MANY INDIANS are up in arms about the government’s handling of their country’s all -engulfing second wave

of covid19. Hospitals, testing facilities, even crematoria are overwhelmed. Vaccines are in short supply. The
government (1) squandered a lull in infections over the winter, a common criticism runs, and is now flailing in
the face of the inevitable resurgence. But while there is no shortage of hapless officials, there is also an
impressive supply of ordinary citizens, charities, private companies and even the odd public servant taking
their own initiatives to mitigate the crisis.

Devendra, a 38-year-old teacher in the rural state of Jharkhand, became a tabloid hero when, after receiving
(2) a distress call from a friend in Delhi, 1,400km away, he scoured his state to find an oxygen cylinder and
then drove for 24 hours straight to deliver the life saving gift. On social media services such as Twitter and
WhatsApp, untold thousands of people respond to even greater numbers of pleas for help to find a hospital
bed or oxygen or simply money to pay medical bills. Numerous volunteers have aggregated such requests and
offers, allowing browsers to match needs with whatever help is available by subject and location.

Sometimes the efforts are very local. After seeing how hard it was to get his own 80 -year-old father admitted
to hospital, Vishal Singh, who owns a chain of private schools, set up a free, fully equipped Covid 19 care
centre for other residents of his own (3) posh gated community. Pascal and Rozy Saldanha, a middle class
couple in Mumbai, sold their jewellery to buy oxygen cylinders to give to needy neighbours. Residents of south
Delhi speak of a mystery Food Man who roams the streets, stopping hungry looking people and feeding them.

Other initiatives are more organised. Khaana Chahiye was formed last year to help migrant workers who were
forced to flee Mumbai when a national lockdown cost them their jobs. The group started by setting up soup
kitchens on roads, to offer (4) a square meal to those who were so destitute that they were trying to walk to
their home villages, hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away. Over the past year it has served some
4.6 million meals, thanks to a team of more than 200 volunteers, and expanded to slums in the city.

Older charities have also redirected efforts to the struggle against Covid 19. Nearly every Sikh temple, from
smallest to grandest, operates a regular langar or soup kitchen. Numerous charities that had been supplying a
huge sit-in on the borders of Delhi by farmers, many of them Sikhs, have now refocused on Covid 19. One of
these, Hemkunt Foundation, now operates a 24-hour drive-in centre outside Delhi that provides free oxygen to
those in desperate need.

Indian tycoons have also stepped into the act. Azim Premji, a tech mogul and India’s biggest philanthropist,
gave an estimated $1bn to charity last year, either directly or through his companies, $150m of it for Covid
research and relief. Other entrepreneurs raised some $10m almost overnight for Mission Oxygen, which aims
to buy as many oxygen concentrators as possible abroad and ship them to Indian hospitals. Within a single
week the group was able to import the first machines, and has placed orders for 1,300 more.

There have been moments of heartening bureaucratic efficiency, too. Whereas in Delhi desperate patients
have been forced to wander from hospital to over spilling hospital to plead for admission, authorities in
Mumbai run an efficient, (5) centralised triage system to allocate beds to patients. In Nandurbar, a tribal
district of northern Maharashtra, one of India’s hardest-hit states, the top local bureaucrat took note of what
was happening elsewhere in the world, and poured all his meagre resources into preparing for a second wave.
His team focused particularly on fitting local hospitals with small plants to supply their own oxygen, as well as
on training medical st. Had such efforts been replicated across India, they would have saved tens of
thousands of lives.

I. Words and expressions (20 points)

Explain the meaning of each underlined word or expression as used in the article.

1. squandered a lull in infections *

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2. a distress call *

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3. posh gated community *

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4. a square meal *

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5. centralized triage system *

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II. Word search (10 points)

Find words or phrases which carry the following meaning in the article.

1. the acts or strategies intended to resolve a difficulty or improve a situation (n.) *

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2. thoroughly searched in order to locate something (v.) *

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3. lacking the necessities of life; very poor (adj.) *

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4. to run away from a place or situation of danger (v.) *

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5. small in quantity and poor in quality (adj.) *

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III. Comprehension questions (20 points)

1. According to the news, how severe is the Covid-19 pandemic in India? *

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2. How have various volunteers given assistance to people who pleaded for help on
social network? *

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3. What happened to some migrant workers in India during Covid-19? *

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4. What actions have been taken from the affluent in India to improve the suffering of
their people? *

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5. How did the top local official with his team prepare for a second wave of Covid-19 in
India? *

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IV. Summary (10 points) *

In one sentence, summarize the main points of the news. DO use transition signals (e.g. therefore, although,
as a result etc.) to make your summary well-structured.