“Up until 100 years ago, the average patient benefited
very little from a visit to the average doctor”, says The Oxford
Textbook of Medicine. And it is true that at the beginning of last century the link between germs and disease had only just
been established. The average doctor had no way of taking
a person’s blood pressure and would have had little idea of its significance anyway. Vaccination was regarded with
skepticism, there were no antibiotics, transfusion was unknown
and many surgeons still operated ungowned and ungloved in a room crowded with casual pipe-smoking observers.
Things have changed. Now medicine can substantially
alter the outcome of most diseases, and the number of conditions people regard as untreatable is diminishing year by
year.
Already the impact of new communications technology has been colossal. In recent years the great advances in heart
attack survival, for example, have been largely due to the ability
to coordinate massive international trials and compare the subtle differences in survival due to different treatments.
Canvassing specialists’ opinions is becoming easier. In
a few years’ time, it might be possible to arrange a video conference from the family doctor’s consulting room, with a
specialist anywhere on the globe, together with scan results,
X-rays, lab results and a case summary automatically translated into the specialist’s native language and digitally transmitted
over the phone.
But all the flashy new developments in medical engineering will pale to insignificance compared with
the contribution to 21st century medicine of the anticipated
advances in genetics. It is less than 50 years since the basic pattern of the DNA molecule was outlined by Crick and
Watson. Ten years from now, the medical world will know
every detail of its entire structure. Eventually doctors and scientists will know the chemical sequence, encoded by DNA,
for every molecular component of the human body. Genetic
therapies will not be limited to the manufacture of new drugs. People will have ways of inserting genes into cells that are
malfunctioning.
GLOSSARY
trial: an act or a process of testing the ability, quality, performance
of somebody, something, especially before a final decision is
reached about them/it.
canvass: to find out what people think about a particular issue or
product by asking them.
scan: to obtain an image of a person’s body or part of it on a
computer after taking an X-ray or using ultrasound techniques.
Internet: <http://detnews.com/menu/stories>. Access on April 3rd 2001 (with adaptations).
01 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
In text I, the sentence “Up until 100 years ago, the average patient
benefited very little from a visit to the average doctor” (l.1-2) means
that
1 going to the doctor’s has been useless for the past 100 years.
2 more than 100 years ago, if people were sick they would best
benefit by going to see a doctor.
3 very little did average doctors benefit from average patients in
the past 100 years.
4 before the 20th century, doctors could usually do very little for
many of their patients.
02 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
According to text I,
1 genetics will probably make a significant contribution to 21st
century medicine.
2 vaccination was welcomed by everyone in the early 1900s.
3 today’s standard of hygiene has always been present in
medicine.
4 the spread of medicine advances has nothing to do with the new
communications technology.
03 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Using text I and biology as background information, judge the
following items.
1 DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, the basic constituent of
the gene.
2 DNA, which codifies protein synthesis, is related to the chemical
in the cells of animals and plants.
3 The chemical sequence encoded by DNA will remain a mystery.
4 The only outcome of genetic therapy is the manufacture of new
drugs.
04 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
In text I,
1 “at the beginning” (R.3) can be correctly replaced by in the
beginning.
2 “its” (R.7) refers to a “person’s blood pressure” (R.6).
3 the prefix un- as in “unknown” (R.8), “ungowned” (R.9) and
“ungloved” (R.9) indicates the opposite of.
4 “will” (R.28) can be correctly replaced by might.
05 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
In text I, the phrase “the family doctor’s consulting room” (l.22) is
the same as
1 the consulting room of the family doctor.
2 the doctor’s family’s consulting room.
3 the family’s consulting room for the doctor.
4 the consulting doctor’s family room.
06 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Judge if each item below could be an appropriate title for text
I.
1 Traditional medical treatment is far superior than modern
advances
2 Hygiene measures improve people’s health
3 The evolution of medical treatment
4 The power of traditional medicine
❑ TEXTO 2: questions 7 through 13
During the year 2000, almost all traditional American
publishers launched a segment of electronic books, the “ebooks”, for the production of digital versions of their printed
4 books. As a counterpart — and in time to catch Christmas
shoppers — a new generation of digital reading devices has
reached the marketplace, including interesting and innovating
7 functions such as: instant dictionary, making notes in margins,
marking and transferring texts and so on.
