Questão Q4390362 - Língua Inglesa

Question

An ‘amazing feat’: how was a 13-year-old boy able to swim for four hours to save his family? By Donna Lu	An Australian 13-year-old who swam 4 km to shore and then ran 2 km to get help for hisstranded family has been described as “superhuman”. Experts say Austin’s feat of enduranceexceeded the limits of what is normally perceived as possible. So how was the teenager able tosave the day, and is there any precedent for it?	Austin and his family were ____ holiday when strong winds pushed their inflatablepaddleboards and kayak offshore ____ Friday afternoon. His mother told him to swim ashore toseek help. Initially setting off ____ a kayak, Austin had to abandon the vessel after it took ontoo much water in the rough conditions. About two hours into his four-hour swim, he ditched thelifejacket he was wearing. Once he had swum the 4 km to shore in fading light, the teenager ran2 km to his family’s accommodation, using his mother’s phone to call emergency services ____around 6 pm. After the call, he passed out ____ exhaustion and was taken to the hospital. Hisfamily was rescued floating about 14 km offshore. Austin was given crutches to help his sore legsbear his weight.	Prof David Bishop, a muscle exercise physiologist, said fight-or-flight situations can enableathletes – and ordinary people – “to go beyond what their perceived limits are”. There have beenother reports of preternatural strength. The phenomenon has sometimes been referred to as“hysterical strength”, though the origin of the term is unclear.	In a 1961 study, researchers found that people were immediately stronger at a forearmflexion task when frightened, after shooting a starting pistol next to participants’ ears withoutwarning. Anthony Blazevich, a professor of biomechanics, said the release of fight-or-flighthormones had an impact. “If you get highly motivated, if you have some fear, you’re going to bereleasing adrenaline, noradrenaline, other stress hormones like cortisol, which dump a wholebunch of sugar into your blood,” he said. But for activities lasting hours – in the case of Austin’sswim – “eventually these systems do get depleted”, Blazevich said. The periods of recoveryafforded by survival backstroke – a swimming style aimed at conserving energy – may have beencritical, particularly in saltwater, where floating was relatively feasible.	Blazevich’s research has shown that children can perform as well as highly trained adultendurance athletes. “What kids do is recover incredibly rapidly, as good as elite enduranceathletes,” he said. However, adults have larger hearts and lungs, and central nervous systemsthat do “not seem to fatigue as fast”, he said. “This is probably why kids play on an intermittentbasis … They run, stop, run, stop, but they do it all day,” Blazevich said.	Austin told the ABC that he had started swimming lessons when he was four – but hadpreviously found it “quite tiring” to swim 350 metres without a break.(Fight-or-flight: used to describe the reaction that people have to a dangerous situation, that makes them either stay and deal with it, or run away)(Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/05/austin-appelbee-13-year-old-boyswims-four-hours-rescue-save-family-western-australia – text specially adapted for this test). The main purpose of the text is to:

Gran Questões · Accepted Answer

Explain an unusual event using scientific perspectives.

Gran Questões · Answer

Criticize the lack of safety during family holidays.

Gran Questões · Answer

Describe a rescue operation in technical detail.

Gran Questões · Answer

Compare children’s and adults’ athletic performance.

Gran Questões · Answer

Argue that children are physically stronger than adults.