❑ PROVA DE LÍNGUA INGLESA:
• CESGRANRIO-2011-BNDES-PROFISSIONAL BÁSICO-01/11/2011.
➭ 10 MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) / 5 Options Each Question.
• Text – | Are You Training Yourself to Fail? | www.psychologytoday.com |
Are You Training Yourself to Fail?
Did you get done what you wanted to get done today?
By Peter Bregman. September 13, 2011 / Psychology Today
1 Some people are naturally pre-disposed to being highly productive. They start their days with a clear and reasonable intention of what they plan to do, and then they work diligently throughout the day, sticking to their plans, focused on accomplishing their most important priorities, until the day ends and they’ve achieved precisely what they had expected. Each day moves them one day closer to what they intend to accomplish over the year.
2
I am, unfortunately, not one of those people. Left to my own devices, I rarely end my day with the satisfaction of a plan well executed. My natural inclination is to start my morning with a long and overly ambitious list of what I hope to accomplish and push myself with sheer will to accomplish it. I’m prone to be so busy — answering emails, multitasking, taking phone calls, taking care of errands — that, without intervention, I would get very little of importance done.
3
And then, exhausted by my busyness, but unsatisfied by how little of importance I’d accomplished, I would distract myself further by doing things that made me feel better in the moment, if not accomplished — like browsing the internet or eating something sweet.
4
Our instincts most often drive us toward instant gratification. And the world around us conspires to lure us off task. Given total freedom, most of us would spend far too much time browsing websites and eating sweets. And being totally responsive to our environments would just have us running around like crazy catering to other people’s agendas.
5
For me, the allure of accomplishing lots of little details would often override my focus on the big things I value. Each morning I would try to change my natural tendency by exerting self-control. I would talk to myself about how, starting this morning, I would be more focused, psych myself up to have a productive day, and commit to myself that I wouldn’t do any errands until the important work was done.
6
It almost never worked. Certainly not reliably.
7
And so, without understanding it at the time, I was teaching myself to fail. People talk about failure — I talk about failure — as critical to learning. But what if we don’t learn? What if we do the same things, repeatedly, hoping for different results but not changing our behavior?
8
Then we are training ourselves to fail repeatedly.
9
Because the more we continue to make the same mistakes, the more we ingrain the ineffective behaviors into our lives. Our failures become our rituals, our rituals become our habits, and our habits become our identity. We no longer experience an unproductive day; we become unproductive people.
10
You can’t get out of this pattern by telling yourself you’re a productive person. You’re smarter than that; you won’t believe yourself and the data won’t support the illusion.
11
You have to climb out the same way you climbed in: with new rituals.
12
For me, the best way to discover the most effective rituals to help me achieve my most important priorities was through trial and error. Every evening I looked at what worked and repeated it the next. I looked at what didn’t and stopped it.
13
What I found is that rather than trying to develop super-human discipline and focus, I needed to rely on a process to make it more likely that I would be focused and productive and less likely that I would be scattered and ineffective.
14
Rituals like these: Spending five minutes in the morning to place my most important work onto my calendar, stopping every hour to ask myself whether I’m sticking to my plan, and spending five minutes in the evening to learn from my successes and failures. Answering my emails in chunks at predetermined times during the day instead of whenever they come in. And never letting anything stay on my to do list for more than three days (after which I either do it immediately, schedule it in my calendar, or delete it).
15
It doesn’t take long for these rituals to become habits and for the habits to become your identity. And then, you become a productive person.
16
The trick then is to stay productive. Once your identity changes, you are at risk of letting go of your rituals. You don’t need them anymore, you think to yourself, because you are now a productive person. You no longer suffer from the problem the rituals saved you from.
17
But that’s a mistake. Rituals don’t change us. They simply modify our behavior as long as we practice them. Once we stop, we lose their benefit. In other words, being productive — forever more — requires that you maintain the rituals that keep you productive — forever more.
18
I would love to say that I am now one of those people who is naturally pre-disposed to being highly productive. But I’m not. There’s nothing natural about productivity for me.
Available in: <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/
how-we-work/201109/are-you-training-yourself-fail>.
Retrieved on: Sept. 17, 2011.
👉 Questão 21 :
The author’s intention in this text is to
(A) list all the daily tasks that end up in repeated failure at work.
(B) suggest a strategy to keep focused on the main items on one’s to-do list.
(C) illustrate how he has easily overcome his problem of distraction from relevant goals.
(D) deny that rituals are good habits for developing discipline and focusing on important tasks.
(E) defend the idea that those who invest their time and energy in modifying their habits are never successful.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito B :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
The author’s intention in this text is to (A) list all the daily tasks that end up in repeated failure at work.
(B) suggest a strategy to keep focused on the main items on one’s to-do list.
(C) illustrate how he has easily overcome his problem of distraction from relevant goals.
(D) deny that rituals are good habits for developing discipline and focusing on important tasks.
(E) defend the idea that those who invest their time and energy in modifying their habits are never successful.
👉 Questão 22 :
In the first paragraph, Peter Bregman mentions people who are naturally pre-disposed to being highly productive because he
(A) wishes he could be like them.
(B) would like to be as busy as they are.
(C) does not understand why they like rituals.
(D) never feels pleasure in accomplishing his tasks.
(E) considers himself happier and more dynamic than these people.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito A :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) wishes he could be like them.
(B) would like to be as busy as they are.
(C) does not understand why they like rituals.
(D) never feels pleasure in accomplishing his tasks.
(E) considers himself happier and more dynamic than these people.
