Questões de Concurso – Aprova Concursos

Read Text I and answer the five questions that follow it

Text I

Impact of Climate Change on Firefighting Extends Beyond Wildfires

 Global warming is often mentioned as a factor in the accelerating frequency and intensity of wildfires. However, there are other consequences of global warming that impact the fire service, including new hazards and medical emergencies, emerging training challenges, population migration, and technology developments.
 Climate change is often discussed as a future event. However, the impact of wildfires is just the most obvious example of how climate change is already impacting the world, and fire and emergency personnel will be called on to mitigate the effects.
 The most obvious and extreme impact of global warming can be seen in the increase of frequency and intensity of wildfires. Hotter and drier weather is extending the wildfire season (maybe to become year-round?). Higher temperatures, low humidity, less rainfall, and high wind increase the likelihood of wildfires.

Adapted from: https://www.thebigredguide.com/insights/impact-climate-change-firefighting-extends-wildfires-editor-s-dispatch.1645685564.html

Read text I and then answer the questions.

TEXT I

“All crimes are not created equal in the harm they cause: homicide is many times more harmful than shoplifting but in crime statistics where offences are counted by number, they appear equivalent. For example, in the UK for the year ending September 2019, there were 3,578,000 incidents of theft and 729 homicides (Office for National Statistics, 2019). An increase of 500 thefts would be a small change in the overall number of thefts and have little impact on police resources. 500 extra homicides would have large consequences both for the 
harm caused and the impact on police resources. In a number-only count, the additional 500 thefts or homicides would result in the same overall number of crimes, yet clearly the impacts are disparate. 
This reality has led to the proposition of a “Harm Index” to measure how harmful different crimes are in proportion to the others. This approach adds a larger weight to more harmful crimes (e.g. homicide, rape and grievous bodily harm with intent), distinguishing them from less harmful types of crime (e.g. minor thefts, criminal damage and common assault). Practically, adoption of a harm index can allow targeting of the highest-harm places, the most harmful offenders, the most harmed victims, and can assist in identifying victim-offenders. Experimentally, use of a harm index can add an additional dimension to the usual measures of success or failure, by considering harm prevented as well as reductions in prevalence or frequency. For the police, creation of harm index could allow them to invest scarce resources in proportion to the harm of each offence type.
Sherman, Neyroud and Neyroud (2016) propose that any index needs to meet three requirements in order to be considered a legitimate measure of harm: An index must meet a democratic standard, be reliable and also be adopted at minimal cost to the end user. To meet these requirements, Sherman, Neyroud and Neyroud (2016) opted for using sentence starting points rather than maximum or average actual sentences. The sentencing starting point is used to calculate crime harm as it provides a baseline penalty relative to the crime. 
We propose that it is a better measure of harm caused by the crime than average actual sentences, which are offender-focused and thus substantially affected by previous offending history.

The Cambridge Crime Harm Consensus proposes creation of seven statistics for counting crime, usefully including separation of historic crime reports, creation of a harm detection fraction and separation of public reported crime and those detected by proactive police activity, with the aim of providing the public with a more reliable and realistic assessment of trends, patterns and differences in public safety.
Counting crime by harm is an idea that has spread beyond the United Kingdom with indices published for Denmark (Andersen and Mueller-Johnson, 2018), Sweden (Karrholm et al. 2020), Western Australia (House and Neyroud, 2018), California (Mitchell, 2017), New Zealand and other countries.”

Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing. Available at: https://www.cambridge-ebp.co.uk/the-chi Accessed on: June 30, 2024

Read text I and then answer the questions.

