Questões sobre Interpretação de Texto

Read the text below in order to answer questions 21 to 25:

RUSSIA'S PROMISING FUTURE

Major political developments have been taking place in Russia since the early resignation of President Boris Yeltsin.

Andrew Hunt, economist at Dresdner RCM, says the present leader Putin - a former KGB agent - is seen as someone who can get taxes collected and close the budget deficit.

"The markets are excited and believe Putin can bring about change which can make Russia's economy function properly".

The ASP General, the stock market index in Russia, grew by 350% last year.

"We will see the stabilisation of the financial situation in Russia which has had a problem with tax collection, but this will improve and lead to a reduction in interest rates which were at 50% at the beginning of 2000. If inflation comes down to 25%, interest rates will come down 15%, within the next six months".

Which aspect of the Russian economy is not mentioned in the text?

Questions 42-46 refer to the text below.

In the sentence "the latter is not only due to poor knowledge..." (line 03), the word latter refers to

Questions 42-46 refer to the text below.

Which alternative best expresses what the text is about?

Read the text below in order to answer questions 21 to 25:

RUSSIA'S PROMISING FUTURE

Major political developments have been taking place in Russia since the early resignation of President Boris Yeltsin.

Andrew Hunt, economist at Dresdner RCM, says the present leader Putin - a former KGB agent - is seen as someone who can get taxes collected and close the budget deficit.

"The markets are excited and believe Putin can bring about change which can make Russia's economy function properly".

The ASP General, the stock market index in Russia, grew by 350% last year.

"We will see the stabilisation of the financial situation in Russia which has had a problem with tax collection, but this will improve and lead to a reduction in interest rates which were at 50% at the beginning of 2000. If inflation comes down to 25%, interest rates will come down 15%, within the next six months".

What does the verb close mean concerning the budget deficit?

Read the text below in order to answer questions 17 to 20.

Software

A substantial proportion of information can be digitized. It seems likely that soon, for example, any type of information that can be perceived, i.e. seen, heard, felt, smelt or tasted, will be reducible to a collection of bits. Once in digital form, the information in question can be stored, processed and displayed by a computer. Furthermore, it can readily and rapidly be transmitted from one computer to any other computer regardless of distance, political frontiers, and physical obstacles. From a digital point of view, there is absolutely no distinction between text, sounds, graphics, photographs, music, animations, videos and…software. To include software in our list, however, may seem rather odd. Why this is so? Computer programs are, after all, only digitized information like the other examples. However, there is one vital difference between software and the rest. While text, sounds, graphics, as well as the other examples given above, are generally passive in nature, software, by contrast, is essentially active. It is information with attitude! As Hart reminds us, "Computer programs are not only texts: they also behave". Software is both form and substance, both symbolic and functional, it both "is" and "does". For this reason, software is conceptually very challenging.