Questão nº 143
Questão de Língua Inglesa · CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 (nº 143)
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.
The meaning of the fourth sentence of the second paragraph would remain the same if "could not" were replaced with failed to as long as "chose" were also replaced with to choose.
Resposta comentada
Aqui a pegadinha é de estrutura gramatical: trocar "could not" por "failed to" muda a forma do verbo que vem depois. "Could not" é modal e pede verbo na forma base ("could not understand"). Já "failed to" pede infinitivo com "to" ("failed to understand"). Além disso, o item também mexe no segundo verbo ("chose" → "to choose"), o que quebra a concordância da frase original.
- Correta: Errado. Porque o item diz que basta trocar "could not" por "failed to" "as long as 'chose' were also replaced with 'to choose'" — mas essa troca dupla não preserva o sentido nem a gramática: "failed to understand" já exige o "to", e "chose to not translate" viraria "to choose to not translate", mudando a estrutura da oração.
Como ficaria certo: A frase manteria o sentido se fosse reescrita como "a different interpreter providing a translation failed to understand the American President's Georgia accent and consequently chose to simply not translate his words at all" — ou seja, trocando só "could not" por "failed to" (sem mexer em "chose").
Fonte: CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 Diplomata (Terceiro Secretário). Reproduzida para fins de estudo.