TEXT I

“All crimes are not created equal in the harm they cause: homicide is many times more harmful than shoplifting but in crime statistics where offences are counted by number, they appear equivalent. For example, in the UK for the year ending September 2019, there were 3,578,000 incidents of theft and 729 homicides (Office for National Statistics, 2019). An increase of 500 thefts would be a small change in the overall number of thefts and have little impact on police resources. 500 extra homicides would have large consequences both for the 
harm caused and the impact on police resources. In a number-only count, the additional 500 thefts or homicides would result in the same overall number of crimes, yet clearly the impacts are disparate. 
This reality has led to the proposition of a “Harm Index” to measure how harmful different crimes are in proportion to the others. This approach adds a larger weight to more harmful crimes (e.g. homicide, rape and grievous bodily harm with intent), distinguishing them from less harmful types of crime (e.g. minor thefts, criminal damage and common assault). Practically, adoption of a harm index can allow targeting of the highest-harm places, the most harmful offenders, the most harmed victims, and can assist in identifying victim-offenders. Experimentally, use of a harm index can add an additional dimension to the usual measures of success or failure, by considering harm prevented as well as reductions in prevalence or frequency. For the police, creation of harm index could allow them to invest scarce resources in proportion to the harm of each offence type.
Sherman, Neyroud and Neyroud (2016) propose that any index needs to meet three requirements in order to be considered a legitimate measure of harm: An index must meet a democratic standard, be reliable and also be adopted at minimal cost to the end user. To meet these requirements, Sherman, Neyroud and Neyroud (2016) opted for using sentence starting points rather than maximum or average actual sentences. The sentencing starting point is used to calculate crime harm as it provides a baseline penalty relative to the crime. 
We propose that it is a better measure of harm caused by the crime than average actual sentences, which are offender-focused and thus substantially affected by previous offending history.

The Cambridge Crime Harm Consensus proposes creation of seven statistics for counting crime, usefully including separation of historic crime reports, creation of a harm detection fraction and separation of public reported crime and those detected by proactive police activity, with the aim of providing the public with a more reliable and realistic assessment of trends, patterns and differences in public safety.
Counting crime by harm is an idea that has spread beyond the United Kingdom with indices published for Denmark (Andersen and Mueller-Johnson, 2018), Sweden (Karrholm et al. 2020), Western Australia (House and Neyroud, 2018), California (Mitchell, 2017), New Zealand and other countries.”

Cambridge Centre for Evidence-Based Policing. Available at: https://www.cambridge-ebp.co.uk/the-chi Accessed on: June 30, 2024.

Text I

              Energy Transition in a Transnational World
      Within the sphere of environmental law, the climate crisis is 
increasingly understood to be an intersectional challenge that 
implicates and exacerbates existing systemic challenges and 
prevailing pathways of inequality. From this vantage point climate 
change also creates opportunities for rethinking the role of law in 
limiting the destructive impacts of climate change and moving 
towards a more sustainable and equitable world in the process. 
This view is advanced by the climate justice movement, which is 
swelling in influence worldwide. Drawing from the environmental 
justice movement, the climate justice movement exposes not only 
how social and economic inequality has led to and perpetuates 
patterns of climate change, but also how climate change deepens 
inequality by disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable 
members of society. Climate justice seeks greater emphasis on this 
issue and advocates on the part of those most affected by climate 
change. The movement envisions a world which simultaneously 
curtails the negative effects of climate change and reshapes 
existing social, political, and economic relationships along the way.
    Amidst the overlapping crises of modern times, the modern 
climate justice movement is reviving dialogue at the intersection of 
feminism, environmentalism, social and economic justice, and other 
progressive law reform movements, as well as creating the space 
and momentum for intersectional ideas to flourish. For lawyers and 
legal scholars, the opportunity is to see climate change and 
environmental degradation within its broader social context and to 
seize upon the rule of law as a powerful tool for change.

    Nowhere are these intersecting challenges as acute as in the 
context of energy. One of the principal aims of the climate justice 
movement is to achieve a just and equitable transition from an 
extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This requires 
transitioning from fossil fuel-dependent to low and zero-carbon 
economies. However, the pathways for overhauling energy 
systems worldwide remain indeterminate. Energy systems are 
evolving in response to a combination of law and policy changes, 
developments in energy technologies, and market forces. 
Moreover, given both the entrenched nature of fossil fuel 
economies and the varied social, political, economic, and 
environmental factors that shape energy transition, pathways to 
decarbonization are bound to be beset with complex trade-offs, 
such as those between energy security and environmental 
objectives, or between energy choice and economies of scale. The 
precise contours of these systemic changes vary from country to 
country, and remain under-explored both within their national 
contexts and from a broader transnational perspective. This 
knowledge gap is critical. Understanding how, why, and to what 
end states are restructuring their energy economies is essential for 
transitioning to more environmentally sustainable and just 
societies worldwide. In short, this is an area in need of 
experimentation and iterative learning. It is a subject ripe for 
greater scholarly focus, particularly at the transnational level, 
where improved learning and sharing is indispensable for 
achieving the global-level shifts needed to address climate change.

