O termo “the same thing”, em destaque no segundo
parágrafo, refere-se a
Technology isn’t working
The digital revolution has yet to fulfil its promise of
higher productivity and better jobs
If there is a technological revolution in progress,
rich economies could be forgiven for wishing it
would go away. Workers in America, Europe and
Japan have been through a difficult few decades.
In the 1970s the blistering growth after the second
world war vanished in both Europe and America. In
the early 1990s Japan joined the slump, entering
a prolonged period of economic stagnation. Brief
spells of faster growth in intervening years quickly
petered out. The rich world is still trying to shake
off the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. And now
the digital economy, far from pushing up wages
across the board in response to higher productivity,
is keeping them flat for the mass of workers while
extravagantly rewarding the most talented ones.
It seems difficult to square this unhappy
experience with the extraordinary technological
progress during that period, but the same thing
has happened before. Most economic historians
reckon there was very little improvement in living
standards in Britain in the century after the first
Industrial Revolution. And in the early 20th century,
as Victorian inventions such as electric lighting
came into their own, productivity growth was
every bit as slow as it has been in recent decades.
<http://tinyurl.com/lv6rj7b>Acesso em: 18.02.2015. Adaptado.
Technology isn’t working
The digital revolution has yet to fulfil its promise of higher productivity and better jobs
If there is a technological revolution in progress, rich economies could be forgiven for wishing it would go away. Workers in America, Europe and Japan have been through a difficult few decades. In the 1970s the blistering growth after the second world war vanished in both Europe and America. In the early 1990s Japan joined the slump, entering a prolonged period of economic stagnation. Brief spells of faster growth in intervening years quickly petered out. The rich world is still trying to shake off the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. And now the digital economy, far from pushing up wages across the board in response to higher productivity, is keeping them flat for the mass of workers while extravagantly rewarding the most talented ones.
It seems difficult to square this unhappy experience with the extraordinary technological progress during that period, but the same thing has happened before. Most economic historians reckon there was very little improvement in living standards in Britain in the century after the first Industrial Revolution. And in the early 20th century, as Victorian inventions such as electric lighting came into their own, productivity growth was every bit as slow as it has been in recent decades.
Gabarito comentado
Gabarito: Alternativa A – “this unhappy experience”
Tema central: A questão exige a identificação da referência pronominal, conceito fundamental para interpretação de textos em inglês. Nesse contexto, você deve determinar a que termo anterior o autor se refere ao utilizar "the same thing" no texto.
A referência pronominal (ou pronominal reference) é usada para evitar repetições desnecessárias, tornando o texto mais coeso. Para identificar corretamente o antecedente de "the same thing", é essencial reler a frase e o período anterior, analisando o que foi destacado como relevante ou problemático pelo autor.
No texto, “this unhappy experience” resume a sequência de dificuldades econômicas vividas por países ricos: baixo crescimento pós-guerra, estagnação a partir dos anos 70 e crise de 2008. Em seguida, a frase “but the same thing has happened before” indica que tais dificuldades já ocorreram em períodos históricos anteriores. Assim, “the same thing” retoma exatamente a ideia da “experiência infeliz” e não um termo isolado como salários, padrões de vida ou trabalhadores.
Justificativa da alternativa correta (A): A alternativa A está correta porque “the same thing” faz referência direta à “this unhappy experience” – ou seja, o conjunto das dificuldades econômicas experimentadas pelas nações desenvolvidas ao longo do tempo. A clareza sobre esse tipo de coesão textual é ressaltada em gramáticas para concursos como “Reading for the Real World” (Longman) e nos manuais do professor Luiz Antônio Sacconi.
Análise das alternativas incorretas:
B) "living standards": Está no texto, mas “the same thing” não se refere apenas à melhoria ou não dos padrões de vida, e sim ao contexto mais amplo das dificuldades.
C) "talented ones": Refere-se aos poucos trabalhadores beneficiados pelos avanços, não à experiência infeliz geral.
D) "workers": Ainda que os trabalhadores sejam citados, o termo buscado é a situação, não os indivíduos.
E) "wages": Salários são consequência, não o foco da experiência a que “the same thing” se refere.
Dica para provas: Sempre localize a expressão de referência, leia antes e depois, procurando o "link" semântico e evite cair em alternativas que repetem palavras soltas do texto sem contexto.
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