Questão nº 141
Questão de Língua Inglesa · CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 (nº 141)
In 1977, during his first official visit abroad as President of the United States, Jimmy Carter was betrayed by the language barrier and the choices of his translator. In the course of meeting his Polish counterpart, Edward Gierek, the translator was on hand to provide a translation of his president’s words into Polish. Unfortunately, his translations could, perhaps, have not been farther from the truth of what Carter said.
Announcing that he was extremely glad to be in Poland for his first trip abroad, the translator somehow managed to mistranslate the friendly statement into the announcement of seeming defection by the American President, turning "I left the United States this morning" into "I left the United States, never to return". Furthermore, Carter’s warm statement of his visit to the nation was bizarrely mistranslated into the comment that President Carter "was happy to grasp at Poland’s private parts". Following up this colossal mistake, the interpreter then successively translated Carter’s expression of a hope to learn more about the Polish people’s "desires for the future" into "I desire the Poles carnally". Adding insult to injury, during Carter’s toast at a state banquet later during the same trip, a different interpreter providing a translation could not understand the American President’s Georgia accent and consequently chose to simply not translate his words at all rather than offer an inaccurate depiction. In hindsight, the latter interpreter opted for the better path in the face of confusion.
About the previous text, judge the items bellow.
There is an ambiguity in the second sentence of the text, resolved by the mentioning of a politician’s name.
Resposta comentada
Ambiguidade é quando uma palavra ou trecho tem mais de um sentido possível, e o leitor só descobre qual é o correto pelo contexto (as informações ao redor). Aqui, a "segunda frase" é: "In the course of meeting his Polish counterpart, Edward Gierek, the translator was on hand...". O termo ambíguo é "his Polish counterpart": de quem é o counterpart (equivalente/homólogo)? Poderia ser o equivalente polonês de Carter (ou seja, Gierek) — mas também poderia, em tese, ser o equivalente polonês de outra pessoa mencionada. A menção ao nome Edward Gierek logo em seguida resolve a ambiguidade, deixando claro que se trata do homólogo polonês de Carter.
- Correta: Certo. O pronome possessivo "his" + "counterpart" cria ambiguidade sobre quem é o equivalente, e o nome próprio "Edward Gierek" esclarece a referência.
Fica de olho: a banca costuma trocar o referente do pronome possessivo (ex.: dizer que "his" se refere ao tradutor, e não a Carter) ou afirmar que a ambiguidade é resolvida por um cargo em vez de um nome — aí o item viraria Errado.
Fonte: CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 Diplomata (Terceiro Secretário). Reproduzida para fins de estudo.