Even though forecasts for e-book sales in 2001 are of
10 over 3 million copies, there are restrictions — such as the
number of titles available, definition of software standards
(now divided between Adobe and Microsoft), security against
13 duplication and the product’s present price — that will delay
the transformation of e-books into our main reading source for
at least 10 years more. Nevertheless, the revolution we are
16 witnessing does not refer only to the way we read, but also,
and mainly, how information is distributed. On downloading a
book from the Internet, we are in fact engaged in an action that
19 reflects a new relationship between reader and writer.
This relationship had its first major revolution in ancient
Egypt, when the invention of papyrus allowed for the
22 transportation of information registered on pyramid walls to
other readers. This process of copying by hand persisted for
over 5,000 years, until Gutenberg, by inventing the printing
25 press, generated the second major revolution in writing. By
multiplying the number of readers and democratizing access to
knowledge — 100 years after the advent of print, there were
28 over 50 million literate people in Europe — the printing press
permitted all scientific progress during the following centuries.
The Internet is becoming writing’s third major
31 revolution, with a basic difference: while papyrus and print
have enabled and democratized the reader’s access to
knowledge, the Internet is democratizing the access to readers
34 by the writer himself. The possibility of each person creating
and publishing their work on the Internet — be it a book, a
song, a thesis, a journal or even a simple essay, allowing
37 access to an endless universe of people, represents a
transformation not only for writers and readers, but also for the
whole editorial market. Editors who used to be concerned wit h
40 the content and the presentation of the final product will start
focusing exclusively on content. And thus, the natural order of
printing and distributing will become distributing and,
43 afterwards, if necessary, printing.
José Luiz Rossi. Classe A, 2000, p. 28 (with adaptations).
07 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
According to text II, judge the following items.
1 Very few traditional American publishers have introduced the
e-books.
2 E-books can be used together with a digital reading device.
3 However appealing e-books and digital reading devices seem,
our main reading source will still be the printed book for some
more time.
4 More than 3 million copies of e-books are expected to be sold
this year.
5 At present, e-books are expensive.
08 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
According to text II, judge the items below.
1 Software standards for e-books are nowadays divided between
two groups.
2 The relationship between readers and writers has been changing.
3 Papyrus made information available to everyone.
4 It can be deduced from text II that papyrus is an African
discovery.
5 It can be inferred from text II that hieroglyphs were first printed
before being sent to other people.
09 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
From text II, it can be concluded that Gutenberg’s invention was a
great contribution because
1 more people had access to knowledge.
2 writers had a better opportunity to disseminate their ideas.
3 illiteracy started to decline.
4 the use for papyrus was discovered.
5 scientific progress was made possible.
10 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Considering the issues discussed in text II, judge the following
items.
1 Even with the advent of the printing press, access to
knowledge remained limited to very few people for over 4,000
years.
2 The invention of e-books can be considered as revolutionary
as the invention of the printing press.
3 Written material has undergone three main revolutions over the
history of humankind.
4 Compared to the USA, Brazil may take a longer time to have ebooks used nationwide.
11 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Judge if each item below could be an appropriate title for text II.
1 Rise and fall of e-books
2 Egyptian inventions
3 Modern times, modern options
4 E-books: new relationship between readers and writers
5 The Internet: the third revolution in written material
12 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
In text II, the sentence “Editors who used to be concerned with the
content and the presentation of the final product will start focusing
exclusively on content” (R.39-41) means that
1 whereas content was an important issue for book printing, it is
not so any longer.
2 the presentation of a book is a major focus of attention now.
3 in the near future editors will no longer be concerned with the
presentation of the final product, but only with its content.
4 editors’ focus will shift from presentation and content to
content only.
13 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
he ideas contained in text II lead to the conclusion that the future
of e-books
1 has been predicted to be a failure.
2 looks promising.
3 is in the hands of the government.
4 depends on their cost.
14 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Judge whether each item below correctly completes the following
clause.
If there had been e-books a decade ago,
1 their final price could have been lower nowadays.
2 everybody will use them.
3 people had bought them.
4 they would have been more popular nowadays.
15 – (UnB/VESTIBULAR/2001-2ºSEMESTRE)
Over the years, mankind has achieved significant progress in several
areas, including interpersonal relations, although there is still a lot
to be accomplished. Considering this fact, look at the picture below
of a married couple.
According to the text and picture above, judge the following items.
1 The husband never gives orders at home.
2 The wife usually avoids traditional housework.
3 The husband is eager to help his wife.
4 The man is going to close the door.
