Questão nº 134
Questão de Língua Inglesa · CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 (nº 134)
Culture is ordinary. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning. The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions, and its growth is an active debate and amendment under the pressures of experience, contact, and discovery, writing themselves into the land. The growing society is there, yet it is also made and remade in every individual mind.
The making of a mind is, first, the slow learning of shapes, purposes, and meanings, so that work, observation and communication are possible. Then, second, but equal in importance, is the testing of these in experience, the making of new observations, comparisons, and meanings.
A culture has two aspects: the known meanings and directions, which its members are trained to; the new observations and meanings, which are offered and tested. These are the ordinary processes of human societies and human minds, and we see through them the nature of a culture: that it is always both traditional and creative; that it is both the most ordinary common meanings and the finest individual meanings.
We use the word culture in these two senses: to mean a whole way of life ⸺ the common meanings; to mean the arts and learning ⸺ the special processes of discovery and creative effort. Some writers reserve the word for one or other of these senses; I insist on both, and on the significance of their conjunction. The questions I ask about our culture are questions about our general and common purposes, yet also questions about deep personal meanings.
Culture is ordinary, in every society and in every mind.
Based on the grammatical and semantic aspects of the preceding text, judge the items that follow.
The statement "The making of a society is the finding of common meanings and directions" (fourth sentence of the first paragraph) can be correctly rephrased as A society is formed through the discovery of everyday meanings and directions, without this changing the original meaning of the text.
Resposta comentada
A questão troca uma palavra-chave do texto original: o autor fala de "common meanings" (sentidos/significados comuns, compartilhados por todos), e o item substitui por "everyday meanings" (sentidos cotidianos, do dia a dia). São coisas diferentes — "comum" aqui é o que é coletivo/partilhado, não o que é banal ou rotineiro.
- Correta: Errado. O item troca "common" por "everyday", e "comum" (coletivo, compartilhado) não é sinônimo de "cotidiano" (do dia a dia), alterando o sentido original.
Como ficaria certo: A society is formed through the discovery of common meanings and directions.
Fonte: CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 Diplomata (Terceiro Secretário). Reproduzida para fins de estudo.