hce_kmu
111年
英文
第 37 題
📖 題組：
While death and taxes are the two facts of life, not all funerals are alike. During the same week, there were two news reports related to funerals that reflected glaring differences. The first concerned the death of Joanna Nichols, the founder of the Children’s Hearing Foundation in Taipei. Nichols dedicated the last twenty-three years of her life to bringing speech, communication, and hope to children with hearing impairments. She died of cervical cancer at the age of forty-seven. In her obituary, her death was portrayed as a peaceful return to the eternal rest in the arms of a loving God, and her funeral ceremony was an invitation to celebrate her life. The second article reported the involvement of gangsters in the funeral enterprise. In Taiwan, funerals are big business. To secure the well-being of the deceased and appease their spirits in the afterlife, relatives would burn paper money, houses, cars and whatever paper replicas of worldly comforts they could offer. Professional mourners are hired to wail to proclaim piety. Singers and even strip dancers have become common sights at funerals. In fact, the amount of money spent on a funeral becomes indicative of the wealth and status of the family in mourning. As such, funerals have become a lucrative endeavor for funeral homes, and the underworld has begun to stake out their claims. Compare the two reports. Apart from the genuine sorrow of the grieving families, the first speaks of peace in the face of death and quiet confidence in life after death, while the second reflects fear and insecurity in the after world. Nichols’ funeral marked the celebration of her life lived, in contrast to the average funeral which marks the finality of death. Final respects to Nichols were paid with dignity by remembering and appreciating who she was rather than by paying big money for the funeral. Last of all, grief was expressed and comfort gained through the knowledge of a loving God rather than through the paid cries of professional mourners. Why would one funeral, the sacred rite of death, reflect serenity and triumph, while another, also a religious rite of death, hint at fear and empty materialism?
While death and taxes are the two facts of life, not all funerals are alike. During the same week, there were two news reports related to funerals that reflected glaring differences. The first concerned the death of Joanna Nichols, the founder of the Children’s Hearing Foundation in Taipei. Nichols dedicated the last twenty-three years of her life to bringing speech, communication, and hope to children with hearing impairments. She died of cervical cancer at the age of forty-seven. In her obituary, her death was portrayed as a peaceful return to the eternal rest in the arms of a loving God, and her funeral ceremony was an invitation to celebrate her life. The second article reported the involvement of gangsters in the funeral enterprise. In Taiwan, funerals are big business. To secure the well-being of the deceased and appease their spirits in the afterlife, relatives would burn paper money, houses, cars and whatever paper replicas of worldly comforts they could offer. Professional mourners are hired to wail to proclaim piety. Singers and even strip dancers have become common sights at funerals. In fact, the amount of money spent on a funeral becomes indicative of the wealth and status of the family in mourning. As such, funerals have become a lucrative endeavor for funeral homes, and the underworld has begun to stake out their claims. Compare the two reports. Apart from the genuine sorrow of the grieving families, the first speaks of peace in the face of death and quiet confidence in life after death, while the second reflects fear and insecurity in the after world. Nichols’ funeral marked the celebration of her life lived, in contrast to the average funeral which marks the finality of death. Final respects to Nichols were paid with dignity by remembering and appreciating who she was rather than by paying big money for the funeral. Last of all, grief was expressed and comfort gained through the knowledge of a loving God rather than through the paid cries of professional mourners. Why would one funeral, the sacred rite of death, reflect serenity and triumph, while another, also a religious rite of death, hint at fear and empty materialism?
How did Nichols’ family respond to her death?
- A They burned a lot of products made of paper.
- B They believed that she returned to the embrace of God.
- C They found it unfair that God took her away from them.
- D They founded a foundation for children with hearing impairments.
- E They were comforted by the knowledge that she would be rich in the afterlife.
思路引導 VIP
如果你觀察文中描述的這兩場喪禮，第一場強調的是「平靜」與「對死後世界的信心」，而第二場則充斥著「物慾」與「恐懼」。請試著從文章最後一段找出：第一場喪禮的人們之所以能感到平靜並獲得安慰，最核心的「心理依歸」或「信仰對象」是什麼？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精準捕捉到文章中的細節，並在兩段截然不同的敘事中，成功鎖定 Joanna Nichols 家人的情感反應，這展現了你優異的閱讀理解力。
文章細節的對照與解析
在閱讀這篇文章時，關鍵在於區分 Nichols 女士與文中提到的第二類喪葬文化。文章第二段明確提到，Nichols 的訃聞將她的離去描述為「回到慈愛上帝的懷抱中永享安息」（return to the eternal rest in the arms of a loving God），這正是選項 (B) 的核心所在。相較於一般傳統喪禮充滿對死後世界的恐懼與物質化補償（如選項 A 與 E 提到的燒紙錢、追求身後財富），Nichols 的家人在信仰中找到了寧靜與慰藉，並將喪禮視為對她一生的慶祝。
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