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Reading Comprehension 4

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Andra Mare
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23 views

Reading Comprehension 4

b1

Uploaded by

Andra Mare
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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It was only minus 28 degrees Celsius when we landed in Irkutsk.

But that was cold enough to make


breathing an effort - the air felt like ice as it scraped the back of my throat. Five minutes later, I needed a
second pair of gloves and pulled my scarf tight over my nose and mouth. I was obviously a beginner at this.

At the petrol station, Mikhail the attendant laughed when we asked if he wasn't freezing. He'd spent the
whole day outside with no more than his fur hat and a sheepskin coat for warmth. It was mid-afternoon and
icicles were hanging from his moustache like Dracula's fangs. He said he never drank to stay warm - unlike
many others.

Vodka

There's a belief in Siberia that enough vodka will insulate you from the cold. It's been proved tragically
wrong in the past few weeks. Dozens of bodies of the homeless or men walking drunkenly back from the
pub were hauled out of the snowdrifts, frozen or so badly frost-bitten that many will never walk again.

The local hospital in Irkutsk is overwhelmed. Ironically, it's the burns unit that's taken all the frostbite
victims - 200 of them in just two weeks in one town. Even here, icicles are hanging down on the inside of
the windows, though the heating is on full power. The doctor was too busy performing amputations to talk
to us.

Shortages

But we could hear the screams from the operating room. They'd run out of anesthetic after performing 60
amputations that week. The other patients could hear it too, and one girl in the corridor, clinging to her
mother for support, was near to tears.

Nastya is only 16. Last week she missed her last bus home, so she walked instead - seven kilometers
through the snow, in temperatures of minus 40. She had no gloves. Now her hands are bandaged and hang
down uselessly. She'll find out soon if they need to be amputated.

She was far from the worst case. In one bed, Nikolai Dobtsov lay quietly staring at the ceiling. Underneath
the sheets, blood was seeping through his bandages, from where his feet and hands had been amputated the
day before. He was a truck driver, he explained, with a good job delivering wood - and recently there'd
been a lot of demand. So he'd set out to deliver a last load upcountry. The weather forecast - just minus 25
in Irkutsk - seemed to suggest that the journey was safe. It wasn't. His truck broke down miles from
anywhere, and for 6 desperate hours he fought to repair the axle. He even greased his hands for protection,
and finally managed to get the truck going again. Somehow he found the strength to drive himself back and
straight to hospital, but it was already too late.

I asked Nikolai what would happen to him now. He just laughed, and shrugged. Nikolai has no wife or
family in Irkutsk - and invalidity benefit is a pittance. Life in an institution may be the best he can hope for,
and he'll almost certainly never work again.

Resilience

That incredible stoicism is everywhere. In Irkutsk at least, people seem simply to accept that winter is
harsh - and this one especially so. It is without doubt the cruelest Siberian winter in living memory. Yet
outdoors, everything appears to function normally - even schools re-opened as the temperature rose briefly
to minus 25.

The trams and buses are back on the roads, though everyone drives slowly to avoid skidding on the layers
of ice below the grit. The main street bustles with people wrapped in layers against the cold. But even
indoors, the chill is inescapable. After her shift as a tram conductor, Natasha Fillipova comes home to a
freezing house. She shows us the bedroom - where ice has built up on the inside walls. She scrapes it off
with her fingers, but that has little effect. One night, Natasha says, she washed her hair before going to bed.
When she woke up, it was frozen solid to the wall. The children are doing their homework in the bathroom
- the only room warm enough to sit in. Natasha doesn't want to complain. But she is angry with the state
and the architects for building shoddy houses.

The flats here are supposed to withstand up to minus 40 degrees. They don't, and her children are ill with
coughs and colds. Natasha's anger is brief, and she seems faintly embarrassed about it. Siberians are used to
cold weather, she explains. Here, she tells us, people prefer to rely on themselves - and the knowledge that
eventually, spring will come.

1. What do we learn in the opening paragraph?


The author arrived by bus.
The author wasn't accustomed to such cold.
The author wished he had had another pair of gloves.
The author ate some ice when he arrived.

2. What is the local theory about vodka?


If you drink too much, you may never walk again.
If you don't drink it, you may lose your legs.
If you drink it, you may suffer less from the cold.
You shouldn't drink it if you are old.

3. Which sentence is true about the hospital?


It is too warm inside.
They don't have enough supplies and equipment.
The staff didn't want to talk to the journalist.
Most frost-bite victims need to have operations.

4. What happened to Nikolai?


He almost lost his hands.
He ignored the weather forecast.
He had a problem with his engine.
He had had to help himself.

5. Houses in Irkutsk...
don't have separate bathrooms.
were built by private companies for profit.
are too cold if the temperature is less than -40ºC.
cause health problems for their residents.

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