Question

1 - Please, read the passage below to answer this question.


Every so often, a grand thesis captures the world's imagination, at least until it is swept away by events or by a newer, more plausible thesis. The latest one to do so, in
policy think tanks, universities, foreign ministries, corporate boardrooms, editorial offices, and international conference centers, is that America's time of global dominance
is finished, and that new powers, such as China, India, and Russia, are poised to take over. It's an idea that has had as much currency within the United States as elsewhere.
All great empires set too much store by predictions of their imminent demise. Perhaps, as the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy suggested in his poem "Waiting for the
Barbarians," empires need the sense of peril to give them a reason to go on. Why spend so much money and effort if not to keep the barbarians at bay?
Still, the current economic growth of China -and also of India and Russia - is impressive. In "Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan Will Shape Our
Next Decade" (Harcourt; $26), the former Economist editor Bill Emmott refers to a World Bank analysis predicting that both China and India "could almost triple their
economic output" in the next ten years or so. By the late twenty-twenties, China could overtake the United States as the world's biggest economy. The spectacle of Chinese
turbo-capitalism is inspiring Marco Polo-like awe in some Western commentators. Mark Leonard, the author of "What Does China Think?" (PublicAffairs; $22.95), reports,
with more enthusiasm than plausibility, that a "town the size of London shoots up in the Pearl River Delta every year." Parag Khanna, in "The Second World" (Random
House; $29), informs, rather gleefully, that "Asia is shaping the world's destiny - and exposing the flaws of the grand narrative of Western civilization in the process.
Because of the East, the West is no longer master of its own fate."
It has been a while since policy mavens have used terms like "destiny" with a straight face. But that's the kind of language we are beginning to hear, now that American
"hyper-power" (as a former French foreign minister liked to call it) is being challenged. There are good reasons for skepticism about such grand forecasts. Economic
statistics in autocracies such as China are notoriously unreliable, and it's worth recalling all those breathless predictions, a few decades ago, of Japan's imminent global
domination. But, even if we aren't so quick to write off America's cultural, political, economic, and military clout, the fact that the American economy has to rely on
infusions of cash from China, Singapore, and the Gulf states suggests that something important is taking place.
Source: Buruma, L., "After America: Is the West being overtaken by the rest?" The New Yorker, 21 de abril de 2008, p.126.


Considering the facts discussed in the passage above, most of the new books published on the possible overtaking of the West in the near future appear to be making that prediction because:


a) Their role is to give the dominant powers an argument for making an effort to protect their position.


b) Economic statistics are more reliable in democratic nations than in other places.


c) American cultural dominance was never solid to begin with.


d) Policy mavens think that they can use words like 'destiny' and 'Fate' with impudence.


e) The French believe America is still an economic, political and military super-power.​

Answer 1

1 - Após ler a passagem do texto, podemos afirmar que a maioria dos novos livros publicados sobre a ascensão do Oriente no futuro próximo fazem essa predição porque: A) Their role is to give the dominant powers an argument for making an effort to protect their position.

Interpretando o texto

Para acertar é preciso fazer a interpretação, entendendo o tema, prestando atenção às palavras-chave e às assertivas presentes em cada alternativa, a fim de identificar a mais correta.

Vamos às opções:

• A) Correta. Trecho do texto que a confirma: Perhaps, as the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy suggested in his poem "Waiting for the Barbarians," empires need the sense of peril to give them a reason to go on. = Talvez, como sugeriu o poeta grego Constantino Cavafy em seu poema "Esperando pelos Bárbaros", os impérios precisem da sensação de perigo para lhes dar uma razão para continuar.

• B) Incorreta. Apesar de a afirmativa ser correta (Estatísticas econômicas são mais confiáveis em nações democráticas do que em outros lugares), a pergunta se refere ao Ocidente sendo ultrapassado pelo Oriente, e essa não é uma justificativa para tal.

• C) Errada. O texto não questiona a dominância cultura dos Estados Unidos da América.

• D) Incorreta. Ele até questiona o uso da palavra destiny pelos especialistas, mas isso não justifica a pergunta da questão.

• E) Errada. O texto não afirma que os franceses continuam acreditando no hiper-poder americano, apenas cita essa expressão dita por um ex-ministro francês.

Para saber sobre interpretação de texto em inglês, que vai ajudar você a responder esse tipo de pergunta, acesse: brainly.com.br/tarefa/29119934