首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
(1) I heard it argued recently that saying "My father died" is insufficiently honest. Instead, one should say "My father is dead
(1) I heard it argued recently that saying "My father died" is insufficiently honest. Instead, one should say "My father is dead
admin
2023-01-28
58
问题
(1) I heard it argued recently that saying "My father died" is insufficiently honest. Instead, one should say "My father is dead", to better recognise that death is an ongoing condition rather than a one-off tragedy. This struck me as both true and uncomfortably strict.
(2) There is, at the moment, a craze for speaking bluntly about death. It began, as so many fashionable ideas do, as a necessary reaction to the status quo. Modern death is so discreetly done, overseen by professionals in hospitals and funeral homes, that it often feels weirdly invisible. Using delicate or obfuscating language is thought to reinforce the sense of taboo.
(3) The terminal illness charity Marie Curie has just released a list of the 50 most popular British euphemisms (委婉语) for death—ranging from "passed away" to the less familiar "wearing a wooden onesie". The sheer volume of phrases, says the charity, "suggests society still has some way to go to feel comfortable about talking about dying".
(4) But I’m not sure about that correlation. Some of the phrases listed here, such as "popped their clogs" or "kicked the bucket", are not really euphemisms. They are little jokes, defiant jabs of humour. Many of them originate from WWI, when the casualties were so relentless that the only way to endure it was with black humour. "Pushing up the daisies" and "become a landowner"—both phrases that date from the Great War—are almost anti-euphemisms, with their frank insistence on the corpse rotting in the soil.
(5) Even the much-derided "
pass away
" isn’t a modern euphemism at all, but a 14th century invention. Death was hardly a secret during the plague-ridden Dark Ages, when the average life expectancy was 24 for men and 33 for women. "Pass away" was not intended to disguise the reality of death, but to describe it. Christians of the time believed that the souls of the recently dead stayed in their bodies until the funeral rites were complete, at which point they "passed away" into the afterlife.
(6) The difficulty now is that we live in a secular society, but rely on the consolations of faith. Christian phrases that once had literal meanings are now reduced to hollow platitudes. Few modern Britons really believe that the dead are "with the angels" or "looking down from Heaven". For the recently bereaved, these empty sentiments can in fact be the opposite of consoling. I remember, after my baby nephew died, feeling a rush of rage towards someone who assured me that he had "gone to a better place". Better than his mother’s arms? It’s not a comfort: it’s an insult.
(7) But an abundance of language is not, ordinarily, evidence of a taboo (禁忌). Quite the opposite. We have all those words for death because we need them. The reality is too vast, too various, too confounding to be simply expressed. One word just isn’t enough.
According to the author, which of the following sentences is NOT true about the phrase "pass away"?
选项
A、It’s widely used to refer to "death".
B、It was a euphemistic way to say "death".
C、It was first invented in the 14th century.
D、It was intended to describe the reality of death.
答案
B
解析
细节题。第5段对pass away的起源和真正含义进行了集中阐述,第1句便提到Even the much—derided “pass away” isn’t a modem euphemism at all“甚至连备受嘲笑的pass away都不是一个现代委婉语”,而第3句指出,“pass away”并不是要掩盖死亡的事实,而是要描述死亡,可见其直接性。由此可知B项说法错误,符合题干要求。第3段第1句提到wearing a wooden onesie这一表达人们不太熟悉,且用pass away与之进行对比,说明人们常用pass away来表达“死亡”,因此A项说法正确。可排除。第5段第1句提到pass away始于14世纪、第3句指出其目的是直观描述“死亡”。而非掩饰,因此C、D项说法均正确。直接排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/WISD777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
BeautyisbigbusinessinChina.Thecountry’scosmeticsmarketisworth$26billionayear,makingitthethird-biggestinthe
IsStanfordstillauniversity?TheWallStreetJournalrecentlyreportedthatmorethanadozenstudentshaveleftschooltowo
HarvardprofessorHarveyMansfieldstirredupcontroversyrecentlybycriticizingtheviolentgradeinflationathisinstitution
Thankstothemeansofmoderntransportationandcommunication,theworldisgettingsmaller.Thewholeworldcommunityappears
NationalAviationandSpaceAdministration(NASA)anditspartnersintheInternationalSpaceStationhaveagreedinprinciplet
Hispremiership,seeminglycast-ironayearago,isnowsovulnerablethatevenagooddayattheofficedoesnomorethanbuyh
AccordingtoCNNnews,OscarMenjivar-Herreraassaultedagirlwiththehelpofthe12-year-oldboy.Policewereshockedthatth
WhichofthefollowingsentencesisNOTanemphaticsentence?
WhichofthefollowingsentencesisINCORRECT?
随机试题
一项较完整的广告策划,不可缺少的内容有()。
既平肝,又利尿的中药是
磺胺类药物的作用机制
患者行背部小手术后感到疼痛,为减轻患者疼痛,2pm医生开出医嘱:阿法罗定10mgimSOS。此项医嘱失效的时间至
[案情] 田某是某村办企业厂长,一日,田某怀疑职工袁某盗窃本厂财物,便私设公堂,指令保安王某对袁某在该厂仓库进行“审讯”,长达20个小时,并对袁某有殴打、侮辱行为。此后田某听说公安机关介入本案,便资助王某5000元,令其逃匿至外地。此外,当公安人员依法
甲、乙双方当事人签订货物买卖合同,并在合同中约定了仲裁条款:凡因本合同所发生之一切纠纷,均提交某市仲裁委员会仲裁。后因市场情况发生变化,双方经协商将合同终止,但关于合同的部分履行及相应价款问题仍有争议存在。甲方据该仲裁协议向仲裁委员会申请仲裁,乙方则向仲裁
某看守所干警甲,因涉嫌虐待被监管人乙被立案侦查。在审查起诉期间,A地基层检察院认为甲情节显著轻微,不构成犯罪.遂作不起诉处理。关于该决定,下列哪一选项是正确的?(2008年试卷2第24题)
下列凭证中,属于外来原始凭证的有()。
钍对被假释回家的老蒋,社会工作者小美—方面对其进行心理辅导-使其得到思想上、行为上的治疗,另一方面动员其家人和朋友,帮助老蒋重新融入社会。小美的服务属于()。
设变量已正确定义为整型,则表达式n=i=2,++i,i++的值为()。
最新回复
(
0
)