UNIVERSITY OF TOLIMA

ENGLISH II

CLASS 3 TOPIC: TALKING ABOUT THE NEWS

1. Make a list of activities you could/ couldn’t do before coronavirus pandemic.

2. Choose a text below and look for verbs in past tense and classify them into regular and
irregular.
REGULAR VERBS IRREGULAR VERBS
VERB MEANING VERB MEANING

TEXT 1

Coronavirus Pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed our way of life, shut down entire
countries and shuttered businesses across the globe. After an initial outbreak of disease in
Wuhan, China, that began in December 2019, the novel virus has spread to over 180
countries, with the US and the European nations of Spain, Italy and France the worst hit.
As scientists and researchers race toward a vaccine, governments are attempting to mitigate
the economic damage with stimulus checks and tax cuts and contain further spread of the
disease with social distancing measures and lockdowns.

Researchers linked the pathogen to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses in January.

That family contains viruses responsible for previous outbreaks of the respiratory
diseases SARS and MERS, as well as some cases of the common cold. On March 11,
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization,
announced the outbreak of the disease, dubbed COVID-19, would be declared a pandemic.
It is the first time any coronavirus has been characterized as such.

3. Answer these questions about the news:

a. What happened?
b. Where did it happen?
c. When did it happen?
d. How did it happen?
e. Any other information?
 4. Think about a specific situation somebody closed to you lived according to the
circumstances we are living nowadays produced by the Coronavirus.
Answer these questions:
a. What happened?

b. Where did it happen?

c. When did it happen?

d. How did it happen?

e. Any other information?

5. Write the news with the corresponding headline.

TEXT 2

Where did the virus come from?

The virus appears to have originated in Wuhan, a Chinese city about 650 miles south of Beijing that
has a population of more than 11 million people. Prestigious medical journal The Lancet published
an extensive summary of the clinical features of some of the first patients infected with the disease
stretching back to Dec. 1, 2019.

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which sells fish, as well as a panoply of meat from other
animals, including bats, snakes and pangolins, was implicated in the original spread in early
January. However, the very first patient identified had not been exposed to the market, suggesting
the virus may have originated elsewhere and been transported to the market, where it was able to
thrive or jump into new hosts -- whether human or animal. Chinese authorities shut down the
market on Jan. 1. C O R O N A V I R U S U P D A T E S
 Pulse oximeters offer early warning
 Gyms are reopening: How to stay safe
 Quarantine habits I'll keep for life
 News, advice and more about COVID-19
Live animal markets have been implicated in the origin and spread of viral diseases in past
epidemics. A majority of the people confirmed to have come down with the coronavirus in the early
days of the outbreak had been to the Huanan Seafood marketplace in previous weeks. The market
appears to be an integral piece of the puzzle, but research into the likely origin and connecting a
"patient zero" to the initial spread is ongoing.

A group of Chinese scientists uploaded a paper to preprint website biorXiv, having studied the viral
genetic code and compared it to the previous SARS coronavirus and other bat coronaviruses. They
discovered the genetic similarities run deep: The virus shares 80% of its genes with the previous
SARS virus and 96% of its genes with bat coronaviruses. Importantly, the study also demonstrated
the virus can get into and hijack cells the same way SARS did, using a human receptor known as
ACE2.

A paper published in the journal Nature Medicine on March 17 assessed the genome of the virus in
great detail, coming to similar conclusions to the preprint, categorically stating that it arose due to
natural evolution. "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a
purposefully manipulated virus," wrote the collaboration of researchers from institutions across the
US, UK and Australia.

The ant-eating pangolin, a small, scaly mammal, has also been implicated in the spread of SARS-
CoV-2. According to The New York Times, it may be one of the most trafficked animals in the
world. The virus likely originated in bats but may have been able to hide out in the pangolin, before
spreading from that animal to humans. Researchers caution that the full data hasn't yet been
published, but coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 have been found in pangolins before.

All good science builds off previous discoveries -- and there is still more to learn about the basic
 biology of SARS-CoV-2 before we have a good grasp of exactly which animal vector is responsible
for transmission -- but the genetic sequence of the virus is a clue: It tells us the virus must have
originated in bats and may have jumped through an intermediary to a human.

TEXT 3

How does the coronavirus spread?

This is one of the major questions researchers struggled to answer in the early days of the
outbreak but now seems pretty settled. The first infections were potentially the result of animal-to-
human transmission, but confirmation of human-to-human transmission was obtained in late
January. As the virus spread, local transmission was seen across the world.

The WHO says the virus can move from person to person via:

 Respiratory droplets -- when a person sneezes or coughs.

 Direct contact with infected individuals.

 Contact with contaminated surfaces and objects.

A handful of viruses, including MERS, can survive for periods in the air after being sneezed or
coughed from an infected individual. Although recent reports suggest the novel coronavirus may be
transmitted in this way, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention have reiterated
there is no evidence for this. Writing in The Conversation on Feb. 14, virologists Ian Mackay and
Katherine Arden explain "no infectious virus has been recovered from captured air samples."