Adapted from: Etty, Thijs et al. “Energy Transition in a Transnational World.” 
Transnational Environmental Law 10.2 (2021): 197–204. Available at 
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/energy-transition-in-a-transnationalworld/9F9D4229588B39C0E5916DFBE82EA046

Text II

             Examining the fluff that frustrates northern China
      Like most blizzards, it begins with just a few white wisps swirling 
about. Gradually the volume increases and the stuff starts to 
accumulate on the ground. During the heaviest downfalls the air is 
so thick with it as to impair visibility. But this is no winter scene. It is 
what happens every April across much of northern China, when 
poplar trees start giving off their cotton-like seed-pods.
     The phenomenon has already begun in Beijing. On April 8th an 
eddy of fluff balls wafted around the American treasury secretary, 
Janet Yellen, as she held a press conference in an embassy garden.
     To call this a nuisance is an understatement. In many people 
the fluff triggers allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems. 
Experts say the white balls—produced by the trees’ catkins—are 
not themselves allergenic, but that they distribute irritating pollen.
      They also clog rain gutters, drain pipes and car radiators. Worse, 
they pose a fire hazard. Officials have warned that the fuzz balls have 
a low ignition point and called for extreme caution on the part of 
smokers, welders or anyone inclined to burn them “out of curiosity”.
      China’s catkin problem is the unintended consequence of an 
old effort to improve the environment. Intensive tree planting 
began in the 1950s with the aim of ending the scourge of 
sandstorms caused by winds sweeping out of barren areas. The 
trees were also meant to firm up the soil and slow desertification. 
Poplar trees, along with willows, were selected because they are 
cheap, fast-growing and drought-resistant.
      In some ways the plan worked. Today sandstorms are less 
severe and the threat of desertification has faded. But the annual 
onslaught from catkins is another legacy. Female trees are the 
cotton-ball culprits. There are millions of them (poplar and willow) 
in Beijing alone.
       Authorities have sought to mitigate the mess. The simplest way 
is to spray water on the trees, turning the fluffy flyers into damp 
squibs. More advanced solutions involve “birth control”, or injecting 
female trees with chemicals that suppress catkin production. 
Another option is “gender-reassignment surgery”, in which branches 
on female trees are cut and replaced with male grafts.

      But experts say that these efforts will take time. The good 
news is that the flurries of poplar fluff will only last for a few more 
weeks. The bad news is that wafts of willow fluff will then begin.
From: https://www.economist.com/china/2024/04/18/examining-thefluff-that-frustrates-northern-china

Text CB1A8

     The idea of giving rights to animals has long been contentious, but a deeper look into the reasoning behind the
philosophy reveals ideas that aren’t all that radical. Animal rights advocates want to distinguish animals from inanimate objects, as
they are so often considered by exploitative industries and the law. The animal rights movement strives to make the public
aware of the fact that animals are sensitive, emotional, and intelligent beings who deserve dignity and respect. But first, it’s
important to understand what the term “animal rights” really means.
    Animal rights are moral principles grounded in the belief that non-human animals deserve the ability to live as they wish,
without being subjected to the desires of human beings. At the core of animal rights is autonomy, which is another way of
saying choice. In many countries, human rights are enshrined to protect certain freedoms, such as the right to expression, freedom
from torture, and access to democracy. Of course, these choices are constrained depending on social locations like race, class, and
gender, but generally speaking, human rights safeguard the basic tenets of what makes human lives worth living. Animal rights
aim to do something similar, only for non-human animals.
    Animal rights come into direct opposition with animal exploitation, which includes animals used by humans for a
variety of reasons, be it for food, as experimental objects, or even pets. Animal rights can also be violated when it comes to human
destruction of animal habitats. This negatively impacts the ability of animals to lead full lives of their choosing.

