(EsPCEx - 2021)
Lockdown Named 2020's Word of the Year by Collins Dictionary
Lockdown, the noun that has come to define so many lives across the world in 2020, has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionary. Lockdown is defined by Collins as "the imposition of stringent restrictions o travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces". The 4.5-billion-word Collins Corpus, which contais written material from websites, books and newspapers, as well as spoken material from radio, television and conversations, registered a 6,000% increase in _______ (1) usage. In 2019, there were 4,00 recorded instances of lockdown being used. In 2020, this had risen to more than quarter of a million.
"Language is a reflection of the world around us and 2020 has been dominated by the global pandemic." says Collins language content consultant Helen Newstead. "We have chosen lockdown as _______ (2) word of the year because it encapsulates the shared experience of billions of people who have had to restrict _______ (3) daily lives in order to contain the virus. Lockdown has affected the way we work, study, shop and socialise. It is not a word of the year to celebrate, but it is, perhaps, one that sums up the year for most of the world."
Other pandemic-related words such as coronavirus, social distancing and key worker were on the dictionary's list of the top 10 words. However, the coronavirus crisis didn't completely dominate this year's vocabulary: words like "Megxit", a termo to describe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping back as senior members of the royal family, also made the shortlist along with "TikToker" (a person who regularly shares or appears in videos on TikTok), and "BLM." The abbreviation BLM, for Black Lives Matter is defined by Collins as "a movement that campaigns against racially motivated violence and oppression", it registered a 581% increase in usage.
Adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/10/lockdown-named-word-of-the-year-by-collins-dictionary
According to the text, choose the correct statement.
All the words on the dictionary's top 10 list were related to the coronavirus crisis.
Collins Corpus is a collection of both written and spoken language evidence.
The word of the year does not tell us much about the world's main worries.
BLM showed a timid increase in usage and didn't make the shortlist.
Collins counted about 100,000 uses of the word lockdown in 2020, versus only 4,000 in 2019
Gabarito:
Collins Corpus is a collection of both written and spoken language evidence.
a) Incorreta, pois o último parágrafo nos diz exatamente o contrário, que nem todas as palavras do seu top 10 estavam relacionadas à crise do Covid-19. Termos como “Megxit” e BLM estavam na lista e não se relacionam com a crise de Covid-19.
b) Correta, já que essa informação está clara no primeiro paragrafo do texto, onde é dito que existem informações escritas e faladas no acervo do Collins.
c) Incorreta, uma vez que a palavra do ano fala sim sobre uma das maiores preocupações do mundo, que foi o lockdown e as consequências da pandemia de Covid-19.
d) Incorreta, uma vez que o aumento no uso de BLM foi de 581%, o que é expressivo e não tímido, como a alternativa coloca.
e) Incorreta, uma vez que o texto fala que o dicionário contou mais de um quarto de milhão de usos do termo “lockdown”, que correspondem a 250 mil usos, não 100 mil, como dito aqui.