Questão 3449

(Ufrgs 2005)

Sydney Possuelo, a Brazilian jungle explorer, has recently been to London to receive the Royal Geographical Society gold medal, an annual (1)............. for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery", which dates back to 1832.
While one might think that in the 21st century there is not much of the world left to explore, this explorer has proved (2) otherwise. As the head of Brazil"s Department for Isolates Indians, his job is discovering lost tribes. Searching carefully the Brazilian Amazon, he has estabilished the existance of more than 20 previously unknown groups of indigenous Indians and he believes there are more yet to be discovered.
He made his first expedition into the Amazon in 1959. There he got to know the Indians and understood the terrible drama of their bad situation. Although a century ago the estabilished view was that Indians groups should be contacted for their own good, Possuelo saw what contact did. As well as being introduced to diseases, alcohol and firearms, Indians could not (3) cope with the culture shock and their communicaties were destroyed.
Since 1986, when he founded the department for isolated Indians, Possuelo and his team of several men have aimed to find lost tribes (4) so that they can left alone. When a group is located, the area around them is demarcated to stop anyone enetering it. "I need to prove that they exist without making contact".
(6) Possuelo 7is very grateful for (8) the gold medal. Its good for (9) his ego, he says, but most importantly it keeps up 10his international profile. 5This helps to raise money for his work. However, he is resigned to the fact that he is just buying the Indians time, as contact with the outside world is inevitable for them. "Yet I think that it is a useful way to spend your life. Its about human rights."

Adapted from: The Times, 24 June 2004.

A palavra OTHERWISE (ref. 2) poderia ser substituída, sem alteração do sentido contextual, por