TEXTO - Most Metaverse users don't even make it a month, WSJ reports - SITE AMERICANO - BUSINESS INSIDER.

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➧ TÍTULO DO TEXTO: Most Metaverse users don't even make it a month, WSJ reports.

➧ SITE AMERICANO: BUSINESS INSIDER.

TEXTO:

Most Metaverse users don't even make it a month, WSJ reports

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert Oct 16, 2022, 3:19 AM

Mark Zuckerberg as an avatar during Connect 2022 Meta

Inside the Horizon Worlds platform, Meta is struggling to keep users engaged with glitchy features and empty worlds.

With a $400 pricetag to access the platform via the Quest 2 headset, the metaverse isn't yet accessible to the casual user. Those who do get a chance to try the tech experience baffling branded content, persistent bugs, and empty worlds with no user interactions. Even employees appear not to enjoy the platform, saying there is a "quality" problem.

Last month, in response to user complaints, Meta put the Horizon platform into "lockdown" — pausing the rollout of new features while it works to improve the user experience of existing elements in the virtual reality world, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Users have criticized the avatars' curious lack of legs as well as having few other users to interact with. Internal statistics, WSJ reported, indicate that only 9% of worlds built by users are ever visited by at least 50 people, while most never receive any visits at all.

Some female users also report sexual harassment and digital groping, prompting Meta to institute a safety feature that creates a virtual 4-foot buffer around avatars on the platform. WSJ reported men outnumber women by two to one on the platform and that — while reporting — a WSJ staff member was asked to expose herself by a user she interacted with online.

Internal documents show Meta has fallen far short of its goals for regular monthly users, WSJ Journal reported. The company initially had set a goal of 500,00 monthly users by the end of 2022, but has changed that figure to 280,000. The documents show the platform has less than 200,000 current users. Most users generally don't return to the app after the first month, while more than half of Quest 2 headsets are out of use within six months WSJ reported. 

"An empty world is a sad world," WSJ reported one document said in its summary of the company's efforts to attract users to worlds where they would find others.

In light of the low user retention, feature glitches, and high cost of access, Insider previously reported some investors have raised questions about Meta's $15 billion investment in Reality Labs, the business segment responsible for the metaverse.

From:

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-metaverse-users-dont-even-make-it-a-month-wsj-2022-10

PARTE I - VOCABULÁRIO, FRASES, ESTRUTURAS E EXPRESSÕES:

1) WSJ (Dábliú-ésDjêi) - é o acrônimo de Wall Street Journal .

2) The Wall Street Journal é um jornal diário internacional sobre notícias econômicas e que mantém sede em Nova York, Estados Unidos.

3) Mark Zuckerberg - é um magnata, empresário e filantropo norte-americano, Ele é conhecido por co-fundar o site de mídia social Facebook e sua empresa-mãe Meta Platforms, da qual ele é presidente, diretor executivo e acionista controlador.

4) glitchy (adjective) - something doesn't work properly - it doesn't work properly as it should work. (For example: This app is glitchy.). GLITCH é um adjetivo específico, usado em tecnologia.

5) baffling (adjective) - confusing.

6) to baffle someone - confundir alguém.

*She is baffled by the content. - Ela está confusa com o conteúdo.

*The content baffles me. - O conteúdo me deixa perplexo.

7) bugs (technology vocabulary) - problemas, erros de software.

8) persistent bugs - bugs that last a long time - erros que duram muito tempo.

9) the rollout of (= introduction) - o lançamento de, a introdução de.

10) to roll out (phrasal verb) - disponibilizar um novo produto, serviço ou sistema pela primeira vez:

*The company is rolling out new features this month.

*The company rolled out new features last month.

*The government plans to roll its new tax credit next year.

VOCABULÁRIO – UNRAVELLING , BAMBOOZLED, LIFTED, PARTAKE, MENDACIOUS – PUC-RIO-2017-VESTIBULAR- RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS – LÍNGUA INGLESA – RESOLUÇÃO DA QUESTÃO Nº07.

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• TEXTO - PUC-RIO-2017-VESTIBULAR- RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS:

The politics of anger

The triumph of the Brexit campaign is a warning to the liberal international order

Many Brexiteers built their campaign on optimism. Outside the European Union, Britain would be free to open up to the world. But what secured their victory was anger.

Anger stirred up a winning turnout in the depressed, down-at-heel cities of England. Anger at immigration, globalisation, social liberalism and even feminism, polling shows, translated into a vote to reject the EU. As if victory were a licence to spread hatred, anger has since lashed Britain's streets with an outburst of racist abuse.

Across Western democracies, from the America of Donald Trump to the France of Marine Le Pen, large numbers of people are enraged. If they cannot find a voice within the mainstream, they will make themselves heard from without. Unless they believe that the global order works to their benefit, Brexit risks becoming just the start of an unravelling of globalisation and the prosperity it has created.

