113 會考英文閱讀第 42 題詳解

Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, people have begun "social distancing"—keeping a safe space between you and anyone you don't live with. Though it has been a very popular topic this year, social distancing （ 40 ）. In fact, it was widely used in the U.S. in the flu pandemic in 1918. But how well did it work? The Americans' experience can tell us whether it really saved lives.

From the picture, we can see that （ 41 ） started social distancing earlier than the other three cities. This helped the city keep the number of deaths down. Besides taking early action, keeping the action long enough was also important in fighting the pandemic. The picture shows that Portland and Denver did well in the first few weeks. However, both cities （ 本題 ）, and the numbers of deaths climbed again. But there was one thing Portland did right. The city used several ways of social distancing at the same time to deal with the pandemic. （ 43 ）, sick people were kept away from healthy ones; schools were closed; public activities were not allowed. All these were useful in keeping people safe. The lessons of the 1918 pandemic bring us hope. While we are still learning to fight Covid-19, social distancing may be the best way to get us through the dark days, at least for now.