Focusing on Survival

(NYTIMES) - Another Covid winter looms, but this moment of the pandemic feels hopeful. At age 87, I’m becoming reacquainted with the social life I had put on pause for many months. I am going out to restaurants and museums, attending church and visiting my grandchildren who live in a neighbouring town.

I have always seen myself as a risk-taker and an optimist. But every day as I venture out, there’s a drumbeat in mind, a constant accompaniment: “Is this too risky for me?”

But if the risk of getting sick with Covid-19 is holding me back, there is something even stronger drawing me out: the fear of not making the most of my remaining time, my “one wild and precious life”, as the poet Mary Oliver described it.

Why does the writer believe that making the most of her remaining time is important?

Life expectancy is just six years at my age. I want to spend my remaining time travelling, going to parties with friends and seeing all my far-flung grandchildren. I’m overjoyed that my retirement community has reopened. The dining room serves meals again, and I’ve joined both a dance and taiji class. I want to enjoy it all now. Time speeds up as you age. One 90-year-old friend put it this way: “What do I have to lose?”

How does the narrator spend her remaining time?

While Covid-19’s toll has been felt by everyone, pandemic living for people in our 80s was different. Yes, our risk of getting sick or dying from Covid was far greater. But nonetheless, I was able to keep my equanimity. People my age are resilient; after all, we were children during World War II.

Givin balance.'e a word from the paragraph which means 'balance.'

Explain what made people of the writer's generation resilient.

Because the pandemic forced me and my peers to be so sheltered, daily life became, ironically, stress-free and, for some of us, boring. In March last year, my boyfriend and I were told that we could not keep going back and forth between our two retirement-community apartments. We decided in a few minutes that he would move in with me. That hasty decision meant we lived pleasantly together through the long months of quarantine, reading books and playing word games.

Explain clearly why the writer found life during the pandemic boring.

It was not the same for my adult children or many of my therapy clients, most of whom are in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Their stress levels were extraordinary. Some took precautions to the extreme and disinfected their groceries. One of my clients, who was working a full-time job while managing her children’s schooling from home, told me she could “sleep for three years”.

What extreme measures are people taking to protect themselves?

What did the writer's friend mean when she said that she could sleep for three years?

Many of my younger clients seem very cautious about returning to more normal living. They tell me they are taking it slow. Often, it’s much slower than us elders. One client in her 40s told me that she’s “really looking forward to going to a restaurant and eating inside”. (I have already been to six or seven restaurants). Until very recently, whenever we visited my son and daughter-in-law, they had us sit in chairs in their driveway. In my book clubs and writers’ group, it is some of the younger women who do not want to meet in person.

Give an example of how people who are younger than the writer find it hard to return to normal living after the pandemic.

Some adult children of 80-somethings have become bossy and even tyrannical in their concern over their parents’ safety. My friend was told by her two grown children that she could not leave her house under any circumstances. Her children shopped for her food and took her to the doctor. But she was starved for human companionship and became resentful.

After many decades of living, we know with absolute certainty that relationships and enjoying time with the people we love are what matter the most in life.

Explain in your own words why the writer's friend became resentful.

Living into your 80s was not very common until relatively recently. But today, people my age are doing all sorts of things – hiking the Appalachian Trail, falling in love, writing poetry for the first time or helping to resettle Afghan refugees.

Being in your 80s doesn’t mean you have to focus on survival. It is a time to enjoy a full life. And that’s what I’m ready to do.

What does the writer mean by 'not just focusing on survival.@

Using your own words as far as possible, summarise the problems with the PSLE and

the suggestions to i~prove it. ·

Use only information from paragraphs 4 and 5.

Your summary must be-in continuous writing (not note form). It must not be longer than

80 words (notcounting the words given to help you begin).

17,e ministry needs lo change the PSLE