Internet: <thehumaneleague.org > (adapted). 

Text 1A2-I

 Languages are more to us than systems of thought

transference. They are invisible garments that drape themselves
about our spirit and give a predetermined form to all its symbolic
expression. When the expression is of unusual significance, we
call it literature. Art is so personal an expression that we do not
like to feel that it is bound to predetermined form of any sort.
The possibilities of individual expression are infinite, language in
particular is the most fluid of mediums. Yet some limitation there
must be to this freedom, some resistance of the medium.
 In great art there is the illusion of absolute freedom. The
formal restraints imposed by the material are not perceived; it is
as though there were a limitless margin of elbow room between
the artist’s fullest utilization of form and the most that the
material is innately capable of. The artist has intuitively
surrendered to the inescapable tyranny of the material, made its
brute nature fuse easily with his conception. The material
“disappears” precisely because there is nothing in the artist’s
conception to indicate that any other material exists. For the time
being, he, and we with him, move in the artistic medium as a fish
moves in the water, oblivious of the existence of an alien
atmosphere. No sooner, however, does the artist transgress the
law of his medium than we realize with a start that there is a
medium to obey.
 Language is the medium of literature as marble or bronze
or clay are the materials of the sculptor. Since every language has
its distinctive peculiarities, the innate formal limitations—and
possibilities—of one literature are never quite the same as those
of another. The literature fashioned out of the form and substance
of a language has the color and the texture of its matrix. The
literary artist may never be conscious of just how he is hindered
or helped or otherwise guided by the matrix, but when it is a
question of translating his work into another language, the nature
of the original matrix manifests itself at once. All his effects have
been calculated, or intuitively felt, with reference to the formal
“genius” of his own language; they cannot be carried over
without loss or modification. Croce is therefore perfectly right in
saying that a work of literary art can never be translated.
Nevertheless, literature does get itself translated, sometimes with
astonishing adequacy.

Edward Sapir. Language: an introduction to the study of speech. 1921 (adapted).

Text 1A2-II

 I have often thought how interesting a magazine paper
might be written by any author who would—that is to say, who
could—detail, step by step, the processes by which any one of
his compositions attained its ultimate point of completion. Why
such a paper has never been given to the world, I am much at a
loss to say—but, perhaps, the authorial vanity has had more to do
with the omission than any one other cause. Most writers—poets
in especial—prefer having it understood that they compose by a
species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition—and would
positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the
scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought—at
the true purposes seized only at the last moment—at the
innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of
full view—at the fully-matured fancies discarded in despair as
unmanageable—at the cautious selections and rejections—at the
painful erasures and interpolations—in a word, at the wheels and
pinions—the tackle for scene-shifting—the step-ladders, and
demon-traps—the cock’s feathers, the red paint and the black
patches, which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, constitute
the properties of the literary histrio.
 I am aware, on the other hand, that the case is by no
means common, in which an author is at all in condition to
retrace the steps by which his conclusions have been attained. In
general, suggestions, having arisen pell-mell are pursued and
forgotten in a similar manner.
 For my own part, I have neither sympathy with the
repugnance alluded to, nor, at any time, the least difficulty in
recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my
compositions, and, since the interest of an analysis or
reconstruction, such as I have considered a desideratum, is quite
independent of any real or fancied interest in the thing analysed,
it will not be regarded as a breach of decorum on my part to
show the modus operandi by which some one of my own works
was put together. I select The Raven as most generally known. It
is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its
composition is referable either to accident or intuition—that the
work proceeded step by step, to its completion, with the precision
and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.

