Over the last five months, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm. It has affected different countries and regions in different ways, from damaging their economies to creating new social orders. Here, we’ll take a look at a few of the most important events that have happened during the outbreak.
Italy shuts down
On March 10, the Italian government decided to put the whole country on lockdown (封锁) after the number of cases in the country started increasing too fast. The first cases were confirmed as early as January 31. In the following weeks, the number of confirmed cases (确诊病例) exploded, reaching over 10,000 by the time of the lockdown. The lockdown affected 16 million people across the country. Italy was one of the first of many countries that carried out lock downs to prevent the spread of the virus.
WHO declares pandemic
On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. This was due to a growing number of cases around the world. In his announcement, Ghebreyesus called on governments to slow down the spread of the virus by taking “immediate and urgent actions”. By this time, there were more than 20,000 cases in Europe, including 1,000 deaths, as well as 1,000 cases in the US.
Summer Olympics delayed
On March 24, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo held a video conference in which they agreed that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, which were planned to be held in Tokyo, would be put off until the following year for public safety.
The event has hardly been cancelled or delayed-usually only in times of war. However, the leaders agreed that the Olympic flame would remain in Tokyo until the games can start again in order to stand as a “light at the end of the tunnel”.
US hits over 1 million cases
On April 28, the US officially recorded over one million COVID-19 cases nationwide. This came just four days after it was announced that the virus had led to over 50,000 deaths across the country. The virus spread rapidly across the country, as the first case had been recorded three months earlier.
Despite this, many US states have announced that they will gradually relax lockdown requirements, which is against the advice of many medical workers. US President Donald Trump has been criticized by the press and members of the public for his government’s slow and ineffective response to the outbreak.
34. What do we know about Italy’s lockdown?
A.The Italian government decided to shut down on Jan 31. |
B.It happened when the number of deaths reached 10,000. |
C.Italy took action ahead of many other countries. |
D.It encouraged other European countries to shut down. |
35. The WHO declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic to _________.
A.push governments to take quick actions to stop the virus spreading quickly |
B.encourage medical workers to study it |
C.encourage people to stay home |
D.called on governments to shut down their countries |
36. What do we know about the 2020 Summer Olympic Games?
A.It is the first time that the Games have been delayed. |
B.The timing of the Olympics has not been decided yet. |
C.The Olympic flame will be sent back to Greece. |
D.It will be delayed until next summer. |
37. Which is
NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A.The virus has seriously affected the world economies. |
B.Medical workers support the ease of lockdown in many US states. |
C.The US government’s response to stop the virus has been rather slow and not so effective. |
D.More than 50,000 people died from the virus before April 28th in the US. |