Questão de Língua Inglesa

Execução: Fundatec 877_CE_35_NS_DM 5/6/202413:51:59 “Wonderful experience”: Researcher’s close encounter with Svalbard polar bears By Miranda Bryant 01 Katarzyna Kudłacz was preparing a breakfast of scrambled eggs __ a research station on 02 Svalbard when she looked up to see she had three unexpected guests. Shocked and in awe, the 03 meteorologist immediately alerted her colleagues to the female polar bear and her two cubs 04 peering into the Polish research station __ Hornsund, in the south of the Norwegian archipelago, 05 their noses pressed up against the window. Her photographs of the close encounter show one __ 06 the bears with their paw __ the window, board games in the foreground. 07 “That day I was on duty, the so-called station duty, when one person is in charge of the 08 station, keeping an eye on the satellite radio, cooking or cleaning,” said Kudłacz, who has been 09 based at the station since June. “While preparing breakfast, I saw from the kitchen our majestic 10 guests looking with interest at the windows”. The family looked healthy, she said, and “only looked 11 at our windows with interest”, but the team decided to fire a flare gun to frighten the bears away. 12 “It was a wonderful experience, but we must remember that they are wild animals and for them 13 and for us it is better to keep our distance. They were not aggressive. However, we preferred to 14 scare them away by making noise and firing a signal gun”. 15 Daniel Kępski, the leader of the 46th Polish polar expedition, said they often saw polar bears, 16 but the animals rarely stopped to look inside the research station. “It was amazing to see them 17 so close during that day, but of course, it was also a bit stressful”. This year the team had seen 18 more polar bears than usual, he added. Usually, there were around 20 bear sightings a year, but 19 this year there had been close to 40 sightings since June and they expected to see more in their 20 final three months. “So far, we have not observed any clearly emaciated individuals. This year is 21 probably a good year for Svalbard’s polar bears because there is a lot of sea ice here compared 22 to recent years”, he said. (Available at: www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/02/wonderful-experience-svalbardresearchers-close-encounter-with-svalbard-polar-bears – text especially adapted for this test).