Questões de Concurso – Aprova Concursos

Acid rain and… the facts

www.acidrain.org.ca / Oxford Children´s Encyclopedia

What causes acid rain?

Acid rain is caused by air pollution. When fossil fuels such as coal and oil are burned, two gases, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, are released into the atmosphere. These two pollutants eventually react with the moisture in the air. When this polluted mixture falls onto the ground, it is called acid rain.

Rain measuring between 0 and 5 on the pH scale, is acidic therefore called ACID RAIN

Acid rain is harmful to the environment. It is hard to control because it may be blown by the wind, falling thousands of kilometers from where it was first formed. For example, much of the acid rain in Canada is caused by smoke from factories and power‐stations in the USA. The acid rain in Scandinavia may come from Britain.

What are the effects of acid rain?

Acid rain has many different effects. It has killed fish in the lakes of North America, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Wales. Vast areas of forest in northern and central Europe are dying because of it, while in many European cities statues and stone buildings are being eaten away by the acid. Acid rain corrodes metalwork such as steel bridges and railings; it also attacks some types of concrete. Even the water that we drink is slowly being polluted by acid rain.  

What are the effects on trees and soil?

One of the most serious impacts of acid precipitation is on forests and soils. Great damage is done when sulphuric acid falls onto the earth as rain. Nutrients present in the soils are washed away. Aluminium also present in the soils is freed and this toxic element can be absorbed by the roots of trees. Thus, the trees starve to death because they have been deprived of their vital nutrients such as calcium and magnesium.

Acid rain is one of the most serious environmental problems of our time. It is a global problems that is gradually affecting our world.

How does acid rain effect lakes?

Lakes that have been acidified cannot support the same variety of life as healthy lakes. As a lake becomes more acidic, various types of fish disappear. Other effects of acidified lakes on fish include: decreased growth, inability to regulate their own body chemistry, reduced egg deposition, deformities in young fish and increased susceptibility to naturally occurring diseases.     

Clean rain usually has a pH of 5.6. It is slightly acidic because of carbon dioxide which is naturally present in the atmosphere. Vinegar, by comparison, is very acidic and has a pH of 3.

What is pH?

This is a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is. (See a pH scale below). The initials pH stand for Potential of Hydrogen. Acids have pH values under 7, and alkalis have pH values over 7. If a substance has a pH value of 7. It is neutral‐neither acidic or alkaline.    

Because the pH scale is logarithmic, a difference of one pH unit represents a tenfold, or ten times change. For example, the acidity of a sample with a pH of 5 is ten times greater than that of a sample with a pH of 6. A difference of 2 units, from 6 to 4, would mean that the acidity in one hundred times greater, and so on.

Questions 31 through 33 refer to the following text.

The IRS Chief Counsel is appointed by the President of

the United States, with the advice and consent of the U.S.

Senate, and serves as the chief legal advisor to the IRS

Commissioner on all matters pertaining to the interpretation,

administration, and enforcement of the Internal Revenue

Code, as well as all other legal matters. Under the IRS

Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, the Chief Counsel

reports to both the IRS Commissioner and the Treasury

General Counsel.

Attorneys in the Chief Counsel's Office serve as lawyers for

the IRS. They provide the IRS and taxpayers with guidance

on interpreting Federal tax laws correctly, represent the

IRS in litigation, and provide all other legal support required

to carry out the IRS mission.

Chief Counsel received 95,929 cases and closed

94,323 cases during fiscal year 2012. Of the new cases

received, and cases closed, the majority related to tax law

enforcement and litigation, including Tax Court litigation;

collection, bankruptcy, and summons advice and litigation;

Appellate Court litigation; criminal tax; and enforcement

advice and assistance.

In Fiscal Year 2012, Chief Counsel received 31,295

Tax Court cases involving taxpayers contesting an IRS

determination that they owed additional tax. The total

amount of tax and penalty in dispute at the end of the fiscal

year was almost $6.6 billion.

(Source: Internal Revenue Service Data Book, 2012.)

Questions 34 through 38 refer to the following text.

We've been keeping our veterinarian in business lately.

First Sammy, our nine-year-old golden retriever, needed

surgery. (She's fine now.) Then Inky, our curious cat,

burned his paw. (He'll be fine, too.) At our last visit, as we

were writing our fourth (or was it the fifth?) consecutive

check to the veterinary hospital, there was much joking

about how vet bills should be tax-deductible. After all, pets

are dependents, too, right? (Guffaws all around.)

Now, halfway through tax-filing season, comes news

that pets are high on the list of unusual deductions

taxpayers try to claim. From routine pet expenses to the

costs of adopting a pet to, yes, pets as "dependents," tax

accountants have heard it all this year, according to the

Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants, which

surveys its members annually about the most outlandish

tax deductions proposed by clients. Most of these doggy

deductions don't hunt, but, believe it or not, some do. Could

there be a spot for Sammy and Inky on our 1040?

