2021-2022学年度第33期总第864期
Making health the top priority (page 2)

I. THINK AND TALK
1. What is the meaning of “priority” in the title?
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2. Who do you think is “Making health the top priority”?
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3. What do you think the government has done to ensure people’s health and normal life during the epidemic?
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II. Read for information
READ AND ANSWER
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?
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2. How do Western countries fight against COVID-19?
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3. What is China’s policy on pandemic control?
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4. Why is the policy sustained?
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5. What is the outcome of China’s policy?
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6. Why should China stick to its policy?
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III. Sentences
1. People wonder that whether China could adopt the same measures, especially ________(consider) Omicron – the dominant variant in China’s latest COVID-19 outbreak – has become milder.
2.  ________(place) people’s lives at the top of the list of priorities, China has been sticking to its dynamic zero-COVID policy.
3. ______ (base) on the policy, once there are confirmed cases, relevant agencies work around the clock to find those _____ were in close contact, and isolate potentially infected individuals before the virus spreads or before the infected person can transmit the virus.   

参考答案
I.     
1. If something is a priority, it is the most important thing you have to do or deal with, or must be done or dealt with before everything else you have to do.
2. The Chinese government.
3. One possible answer: The government has taken anti-epidemic measures in a scientific and targeted manner, promoted vaccination and is expanding the coverage of booster shots. Besides, the government has ensured a sufficient supply of daily necessities, such as food and goods.

II.
1. To introduce the topic.
2. Western countries tried two ways to fight against the virus: “herd immunity and vaccinations”.
3. Placing people’s lives at the top of the list of priorities, China has been sticking to its dynamic zero-COVID policy.
4. It is because the benefits of the policy still outweigh the costs.
5. Thanks to the policy, China became the only major economy to achieve positive growth in 2020, and the growth continued in 2021.
6. Omicron is more transmissible (可传播的) and can infect a larger number of people. This means the number of deaths and critical patients will also be greater.
The zero-COVID policy is still the most effective epidemic containment (控制) measure with the least amount of cost.
China has a large population of more than 1.4 billion. Despite the relatively lower virulence (毒性) of the Omicron variant, it can still cause a large number of infections and deaths. Only with the dynamic zero-COVID approach can the virus be prevented from overwhelming medical resources. If we stop all containment measures now, it means all the previous efforts are for nothing.

III.
1. considering
2. Placing
3. Based; who