Question

1. Faça uma leitura rápida no texto (skimming), com base no título, nas palavras semelhantes ao português e em seu conhecimento do assunto tratado. A seguir, descreva em apenas uma sentença a idéia geral do texto.
First contacts

When the Portuguese explorers first arrived in Brazil in April 1500, they found, to their astonishment, a wide coastline rich in resources, teeming with hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people living in a "paradise" of natural riches. Pêro Vaz de Caminha, the official scribe of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the commander of the discovery fleet which landed in the present state of Bahia, wrote a letter to the King of Portugal describing in glowing terms the beauty of the land.




Route taken by Cabral from Portugal to India in 1500 (in red), and the return route (in blue)


At the time of European arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had as many as 2,000 nations and tribes. The indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. For hundreds of years, the indigenous people of Brazil lived a semi-nomadic life, managing the forests to meet their needs. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, the Indians were living mainly on the coast and along the banks of major rivers.
Initially, the Europeans saw the natives as noble savages, and miscegenation of the population began right away. Portuguese claims of tribal warfare, cannibalism, and the pursuit of Amazonian brazilwood for its treasured red dye convinced the Portuguese that they should "civilize" the Indians (originally, Colonists called Brazil Terra de Santa Cruz, until later it acquired its name. But the Portuguese, like the Spanish in their North America territories, had brought diseases with them against which many Indians were helpless due to lack of immunity. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza killed tens of thousands. The diseases spread quickly along the indigenous trade routes, and whole tribes were likely annihilated without ever coming in direct contact with Europeans.

- Descreva em apenas uma sentença a ideia geral do texto.

Answer 1

Relatar as circunstâncias do descobrimento do Brasil, explicando as primeiras reações dos descobridores, sua relação com os indígenas e seu impacto na Europa.