The rest of history

Today's crisis in liberalism - in the free-market, British sense - was born in 1989, out of the ashes of the Soviet Union. At the time the thinker Francis Fukuyama declared "the end of history", the moment when no ideology was left to challenge democracy, markets and global co-operation as a way of organising society. It was liberalism's greatest triumph, but it also engendered a narrow, technocratic politics obsessed by process. In the ensuing quarter-century the majority has prospered, but plenty of voters feel as if they have been left behind.

Their anger is justified. Proponents of globalisation, including this newspaper, must acknowledge that technocrats have made mistakes and ordinary people paid the price. The move to a flawed European currency, a technocratic scheme par excellence, led to stagnation and unemployment and is driving Europe apart. Elaborate financial instruments bamboozled regulators, crashed the world economy and ended up with taxpayer-funded bail-outs of banks, and later on, budget cuts.

Even when globalisation has been hugely beneficial, policymakers have not done enough to help the losers. Trade with China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and brought immense gains for Western ‘consumers. But many factory workers who have lost their jobs have been unable to find a decently paid replacement.

Rather than spread the benefits of globalisation, politicians have focused elsewhere. The left moved on to arguments about culture - race, greenery, human rights and sexual politics. The right preached meritocratic self-advancement, but failed to win everyone the chance to partake in it. Proud industrial communities that look to family and nation suffered alienation and decay. Mendacious campaigning mirrored by partisan media amplified the sense of betrayal.

(...)

Adapted from

The Economist – July 2nd 2016 

(PUC-RIO-2017-VESTIBULAR- RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS)

Based on the meanings of the words in the article, it can be said that

(A) "unravelling" (line 18) and collapse are synonyms.
(B) "bamboozled" (line 39) and confounded are antonyms.
(C) "lifted" (line 44) can be replaced by downgraded.
(D) "partake" (line 54) and participate express opposite ideas.
(E) "mendacious" (line 56) and truthful express similar ideas.

Resposta :  A

Com base nos significados das palavras do artigo, pode-se dizer que

*Alternativa (A): "unravelling"(ruína) e collapse(colapso) são sinônimos.
*Alternativa (B): "bamboozled"(confundiram) e confounded (confundiram) são antônimos.
*Alternativa (C): "lifted" (levantado) pode ser substituído por downgraded (rebaixado).
*Alternativa (D): "participar" (linha 54) e participar expressam idéias opostas.
*Alternativa (E): "mendacious"(falacioso) e "truthful"(verdadeiro) expressam ideias semelhantes.

➦IDEIA CONTEXTUAL: "unravelling"(ruína) e collapse (colapso/falência) são sinônimos no contexto:

"[...] Unless they believe that the global order works to their benefit, Brexit risks becoming just the start of an unravelling of globalisation and the prosperity it has created."
(A menos que eles acreditam que a ordem global funcione em seu benefício, Brexit corre o risco de se tornar apenas o começo de uma RUÍNA da globalização e da prosperidade que tem criado).
➦ bamboozled" e confounded são sinônimos:
"[...] Elaborate financial instruments bamboozled  regulators, crashed the world economy and ended up with taxpayer-funded bailouts of banks, and later on, budget cuts"
(Elaboraram instrumentos financeiros que CONFUNDIRAM os reguladores, quebraram a economia mundial e acabaram com os resgates de bancos financiados pelo contribuinte e, mais tarde, cortes orçamentários).
➦"lifted" (ELEVADO/LIBERTADO) não pode ser substituído por "downgraded"(rebaixou):
"[...] Trade with China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and brought immense gains for Western ‘consumers"(O comércio com a China TEM LIBERTADO centenas de milhões de pessoas da pobreza e trouxe ganhos imensos para os consumidores ocidentais).
➦"partake" e "participate" (participar) são sinônimas.
"[...] Rather than spread the benefits of globalisation, politicians have focused elsewhere. The left moved on to arguments about culture - race, greenery, human rights and sexual politics. The right preached 
meritocratic self-advancement, but failed to win everyone the chance to partake in it. Proud industrial communities that look to family and nation suffered alienation and decay. Mendacious campaigning mirrored by partisan media amplified the sense of betrayal."
(Em vez de espalhar os benefícios da globalização, os políticos se concentraram em outros lugares. A esquerda passou a discussões sobre cultura - raça, vegetação, direitos humanos e políticas sexuais. O direito pregado
auto-avanço meritocrático, mas não conseguiu ganhar a todos a oportunidade de PARTICIPAR nela. As comunidades industriais orgulhosas que olham para a família e a nação sofreram alienação e decadência. Campanhas mentais espelhadas por mídia partidária amplificaram a sensação de traição.)
➦ "mendacious" (falacioso) e "truthful"(verdadeiro) não expressam ideias similares. 
"[...]Proud industrial communities that look to family and nation suffered alienation and decay. Mendacious campaigning mirrored by partisan media amplified the sense of betrayal."(As comunidades industriais orgulhosas que olham para a família e a nação sofreram alienação e decadência. Campanhas FALACIOSAS/MENTIROSAS espelhadas por mídia partidária amplificaram a sensação de traição.)