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  3. How we die, as well as how we live, has profound and lasting effects on the environment. China now is advocating environmentally

How we die, as well as how we live, has profound and lasting effects on the environment. China now is advocating environmentally

admin2021-05-24  50
问题         How we die, as well as how we live, has profound and lasting effects on the environment. China now is advocating environmentally friendly funerals, hut most people still prefer traditional burial ceremonies. The following excerpt reveals the development of eco-funeral in China.
        Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
        1. summarize briefly the article;
        2. express your opinion towards this practice.
                                                                                                                Go Green, in Death as in Life
        A new type of funeral—the "ecological funeral"—is being advocated by China’s government and media, with suitable memorial parks established in many areas.
        Ecological funerals refer to new "tree funerals", "flower funerals", "grass funerals" and "water funerals". In the first three types, the ashes of the deceased person are spread on earth in which trees, flowers or grass is planted. In water funerals, the ashes are scattered over a river or the sea
        Such funerals represent China’s second reform of funeral customs. In the first reform, cremation replaced burials. Now the ashes are not retained, but are returned to nature.
        In many ways, ecological funerals meet the needs of the times, especially in our cities. The Chinese population is getting older faster, and there is a shortage of land, so there is a risk of having nowhere to build traditional cemeteries. With the Chinese tradition of lavish funeral ceremonies, burial costs are spiralling. In some cases, a funeral can cost more than a house, and people speak of being able to afford to live, but not to die.
        Ecological funerals use little or no land. What they do use is not covered with a gravestone, but with plants. As it happens, China’s Tomb-Sweeping Festival fell in April, just as plants are growing and flowering. Memorial parks will double as green spaces.
        Popularising this practice would save both costs and land, and increase the amount of green space.
        Despite all this, however, many media reports published after this year’s Tomb-Sweeping Festival showed that only a minority of people choose ecological funerals.
        "The old burial practices have existed for thousands of years. You can’t replace them overnight," says Zhu Huamin, head of the Shanghai Burial Culture Institute. "I think for some time to come, ecological funerals will only be accepted by some people."
        Attachment to the idea of traditional funerals is the greatest current obstacle to ecological funerals in China. Despite the earlier reforms, cremation still is not accepted in rural areas, and 50% of Chinese funerals involve burial. The success or failure of this second round of reform rests on changing those deep-rooted cultural beliefs.
        In order to meet targets during the earlier reforms, local governments attempted to make cremation compulsory, but to little effect. Burials took place in secret, and corruption resulted, especially in rural areas. Di Yingqi, a representative in the National People’s Congress, argues that a funeral law should be drafted, providing for a range of funeral styles.
        China’s long-standing sustainable development strategy requires a shift to the environmentally friendly in the economic, social and cultural sectors. Funeral practices are no different, but using legal and administrative measures to do so will have little effect, at best You cannot force cultural changes. It is not a matter of law and institutions, but of raising environmental awareness among the people. Then will choose more environmentally friendly ways of life—and death—of their own accord.
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答案 An Environmental-Friendly Way of Death In an effort to promote environmental protection, the Chinese government is advocating "ecological funerals". Compared with traditional burials, ecological funeral is much more environmentally friendly; they do not need or need very little land, thus saving the very limited land resources in the country. The initiative, however, is not popular among the public with very few people chose "ecological funerals" instead of the traditional ones. And legal and administrative measures aiming at promoting it will have little effect in front of thousands of years’ burials custom. In my opinion, the policy is well-intended and should be promoted in ways other than administrative and legal measures. Firstly, there is no doubt that traditional burial funerals are often lavish and take up more land than ecological funerals. Due to the very limited land in China, the prices for burials have been rocketing in recent years. Promoting ecological funeral will save people the cost of buying burials in tomb yards and will save much land resources. Secondly, it should be acknowledged that promoting ecological funerals will be a difficult process as the burial tradition has been deep-rooted for thousands of years. The government should raise the awareness of the public of the severe environmental issues we are facing, and tell people what they can do to better the situation, with ecological funeral being one of them. Thirdly, it should also be noticed that this will be a long process. Do not expect to reach this goal in a few years by means of administrative or legal measures, but do keep educating people on it with patience and the goal might be reached in a longer term. In conclusion, I believe ecological funeral is a good way to protect the environment, but considering the acceptance of the public, the promotion of it will be a long and difficult process.
解析         材料是一篇有关“生态殡葬”的新闻报道，大致可分为三部分内容。
        前六段介绍了生态殡葬的概念和好处。指出生态殡葬以花草树木和河海代替墓地和墓碑，使陵园成为绿地。能够缓解我国人口老齡化，土地资源短缺，殡葬花费上升的问题（The Chinese population…costs are spiralling），既节省土地又增加绿地。
        第七至倒数第二段分析了推行生态殡葬的困难及人大代表的建议。指出只有极少数人选择生态殡葬，主要障碍是几千年来植根于群众的文化信仰（deep rooted cultural beliefs），有些偏远地区仍是选择墓葬而不是火化（cremation），生态殡葬因此不易被人们接受。人大代表认为应通过立法提供更多可选择的殡葬方式。
        最后一段是对政府的建议和相关现状的分析。我国的可持续发展战略（sustainable development strategy）要求各方向环境友好型方向发展，因此推行生态殡葬有其必要性。但材料也指出，推行生态殡葬仅通过法律和行政手段（legal and administrative measures）收效甚微，更重要的是提高人们的环保意识。
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