Fundação Carlos Chagas • SEFAZ-RJ
🔐 Texto de apoio
Sep 27, 2013
So Spain has decided to haul Lionel Messi into court for tax evasion, which strikes me as completely insane on pretty much every level. You may remember the story from a few months back: The greatest soccer player in the world and his father were accused of setting up a bunch of shell companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on royalties and other licensing income.
Messi − who makes an estimated $41 million a year, about half from sponsors − reached a settlement with Spain’s tax authorities earlier this summer, agreeing to pay the amount he apparently owed, plus interest. The matter was settled, or so it seemed. Messi could go back to dazzling the world with his athleticism and creativity.
Only it turns out that Spain wasn’t quite done with Messi. His adopted country − Messi is Argentine but became a Spanish citizen in 2005 − is now considering pressing criminal charges against him.
Cracking down on tax-evading footballers has become something of a trend in Europe, where players and clubs have been known to launder money through “image-rights companies” often set up in tax havens. When you need money − and Europe needs money − go to the people who have it, or something like that. Over the summer, dozens of Italian soccer clubs were raided as part of an investigation into a tax-fraud conspiracy. A number of English Premier League clubs were forced last year to pay millions of pounds in back taxes.
No one likes a tax cheat, and there’s little doubt that widespread tax fraud has helped eat away at the social safety net in Spain and elsewhere, depriving schools, hospitals and other institutions of badly needed funds. But Europe is not going to find the answers to its financial problems in the pockets of some professional soccer players and clubs.
Messi’s defense, delivered by his father, seems credible enough to me. “He is a footballer and that’s it,” Messi’s father Jorge said of his soccer-prodigy son. “If there was an error, it was by our financial adviser. He created the company. My mistake was to have trusted the adviser.” Even if Messi is legally responsible for the intricate tax dodge he is accused of having participated in, it’s pretty hard to believe that he knew much about it.
More to the point, Lionel Messi is probably Spain’s most valuable global asset. What could possibly motivate the Spanish government to want to tarnish his reputation, especially after he’s paid off his alleged debt? After four years of Great-Depression level unemployment, have anxiety and despair curdled into vindictiveness?
Here’s another explanation: Maybe this whole case has less to do with money than it does with history. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the target of the Spanish government’s weird wrath happens to play for FC Barcelona, which is, after all, "mes que un club." It's a symbol of Catalan nationalism − and a bitter, longtime rival of Spain’s establishment team, Real Madrid.
Too conspiratorial? Prove it, Spain. Release Cristiano Ronaldo’s tax return.
🔗 Texto adaptado de:
🔗 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/why-is-spain-really-taking-lionel-messi-to-tax-court-.html
QUESTÃO
A synonym for badly, as it is used in the text, is
closely.
evenly.
much.
almost.
not.
📝 Resolução Comentada – Questão 28
A questão avalia Vocabulary in Context, explorando um caso clássico de Polysemy. O advérbio badly mantém exatamente a mesma classe gramatical em qualquer contexto; o que muda é o valor semântico que ele assume.
O trecho decisivo é:
"...depriving schools, hospitals and other institutions of badly needed funds."
Muitos candidatos associam automaticamente badly ao significado de "mal". Entretanto, essa acepção não funciona nessa construção.
Quando badly modifica o particípio needed, forma a expressão idiomática badly needed, cujo significado é "muito necessário", "extremamente necessário" ou "urgentemente necessário".
badly needed
≡
very much needed
O verdadeiro mecanismo da banca está justamente nessa mudança de acepção. A gramática não mudou: badly continua sendo um advérbio. O que mudou foi apenas seu significado dentro dessa collocation.
- O Comando: identificar o sinônimo contextual de badly.
- O Gatilho do Gabarito: reconhecer que badly needed constitui uma expressão idiomática de intensidade.
- Por que é médio? A dificuldade está em abandonar a tradução automática "mal" e ativar a acepção correta determinada pelo contexto.
(A) ❌ closely.
Incorreta. Closely significa "de perto" ou "cuidadosamente". Não transmite a ideia de intensidade presente na expressão badly needed.
(B) ❌ evenly.
Incorreta. Evenly significa "uniformemente". O advérbio não possui qualquer relação semântica com a necessidade intensa expressa no texto.
(C) ✅ much.
Correta. Na expressão badly needed, o advérbio badly deixa de indicar modo ("mal") e passa a funcionar como um intensificador, equivalente a very much. Assim, badly needed funds significa recursos muito necessários ou urgentemente necessários.
Trata-se de uma mudança de acepção, e não de classe gramatical. O advérbio continua sendo um advérbio; apenas assume outro valor semântico em razão do contexto.
(D) ❌ almost.
Incorreta. Almost significa "quase". Se fosse empregado na frase, produziria um sentido completamente diferente, indicando que os recursos eram "quase necessários", o que contraria a ideia de necessidade intensa expressa pelo autor.
(E) ❌ not.
Incorreta. Not introduz negação. O texto afirma justamente o contrário: os recursos eram extremamente necessários para escolas, hospitais e outras instituições afetadas pela fraude tributária.
- Questão típica de Vocabulary in Context com foco em Polysemy.
- O advérbio badly continua pertencendo à mesma classe gramatical; o que muda é sua acepção.
- Na collocation badly needed, o sentido é very much needed, e não "needed badly".
- O maior erro do candidato é traduzir badly automaticamente como "mal", ignorando que o contexto pode ativar um significado completamente diferente.
Chunk family:
- Badly needed (muito necessário)
- Very much needed (extremamente necessário)
- Urgently needed (urgentemente necessário)
- Vocabulary in Context (vocabulário em contexto)
- Polysemy (polissemia)
- Semantic shift (mudança de acepção)
Gabarito Oficial: C