The Funicular Article: Tone and Reference
A B2 candidate is working through a past-paper style reading task without a dictionary. The source is an 180-word article from a Lisbon local newspaper about the Elevador da Bica, which reopened after six months of works. The candidate must answer three questions in English. The key excerpt is: 'Depois de seis meses de obras, o Elevador voltou a funcionar na terça-feira, com uma lotação máxima de 38 passageiros por carreira. A empresa fala de melhorias há muito esperadas. Moradores da Calçada do Combro, porém, dizem que o problema não eram os carros parados, mas os autocarros turísticos que continuam a subir a rua. Não fomos ouvidos, afirma uma moradora de 71 anos. A empresa garante que o novo sistema reduz o ruído em 40%. Ainda assim, quem vive ali pergunta para que serve um elevador mais silencioso se o bairro continua a ser atravessado por veículos de 50 lugares.' The candidate has 12 minutes and may quote short phrases, but must not retell the whole text. One distractor question asks about the 38-passenger capacity, which is a detail, not the main point.
1. Question 1: 'O problema não eram os carros parados, mas os autocarros turísticos.' What does this contrast tell you about the residents' complaint, and what exactly does 'quem vive ali' refer to?
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The contrast is corrective, not additive. 'Não... mas' does not deny that the funicular was stopped; it rejects the company's framing that the stopped cars were the problem. The residents relocate the cause to the tourist coaches that 'continuam a subir a rua', i.e. traffic that was never interrupted.
'Quem vive ali' is not a vague 'people'. The antecedent is 'Moradores da Calçada do Combro' in the previous sentence, and 'ali' anchors it to that street and neighbourhood. A strong answer notes that the article does not say all Lisbon residents are affected, and it does not treat the 38-passenger capacity as the grievance. If you wrote 'the residents are against tourism in general', you overread: the text gives a specific traffic complaint, not a general anti-tourism thesis.
2. The company cites a 40% noise reduction. Does the article present that figure as a solution? Justify using two textual signals.
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No. First, 'Ainda assim' is a concessive/adversative connector: it signals that what follows survives the previous claim. Second, the final rhetorical question ('para que serve...?') reinterprets the 40% figure as irrelevant to the residents' actual problem.
There is also a lexical signal: 'garante' (rather than 'afirma' or 'diz') marks the claim as the company's assurance, not the reporter's verified fact. The figure is reported, not endorsed. An answer that says 'the article is neutral because it includes both sides' misses the framing: neutral reporting can still arrange concessions so that the last word belongs to the residents.
3. Choose the best description of the author's stance: (a) neutral and detached, (b) sympathetic to the residents but not openly campaigning, (c) hostile to the company. Explain with one lexical choice and one structural choice.
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(b). Lexically, 'garante' distances the reporter from the company's claim, while the quoted resident is given a direct human detail ('71 anos') and the closing question adopts her perspective. Structurally, the article gives the company the first word and the residents the last, and the concession 'Ainda assim' turns the company's strongest number into a foil.
It is not (c) because the company is not accused of lying and its works are reported as real. It is not (a) because 'porém' and the rhetorical question evaluate the dispute. The exam likely rewards noticing framing rather than counting quotations. If you choose (a), you must explain away the final question; that is hard to do.