Edgar Allan Poe. The Philosophy of Composition, 1846 (adapted)

Text 1A2-III

 In January 1948, before three pistol shots put an end to his
life, Gandhi had been on the political stage for more than fifty
years. He had inspired two generations of Indian patriots, shaken
an empire and sparked off a revolution which was to change the
face of Africa and Asia. To millions of his own people, he was
the Mahatma — the great soul — whose sacred glimpse was a
reward in itself.
 By the end of 1947 he had lived down much of the
suspicion, ridicule and opposition which he had to face, when he
first raised the banner of revolt against racial exclusiveness and
imperial domination. His ideas, once dismissed as quaint and
utopian, had begun to strike answering chords in some of the
finest minds in the world. “Generations to come, it may be,”
Einstein had said of Gandhi in July 1944, “will scarcely believe
that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon
earth.”
 Though his life had been a continual unfolding of an
endless drama, Gandhi himself seemed the least dramatic of men.
It would be difficult to imagine a man with fewer trappings of
political eminence or with less of the popular image of a heroic
figure. With his loin cloth, steel-rimmed glasses, rough sandals, a
toothless smile and a voice which rarely rose above a whisper, he
had a disarming humility. He was, if one were to use the famous
words of the Buddha, a man who had “by rousing himself, by
earnestness, by restraint and control, made for himself an island
which no flood could overwhelm.”
 Gandhi’s deepest strivings were spiritual, but he did
not — as had been the custom in his country — retire to a cave in
the Himalayas to seek his salvation. He carried his cave within
him. He did not know, he said, any religion apart from human
activity; the spiritual law did not work in a vacuum, but
expressed itself through the ordinary activities of life.
 This aspiration to relate the spirit of religion to the
problems of everyday life runs like a thread through Gandhi’s
career: his uneventful childhood, the slow unfolding and the
near-failure of his youth, the reluctant plunge into the politics of
Natal, the long unequal struggle in South Africa, and the
vicissitudes of the Indian struggle for freedom, which under his
leadership was to culminate in a triumph not untinged with
tragedy.

B. R. Nanda. Gandhi: a pictorial biography, 1972 (adapted)

Why Climate Change Could Mean More Delayed Flights

 No one enjoys a delayed flight, but as our weather gets warmer, we can expect more of them.
 That's according to experts, who say that the heat of the summer might cause more delays.
 Bloomberg looked at US data for flight delays at airports in Chicago and New York from June to August in 2022 and from
 January to March in 2023. It found that there were more delayed flights in the summer months at both airports.
 When the temperature rises above 39 degrees Celsius, things get very difficult for airlines, Bijan Vasigh, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the US, told Bloomberg.
 The air is thinner when it gets hot and that makes it harder for planes to take off. In thinner air there is not as much lift, so more power is needed.
 When they need more power, it helps to have a lighter airplane.
 That might mean pilots have to make last-minute decisions to reduce the weight on board by dumping fuel, passengers or baggage — meaning the plane will probably be delayed.
 The problem gets worse at airports that are at a higher altitude where the air is already thinner, and at airports with short runways, since planes need more space to get up to a high speed.
 But thin air is not the only problem. Smoke from wildfires — that have been happening all around the world in the summer of 2023 — can also cause flights to be delayed and canceled.
 Of course, the summer is also a busy time when millions of people fly, and weather is not the only cause of delays — but our hotter climate doesn't seem to be helping.

Internet: Engoo

Text 1A11-II

 “Click!” That’s the sound of safety. That’s the sound of survival. That’s the sound of a seat belt locking in place. Seat belts save lives and that’s a fact. That’s why I don’t drive anywhere until mine is on tight. Choosing to wear your seat belt is as simple as choosing between life and death. Which one do you choose? Think about it. When you’re driving in a car, you may be going 100 km/h or faster. That car is zipping down the road. Then somebody ahead of you locks up his or her brakes. You don’t have time to stop. The car that you are in crashes.
 Some people think that seat belts are uncool. They think that seat belts cramp their style, or that seat belts are uncomfortable. To them, I say, what’s more uncomfortable? Wearing a seat belt or flying through a car windshield? What’s more uncool? Being safely anchored to a car, or skidding across the road in your jean shorts? Wearing a seat belt is both cooler and more comfortable than the alternatives. Let’s just take a closer look at your choices. If you are not wearing your seat belt, you can hop around the car and slide in and out of your seat easily. That sounds like a lot of fun. But, you are also more likely to die or suffer serious injuries. If you are wearing a seat belt, you have to stay in your seat. That’s no fun. But, you are much more likely to walk away unharmed from a car accident. Hmmm... A small pleasure for a serious pain. That’s a tough choice. I think that I’ll avoid the serious pain.

