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      考研英语水平的进步，不仅要记单词，还需要阅读外语文献等资料。接下来，小编为2024考研者们，整理出——2024考研英语同源外刊7月:日本开始流行“飞天”葬礼?供考生参考。

2024考研英语同源外刊7月:日本开始流行“飞天”葬礼?

The sakashitas gather in front of a gigantic red balloon. Inside it are the ashes of their late father, Haruhiko, and his late dog, Fuu-chan. On a count of three, Saiko, the dead man’s daughter, snips the string tethering the helium-filled orb. It shoots into the sky, with a dozen smaller balloons in pursuit.

坂下一家聚集在一个巨大的红色气球前。里面装的是他们已故父亲春彦及其已故爱犬福灿的骨灰。数到三时，死者的女儿赛科剪断了拴着氦气球的绳子。气球飞向了天空，还有十几个小气球紧随其后。

The family members watch—some waving—until the balloons disappear into the clouds. “Our father was a calm man, always travelling the world,” says his oldest son, Kohei. “Whenever we look at the sky, we will think of him.”

一家人注视着气球直到它消失在云层中，还有人朝它挥了挥手。春彦的大儿子科黑说：“我们的父亲是一个沉稳的人，他喜欢周游世界，每当我们仰望天空时，就会想起他。”

In Japan, people are traditionally cremated after death and their ashes buried. But in a crowded, ageing and largely secular society, this is becoming trickier and less desirable. Japan’s death rate is soaring—in 2022 the country logged 1.5m deaths, the highest figure since the second world war.

在日本，传统上人们死后会火化，然后将骨灰下葬。但在一个拥挤、老龄化且基本世俗化的社会，这项传统变得越来越棘手，也越来越不可取。日本的死亡率正在飙升——2022年，日本的死亡人数为150万，达二战以来的较高水平。

Grave sites are running out of space. There are fewer grieving relatives around to perform funeral rites, or to tend graves. As a result, the rituals surrounding death in Japan are changing.

墓地空间越来紧张了。悲伤的家属就近举行葬礼或守墓的情况也越来越少了。因此，日本围绕死亡的仪式正在发生变化。

The “balloon funeral” chosen by the Sakashitas was invented in 2011 by a Japanese firm called Balloon Kobo, which has performed 300 such funerals to date. Scattering ashes in the sea or mountains used to be frowned upon, but it has become widely accepted in recent years.

坂下一家选择的“气球葬礼”是由一家名为 Balloon Kobo 的日本公司于2011年发明的，该公司迄今已举办了300场这样的葬礼。把骨灰撒进大海或山里过去是不受欢迎的，但近年来已被广泛接受。

“Tree burials”, whereby buried ashes are marked by a sapling instead of a gravestone, are even more popular. A survey showed that half of those who purchased graves in 2022 chose tree burial sites. People are increasingly attracted to the idea of “becoming one with nature”, says Inoue Haruyo of Ending Centre, a non-profit that helps put people in touch with cemeteries.

人们更愿意进行“树葬”，即用树苗代替墓碑来标记埋葬的骨灰。一项调查显示，2022年日本购买墓地的人中有一半选择了树葬墓。送终中心(一家帮助人们选择墓地的非盈利机构)的井上春代表示，人们越来越被“与自然融为一体”的理念所吸引。

The new methods also tend to be much cheaper than purchasing tombstones, which typically cost at least a million yen ($7.200). “Most people don’t want to bother their children after death,” says Onodera Yoshihiro, the president of Balloon Kobo.

这种新的丧葬方式也往往比购买墓碑便宜得多，购买墓碑通常至少要花费100万日元(约合7200美元)。Balloon Kobo 总裁小野寺义弘说：“大多数人都不想在死后打扰他们的孩子。”

Traditionally, Japanese graves are inherited by a family member, usually the eldest son, who is then charged with paying fees to the temples that manage them. Since the 1990s, as Japan’s birth rate has declined, there has been a growing shortage of such custodians.

传统上，日本的坟墓会由一名家庭成员继承，通常是长子，然后由他向管理坟墓的寺庙支付费用。自上世纪90年代以来，随着日本出生率的下降，看护人短缺的现象越来越普遍。

For many city-dwellers, visiting graves in their or their ancestors’ rural home towns (as is expected during certain holidays, such as obon) is also increasingly troublesome. Many ashes have been dug up and transferred as a result. In 2020 nearly 120.000 graves across Japan were thus “closed”.

对于许多城市居民来说，在他们或他们祖先的农村家乡扫墓(在某些节日，如盆舞节)也越来越麻烦。因此，许多骨灰被挖出并转移。2020年，日本各地近12万座坟墓因此而“关闭”。

 

重难点词汇：

demise  [dɪˈmaɪz] n. 死亡;遗赠;转让;失败 v. 遗赠;转让

tether [ˈtɛðər] n. 拴绳;拴链 v. 拴

cemetery [ˈseməteri] n. 墓地;公墓

      综上是——2024考研英语同源外刊7月:日本开始流行“飞天”葬礼?希望对备战2024考研考生们有所帮助!让我们乘风破浪，终抵彼岸，考研加油!

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