swayed fray outbreak upended

unnerving scrutiny scattering instead of

patronize

Activity D.

While reading the news article 1 below, find and underline the following
words and understand the context.
Are You Sick?’ For Asian-Americans, a Sneeze Brings
Suspicion.
Though there are only a few known cases in the U.S., the coronavirus outbreak has
left some Asian-Americans feeling an unsettling level of public scrutiny.

Chinatown in  Chicago.Credit...David Kasnic for The New York Times

By Julie Bosman, Farah Stockman and Thomas Fuller

 Published Feb. 16, 2020Updated Feb. 18, 2020

CHICAGO — Strings of lanterns in festive red and gold swayed high above the
streets in Chicago’s Chinatown, but few people strolled the sidewalks on a recent
afternoon.

At Slurp Slurp Noodles, tourists were not filling the usual tables for lunch, a
waitress said. A school crossing guard had stashed a face mask in her pocket,
ready to slip it on when her nerves began to fray.

The coronavirus outbreak has so far largely spared the United States, with only 15
confirmed cases across this country, even as the virus has rapidly spread around
the globe and killed more than 1,100 people, most of them in China. Most
Americans have gone about their lives, confident that they have little to fear from
an epidemic that has mostly been felt abroad.

But for small pockets of people — those who come from China, or travel there
frequently, and health workers who are charged with battling the virus — life has
been upended. Hundreds of Americans who were in China are now marooned in
anxious quarantine on military bases. And many Asian-Americans in the United
States have felt an unnerving public scrutiny, noticing that a simple cough or
sneeze can send people around them scattering.

“Instead of ‘Bless you’ or ‘Are you OK,’” said Aretha Deng, 20, a junior at
Arizona State University, “their reaction is an instant state of panic.”

Reactions to the coronavirus outbreak have been a study in contrasts. On college

campuses, classes and parties continue as usual — except for students returning
from China, who have been asked to isolate themselves for two weeks. City
leaders in Chicago and New York made a point of visiting those cities’
Chinatowns last week, encouraging visitors to patronize restaurants and shops
where business has suffered.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/16/us/coronavirus-american-mood.html