hce_kmu
111年
英文
第 38 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?
In the second news article, funerals are considered big business because ____.
- A death is inevitable
- B gangsters are often involved in funerals
- C people spend a lot of money on funerals
- D funerals are low-cost but high-profit events
- E religious practices have become less important in funerals
思路引導 VIP
如果我們形容一個產業是「大生意（big business）」，這通常代表消費者在該過程中的「金錢投入程度」是高還是低？請試著從文章第三段中，找出家屬為了展現財富與地位，具體做了哪些涉及金錢支出的行為？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能精準鎖定文章細節並選出正確答案，顯示你對於段落主旨與片語應用的掌握非常紮實。在英文閱讀理解中，能夠將抽象的描述語與具體的細節連結起來，是非常關鍵的解題能力。
經濟規模與社會地位的關聯
文中將喪禮形容為「大生意（big business）」，核心原因在於臺灣傳統喪禮中，家屬為了彰顯「孝心」以及家族的財富與地位（wealth and status），往往不吝於投入大量金錢。文章細數了燒紙錢、紙紮屋、聘請職業哭墓者甚至歌舞表演等行為，這些活動背後都代表著高昂的消費支出。正是因為大眾願意投入巨額資金，才使得喪禮產業變得極具商機（lucrative），進而演變成文中提到的經濟現象。
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