Questão nº 145
Questão de Língua Inglesa · CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 (nº 145)
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.
It would be acceptable to infer from the text that the first translator it mentioned was an American rather than a Polish citizen.
Resposta comentada
O item pede uma inferência (conclusão tirada do texto, mesmo sem estar escrita literalmente). O tradutor é chamado de "his translator" — o pronome possessivo "his" remete a Carter, ou seja, o tradutor era do próprio presidente americano, contratado/lotado para acompanhá-lo. Além disso, o erro dele foi justamente não dominar bem o polonês e o contexto local, o que seria improvável num intérprete polonês nativo traduzindo para a própria língua. Logo, é razoável concluir que era americano.
- Correta: Certo. "His translator" liga o intérprete a Carter, e os erros grosseiros em polonês reforçam que ele não era polonês.
Fica de olho: a banca costuma trocar "acceptable to infer" por "the text explicitly states" ou "the text proves" — aí o item vira Errado, porque o texto não afirma a nacionalidade do tradutor, apenas permite deduzi-la.
Fonte: CEBRASPE IRBR 2026 Diplomata (Terceiro Secretário). Reproduzida para fins de estudo.