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?
【題組】36. The main purpose of this article is to .
(A) compare two religions
(B) describe differences between two funerals
(C) argue that all funerals are similar in some ways
(D) explain why funerals have become profitable in Taiwan
(E) introduce Joanna Nichols’ contribution to children with hearing impairments