The Final Goodbye

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• cremated
• gives me the chills
• deceased
• open-casket

• closure
• mourning
• faced

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Let’s face it. Death is a part of life. As painful as it can be to say goodbye to a loved one, we all have to do it at some point. The way people think about death, and how they acknowledge death in their communities is one of the major things that differentiates cultures.

Depending on what the deceased or their family wants, and depending on what the common cultural rituals are, a funeral could incorporate many different elements. For example, in Tibet, some Tibetans choose a “sky burial”. The body is left on a mountaintop for the birds to eat.

Listen to Amanda and Logan talk about open-casket funerals and cremation in the US.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Logan

Amanda

Logan:  So the last funeral I went to was a closed casket. And I don’t… I’ve never been to an open-casket funeral before.

Amanda:  Never.

Logan:  Never.

Amanda:  And it depends who you talk to because for some people, they think that it gives them closure to actually see the person dead in their casket. I’ve been to several open-casket funerals where they’ve been children.

Logan:  Really?

Amanda:  And I have to say for one it did not give me closure. It was the most disturbing finale to…. you hear of the death and then you’re mourning... and then to be faced with a child who is dead.

Logan:  My…I actually had a friend who got in a bike accident and he died. This was years ago, but… he was cremated and I… I had no problem with that actually. I kind of thought that was kind of a nice, it was a nice setting, a nice ceremony and everything. And, yeah, it’s not as big as a casket…

Amanda:  Right.

Logan:  Bu… I can do that, but I just… the open casket thing, to me, gives me the chills.

Amanda:  I’ve actually… My husband and I have actually decided that cremation is the choice for us.

 

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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