PUC/Rio – 2013 – VESTIBULAR – GRUPO 2 – LÍNGUA INGLESA – PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO – PROVA COM GABARITO.

❑ PROVA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA: PUC/RIO-2013-GRUPO 2-VESTIBULAR-14/10/2012.

https://www.puc-rio.br/vestibular/

❑ ESTRUTURA-PROVA:

➭ 10 Multiple Choice Questions / 5 Options Each Question.

➭ Text  – | Why are we so curious? | www.washingtonpost.com |

❑ PROVA:

Why are we so curious?

1

Cooking is something we all take for granted but a new theory suggests that if we had not learned to cook food, not only would we still look like chimps but, like them, we would also be compelled to spend most of the day chewing.

2

I hate to disappoint you, but whatever your ambitions, whatever your long-term goals, I’m pretty sure that reading this column isn’t going to further them. It won’t stop you feeling hungry. It won’t provide any information that might save your life. It’s unlikely to make you attractive to the opposite sex.

3

And yet if I were to say that I will teach you a valuable lesson about your inner child, I hope you will want to carry on reading, driven by nothing more than your curiosity to find out a little more. What could be going on in your brain to make you so inquisitive?

4

We humans have a deeply curious nature, and more often than not it is about the minor tittletattle in our lives. Our curiosity has us doing utterly unproductive things like reading news about people we will never meet, learning topics we will never have use for, or exploring places we will never come back to. We just love to know the answers to things, even if there’s no obvious benefit.

5

From the perspective of evolution this appears to be something of a mystery. We associate evolution with ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ traits that support the essentials of day-to-day survival and reproduction. So why did we evolve to waste so much time? Shouldn’t evolution have selected for a species which was – you know – a bit more focussed?

Child's play
6

The roots of our peculiar curiosity can be linked to a trait of the human species called neoteny. This is a term from evolutionary theory that means the “retention of juvenile characteristics”. It means that as a species we are more child-like than other mammals. Being relatively hairless is one physical example. A large brain relative to body size is another. Our lifelong curiosity and playfulness is a behavioural characteristic of neoteny.

7

Neoteny is a short-cut taken by evolution – a route that brings about a whole bundle of changes in one go, rather than selecting for them one by one. Evolution, by making us a more juvenile species, has made us weaker than our primate cousins, but it has also given us our child’s curiosity, our capacity to learn and our deep sense of attachment to each other.

8

And of course the lifelong capacity to learn is the reason why neoteny has worked so well for our species. Our extended childhood means we can absorb so much more from our environment, including our shared culture. Even in adulthood we can pick up new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking, allowing us to adapt to new circumstances.

Exploration bonus

9

In the world of artificial intelligence, computer scientists have explored how behaviour evolves when guided by different learning algorithms. An important result is that even the best learning algorithms fall down if they are not encouraged to explore a little. Without a little something to distract them from what they should be doing, these algorithms get stuck in a rut, relying on the same responses time and time again.

10

Computer scientists have learnt to adjust how these algorithms rate different possible actions with an ‘exploration bonus’ – that is, a reward just for trying something new. Weighted like this, the algorithms then occasionally leave the beaten track to explore. These exploratory actions cost them some opportunities, but leave them better off in the long run because they’ve gained knowledge about what they might do, even if it didn’t benefit them immediately.

11

The implication for the evolution of our own brain is clear. Curiosity is nature’s built-in exploration bonus. We’re evolved to leave the beaten track, to try things out, to get distracted and generally look like we’re wasting time. Maybe we are wasting time today, but the learning algorithms in our brain know that something we learnt by chance today will come in useful tomorrow.

12

Obviously it would be best if we knew what we needed to know, and just concentrated on that. Fortunately, in a complex world it is impossible to know what might be useful in the future. And thank goodness – otherwise we would have evolved to be a deadly-boring species which never wanted to get lost, never tried things to just see what happened or did things for the hell of it.

13

Evolution made us the ultimate learning machines, and the ultimate learning machines need a healthy dash of curiosity to help us take full advantage of this learning capacity.

14

Or, as Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are here on Earth to fart around. Don’t let anybody tell you any different.”

NEUROHACKS 19 June 2012

Why are we so curious?

Tom Stafford<http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120618-why-are-we-so curious?selectorSection=health>.

Retrieved on July 28, 2012.

11 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

The main purpose of the text is
(A) to prove that by reading this article people will become more attractive to the opposite sex.
(B) to explain that our natural curiosity is partly responsible for our permanent brain evolution.
(C) to argue that only children can learn in a quick, efficient way.
(D) to highlight the fact that mammals are childish and weak.
(E) to criticize human beings’ immature behavior.