Scott Kadrlik, a certified public accountant in Eden Prairie,

Minn., who moonlights as a stand-up comedian (really!),

gave me a dog's-eye view of the tax code: "In most cases

our family pets are just family pets," he says. They cannot

be claimed as dependents, and you cannot deduct the

cost of their food, medical care or other expenses. One

exception is service dogs. If you require a Seeing Eye

dog, for example, your canine's costs are deductible as

a medical expense. Occasionally, man's best friend also

is man's best business deduction. The Doberman that

guards the junk yard can be deductible as a business

expense of the junk-yard owner, says Mr. Kadrlik. Ditto the

convenience-store cat that keeps the rats at bay.

For most of us, though, our pets are hobbies at most.

Something's a hobby if, among other things, it hasn't turned

a profit in at least three of the past five years (or two of the

past seven years in the case of horse training, breeding

or racing). In that case, you can't deduct losses—only

expenses to the extent of income in the same year. So if

your beloved Bichon earns $100 for a modeling gig, you

could deduct $100 worth of vet bills (or dog food or doggy

attire).

(Source: Carolyn Geer, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved on 13 March

2014 - slightly adapted)

Questions 34 through 38 refer to the following text.

We've been keeping our veterinarian in business lately.

First Sammy, our nine-year-old golden retriever, needed

surgery. (She's fine now.) Then Inky, our curious cat,

burned his paw. (He'll be fine, too.) At our last visit, as we

were writing our fourth (or was it the fifth?) consecutive

check to the veterinary hospital, there was much joking

about how vet bills should be tax-deductible. After all, pets

are dependents, too, right? (Guffaws all around.)

Now, halfway through tax-filing season, comes news

that pets are high on the list of unusual deductions

taxpayers try to claim. From routine pet expenses to the

costs of adopting a pet to, yes, pets as "dependents," tax

accountants have heard it all this year, according to the

Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants, which

surveys its members annually about the most outlandish

tax deductions proposed by clients. Most of these doggy

deductions don't hunt, but, believe it or not, some do. Could

there be a spot for Sammy and Inky on our 1040?

Scott Kadrlik, a certified public accountant in Eden Prairie,

Minn., who moonlights as a stand-up comedian (really!),

gave me a dog's-eye view of the tax code: "In most cases

our family pets are just family pets," he says. They cannot

be claimed as dependents, and you cannot deduct the

cost of their food, medical care or other expenses. One

exception is service dogs. If you require a Seeing Eye

dog, for example, your canine's costs are deductible as

a medical expense. Occasionally, man's best friend also

is man's best business deduction. The Doberman that

guards the junk yard can be deductible as a business

expense of the junk-yard owner, says Mr. Kadrlik. Ditto the

convenience-store cat that keeps the rats at bay.

For most of us, though, our pets are hobbies at most.

Something's a hobby if, among other things, it hasn't turned

a profit in at least three of the past five years (or two of the

past seven years in the case of horse training, breeding

or racing). In that case, you can't deduct losses—only

expenses to the extent of income in the same year. So if

your beloved Bichon earns $100 for a modeling gig, you

could deduct $100 worth of vet bills (or dog food or doggy

attire).

(Source: Carolyn Geer, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved on 13 March

2014 - slightly adapted)

Based on the text, judge the following items.

Based on the text, judge the following items.

Based on the text, judge the following items.

Based on the text, judge the following items.

Based on the text, judge the following items.

Based on the text, judge the following items.

This text refers to items from 27 to 31.

Under our feet, cables carry data between our homes,

offices and data centers at a pace that can match the speed of light.

The data travels as light that runs through strings made of materials

like glass and plastic.

Researchers at the University of Maryland want to do away

with the cable altogether and just use air to guide the light. That's

not as simple as it sounds, because a laser sent through air will

spread apart and interact with particles, gradually losing its intensity

over time.

The research team instead caused patches of air to mimic

a fiber optic cable by creating tubes of dense air surrounded by

low–density air. In a fiber optic cable, a laser travels through a

string of glass. When it tries to leave the glass, it hits a wall that

reflects it back into the center, guiding it along the length of the

cable. The cable made of air works in the same way.

“It's like you could just take a physical optical fiber and

unreel it at the speed of light, put it next to this thing that you want

to measure remotely, and then have the signal come all the way

back to where you are," University of Maryland team lead Howard

Milchberg said in a release.

Signals that traveled through the air cable were 1.5 times

stronger than when they were sent through plain air. The team was

able to send them over a distance of three feet and is now interested

in pushing the range to 150 feet.

If the University of Maryland team succeeds, the air cables

could be used for communication in remote locations on Earth

where laying fiber optic cables is extremely difficult, or places

where it actually is impossible like space. NASA is already

experimenting with laser communication between the International

Space Station and Earth. The technique could also be used to probe

the Earth to make topographic maps or examine the chemicals

present in hard–to–reach places like the atmosphere or a nuclear

plant.

S. Brewster. Making optical cables out of air could boost

communication in space. Internet:

(adapted).

According to the text, air cables