When we are born, we are given names that stay with us for our whole lives. Some names include good wishes and hopes from parents, while others may be unique（独一无二的）and easy to remember. But do you know how the new coronavirus（冠状病毒）got its name?
According to International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses（国际病毒分类委员会）, an organization that names new viruses, the task of naming a virus is no less important than naming a person.
When a disease breaks out, people focus on the public health response and the official naming of a new virus is often put off. But naming a virus is never easy. Over the past ten years, some improper names have caused problems. In 2009, the “swine flu（猪流感）” was widely used before the official name, H1N1 virus, was announced. This led Egypt to kill all of its pigs even though it appeared and spread among people who hadn’t been near pigs. In 2015, MERS(Midle Eat Respiratory Syndrome（中东呼吸综合征）) caused a backlash（强烈抵制）against the nations and people of this area.
So in 2015, the World Health Organization（WHO）announced that the names of viruses should be easy to remember but avoid being named after geographic place, people, classes of animals and foods.
Following these rules, the new coronavirus we are suffering from（遭受痛苦）was named “COVID-19” by the WHO on Feb 11. In this name, “CO” means “corona”, “VT” stands for “virus” and “D” means “disease”.
Next time you read about a virus you don’t know（线索）, you may get some clues about it from its name.
【小题1】According to the first paragraph, what are the features（特点）of people’s names?【小题2】Is the task of naming a virus less important than naming a person?
【小题3】What problem did the virus named “swine flu” cause?
【小题4】When was the new coronavirus named “COVID-19”?
【小题5】According to the passage, how can we know about a virus that we don’t know?
