table of contents

A. BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS 2

B. THE ENVIRONMENT AND NATURE 2

C. POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS 2

D. GLOBAL WARMING 3

E. PEOPLE AND ETHNICITY 3

F. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 3

G. HISTORY AND CULTURE 3

H. FOOD AND TRAVELLING 3

I. FEMINISM AND EQUALITY MOVEMENT 3

K. CORONA VIRUS (COVID19) 3

L, LIFESTYLES AND ENTERTAINMENT 3

M. HEALTH AND MEDICALS 3

N. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 3

O. NEWS AND MEDIA 3

P. AGRICULTURE 3

Q. CONFLICTS AND DISASTERS 4

A. Business and Economics
1. To divest = to sell something, especially a business or a part of a business
Ex: The company has divested itself of its less profitable/ money
losing business operations.
2. To raise the possibility of decoupling the U.S. economy from China
3. Eco-economic decoupling
In economic and environmental fields, decoupling refers to an economy that
would be able to grow without corresponding increases
in environmental pressure. In many economies, increasing production (GDP)
currently raises pressure on the environment. An economy that would be able
to sustain economic growth while reducing the amount of resources such as
water or fossil fuels used and delink environmental deterioration at the same
time would be said to be decoupled. Environmental pressure is often
measured using emissions of pollutants, and decoupling is often measured by
the emission intensity of economic output.
4. Trump entered into a high-stakes trade war with China before reaching a
partial Phase 1 trade deal in January.
5. Companies to be allowed to compete on a fair and level basis in China’s
economy.
6. Customers are driving businesses online
-> An increase in production costs can drive inflation.
-> She was driven to alcohol by all the pressure of work.
7. Western governments and donors poured money into new agencies that set
about trying to stimulate the economies of underdeveloped countries
8. The Growth Model (GM) = Industrial development was the primary goal.
It was revealed that poverty rates and economic growth rise simultaneously.
9. The benefits of this would trickle down to poor people through raising
incomes and providing employment opportunities, thereby indirectly lifting
them above the ascribed poverty threshold of a dollar a day.
10. Instead of focusing on macroeconomic projects and large scale industrial
projects, planners shifted attention to the core living requirements of
individuals and communities.
11. Basic Needs Approach = Typified by small-scale aid such as health and
literacy projects (the provision of services such as community sanitation and
literacy programmes)
12. Economic growth was desirable but superfluous
13. The trouble with Basic Needs programmes, however, was their
expensive, resource-intensive nature that entailed continuous management
and funding.
14. Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) = emphasizes sustainable and
self-sufficient livelihoods.
15. To absolve agencies of the need to persistently monitor their lives
16. Synonyms for poor:
- Adjective: Poverty-stricken, impoverished, necessitous, impecunious,
penurious, indigent, needful, destitute, deprived, penniless, strapped,
underprivileged, unfortunate.
- Verb: pauperize, impoverish
- Noun: penury, impoverishment, deprivation, privation, destitution,
indigence.
17. Synonyms for rich: wealthy, affluent, well-off, well-to-do, propertied,
18. The impoverished are most suitably positioned to determine the poverty
indicators that contribute to the multiple facets of their own deprivation.
19. The SLA is criticized for lacking an environmental platform strong
enough to respond to climate change, and for disassociating aspects of power
and societal status from being a contestable part of development.
21. While institutions often follow development trends, vigorous scholarly
debate persists around all approaches/ academic disputes are more timeless.
22. Nothing trumps economic development as a tool for poverty alleviations
for the developing countries.
23. Many countries that have focused explicitly on growth have managed to
make considerable inroads into reducing poverty, even in the absence of a
development programme.
24. Countries with massive inflows of funding for aid-based “development
projects” have struggled to progress with meeting poverty reduction targets.
25. There is a good reason to be skeptical about the GM, as is evidenced by
the numerous societies that have partly imploded as a consequence of
prioritizing economic growth above the work of human development.
26. The experiences of… with health and employment crises are
particularly traumatic examples of this.
27. To dissolve the autonomy of communities to make their own decisions ->
local autonomy must be respected for real development to occur.
28. It will be difficult for any country to ignore… while continuing to….
29. Development is ultimately about people, and human development must
be placed at forefront; economic development is simply one tool out of many
that can help along the way.
30. But it is folly to commit ourselves to a strictly-defined, systematic
programme – less conservative mindsets will help us break the development
fashion cycle.

B. The Environment and Nature

1. Every day about 3 million liters of sewages flows into the river. It is a
scene of helplessness, of neglect, of apathy
2. Once the monsoon hits, the health hazards and environmental implications
will be nationwide pollution of drinking water, irrigation and other
commercial purposes -> it’s a disaster waiting to happen
3. More than 400 million people directly depend on the Ganges for their
livelihood
4. It is ironic that it has taken a pandemic to focus attention back onto the
sorry state the Ganges finds itself in after decades of abuse
5. It will need more than faith, promises and prayers to bring Ganga back to
her glory.

