EPCAR 2017 — Questão 47 · Língua Inglesa - Compreensão e Interpretação de Texto

Directions: Read the text below and answer questions 33 to 48 according to it.

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SOME OF THE INTERNET'S CRAZIEST CONSPIRACY THEORIES

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Michael Jackson Is Still Alive

The advent of the internet hasn't just cooked up1

new conspiracy theories, it's also accelerated existing

ones. If you refuse to believe that it was the Iranians that

5 killed him, perhaps you'll be convinced that MJ is actually

still alive. Proof? His own daughter Paris Jackson took a

photo of him. Seriously. What do you mean you don't

see him? He's right there in the back seat, stacked2

under that pile of clothes wearing his iconic hat. Believe,

10 man. Thriller Vol.2 to drop next year.

The Moon Doesn't Exist

It's no good looking at it, night after night. The

moon doesn't exist. It's a hologram, put there by persons

unknown. Of course, serial conspiracy theorist David

15 Icke has a theory. There are also countless YouTubers

keeping an eye out, one of whom has gone as far as

"looking at it regularly for a year".

Jay Z Is A Time-Travelling Vampire

There are vast regions of the internet devoted to

20 explaining why Jay Z is part of the Illuminati. Hence3

when this photo, which was taken in New York in 1939,

appeared last year, he was accused of being a timetraveller.

And a vampire. This video lists other old-time

celebrity lookalikes4, as well as suggesting that

25 Hollywood stars don't age because they're the immortal

bloodsucking undead. Not because they're stuffed5 with

botox, then?

The Earth Is Hollow

Don't give up, readers. We're halfway through

30 this list. We can make it to the end. Dig⁶ deep. Well, not

too deep. You see, the Earth is hollow⁷ and accessible

via portals at the north and south poles. Luckily though,

it's quite habitable down there, providing excellent living

quarters⁸ for the lost Viking colonies of Greenland and

35 the Nazis, while "aliens" are in fact just visitors from the

subterranean areas.

Siri Can Predict The Apocalypse

Amazing as it may seem, given that it can't do

anything else you actually ask it to do, Siri can predict

40 the apocalypse. When asked "What day is 27th July

2014?", Apple's assistant replied, "The opening of the

gate of Hades", aka9 The End Of The World. That date

has now passed without issue10. Say what you like about

the maligned MS Office paperclip, but at least he didn't

45 scaremonger11 that the end was near.

We All Live In The Matrix And Billionaires Want To

Break Us Out Of It

The New Yorker’s Tad Friend claims that many

people in Silicone Valley are obsessed with the idea that

50 we're all living in a Matrix-like simulation, and some are

taking that obsession a stage further: “Two tech

billionaires have gone so far as to secretly engage

scientists to work on breaking us out of the

simulation.”Here's hoping Mark Zuckerberg is 'The One',

55 yeah?

Hitler Is Still Alive

"Hitler is still alive" rumours have circulated since

the 1970s, fuelled by the fact that his crony Josef

Mengele hid in South America. Stories like this one,

60 however, speculate the 125-year-old Hitler has been

responsible for various world disasters, including 9/11

and the 2010 Gulf oil spill, which happened on his

birthday. Other theories say he died in 1984 in Brazil,

aged 94. Or in Argentina, aged 73.

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_{(Adapted from http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/20-of-the-internets-craziestconspiracy-theories/Acesso em: 14 de fev 2017)}

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Glossary:

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1 - cook up – to invent a story, a plan, etc.

2 - stacked – covered with things

3 - hence – the reason, the explanation for

4 - lookalikes – similar in appearance

5 - stuffed – filled with something

6 - dig – to make a hole in the ground

7 - hollow – a hole or empty space

8 - quarter – a place to live

9 - aka – abbreviation for also known as

10 - issue – problem

11 - scaremonger – a person that creates stories that cause public fear

The sentence “Hitler is still alive rumours have circulated since the 1970s” (line 57 and 58) means that