III.Blank-filling (10%)
 (AB) made up for (AC) sticking point (AD) hammered out (AE) compounded (BC) herd immunity(BD) succeeding (BE) proceeding (CD) liability (CE) alternative (DE) procurement
 Major European countries are facing a third wave of coronavirus deaths and infections as the EU andindividual member states come under fire for slow vaccination rollouts, trailing countries like Britain andthe United States.
 The European Commission secured its first vaccine contract 105 days after former EU member Britain. Itapproved its first vaccine 19 days after Britain. The slow rollout has been (21)_______ by delays, fearsabout safety, tension over deliveries, including recent disputes with Britain over exports of theAstraZeneca vaccine. Many Europeans are skeptical about vaccines anyway.
 EU officials told Reuters product (22)_____ was among contentious points in European efforts to securesupply deals for potential vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, whose COVID-19vaccine development has been delayed.Pricing was another possible (23)_____ but Sandra Gallina, director-general for health at the EuropeanCommission, denied that the Commission had prioritised price over making sure it secured vaccines.With eight additional vaccine deals, the EU has (24)_____ lost ground and secured 1.84 billion dosesthat have the potential to cover 227% of the bloc’s population, according to the Duke Global HealthInnovation Center’s Launch and Scale Speedometer.
 The United States has the potential coverage of 200% of its population, but the UK has one of the highestcoverage rates with vaccine deals able to cover 364% of the population.
 The European Commission said in early March that it was considering emergency approvals for vaccinesas a faster (25)_____ to more rigorous conditional marketing authorizations which have been used sofar.
Any change of tack would come after Eastern European countries, including Hungary, Slovakia and theCzech Republic, approved Russian and Chinese vaccines with national emergency procedures. Britainalso used its emergency procedure to approve COVID-19 vaccines.The EU (26)_____ prices and ordersof doses, but it is the responsibility of individual member countries to work with the pharmaceuticalcompanies to deliver vaccines and carry out their own inoculation strategies.
 Overall the vaccine development programme have been slow across the EU — 63 days to give 5% of thepopulation its first dose after the vaccinations began at the end of December. The UK and the U.S.reached a 5% vaccination rate 38 and 40 days after the first shot, respectively.
With infection rates rising, governments are under pressure to speed up inoculations. Still, some are (27)_____ at getting shots into their residents’ arms faster than others.
Malta, with the highest vaccination rate in Europe at 29% on March 28, is expected to achieve (28)_____ for the island nation’s half a million population by mid-summer, according to Health Minister ChrisFearne.
 Vaccination rates have also soared in Hungary after its drug regulator approved Russia’s Sputnik V foruse. Since the EU does not have a (29)_____ deal with the Russian vaccine, member states like Hungaryand Slovakia can pursue their own contracts. EU-negotiated vaccines should be distributed based oncountries’ populations, but deliveries do not seem to be (30)_____ evenly. Germany, Europe’s largestcountry by population, has received enough doses of vaccines to give one shot to 21% of its population.
 By contrast, Bulgaria, with less than a tenth of Germany’s population, has only gotten enough vaccines togive one shot to 10% of its population.
【題組】21.