Disadvantages

Question 1

opinionated

Answer 1

(adj.) intolerant, prejudiced

Eg: the opinionated comments on social media sites against refugees

Question 2

debilitate

Answer 2

(adj.) weaken, incapacitate

Eg: It is felt that too much responsibility is given to women in the area of family caregiving, especially elderly with debilities

Question 3

decipher

Answer 3

(v.) work out, make sense of

Eg: We need to decipher the reason for low female representatives

Question 4

decrepit

Answer 4

(adj.) old and in bad condition, feeble, weak

Eg: The decrepit old man sat on the pavement begging for money from passers-by

Question 5

destitute

Answer 5

(adj. ) poor, penniless, impoverished

eg: Many people are destitute

Question 6

devoid of

Answer 6

(adj. ) deficient

eg: In the 1980s, those who contracted AIDs were devoid of any hope.

Question 7

eke

Answer 7

(v. ) manage to make a living with difficult
eg: Pictures of old people who eke out a living by collecting cardboard boxes raised the issues about the aged poor in SG.

Question 8

scrounge

Answer 8

(v.) borrow, beg

Eg: a 17 yr old who ran one of the sites told BuzzFeed that rather than scrounging, faking news was an easy way to make money

Question 9

obstracised

Answer 9

shunned/alienated/discriminated against/ marginalised/ isolated

Question 10

spartan

Answer 10

(adj.) simple and without any comforts, frugal, basic

Eg: many poverty stricken ppl living in spartan conditions

Question 11

gaunt

Answer 11

(adj.) very thin and pale; skinny

Eg: In Singapore, it is impossible to find ppl who are gaunt due to lack of food

Question 12

execrable

Answer 12

(adj.) extremely bad, terrible, appalling

Eg: the execrable conditions of the refugee camps worried the UN officials

Question 13

indigence

Answer 13

(n. ) poverty; destitution

eg: he did valuable work towards the relief of indigence