Assinale a alternativa correta para o verbo em
destaque na frase abaixo.
Africa is not the front line in the war against terror,
but it soon “could” be.
Utilize o texto a seguir para responder a questão.
The End of Poverty
Equality is a very big idea, connected to
freedom, but an idea doesn’t come for free. In a world
where distance no longer determines who your
neighbor is, paying the price for equality is not just heart,
it’s smart. The destinies of the “haves” are intrinsically
linked to the fates of the “have-nothing-at-alls”. If we
didn’t know this already, it became too clear on
September 11, 2001. Africa is not the front line in the
war against terror, but it soon could be.
“The war against terror is bound up in the war
against poverty.” Who said that? Not me. Not some
beatnik peace group. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
And when a military man starts talking like that perhaps
we should listen. In tense, nervous times isn’t it cheaper
– and smarter – to make friends out of potential enemies
than to defend yourself against them?
We could be the first generation to outlaw the
kind of extreme, stupid poverty that sees a child die of
hunger in a world of plenty, or of a disease preventable
by a twenty-cent inoculation. We are the first generation
that has enough power to do that. The first generation
that is powerful enough to unknot the whole tangle of
bad trade, bad debt, and bad luck. The first generation
that can end a corrupt relationship between the powerful
and the weaker parts of the world which has been so
wrong for so long.
If the rich nations decided they could become
slightly “poorer”, they would truly help the nations in
need. If they agreed to write off the old debts of the poor
countries, the whole world would be safer. This year
millions of people gathered to persuade world leaders
to invest more in fighting poverty and disease in Africa.
We cannot save energy life. But the ones we
can, we must. It is – or it ought to be – unacceptable that
an accident of longitude determines whether a child
lives or dies. Fifteen thousand people dying needlessly
every day from AIDS, TB, and malaria. Behind each of
these statistics is someone’s daughter, someone’s son,
a mother, a father, a sister, a brother.
This is Africa’s crisis. That it’s not on the nightly
news, that we do not treat this as an emergency – that’s
our crisis.
(adapted from Bono’s foreword to the End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs,
Penguin Press, and “This is Generation’s Moon Shot”, by Bono in
Time)
Gabarito comentado
Tema central da questão: A questão avalia o entendimento do uso do verbo modal "could" na frase “Africa is not the front line in the war against terror, but it soon could be.” O foco está em identificar corretamente a nuance de significado que esse modal transmite no contexto.
Explicação didática do tema: Os verbos modais em Inglês (can, could, may, might, must, etc.) adicionam camadas de significado ao verbo principal — como possibilidade, habilidade, permissão, entre outros. O modal “could” é versátil e pode indicar:
- Possibilidade (presente ou futuro): It could rain tomorrow.
- Capacidade no passado: I could swim at age six.
- Pedido formal: Could you help me?
No texto, “could” mostra que existe uma possibilidade futura de a África tornar-se foco do conflito, ou seja, não é uma certeza, mas algo possível de acontecer.
Análise da alternativa correta:
C) possibility – Correta. O uso de could exprime possibilidade futura no contexto, conforme gramáticas consagradas como Murphy (English Grammar in Use).
Análise das alternativas incorretas:
- A) capacity – Capacidade seria o sentido de could no passado (“she could run fast”). Não cabe aqui, pois o contexto é futuro e hipotético.
- B) permission – Could também pode ser usado com permissão em perguntas, mas não neste contexto afirmativo.
- D) prohibition – Proibição é expressa por modais como must not ou cannot, nunca por could.
- E) advice – Para conselho usa-se should ou could em tom sugestivo. O trecho não expressa um conselho, mas uma possível consequência.
Situações comuns de pegadinha: Fique atento à diferença entre capacidades do passado e possibilidades futuras. Trocas automáticas e palavras semelhantes enganam facilmente.
Resumo: Sempre analise o contexto do modal. No exemplo, “could” não fala de permissão nem habilidade passada, mas da possibilidade de acontecer no futuro.
Gabarito: C) possibility
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