[Prática de escuta e leitura em Português]

Ei, galera! Hey guys!

It’s time for another one of our listening and reading exercises for the month. The text chosen for this instalment is called O menino, o lobo e o sapo na água fervendo (The boy, the wolf and the frog in boiling water) by comedian Gregório Duvivier. The text draws on fables to comment on Brazil’s current moment of political instability.

Don’t forget to follow the steps:

• Listen to the audio first. See if you can identify any words and write them down, if you want to.
• Scroll down and read the text. You can try reading it out loud to practice your pronunciation and speaking skills, or play the audio again and follow as you listen. Read each sentence carefully and see what you can recognize and understand.
• Check translated text in italics. What were you able to grasp? Which parts were the most difficult? It’s a good idea to read the text in Portuguese again now that you know its full meaning.

1.  Ouça/ Listen

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

 

 

 

2. Leia/ Read

O menino, o lobo e o sapo na água fervendo

Parte 1: Reza a metáfora que, se você joga o sapo na água fervendo, ele pula fora, mas se você joga na água fria e vai esquentando a água aos poucos, ele não percebe e morre cozido. Pura lenda urbana (na verdade, rural -dificilmente você encontrará sapos pra ferver na cidade). Recentemente, biólogos fizeram o teste e descobriram que o sapo, ao perceber que está virando caldo, pula fora da panela, estragando ao mesmo tempo a sopa e a metáfora. Malditos biólogos. Que obsessão em estragar metáforas.

A parábola servia muito bem para explicar um fenômeno tão comum quanto difícil de entender: por que as pessoas demoram tanto a pular fora de casamentos falidos, empregos deprimentes e governos autoritários. O ser humano demora pra perceber que a água está fervendo -e inventou a metáfora do sapo, coitado, logo ele que é tão melhor que a gente na sensibilidade à fervura.

Parte 2: Seria mais justo se os sapos usassem, entre eles, a metáfora do humano. “Tadinhos, os seres humanos não percebem o momento em que a democracia vira uma ditadura, daí vários são brutalmente assassinados.” “Mas eles merecem”, dirá outro sapo. “Sempre espalham inverdades sobre nossa espécie, como aquela da água fervendo, ou aquela outra sobre o fato de não lavarmos o pé.”

Existe uma fábula que os biólogos ainda não estragaram, e que toda criança mentirosa já ouviu -ou seja, toda criança. Um menino todo dia grita “lobo!”, mas nunca tem lobo nenhum: tudo o que ele queria era um pouco de atenção, e talvez uns “likes”. Resultado: no dia em que finalmente tinha lobo, ninguém acreditou, e o menino morreu devorado.

Parte 3:  Na nossa adolescência, a gente gritou “fascista!” pro chefe careta, pra professora exigente, pro tio rabugento. A palavra passou a significar “aquele de quem a gente discorda”, tanto pra direita quanto pra esquerda. Talvez seja o caso de resgatá-la, ou quem sabe inventar alguma palavra nova pro que está acontecendo.

Jovens usam camiseta com estampa “Ustra vive” em homenagem a torturador. Santander Cultural cede a pressão e cancela exposição de “arte degenerada”. Juiz proíbe peça de teatro que “desrespeita a religião”. Cantor sertanejo defende que nunca houve ditadura no Brasil, apenas “militarismo vigiado”. Candidato que quer cancelar tratados de direitos humanos é o que mais cresce nas pesquisas.

A água está esquentando, pessoal. E tem sapo achando que é jacuzzi.

 

 

 

The boy, the wolf and the frog in boiling water

Part 1:

Legend has it that, if you throw a frog into boiling water, it jumps out, but if you throw in cold water and slowly heat the water, it does not notice and is cooked to death. Pure urban legend (in fact, rural – you’ll hardly find frogs to boil in the city). Recently, biologists tested it and discovered that the frog, realizing that it is becoming broth, jumps out of the pan, at the same time ruining the soup and the metaphor. Damn biologists. What an obsession with ruining metaphors.

The parable served very well to explain a phenomenon as common as it is difficult to understand: why do people take so long to jump out of failed marriages, depressing jobs, and authoritarian governments. The human being is slow to realize that the water is boiling – and we were the one who invented the metaphor of the frog, the poor fellow, who is so much better than us in sensitivity to boiling.

Part 2:

It would be fairer if the frogs used, among them, the metaphor of the human. “Poor things, human beings do not realize the moment when democracy becomes a dictatorship, hence several are brutally murdered.” “But they deserve it,” another frog will say. “They always spread untruths about our species, like that of boiling water, or that about the fact that we do not wash our feet.”*

There is a fable that biologists have not yet spoiled, and every lying child has heard – that is, every child. A boy every day cries “wolf!” But there is never a wolf: all he wanted was a little attention, and maybe some “likes”. Result: On the day there was finally a wolf, nobody believed him, and the boy was eaten.

*note: “the frog doesn’t wash his feet” is a popular children’s song in Brazil.

Part 3:

In our teens, we shouted “fascist!” at our annoying boss, at the demanding teacher, to the grumpy old man. The word came to mean “the one we disagree with,” both to the right wing and the left wing. Maybe it’s time to rescue it, or maybe invent some new word for what’s happening.

Young people wear t-shirts with the words “Ustra lives” in tribute to a torturer*. Santander Cultural gives in to pressure and cancels an exhibition of “degenerate art”**. A judge bans a play that “disrespects religion.” A sertanejo*** singer argues that there was never a dictatorship in Brazil, only “vigilant militarism”. A candidate who wants to cancel human rights treaties is the fastest growing in the polls.

The water is heating up, folks. And there are frogs thinking it’s a jacuzzi.

*note 1: Military official Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra was a known torturer during the dictatorship period in Brazil

**note 2: The author is referring to an event that took place at the beginning of the month when the bank Santander closed off an art exhibit due to its alleged inappropriate content

*** note 3: sertanejo is a typical Brazilian musical genre, similar to country