Sample English Learning Material

1. Break up or not?
Key T erms…
spouse: esposo(a)
↲
break up: separar
Facebook researchers are trying to
predict when you and your spouse
will break up
A Cornell professor and a senior Facebook engineer are
↲
↲
claiming to have: alegando
ter
accurately: precisamente
in danger: em perigo
claiming to have developed a Facebook algorithm
that can accurately identify who you’re dating and,
especially for new relationships, whether you’re in
danger of breaking up.
The algorithm depends on a new metric the researchers
are calling “disperson,” which looks at connections
between people who have different sets of friends.
↲
sets: grupos
Close friends: Amigos
íntimos
embeddedness:
“incorporado/embutido”-tude
Close friends are likely to share a lot of friends in
common, which social scientists call “embeddedness.”
But people in romantic relationships tend to connect
each other to different spheres: for example, a husband
is likely to introduce his wife to his work friends, college
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buddies: amigos
↲
kickball league: kickball liga
buddies, and members of his kickball league, with
whom she may not have any other connections in
common.
Relatives: Parentes
Relatives may also show this same “dispersion”
dynamic, the researchers say.
the most overall accurate
metric: o mais preciso
métrico de todos
Dispersion turned out to be the most overall
accurate metric

2. ↲
dating: namorando com
accuracy: exatidão, precisão
random guessing:
adivinhação aleatória
couples: casais
The researchers were able to identify who was dating
whom with 60 percent accuracy, much better than the
2 percent accuracy they’d get from random guessing.
High dispersion also seems to be correlated with longer
relationships. The study found that couples were 50
percent more likely to break up in the next two months
if the dispersion algorithm failed to guess that they were
dating.
such as: tal como
attendance: presença
↲
turned out to be: acabou
sendo
The scientists also looked at metrics such as how many
times a user viewed another’s profile, attendance at
the same events, and messages sent. Dispersion turned
out to be the most overall accurate metric for
determining romantic relationships. The researchers
used multiple sets of anonymous data, including a large
data set from 1.3 million Facebook users.
effort: esforço
↲
crunch: calcular
meaningful: significativo
marketers: comerciantes
would fail: fracassaria
fake relationships:
relacionamentos falsos
joke: piada
declaring themselves:
declarando-se
The study shows the enormous effort being made to
crunch Facebook data into something meaningful for
marketers. However, it’s easy to see where the
algorithm would fail. For example, many Facebook
users list fake relationships as a joke, declaring
themselves to be “married” or “engaged” to their
best friends. The method also assumes that you, all your
friends, your spouse, and all your spouse’s friends are
active on Facebook.
engaged: noivado
↲
Of course, this is nothing new. Remember when Mark
hook up with: “ficar com”
Zuckerberg wanted to predict who you would hook up
with
spokesperson: porta-voz
Update, 6:05PM: A Facebook spokesperson sent a

3. statement: declaração
statement about the study: “The specific findings
findings: resultados
from this study are not currently being used in making
currently: atualmente
News Feed a better product. It has helped the team
features: recursos,
ferramentas
think about things and informed some of the features
ranking: classificação (em
termos de importância)
we use in ranking, but we are not using the specifics in
the paper.”
Read More Here…
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separar
break up
The discontinuance of a relationship, as a marriage or a friendship.
She broke up with her boyfriend last week.
Tom and Mary might break up. ↔
Tom e Mary poderiam terminar.
I don’t want to break up with you. ↔
Eu não quero romper com você.
↱
claiming to have
alegando ter
O caminho que une Montegrande com Cochiguaz, em algum momento foi o
centro das comunidades esotéricas que afirmavam ter contato com
extraterrestres. ↔
A road runs between Montegrande and Cochiguaz, a one-time center for
paranormal communities claiming to have contacted extraterrestrials.
↱
accurately
precisamente
My watch is very accurate. ↔
O meu relógio é muito preciso.
I don’t remember my father’s face accurately. ↔
Não lembro com exatidão a cara de meu pai.
↱
sets
grupos

4. a group of people who associate together, esp a clique
↱
amigos
buddies
A good friend; a comrade.
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kickball league
kickball liga
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dating
namorando com
After eight months, he eventually started dating girls again. ↔
Depois de oito meses, ele finalmente recomeçou a ter encontros com
meninas.
↱
turned out to be
acabou sendo
It turned out to be true. ↔
Confirmou-se.
What he said turned out to be true. ↔
O que ele disse acabou virando verdade.
Accidentally, the rumor has turned out to be false. ↔
Por acaso, ficou evidente que o boato era falso.
↱
calcular
crunch
“Crunch” is similar to “bite”. However, the phrase “crunching numbers/data” is
used to mean working with lots of data, making sense of the information,
calculating things based on the data, etc.
↱
hook up with
“ficar com”