quando olhei aqui rs.

Questão 37. Decide whether the statements below, concerning the ideas and the vocabulary of text II, are right (C) or wrong (E).

1. The social and political consequences of the definition of globalisation are that some countries may be regarded as delayed in their historic progression.

Se o item dissesse “in the historical progression”, eu consideraria certo, já que o autor do texto afirma que “and this has social and political effects. It says that Mozambique and Nicaragua are not really different from ‘us’. We are not to imagine them as having their own trajectories, their own particular histories, and the potential for their own, perhaps different, futures. […] They are merely at an earlier stage in the one and only narrative that is possible to tell”.

Mas o item diz “historic progression”, e historical e historic não têm o mesmo sentido. Segundo o OLD, “historic is usually used to describe something that is so important that it is likely to be remembered: Today is a historic occasion for our country. Historical usually describes something that is connected with the past or with the study of history, or something that really happened in the past: I have been doing some historical research. Was Robin Hood a historical figure?“. Veja também aqui e aqui. Por isso, considero o item errado – mas não me espantaria se a questão fosse dada como certa no gabarito preliminar.

2. The phrase “obliterates the multiplicities” (l.22) can be replaced by removes diversities without changing the meaning of the sentence.

CERTO. Obliterate é considerado sinônimo de remove pelo Random House Roget’s Thesaurus, e diversity é considerado sinônimo de multiplicity pelo Merriam-Webster’s Online Thesaurus. O sentido, portanto, é mantido.

3. In the text, the adjective “totemic” (l.26) is the same as emblematic.

CERTO. O Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary explica que “totem comes to us from Ojibwa, an Algonquian language spoken by an American Indian people from the regions around Lake Superior. The most basic form of the word in Ojibwa is believed to be ‘ote,’ but 18th-century English speakers encountered it as ‘ototeman’ (‘his totem’), which became our word totem. In its most specific sense, ‘totem’ refers to an emblematic depiction of an animal or plant that gives a family or clan its name and that often serves as a reminder of its ancestry. The term is also used broadly for any thing or person having particular emblematic or symbolic importance. The related adjective ‘totemic’ describes something that serves as a totem, that depicts totems (‘totemic basketry,’ for example), or that has the nature of a totem.”

4. Globalisation, as a project, intends to respect and promote different futures and dynamics for different countries. 

ERRADO. O autor afirma que “that cosmology of ‘only one narrative’ obliterates the multiplicities, the contemporaneous heterogeneities of space. It reduces simultaneous coexistence to place in the historical queue”.

Cheers!