The Excellence of Excellence

Antes de ler

Um texto de opinião critica os prêmios de inovação de uma universidade e sugere que eles premiam ideias já aprovadas, e não ideias realmente novas.

Palavras-chave

safely pre-approved: já aprovada com segurança, antes mesmo de ser avaliada
transparent criteria: critérios claros e transparentes (aqui, o texto sugere que não são tão justos)
irritating one's rivals: irritar os rivais, ou seja, deixar os concorrentes com raiva
make preference look like principle: fazer uma preferência parecer princípio, ou seja, esconder favoritismo atrás de uma justificativa

Texto · parte 1 de 3

The university has announced its new innovation awards, a scheme designed to celebrate ideas that demonstrate strategic alignment, stakeholder confidence, and, where possible, originality. Applicants are invited to submit work that has already been endorsed by the relevant committee, thereby ensuring that innovation arrives safely pre-approved. The vice-chancellor described the initiative as a bold departure from tradition, which is reassuring, since the announcement was circulated in the same template used for parking regulations.

Questões

Questão 1:

What is the primary irony in the requirement that innovation arrive “safely pre-approved”?

Ver tradução

Qual é a principal ironia na exigência de que a inovação chegue "safely pre-approved"?

The university wants applicants to submit ideas before they are fully developed.

The institution presents controlled conformity as if it were genuine innovation.

The awards are intended only for ideas with financial benefits.

The committee has abandoned all traditional procedures.

Texto · parte 2 de 3

To preserve fairness, the panel will apply transparent criteria. These criteria will remain confidential until the awards have been made, at which point they will be published in a summary that confirms the panel’s wisdom. Members with a conflict of interest may recuse themselves, although the university has thoughtfully defined such a conflict as direct financial benefit, excluding the more ordinary pleasure of rewarding one’s allies and irritating one’s rivals.

Questões

Questão 2:

What does the discussion of “transparent criteria” most strongly imply?

Ver tradução

O que a discussão sobre "transparent criteria" sugere com mais força?

The criteria are open, stable, and independently audited.

The criteria may be presented as fair while remaining manipulable or retrospective.

The panel has not yet decided whether applications are necessary.

The university is legally required to publish every deliberation.

Questões

Questão 3:

Which register shift most clearly intensifies the satire?

Ver tradução

Qual mudança de registro deixa a sátira mais intensa?

The movement from formal managerial terminology to colloquial descriptions of rivalry.

The movement from scientific terminology to poetic descriptions of nature.

The movement from personal anecdotes to legal quotations.

The movement from historical analysis to technical instructions.

Texto · parte 3 de 3

The shortlist reportedly favours projects whose principal achievement is their compatibility with the institution’s current vocabulary. A laboratory that challenges policy is considered insufficiently collaborative; a committee that reproduces policy in a colourful diagram is a triumph of process. Several awkwardly independent researchers were quietly disinvited from the launch after asking whether the awards might recognise work that had not first received permission to exist.

None of this proves that the prizes are rigged. It merely suggests that the university has discovered a sophisticated way to make preference look like principle. The winners may indeed be deserving. Yet the ceremony’s language—excellence, inclusion, transformation—will invite readers to admire not only the recipients but also the machinery that selected them. That machinery, protected by institutional memory and defended for the sake of optics, may be practising administrative self-care: ensuring that everyone celebrates innovation, provided innovation knows whom to thank.

The Excellence of Excellence

Antes de ler

Palavras-chave

Texto · parte 1 de 3

Questões

Texto · parte 2 de 3

Questões

Questões

Texto · parte 3 de 3

Seu percurso de aprendizagem

A Quieter Route

The Note on the Counter

Acoustic Audit of the Aldenham Guildhall

The Quiet-Hours Loophole

The Chair With a Past

A Thoughtful Way to Opt Out

Gostou de ler? Continue com um livro

Um Conto de Natal

Um Escândalo na Boêmia

Alice no País das Maravilhas

O Bebê de Désirée

Palavras-chave

Seu percurso de aprendizagem

Outras atividades de Inglês perto do nível C2

A Quieter Route

The Note on the Counter

Acoustic Audit of the Aldenham Guildhall

The Quiet-Hours Loophole

The Chair With a Past

A Thoughtful Way to Opt Out

Gostou de ler? Continue com um livro

Um Conto de Natal

Um Escândalo na Boêmia

Alice no País das Maravilhas

O Bebê de Désirée