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Learning how to cope with death has always been a central part of human existence. Even the Pixar movie Coco bases its story on the Mexican traditions of Dia de los Muertos. In this article, you will find out why and how Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead.
I once visited the Museum of Mummies in the Mexican city of Guanajuato with a Swedish friend. The mummies were displayed among fake cobwebs ( 蜘 蛛 网 ), and other cheap adornments (装饰物). Confronted with this seeming lack of respect for the dead, I explained to my shocked companion that Mexicans have a peculiarly different relationship with death to other cultures. As the Nobel Prize-winning Mexican writer Octavio Paz explained in his work:
“The Mexican ... is familiar with death, jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, and celebrates it. True, there is as much fear in his attitude as in that of others, but at least death is not hidden away: he looks at it face to face, with impatience, disdain (鄙视) or irony.”
The celebration of the Day of the Dead — a week of festivities from 28 October to 2 November — is an essential part of this embracement of death that is particular to Mexican national identity. The popular belief is that the dead have divine permission to visit friends and relatives on earth and enjoy once again the pleasures of life. Therefore, Mexicans visit the graves of families and friends and adorn them with colorful flowers and offerings of food. The period is a joyous celebration of life, rather than a sober mourning of its passing.
The origins of the festival lie in the 16th-century fusion of the Aztecs’ belief in death as merely one part in the wider cycle of existence, their ritual venerations (仪式崇拜) and offerings to the goddess Mictecacihuatl (“Lady of the Dead”) for the deceased, and the Spanish conquerors’ desire to accommodate these festivities within the Catholic celebrations of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
In a country as socially and geographically diverse as Mexico, there is significant regional variation in the nature of festivities: the southern state of Chiapas is far more likely to focus its efforts on processions ( 队 伍 ) and public commemorations( 纪 念 ) of death than the valley of
Mexico, where the decoration of altars ( 供 坛 ) in homes and tombs of the deceased is more popular. Urbanization, too, plays a large role in regional variations. For the south and rural areas the period holds far greater social and cultural significance than in the north and large cities; families and communities in rural areas will often spend large parts of the year preparing for the occasion.
1.Why does the author say “Mexicans have a peculiarly different relationship with death to other cultures?”
A.Because Mexicans always show their respect for death in the form of mummies.
B.Because Mexicans do not fear death or respect it.
C.Because adornments like flowers can be seen everywhere during the Day of the Dead.
D.Mexicans face death bravely rather than hide it away.
2.Which statement is NOT true according to the origins of the Day of the Dead?
A.It was the Aztecs who determined how to celebrate the Day of the Dead.
B.The Aztecs believed death was part of the wider cycle of existence.
C.The Aztecs would give offerings to the goddess of death for their lost loved ones.
D.The Spanish conquerors wanted to fit the festivities into some of their Catholic celebrations.
3.Why do Mexicans visit the graves of families and friends and offer colorful flowers and food?
A.Because they can ask God to permit the dead to visit them in this way.
B.To celebrate the joy of new life in spring.
C.Because the dead will be permitted to visit their families and enjoy the pleasure of life again.
D.Because this is an essential part of embracement of death.
4.Which of the following explains the role that urbanization plays in the regional variations of celebrating the Day of the Dead?
A.People in the south and rural areas put more emphasis on the occasion.
B.People in the valleys usually decorate the alters in homes and the tombs of the dead.
C.People in the north and big cities spend large part of the year preparing for the celebration.
D.The southern states do not care about the decoration of alters at home.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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This booklet, prepared by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), provides an overview on depression. It will help you learn the things that everyone should know about depression.
This booklet is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered a guide for making medical decisions. For more information on depression, please visit the NIMH website at www.nimh.nih.gov.
1. Depression is a real illness.
Sadness is something we all experience. It is a normal reaction to difficult times in life and usually passes with a little time. When a person has depression, however, it interferes with daily life and normal functioning. Doctors call this condition “depressive disorder.” It is a real illness. Many factors may play a role in depression.
Causes of Depression
(1) Genetics, brain biology and chemistry
(2) Life events such as trauma, loss of a loved one
(3) A difficult relationship
(4) Early childhood experience
(5) Chronic illness, drug and alcohol abuse
(6) Any stressful situation
2. Depression affects people in different ways.
Not everyone who is depressed experiences every symptom. Some people experience only a few symptoms; others have many. The seriousness and frequency of symptoms, and how long they last, vary depending on the individual and the stage of the illness.
Symptoms of Depression
(1) Feelings of guilt, sadness, worthlessness, helplessness or hopelessness
(2) Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities
(3) Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
(4) Persistent aches or pains
(5) Insomnia
(6) Appetite and/ or weight changes
(7) Consistent fatigue and decreased energy
(8) Thoughts of death or suicide, suicide attempts
3. Depression is treatable.
Depression, even the most serious cases, can be treated. The earlier treatment begins, the more effective it will be.
Dealing With Depression
Reach out and stay connected: Make real-life communication a priority! Spend time with other people and confide in a trusted friend or relative. Let them help you.
Try to be active and exercise: Aim for at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. This does not have to be all at once. A ten-minute walk can improve your mood for two hours.
