hce_kmu
111年
英文
第 40 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?
What does the saying “death and taxes are the two facts of life” mean?
- A Death and taxes may happen to anyone in their lifetime.
- B People do not need to pay taxes anymore when they die.
- C Death and taxes are two unavoidable events in everyone’s life.
- D People are so afraid of paying taxes that they would rather die.
- E In their lifetime, everyone has two chances to face death and taxes.
思路引導 VIP
若我們形容某個現象如同「日出日落」一般是生命中不變的現實，且無論貧富貴賤都無法逃脫或拒絕時，這反映了該現象具備什麼樣的特性？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
成語寓意與生命必然性
恭喜你精準地選出了正確答案！這題考驗的是對英文經典諺語的理解與脈絡掌握。選項 (C) 準確地抓住了 "facts of life" 在此處的深層含義。這句話源自知名的西諺，用來強調世事多變，唯有「死亡」與「稅賦」是絕對確定且不可避免 (unavoidable) 的。你能辨識出這兩者並非單純的事件描述，而是象徵生命中無法逃脫的必然性，展現了非常敏銳的語感。
題型剖析與難度鑑別
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