Further research has shown SARS-CoV-2 may linger in the air for extended periods of time, which
is particularly notable for health workers. It's estimated the virus can stay suspended in the air for a
period of about 30 minutes. Social distancing measures become ever more important here because
only those close to infected individuals are expected to be exposed to large quantities of the virus
in the air.

An electron microscopy image of the coronavirus that causes SARS.

Getty Images

TEXT 4

'I was fighting for mine and my baby's life'

en Mannering with her husband before she contracted Covid-19.

Karen Mannering from Herne Bay in Kent is six months pregnant with her fourth child. The 39-year-
old started struggling with a persistent cough and a fever during the second week of March, but
hospital staff were wary of bringing her in. On day 11, that changed.

"I called 999 and my breathing sounded so bad an ambulance was at our house within minutes,"
explains Karen. "I was literally gasping for air so they put me on oxygen straight away."

Karen tested positive for Covid-19. She had pneumonia in both of her lungs and was isolated in a
hospital room for a week.

"No one was allowed to come and see me," she says. "It was a very lonely, dark time. I was bed-
bound for two or three days. I couldn't even go to the toilet. If they needed to change the bed
sheets, they would have to turn me over.

"When I struggled to breathe, I would buzz for help and would have to wait for staff to get their
protective equipment on before they could attend to me. I was constantly on the phone to my family
to keep me calm. I was scared I was going to die and my family say they had prepared for the
worst.

"I was fighting for every single breath. I was fighting for mine and my baby's life."

Karen says she will never forget the feeling of crisp, cold air on her face the day she left hospital.

"My husband and I drove home with our face masks on and the windows open," she says. "The
breeze felt amazing. I suddenly appreciated the smallest of things."

Karen is now self-isolating at home, but in a room away from the rest of her family. She is getting
stronger, but still has a dry cough which could last months.

She believes she could have contracted coronavirus at the beauty salon where she works, but she
may never know for sure. She may also never know how her family seems to have escaped the
virus.

TEXT 5

"I just wanted someone to help me"

Jessie Clark from Sheffield knew she would be vulnerable if she contracted Covid-19 - she has
chronic kidney disease and five years ago had a kidney removed. When the 26-year-old started
coughing and becoming increasingly breathless she started to worry. Within days, she was
struggling to walk.

Image captionJessie Clark was hospitalised after she struggled with

her breathing.

"I also had a lot of pain in my ribs, back and abdomen," explains Jessie. "I felt like I had been
beaten up."

Two days after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK was going into lockdown, Jessie's
fiance Tom drove her to A&E. They were quickly separated because of safety restrictions.

"I was scared to be alone, but I was so poorly I just wanted someone to help me," Jessie says. "I
was given a green mask with a wired bit around the nose to keep it up. I was taken to a unit which
seemed to be being used for Covid-19 patients. Social distancing was in place so we had bays
separated by walls with a bed in each bay.

"I wasn't tested for Covid-19. My doctor told they 'couldn't swab everyone, but it was safe to
assume I had it'. He said the pain I was experiencing was the inflammation from my lungs and that I
should keep self-isolating and taking painkillers.

TEXT 6

"I was within a whisper of a very dark place"

Image captionStewart Boyle says he could feel the virus attack his lungs,
making it difficult to breathe.

Stewart Boyle is almost certain he contracted coronavirus at one of his choir meetings a few weeks
ago.

"We were all social distancing when we met on the Thursday, but by Sunday a high number of
people had come down with flu-like symptoms," he says.

Over the following 10 days, the 64-year-old's health declined.

"It's quite subtle at first," he explains. "But then I would try to climb the stairs and be wheezing like
an old man. Soon I didn't have the ability to exercise or move at all. The virus was attacking my
lungs and I was losing the capacity to fight back."

Stewart's family called 111 and he was taken to hospital.

"It was like something out of a movie," he says. "I was wheeled into the 'red zone' and there were
loads of tests being carried out and swabs being taken. They thought I had coronavirus so they
upped my oxygen. There were a couple of hours where I was within a whisper of a very dark place
and I thought, 'maybe my time is up'. But I wanted to live.

"I could feel the battle in my lungs and it required all my reserves to get through it. The extra
oxygen gave my lungs a break and gave me the added energy to push out the disease. The NHS
staff were incredible, but all they can do is help you fight the virus. There's no vaccination or
magical potion that can save you. It's about your own resilience."

On Saturday, Stewart left hospital and is now self-isolating at home. He has been drinking a lot of
water to help his lungs and throat recover.

Meanwhile, his choir has performed a special song for him via Zoom.

"The song was about looking after me and holding me. It was stunning," he says. "I'm a long way
off to getting my singing voice back. All I can do right now is croak."
REVIEW:
PRACTICE
https://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-articles.php

http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/New_Snakes_%20Ladders/Articles.html