 👍  Comentários e Gabarito   B  

TÓPICO - MAIN PURPOSE IN THE TEXT :

12 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

In paragraph 1, the text suggests that
(A) only some people can learn how to cook food.
(B) cooking is an ordinary activity for women.
(C) humans have evolved because they learned how to cook food.
(D) human beings are prone to spend most of their time chewing.
(E) some monkeys can cook food but they spend most of their time chewing.

 👍   Comentários e Gabarito    C  
TÓPICO - INFORMAÇÃO DO TEXTO:

13 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

The author defines “neoteny” as (. 42)
(A) an endless childhood that characterizes humans.
(B) the unreachable point in maturity for human species.
(C) the infantile behaviour found in human beings.

(D) the retention of characteristics of the young.
(E) the way mammals behave in general.

• ANSWER (D).

14 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

According to paragraphs 9 and 10, “exploration bonus” would be
(A) the knowledge acquired and the reward taken for trying exploratory actions.
(B) the repeated results presented by algorithms in artificial intelligence.
(C) the immediate benefit taken from reviewing several possible actions.
(D) the ability to use algorithms in artificial intelligence studies.
(E) the opportunities brought by the best algorithms.

• ANSWER (A).

15 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

For the author, the kind of exploratory learning that humans do (. 62-79)
(A) has difficulty with distractions.
(B) needs to be involved with new and original things.
(C) is inefficient because it needlessly wastes time.

(D) will not happen by chance.
(E) has not evolved enough to help humans survive.

• ANSWER (B).

16 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

In lines 91-94, the author states that “Evolution made us the ultimate learning machines, and the ultimate learning machines need a healthy dash of curiosity to help us take full advantage of this learning capacity”, which means that
(A) the final aim of all human beings is to become the last learners on earth.
(B) human beings are prone to evil of all kinds.
(C) opportunism can work against our learning capacity.
(D) people usually take full advantage of their learning capacity.
(E) human beings are designed to learn through exploratory actions driven by their curiosity.

• ANSWER (E).

17 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

Mark the CORRECT statement concerning the meanings of the words extracted from the text.
(A) “take for granted” in “Cooking is something we all take for granted but a new theory suggests that if we had not learned to cook food, not only (...)” (. 1-3) means “assume”.
(B) “I’m pretty sure” in “I hate to disappoint you, but whatever your ambitions, whatever your long-term goals, I’m pretty sure that reading this column isn’t going to further them.” (. 6-9) means “I’m inclined to say”.
(C) “minor tittle-tattle” in “We humans have a deeply curious nature, and more often than not it is about the minor tittle-tattle in our lives.” (. 17-19) means “relevant matters”.
(D) “shortcut” in “Neoteny is a shortcut taken by evolution” (. 42) means “a roundabout route”.
(E) “a deadly-boring species” in “And thank goodness – otherwise we would have evolved to be a deadly-boring species which never wanted to get lost, never tried things to just see what happened or did things for the hell of it.”(. 86-90) means “diabolical human beings”.

• ANSWER (A).

18 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

“Might” in “...might save your life” (. 10) and “Shouldn’t” in “Shouldn’t evolution have selected for a species...” (. 29-31) express the ideas of, respectively:
(A) probability – duty.
(B) condition – ability.
(C) obligation – assumption.
(D) possibility – what is desirable.
(E) theoretical ability – suggestion.

• ANSWER (C).

19 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

Mark the CORRECT option.
(A) In the phrase “I hate to disappoint you, but whatever your ambitions” (. 6-7), the word “whatever” has the idea of explaining the reason for your ambitions.
(B) In “And yet if I were to say that I will teach you” (. 12), the word “yet” can be substituted by “therefore”.
(C) In “Our curiosity has us doing utterly unproductive things” (. 19-20), the word “utterly” means “small”.
(D) In “We just love to know the answers to things” (. 23), the word “just” tells us that people really like knowing answers.
(E) In the phrase “the lifelong capacity to learn” (. 49) the word “lifelong” gives the idea that people need a long life to be able to learn.

• ANSWER (D).

20 – (PUC/Rio-2013-VESTIBULAR-GRUPO 2)

Mark the INCORRECT option concerning the statements, based on the text.
(A) Human beings are curious by nature.
(B) Curiosity is a valuable asset for our evolution.
(C) Compared to other mammals, humans can be considered more child-like.
(D) Scarce hair, a large brain and playfulness are a child’s characteristics found in adult humans.
(E) Human beings are boring creatures due to their lack of interest in new things.

• ANSWER (E).