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上期划线句答案
The attention given to aging in the 1980s reflected the greater realization of how central the subject was in American life and how much it had changed in people’s lifetimes.
上世纪80年代对衰老的关注反映了人们更深刻地认识到这一问题在美国生活中是多么重要，以及它在人们的一生中发生了多大的变化。
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本期内容
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双语阅读
Para.1
My mom died six years ago, a few hours after I sat on the edge of her bed at her nursing home in Georgia and talked with her for the last time. My wife, Alix, and I were staying with my brother and his wife, who lived just down the road. My brother got the phone call not long after midnight. He woke me up, and we went down to the nursing home and walked the dim, quiet hallway to her room. She was in her bed, cold and still. I touched her face. But I didn’t cry.
Para.2
Two years earlier, the veterinarian had come to our house in Charlotte, North Carolina, to see our old dog, Fred. He was a yellow Lab mix I had found as a puppy in the ditch in front of our house. We had him for 14 and a half years, until he got a tumor on his liver. He was too old for surgery to make any sense. Alix and I held him in our laps as the vet gave him two shots, one to make him sleep, the other to make him still. All three of us cried as he eased away in our arms. By any measure, I loved my mom more than our dog. If I could bring one back, I’d pick her 100 times out of 100. So why, in the moment of their passing, did I cry for him but not for her?
Para.3
Van Pelt was pointing to a couple of the reasons I think the death of a pet can hit harder, in the moment, than the death of a human loved one. The simplest reason is that, as he said, a pet is around you all the time. Most people don’t spend as many continuous hours around their parents, other family members, friends, even their grown kids. In many cases, a pet lives with its owner nearly every minute of its life, from wriggling puppyhood to final sleep. Its absence is profound.
Para.4
The deeper reason is that our relationships with humans are far more complicated. We argue even with the people we love, and sometimes the conflicts crack us wide open. Every birthday, every Thanksgiving, builds upon a long and sometimes fraught history. There are things we can’t forget, though they might be long forgiven. Loving another human being can leave bruises and scars, even if every single one is worth it. Loving a pet is simpler. Dogs, especially, live to please us. It is the way they have made themselves essential to our lives. Dogs don’t fight at the dinner table or have obnoxious political viewpoints. They don’t slam the door when they leave the house. They don’t ask why you’re not married yet.
Para.5
A dog might be able to sense those moments, but all we really have to go on is our own feelings. As close as humans are to dogs—a connection formed over thousands of years—parts of their world are still unknowable to us. That space between feeling and knowing—that’s where the tears live. But the people you love, if the connection is deep enough, become knowable in every dimension. And if you love someone enough, the tears don’t wait for death. They’re an essential part of life.
本文节选自：The Atlantic（大西洋月刊）
发布时间：2024.04.23
作者：ideas
原文标题：Why a Dog’s Death Hits So Hard
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写作句总结
原句：The deeper reason is that our relationships with humans are far more complicated.
结构：The reason is that X with Y is Z.
例句：The reason is that our interactions with adversity are far more complex.
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阅读理解题
Which aspect of human relationships does the author suggest as a reason why the death of a pet may hit harder than the death of a human loved one in the moment of passing?
A) The constant absence of human loved ones in our lives.
B) The complex and sometimes conflicted nature of human relationships.
C) The absence of emotional baggage and complications in relationships with pets.
D) The ability of pets to sense human emotions.
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打卡作业
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