Internet: <www.agendaweb.com> (adapted).

Text 1A2-I

 Languages are more to us than systems of thought

transference. They are invisible garments that drape themselves
about our spirit and give a predetermined form to all its symbolic
expression. When the expression is of unusual significance, we
call it literature. Art is so personal an expression that we do not
like to feel that it is bound to predetermined form of any sort.
The possibilities of individual expression are infinite, language in
particular is the most fluid of mediums. Yet some limitation there
must be to this freedom, some resistance of the medium.
 In great art there is the illusion of absolute freedom. The
formal restraints imposed by the material are not perceived; it is
as though there were a limitless margin of elbow room between
the artist’s fullest utilization of form and the most that the
material is innately capable of. The artist has intuitively
surrendered to the inescapable tyranny of the material, made its
brute nature fuse easily with his conception. The material
“disappears” precisely because there is nothing in the artist’s
conception to indicate that any other material exists. For the time
being, he, and we with him, move in the artistic medium as a fish
moves in the water, oblivious of the existence of an alien
atmosphere. No sooner, however, does the artist transgress the
law of his medium than we realize with a start that there is a
medium to obey.
 Language is the medium of literature as marble or bronze
or clay are the materials of the sculptor. Since every language has
its distinctive peculiarities, the innate formal limitations—and
possibilities—of one literature are never quite the same as those
of another. The literature fashioned out of the form and substance
of a language has the color and the texture of its matrix. The
literary artist may never be conscious of just how he is hindered
or helped or otherwise guided by the matrix, but when it is a
question of translating his work into another language, the nature
of the original matrix manifests itself at once. All his effects have
been calculated, or intuitively felt, with reference to the formal
“genius” of his own language; they cannot be carried over
without loss or modification. Croce is therefore perfectly right in
saying that a work of literary art can never be translated.
Nevertheless, literature does get itself translated, sometimes with
astonishing adequacy.

Edward Sapir. Language: an introduction to the study of speech. 1921 (adapted).

Text 1A2-II

 I have often thought how interesting a magazine paper
might be written by any author who would—that is to say, who
could—detail, step by step, the processes by which any one of
his compositions attained its ultimate point of completion. Why
such a paper has never been given to the world, I am much at a
loss to say—but, perhaps, the authorial vanity has had more to do
with the omission than any one other cause. Most writers—poets
in especial—prefer having it understood that they compose by a
species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition—and would
positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the
scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought—at
the true purposes seized only at the last moment—at the
innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of
full view—at the fully-matured fancies discarded in despair as
unmanageable—at the cautious selections and rejections—at the
painful erasures and interpolations—in a word, at the wheels and
pinions—the tackle for scene-shifting—the step-ladders, and
demon-traps—the cock’s feathers, the red paint and the black
patches, which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, constitute
the properties of the literary histrio.
 I am aware, on the other hand, that the case is by no
means common, in which an author is at all in condition to
retrace the steps by which his conclusions have been attained. In
general, suggestions, having arisen pell-mell are pursued and
forgotten in a similar manner.
 For my own part, I have neither sympathy with the
repugnance alluded to, nor, at any time, the least difficulty in
recalling to mind the progressive steps of any of my
compositions, and, since the interest of an analysis or
reconstruction, such as I have considered a desideratum, is quite
independent of any real or fancied interest in the thing analysed,
it will not be regarded as a breach of decorum on my part to
show the modus operandi by which some one of my own works
was put together. I select The Raven as most generally known. It
is my design to render it manifest that no one point in its
composition is referable either to accident or intuition—that the
work proceeded step by step, to its completion, with the precision
and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.

Edgar Allan Poe. The Philosophy of Composition, 1846 (adapted)