Questões de Concurso

Direction: Read the text below and answer question according to it.  

    This book wants to show the newcomer the lie of the land without confusing him with details. In writing it I thought first and foremost of readers in their teens. But I have never believed that books for young people should differ from books for adults except for the fact that they must reckon with the most exacting class of critics, critics who are quick to detect and resent any trace of pretentious jargon or bogus sentiment. I know from experience that these are the vices which may render people suspicious of all writings. I have striven to use plain language even at the risk of sounding casual or unprofessional. I hope that no reader will attribute my decision to get along with a minimum of the art historian’s conventional terms to any desire on my part of ‘talking down’ to him. Apart from this decision, I have tried to follow a number of more specific self-imposed rules, such as limiting myself to real works of art and cutting out anything which might merely be interesting as a specimen of taste or fashion. This decision entailed a considerable sacrifice of literary effects. Praise is so much duller than criticism, and the inclusion of some amusing monstrosities might have offered some light relief. Thus, while I do not claim that all the works illustrated represent the highest standard of perfection, I did make an effort not to include anything which I considered to be without a peculiar merit of its own.

    A second rule also demanded a little self-denial. I vowed to resist any temptation to be original in my selection, lest the well-known masterpieces be crowded out by my own personal favourites. This book, after all, is not intended merely as an anthology of beautiful things; it is meant for those who look for bearings in a new field, and for them the familiar appearance of apparently ‘hackneyed’ examples may serve as welcome landmarks.

    One more rule I have followed. When in doubt I have always preferred to discuss a work which I had seen in the original rather than one I knew only from photographs. I should have liked to make this an absolute rule, but I did not want the reader to be penalized by the accidents of travel restrictions which sometimes dog the life of the art-lover.

E. H. Gombrich. The Story of Art. Phaidon, New York – London: 1995, p. 7-8 (adapted).

O texto seguinte servirá de base para responder à questão.

(1º§) "The hype around the Bermuda Triangle can be traced back to a series of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft. In 1945, five US Navy planes and 14 men disappeared in the area while doing routine training exercises. The flight's leader, Lieutenant Charles Taylor, was heard over the radio saying: "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." The US navy investigated and ultimately reported the incident as "cause unknown". From the time of this incident until the mid-1980s, 25 small planes disappeared while passing through the Bermuda Triangle. They were never seen again. No wreckage was ever recovered.

(2º§) In light of the above, we should ask ourselves: if we don't know what caused something, or if something appears entirely mysterious, should we look for the answer in the paranormal (such as ghosts or spirits) or the supernatural (such as magic or miracles)? Some people do. They find such explanations exciting. This is what has happened for decades with the incidents in the Bermuda Triangle. However, when we take the time to learn more about these events and not jump to conclusions, they start to look much more ordinary.

(3º§) "Take the disappearance of Charles Taylor and the five planes which the US Navy investigated. The investigation found that as it got dark outside and the weather changed, Taylor had navigated the planes to the wrong location. Taylor also had a history of getting lost while flying. He had twice needed to be rescued in the Pacific Ocean. The navy itself had a good idea of what had happened ahead of the disappearance.

(4º§) "But the incident was ultimately described as "cause unknown" because Taylor's mother, not wanting to blame her son for the disappearance, maintained if the navy couldn't find the aircraft they couldn't say for sure what had happened. Not wanting to blame Taylor for the tragedy, the navy agreed. Most of the pilots involved in the incident were trainees. This means they weren't properly taught how to use all the aircraft instruments when flying at night, or in bad weather.

(5º§) "What's more, the aircraft they had been flying were known to sink in as little as 45 seconds if they landed in water. And once aircraft sink in the vast ocean (although this is extremely rare these days), they are often never found again. This is true even now, despite big improvements in aircraft technology and search-and-rescue methods. For instance, only a small amount of debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight, which disappeared in 2014, has been found [...].

SATTERLEY, S. Curious Kids: what is the Bermuda Triangle and why is it considered dangerous?. The Conversation, 2020 (adaptado). Disponível em: https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-is-the-bermuda-triangle-a nd-why-is-it-considered-dangerous-145616. Acesso em 21 de julho de 2024.