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Nome Ano Nº Data
Profa. Glaé 8ºBasic 23/09/09

Caros alunos,

Estou enviando alguns textos para que vocês leiam e respondam as questões que
os seguem, bem como algumas questões de gramática. Isto é um treino para o simulado
que será em outubro e que valerá 10% da nota total do 3º tri. Portanto, façam com atenção
e sem consultar dicionários, pois assim, vocês terão uma idéia da nota que teriam.
Imprimam os exercícios e tragam na nossa próxima aula para que juntos possamos
corrigí-los e esclarecer as possíveis dúvidas.

See you soon,

Glaé
Reading comprehension

Questions 1 to 3 refer to the following text:

Awards and medals are usually given throughout the world to outstanding people in several
areas of knowledge. One of _______________ awards is the Nobel Prize. There are other
well-known premiums in the United States.
PULITZER PRIZES - They were endowed by Joseph Pulitzer (1871 - 1911), publisher of the
New York World, in a bequest to Columbia University. They are awarded annually since
1917 for work done during the preceding year. All prizes are $3,000 in each category
(Journalism, Literature and Music), except Meritorious Public Service for which a golden
medal is given.
OSCAR - A gold-plated statuette awarded by the American Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for outstanding contributions to
motion-picture industry since 1928. The first movie to get an Oscar was
Wings and the first director was Frank Borzage with Seventh Heaven.
There are many versions about the origin of the name “Oscar”, which
has been used since 1931. The most common one is that the statuette
was named after Oscar Pierce, the uncle of Margaret Herrick, a librarian
of the Academy.
GRAMMY - A statuette awarded annually by the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Science for outstanding achievements in almost 70 categories in the
recording industry. The first Grammy was delivered in 1958 to Domenico Modugno for his
song Volare. The word Grammy comes from GRAM (ophone).

outstanding - extremely good

endow - to give a college, hospital etc a large sum of money

1. Choose the best alternative that completes the gap in the text above.
a) the most more famous
b) the more famous
c) the famousest
d) the most famous
e) most famous than
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2. Which of the following questions can be answered according to the information contained
in the text?

I. How much do Americans spend on awards and medals given to famous people around
the world every month?
II. What was the first song to receive a Grammy?
III. What do people win a Pulitzer Prize for?
IV. Who won an Oscar for Best Director this year?
V. How many premiums are mentioned in the text?

a) I - II - III
b) II - III - V
c) II - III - IV
d) I - III - IV
e) I - II - V

3. According to the text, are the sentences below T (true) or F (false)?

I. The name Oscar was probably a tribute to Margaret Herrick’s uncle.

II. Among the many famous awards given in the United States, the Nobel Prize is the
most well-known one.
III. The prizes mentioned in the text were all named after outstanding people.
IV. The Pulitzer Prize is awarded monthly since the beginning of the century.

a) T - T - F - F
b) F - T - F - F
c) T - F - F - F
d) F - F - F - T
e) T - T - F - T

4. Read the sentences carefully. There are mistakes in the use of the superlative and the
comparative in all the sentences except one:

a) The longer Sue stays in Canada, the more she wants to stay there.
b) The warmest the weather, the best I feel.
c) The most electricity you use, the higher your bill will be.
d) My brother-in-law is older than I am but he looks youngest.
e) January is the hotest month in our country.

Questions 5 and 6 refer to the following text:

Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists and thinkers in

history. However, he was not considered very bright when he was a
child. His teacher complained that he had no sense of discipline and
that he was a bad influence on the other students.
When he was fifteen, he was thrown out of school, but a few years later
he was allowed to study mathematics and physics at a special
technical university in Zurich. But even at the university he was hardly
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“a good student”. He rarely attended classes, and he was often in trouble with his
professors because he constantly argued with them.
When he graduated from the university, he couldn’t get a job - partly because none of his
professors would recommend him for one. Finally, he found one in the Swiss Patent Office
in Berne. One of his duties was writing descriptions of new inventions. This helped him to
learn how to write clearly and simply.
In 1905, when he was only twenty-six, he published an article in a scientific journal. The
article dealt with a theory which he called the Theory of Relativity. He became very famous
for this theory, which concerns time and gravity and how things change when they travel at
very high speeds.
All his life, he lived very simply and was totally uninterested in money, power, or fame. He
could never understand why so many people admired him and wanted to meet him. He
knew that most of them had never read anything he had written and that they didn’t
understand his ideas. “Are they crazy or am I?” he asked.

5. According to the text, which adjectives can be used to describe Albert Einstein?
(1) well-known
(2) crazy
(3) modest
(4) rebel
(5) powerful

a) 1 - 2 - 3
b) 2 - 4 - 5
c) 1 - 3 - 4
d) 2 - 3 - 5
e) 1 - 2 - 4

6. According to the text, what is surprising about Einstein’s childhood?

a) People didn’t think he was intelligent.
b) He argued with his classmates.
c) His teacher couldn’t keep the discipline.
d) He didn’t go to school regularly.
e) The other students weren’t good company.

Questions 7 and 8 refer to the following text:

A study conducted by Stanford University has found that

even people who use the Internet for as little as five hours a
week are less likely to visit or talk to family and friends, and
are at risk of isolating themselves from society.
People who spent between five and ten hours a week on
line reported a 25 percent decrease in time talking on the
phone or face to face. Sixty per cent of the time was at the
expense of watching television. (Speak up, n. 159, August, 2000.)
7. The most appropriate title for the text is:
a) Use the Internet for University Studies.
b) Isolate yourself by Watching TV.
c) Kill your Social Life with the Internet.
d) Make Friends Online.
e) Report your Talking Time on the Phone.
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8. The text says that people

a) are at risk when buying computer.
b) prefer talking on the phone.
c) like socializing.
d) spend 65 per cent of their free time meeting face to face.
e) are isolating themselves by spending too much time on the Net.

9. Choose the correct alternative to complete the text.

A very strange thing _______ to me some years ago. I _______ on a country road one night,
when my car _______ down. It _______ very hard and I decided to stay in the car until the
following morning. I fell asleep and after some time an old man _______ me up and said “Why
don’t you come to my house on the hill for the night? It’s more comfortable there”. At first I was
afraid, but then I _______ that the man had a friendly face and decided to follow him. We got
to a little nice cabin and afterwards the man _______ me some tea. I was exhausted and
quickly went to sleep in an armchair. The next morning when I woke up, there was no sign of
the old man. I was lying on the floor of an abandoned cabin with no furniture or appliances. I
found this very strange and quickly walked down to the road. To my horror I found that a
nearby river had flooded over and washed my car away. If I had stayed in it, I would have been
killed. When I asked about the man in a village nearby, people _______ me that in fact an old
peasant had lived in that cabin many years before and that after he died nobody else had lived
there.

a) happen / was driving / was breaking / rained / woke / fell / made / was telling
b) was happening / drove / broke / raining / woke / felt / made / was telling
c) happened / was driving / broke / rained / woke / felt / made / was telling
d) happenned / was driving / breaked / rained / waked / fell / made / told
e) happened / was driving / broke / was raining / woke / felt / made / told

10.

According to the cartoon:

a) Irwin can read in several languages except in English.
b) Irwin can’t read in English but he can read in French, Spanish and Italian.
c) Irwin can read in French, Spanish and Italian.
d) Irwin can’t read.
e) Irwin is polyglot.
GABARITO

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