Eat a healthy and mood-boosting diet: Reduce foods that contain caffeine, alcohol, trans fats, and foods with high levels of chemical preservatives as well as sugars.
Get a daily dose of sunlight: Sunlight can help improve your mood. Whenever possible, get outside during daylight hours and expose yourself to the sun.
Challenge negative thinking: Nothing is as bad as it seems at first. Try to move your focus away from concentrating on what is bad in your life.
Find professional help: If none of the above tips help, do not wait for the symptoms to disappear. Seek professional help.
4. You are not alone.
In addition to your treatment, you could also join a support group. At the meetings, people share experiences, feelings, information, and coping strategies for living with depression.
Depression Around the World
Nearly seven percent of American teens and adults are currently living with depression.
About 300 million people around the world are suffering from depression.
1.According to the article, depression is NOT something that ______.
① makes a person feel a little bit sad
② always has a clear cause
③ a person can get rid of
④ happens to a small group of people
A.①②③ B.①②④
C.①③④ D.②③④
2.According to the article, who might be suffering from depression?
A.A teenager who frequently complained of stomachaches before going to school and preferred to stay in her room alone.
B.A firefighter who had a sleepless night after a tough task.
C.A mother who felt really exhausted after helping her child with her homework.
D.An old man who had no appetite for his favorite food and decided to try a new diet.
3.If you had a friend who was living with depression, you should probably suggest he ______.
A.make an overseas trip all by himself
B.stay at the gym and work out day and night
C.concentrate on the negative feelings and try to overcome them
D.take professional advice and accept medical intervention
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
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On Wednesday, two things happened. In Syria, 80 people were killed by government airstrikes. Meanwhile, in Florida, Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched and fired a sports car into space. Guess which story has dominated mainstream news sites?
The launch of Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful ever launched by a private company, went off successfully. Musk sent his cherry-red Tesla roadster running toward Mars, launching “a new space age”. The event attracted phenomenal publicity and made the rocket launch a masterstroke of advertising for Tesla.
Meanwhile, in Syria, where hundreds of thousands of refugees may be forced to return to unsafe homes, a UN human rights coordinator for Syria said despondently(沮丧地) that he was no longer sure why he bothers to videotape the effects of bombing, since nobody ever pays attention. He wondered what level of violence it would take to make the world care.
There is, perhaps, no better way to appreciate the tragedy of 21st-century global inequality than by watching a billionaire spend $90m launching a $100,000 car into space.
Musk said he wanted to participate in a space race because “races are exciting” and that while strapping his car to a rocket may be “silly and fun … silly and fun things are important”. Thus, anyone who mentions the huge waste the project involves, or the various social uses to which these resources could be put, can be dismissed as a killjoy.
But one doesn’t have to hate fun to question the justification for pursuing a costly new space race at exactly this moment. If we examine the situation honestly, it becomes hard to defend a project like this.
A mission to Mars does indeed sound exciting, but it’s important to have our priorities straight. First, perhaps we could make it so that a child no longer dies of malaria every two minutes. Or we could try to address the level of poverty in Alabama which has become so extreme that the UN investigator did not believe it could occur in a first-world country. Perhaps when violence, poverty and disease are solved, then we can head for the stars.
Many might think that what Elon Musk chooses to do with his billions is Elon Musk’s business alone. If he wanted to spend all his money on medicine for children, that would be nice, but if he’d like to spend it making big explosions and sending his convertible on a million-mile space voyage, that’s his right.
But Musk is only rich enough to afford these money-consuming projects because we have allowed social inequalities to arise in the first place. If wealth were actually distributed fairly in this country, nobody would be in a position to fund his own private space program.
Elon Musk is right: silly and fun things are important. But some of them are an indefensible waste of resources. While there are still humanitarian crises such as that in Syria, nobody can justify vast spending on rocketry experiments.
1.Why does the writer mention the two pieces of news at the beginning of the passage?
A.To highlight the significance of SpaceX’s successful launch of a rocket and a car into space.
B.To illustrate the inequality of wealth distribution and the consequent inequality of attention distribution.
C.To appeal to the government for more attention to the air strikes and refugee crisis in Syria.
D.To find out which news dominated the mainstream news sites.
2.Why did the UN human rights coordinator for Syria feel disappointed?
A.Because nobody appreciated his work and all the efforts he made.
B.Because the violence in Syria is not serious enough to make the world care.
C.Because however hard he tried, nobody seemed to care about the situation in Syria.
D.Because he had great difficulty videotaping the effects of bombing.
3.What is implied in paragraph in 6 and 7?
A.The space project of SpaceX cost the government too much money.
B.Addressing problems of violence, poverty and diseases should be our top priority.
C.Space programs are a waste of money that cannot be justified.
D.It kills the fun to question the justification of the pursuit of space programs.
4.What does the writer mainly want to tell us?
A.We should pay equal attention to space projects and solving social problems.
B.No private companies should be allowed to spend money in rocketry experiments.
C.The successful launch of SpaceX has distracted the world from more important things.
D.The money and resources used in space projects could have been used to deal with various social problems.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析