By
04.16.14
ALEPPO, Syria — A family stood shivering on a balcony in Aleppo’s Anadan suburb as midnight approached. Their sleep had been interrupted by the nightly flight of a government helicopter.
They followed the sound of the helicopter’s whirring blades and listened to scratchy updates from rebels coming over a walkie-talkie.
News came in that the helicopter had dropped two barrel bombs on nearby towns. The bombs are oil drums filled with TNT that can level buildings.
They knew that the helicopters can carry up to four of the bombs. They waited for the last two.
Below them, lights came on in basement bunkers as others sought a small measure of protection. Khansa Laila walked out onto the balcony cloaked in several layers but still shaking in the nighttime chill.
“I woke up from the sound of the alarm, so I’m still cold,” she said, referring to the warning system the town’s residents installed. “Also, fear makes you cold.”
A series of red streaks from a machine gun shot upward against a starry sky. But the streaks rose and fell without striking their target.
Eventually the sound of the helicopter grew faint and was replaced by that of a warplane.
“We don’t take the warplanes seriously anymore,” Laila said. “They launch rockets that are precise, but helicopters drop barrel bombs that can destroy dozens of homes with one barrel.”
The family went to sleep that night to the sound of machine-gun fire and the occasional rocket.
Sad Soundtrack Of War
It is three years into Syria’s conflict. The noise of war has become a familiar companion to daily life here in the country’s largest city. The noise is the sad soundtrack to the gradual destruction of Aleppo and a shrinking civilian population struggling to survive.
For more than three months, Aleppo’s opposition-held neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs have been terrorized nearly daily by the barrel bombs. Activists estimate that more than 2,000 people have been killed in these attacks.
Those still in the city have adjusted to enduring most of President Bashar Assad’s military might with resilience.
In a shoe store, a woman tries on a pair of wedge heels and deems them not comfortable enough “to flee” in. A 1-year-old with curly hair and big brown eyes speaks mostly in mumbles, but one word she knows clearly: "tabit" — it fell.
“A barrel falls and 10 minutes later people return to what they were doing,” said Muhammad. The young man works at a temporary gas station: 12 oil drums resting on their sides serving six varieties of gasoline.
Hours earlier, a barrel bomb had struck a street, hitting three vehicles and killing eight people. With the blood fresh on the pavement, motorists stopped and peered at the deadly damage.
The next day people walked by without a glance; the destroyed vehicles had become one more addition to the city’s scary backdrop.
“Every day we see the names of the dead scrolling across the TV screen; they’ve just become numbers,” one man said. “When I was a kid and someone died we mourned for 40 days, the TV could not be turned on. Now someone dies on one side and you turn around and watch a soap opera.”
On a recent day in an Aleppo vegetable market, a warplane’s low rumble halted all business and conversation.
Unripe almonds and lettuce were momentarily forgotten. Everyone turned their faces upward to track the plane by its sound.
Not until the rumble had faded, leaving only a white trail across the sky, did the people return their attention to the boring particulars of life. The plane was now the concern of another Aleppo neighborhood.
“If it had been a helicopter, they would watch it till it dropped the barrel," Saleh Laila said. Then chaos "would break out and cars would start driving into each other and people would run, trying to get away.”
Deserted Neighborhoods
A couple of charred and stripped vehicles mark the entrance of rebel-held Aleppo.
The helicopters attack day and night. Those attacks, coupled with poundings by warplanes and artillery as well as regular clashes between government and rebel forces, have transformed the once-vibrant commercial hub into one with entire neighborhoods deserted.
More than two-thirds of the city’s population is estimated to have fled north either to Turkey or, for those not allowed passage into the country, along its border in ramshackle refugee tents.
As one Aleppo resident said of the city, “There are fighters, activists and shop owners. No one else is left.”
At A Busy Market
At the scene of twin barrel bombings at a busy market, bodies, or what was left of them, were laid out along a sidewalk.
A man, his shirt bloodied and neck bandaged, smoked a cigarette. Those around him congratulated him on sustaining only a minor injury: “Thank God for your safety.”
“Don’t gather, don’t gather!” yelled one rebel with a rifle. The rebel warned people that a crowd could invite another attack.
Hours later, the broken glass and concrete had been swept and the blood washed away.
Children gathered around an ice cream stand, standing on tippy-toes to peer at the available flavors. Men bought produce from a fruit seller, the color of the oranges bright against the gray of fallen concrete.
Questions:
Questions:
1. Select
the sentence that contains a word that is a synonym for "not so
clear"?
A. A family stood
shivering on a balcony in Aleppo's Anadan suburb as midnight approached.
B. They followed the
sound of the helicopter's whirring blades and listened to scratchy updates from
rebels coming over a walkie-talkie.
C. Eventually the
sound of the helicopter grew faint and was replaced by that of a warplane.
D. The next day people
walked by without a glance; the destroyed vehicles had become one moreaddition
to the city's scary backdrop.
2. Which
of the following sentences contains a word that is a synonym for
"lively"?
A. They followed the
sound of the helicopter's whirring blades and listened to scratchy updates from
rebels coming over a walkie-talkie.
B. With the blood
fresh on the pavement, motorists stopped and peered at the deadly damage.
C. On a recent day in
an Aleppo vegetable market, a warplane's low rumble halted all business and
conversation.
D. Regular clashes
between government and rebel forces have transformed the once-vibrant commercial
hub into one with entire neighborhoods deserted.
3. The reader can
learn the following from the illustration EXCEPT:
A. the total number of people killed in Syria
B. the number of children killed in July 2012
C. the number of people killed in Damascus
D. the worst affected city in Syria
4. Which
statement BEST describes how the illustration helps increase understanding of
the article?
A. The article focuses on the war's
effect on adults while the graphic focuses on children.
B. The article gives numbers and details about the war, while the
graphic is mainly just for geography.
C. The article is mainly about Aleppo and the graphic is mainly about
Damascus.
D. The article gives personal stories and descriptions while the graphic
focuses on numbers and facts.
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