👉 Questão 23 :
The expression busyness (line 19) is in italics to
(A) confuse the reader by referring to all of Peter Bregman’s financial problems.
(B) show that the author is not immediately accessible to talk to other people at work.
(C) point out that all the author’s enterprises are giving him a succession of bad results.
(D) highlight that the author is referring to himself as being extremely full of activities.
(E) convey to the reader that Peter Bregman has dedicated himself to the company that he owns.👍 Comentários e Gabarito D :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
The expression busyness (line 19) is in italics to
(A) confuse the reader by referring to all of Peter Bregman’s financial problems.
(B) show that the author is not immediately accessible to talk to other people at work.
(C) point out that all the author’s enterprises are giving him a succession of bad results.
(D) highlight that the author is referring to himself as being extremely full of activities.
(E) convey to the reader that Peter Bregman has dedicated himself to the company that he owns.
👉 Questão 24 :
The sentence “It almost never worked.” (line 40) refers to the fact that the author
(A) tried to control his impulse of doing irrelevant errands before facing his commitments.
(B) had to change his goals to concentrate only on the details of his daily tasks.
(C) could never see the relevance of doing important work very early in the morning on weekdays.
(D) believes that failure is critical to learning, so it is not essential to control oneself to do the right things.
(E) thinks that the world conspires to make people deny their responsibilities and spend their time on leisure activities.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito A :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) tried to control his impulse of doing irrelevant errands before facing his commitments.
(B) had to change his goals to concentrate only on the details of his daily tasks.
(C) could never see the relevance of doing important work very early in the morning on weekdays.
(D) believes that failure is critical to learning, so it is not essential to control oneself to do the right things.
(E) thinks that the world conspires to make people deny their responsibilities and spend their time on leisure activities.
👉 Questão 25 :
Based on the meanings in the text,
(A) overly (line 13) could be substituted by “moderately”.
(B) responsive (line 29) and “insensitive” are antonyms.
(C) override (line 33) and “invalidate” express opposite ideas.
(D) ingrain (line 49) and “reject” express similar ideas.
(E) scattered (line 69) and “concentrated” are synonyms.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito B :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) overly (line 13) could be substituted by “moderately”.
(B) responsive (line 29) and “insensitive” are antonyms.
(C) override (line 33) and “invalidate” express opposite ideas.
(D) ingrain (line 49) and “reject” express similar ideas.
(E) scattered (line 69) and “concentrated” are synonyms.
👉 Questão 26 :
In “Once your identity changes, you are at risk of letting go of your rituals.” (lines 84-86), the author implies that a change of identity
(A) will certainly lead to behavioral misconduct and inconvenient daily habits.
(B) will force you to be productive and remain so forever, never needing your rituals anymore.
(C) will reveal that habits are not part of your identity as an under-achiever in the work environment.
(D) can eliminate rituals because they are usually ineffective strategies to achieve successful results.
(E) is essential to force yourself to become and remain productive along the days by establishing effective rituals.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito E :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) will certainly lead to behavioral misconduct and inconvenient daily habits.
(B) will force you to be productive and remain so forever, never needing your rituals anymore.
(C) will reveal that habits are not part of your identity as an under-achiever in the work environment.
(D) can eliminate rituals because they are usually ineffective strategies to achieve successful results.
(E) is essential to force yourself to become and remain productive along the days by establishing effective rituals.
👉 Questão 27 :
In “Once we stop, we lose their benefit.” (line 92) the word “once” can be replaced, without changing the meaning of the sentence, by
(A) Despite the fact that
(B) As soon as
(C) As far as
(D) Though
(E) While
👍 Comentários e Gabarito B :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) is constantly distracted from his most relevant goals for the day.
(B) leads a very busy professional life with no time for his family and friends.
(C) can only fulfill his professional tasks by making use of phone calls and emails.
(D) plans to do things that make him feel better before he attempts his daily assignments.
(E) has so many household tasks to accomplish that he constantly fails in most of his plans.
👉 Questão 28 :
“I’m prone to be so busy […] that, without intervention, I would get very little of importance done.” (lines 15-18) illustrates that the author
(A) is constantly distracted from his most relevant goals for the day.
(B) leads a very busy professional life with no time for his family and friends.
(C) can only fulfill his professional tasks by making use of phone calls and emails.
(D) plans to do things that make him feel better before he attempts his daily assignments.
(E) has so many household tasks to accomplish that he constantly fails in most of his plans.
👍 Comentários e Gabarito A :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) is constantly distracted from his most relevant goals for the day.
(B) leads a very busy professional life with no time for his family and friends.
(C) can only fulfill his professional tasks by making use of phone calls and emails.
(D) plans to do things that make him feel better before he attempts his daily assignments.
(E) has so many household tasks to accomplish that he constantly fails in most of his plans.
👉 Questão 29 :
The author ends the text in a tone of
(A) high hopes
(B) intense anger
(C) total conformity
(D) extreme satisfaction
(E) profound melancholy
👍 Comentários e Gabarito C :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
The author ends the text in a tone of
(A) high hopes
(B) intense anger
(C) total conformity
(D) extreme satisfaction
(E) profound melancholy
👉 Questão 30 :
In “You have to climb out the same way you climbed in: with new rituals” (lines 58-59) the modal that substitutes ‘have to’ without a change in meaning is
(A) may
(B) can
(C) must
(D) would
(E) might
👍 Comentários e Gabarito C :
TÓPICO - IDEIA CONTEXTUAL ou INFORMAÇÃO DENTRO DO TEXTO:
(A) may
(B) can
(C) must
(D) would
(E) might