C. Politics and Current Affairs

1. To file a lawsuit on Monday against President Donald Trump’s executive
order prohibiting transactions with the popular short video app and its
Chinese parent ByteDance.
2. To challenge the executive order through the judicial system
3. To issue a separate statement
4. Humanitarian aid has poured into Lebanon
5. Gulf Arab states who once gave Lebanon financial support have grown
weary in recent years of the Iran-backed Hezbollah’s expanding role in state
affairs.
6. Foreign donors have made clear they will not bail out the state without
reforms to tackle entrenched corruption and negligence.
7. It is incredible how many times political parties have made election
promises to clean up the Ganga but how little has actually been achieved

D. Global Warming
E. People and Ethnicity
F. Science and Technology
1. Synonyms for automation/ robots
- Nouns: machine, android, crane, drone
- Adjective: mechanized, mechanical, automated, push-button,
preprogrammed, computerized, electronic, robotic, unmanned, self-
activating, self-regulating, motorized.

G. History and Culture

H. Food and Travelling
I. Feminism and Liberation Movement
1. Sisterhood is powerful
2. August 1970 – fifty thousand feminists take to the streets across America
on a one-day strike for equality
3. Not all spectators are on board
4. But the goal of winning full equality remains elusive
5. Worldwide, women hold less than a quarter of seats in national legislatures
6. Women and men have the same guaranteed legal rights in just 8 countries
7. New Zealand is the first country to give women the right to vote
8. In 1943, women hold responsible military positions on an equal footing
with men, submitting to the same discipline, earning the same pay. World
War II dramatically changes women’s roles in society. With men are away
fighting on the front lines, women take on traditionally male jobs at home.
9. But with the soldiers returning home, women are encouraged to focus on
their domestic duties.
10. In 1960, fewer than 4% of lawyers and 7& of doctors are women. If a
female employee gets pregnant, it is perfectly legal to fire her
11. The bank can refuse to issue her a credit card without her husband’s
signature
12. The pay gap: In 1960, for every dollar a man makes, a woman doing
equal work is only paid 60 cents
13. With the introduction of a revolutionary little tablet, the birth control pill.
For the first time in human history, women have an easy, discreet and reliable
method of contraception
14. Traditional expectations of gender roles are hard to shake
15. Some women beg to differ. There’s a terrible contempt for women
implicit in this glorified insistence that women’s fulfilment is motherhood
and only motherhood
16. The book “The Women Mystique” quickly became a spark that ignites a
new wave of feminism across the Western world
17. As American grapples with their civil rights movement, women begin
speaking out for their rights as well
18. To eliminate the last vestiges of injustice. The Civil Rights Acts makes it
illegal for a woman to be passed over a job or fired simply because she is a
woman
19. If women are to change the culture, they will have to organize. National
Women Organization was born to support their demands of total freedom
economically, politically, socially.
20. To break through the silken curtain prejudice and discrimination
21. To bring a company to a standstill, striking for equal pay
22. To support a controversial proposal, one that will enshrine women’s
rights in the Congress
23. To push for the law,

K. Corona Virus (COVID19)

1. People working on the front line should have adequate PPE (= Personal
Protective Equipment)
2. Some people with Covid-19 are asymptomatic/ have no symptoms at all.
3. Whether people develop long-term immunity after having had the virus is
still debatable.
4. In some countries, lockdown measures are being eased gradually
5. The first human trials for the vaccine are underway
6. To keep your chin up = staying positive
7. Some countries are deciding on quarantine rules for people entering the
countries from abroad
8. While some countries are seeing fatalities go down, other countries are
seeing an increase
9. The pandemic is revealing people’s altruistic traits.
10. India is in the grip of a devastating second wave of Covid.
11. An aggressive second wave of Covid is sweeping across India and
hospitals are becoming overwhelmed
12. Testing centers are inundated (flooded or overwhelmed) and have been
unable to provide reports for 2 to 3 days.
13. Patients struggle at home while hospitals choke (unable to function/
perform their role properly due to blockage)
14. China offered Covid aid to India while the US dragged its feet (responded
slowly and reluctantly = prevaricate = procrastinate), but Delhi isn’t that keen
15. A new variant to drive India’s coronavirus catastrophe.
16. Coronavirus is driving airline tickets sales down and driving the use of
masks up.
17. Life in India's capital/ on Earth has changed beyond recognition under a
deadly second wave of Covid-19 infections.
18. Cities to be under siege from Covid-19
19. The city’s very existence is now limited to 4 places: hospitals, medicine
stores, oxygen refilling stations, and crematoriums
20. To show how underprepared the country’s healthcare infrastructure was
to deal with the surge.
21. To cause a lot of financial distress to unemployed population/ families
who cannot afford the exorbitant prices of healthcare.
22.

L, Lifestyles and Entertainment

1. To choke/ choke up: cannot speak because you are too emotional
(Traffic) to be choked/ choked up: unable to move because there is too much
vehicle
(A sportsperson) to choke/ choke up: someone who end up failing despite
initially leading due to stress/ feelings of victory assurance.
2.

M. Health and Medicals

N. Crime and Punishment
O. News and Media
1. To be cited as saying
2.

P. Agriculture
1. grain silo = a large, round tower on
a farm for storing grain or winter food for cattle
2. To raise fears of food shortages in a country already in financial meltdown
(Beirut).
3. The destruction of the 120,000-tonne capacity structure at the port, the
main entry point for food imports, meant buyers must rely on smaller private
storage facilities for their wheat purchases with no government reserves to
fall back on.
4. To manage relations between two brotherly countries that respect each
other.
5.
Q. Conflicts and Disasters
1. The port explosion killed at least 180 people, injured thousands and
wrecked swathes of the Lebanese capital, pushing the government to resign.
2.