TIME TO WORK

(Fuvest 2007) Texto 1

“CHILE, which has South America’s most successful economy, elected its first female president this year. But the lot of Chilean women is by many measures worse than that of their sisters elsewhere in the region. A smaller proportion of them work and fewer achieve political power.

According to a recent report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an association of parliaments, 15% of representatives in the lower house of Chile’s Congress are women, less than half the proportion in Costa Rica and Argentina and below the level in eight other countries in the region, including Venezuela and Bolivia. Chilean women hope that Michelle Bachelet’s presidency will improve their position but there are worries that she will do more harm than good.”

                           The Economist August 12th 2006

1. According to the text, Chilean women

a) have better work perspectives than other South American women.

b) lag behind women in other South American countries in terms of political power.

c) work hard but don’t get good salaries despite Chile’s economic development.

d) face many obstacles when they have to move to different regions.

e) are taking different measures to overcome their political problems.

2. According to the text, the Chilean president

a) will fight for significant changes in women’s political participation in the country.

b) has demonstrated political strength in Chile’s Congress since her election.

c) is seen with caution with respect to improvement in women’s position in the country.

d) hopes Chilean women will reach the same level as women in the other South American countries.

e) is worried about the percentage of women’s political participation in Chile.

Texto 2

 “Researchers and public-health officials have long understood that to maintain a given weight, energy in (calories consumed) must equal energy out (calories expended). But then they learned that genes were important, too, and that for some people this formula was tilted in a direction that led to weight gain. Since the discovery of the first obesity gene in 1994, scientists have found about 50 genes involved in obesity. Some of them determine how individuals lay down fat and metabolize energy stores. Others regulate how much people want to eat in the first place, how they know when they’ve had enough and how likely they are to use up calories through activities ranging from fidgeting to running marathons. People who can get fat on very little fuel may be genetically programmed to survive in harsher environments. When the human species got its start, it was an advantage to be efficient. Today, when food is plentiful, it is a hazard.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13obesity.html.

3. In the text, the central idea is that

a) obesity should be genetically treated.

b) fat people may use different formulae to lose weight.

c) fat regulates our feeling of satiety.

d) genes contribute to obesity.

e) researchers are discussing the consequences of obesity.

4. According to the text,

a) today’s obesity may be linked to evolutionary factors.

b) the human species is programmed to eat as much as possible to survive.

c) the ingestion of large quantities of food was an advantage in the past.

d) obese people have some advantages over slim people.

e) very little food is necessary to survive in some

environments.

5. In the text, the pronoun “Others” refers to

a) calories.

b) individuals.

c) energy stores.

d) scientists.

e) genes.