Questão de Língua Inglesa

UnB/CESPE – ANAC Caderno A – 2 – This text refers to items from 21 through 30. Blazing a trail with solar power 1 In a hangar outside Zurich, engineers are paring away at the obstacles to a very 21st century challenge: flying a plane around the world powered by nothing but the rays of the sun. If the Solar Impulse project goes to plan, in 2011 a 4 gangly aircraft with the wingspan of an Airbus A380 and the weight of a compact car will attempt to circle the globe in about a month at an average speed of 43 m.p.h. (70 km/h), 7 landing only five times along the way. The challenge, says Piccard, is to keep going until the next sunrise before the batteries are empty: “We have 10 very little margin of error from night into day. Each dawn will be a moment of incredible suspense.” For the 2011 flight, he and Boschberg will do alternating stints of five 13 days and five nights between landings. A day on the ground spent charging in the sunlight should be enough to get the 16 plane back into the air the next morning for another stage in its globe-girdling journey. It’s a delicate enterprise, complicated by 19 meteorological challenges and the ungainliness of a plane this big and light. Even Piccard doesn’t envision solar planes replacing today’s airliners anytime soon, but that’s not the 22 point. To reduce emissions, he believes, aviation will eventually need to wean itself from fossil fuels. “To make reasonable use of any alternative,” he says, “we have to 25 become lighter and more aerodynamic to reduce consumption.” Solar Impulse promises to generate an array of futuristic insights — and some old-fashioned thrills along 28 the way. Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted). Judge the following items according to the text.