Passage 45
学霸导读 很多时候我们忌讳谈论死亡，是因为我们没有将死亡视为生命的一部分。
Six months ago， my father passed a 1 in my hometown—Paris. I helped organize his funeral （ 葬礼 ）， stayed with my mom for a few weeks and then f lew home to Sydney.
The f irst days back in Australia were painful but I struggled on. People around me offered condolences （ 吊唁 ） and gave me space. It was really a 2 I could ask for.
After a couple of weeks though， life resumed （ 继续 ）. There were lunch boxes to pack， important deadlines to meet， meetings to a 3 and parties to go to. Around me， everything was getting back to “normal”， except I wasn’t. I still had uncontrollable f its （ 阵发 ） of crying or sadness. I couldn’t c 4 ； I could not keep up with the pace of daily life. Many times， I felt like watching the train I was supposed to be on while I stayed stuck on the platform. I did try to get back to my “normal” self. I tried socializing but felt too much pain i 5 to handle simple casual conversations. Increasingly， I started noticing people’s uneasiness （ 不自在 ） if I mentioned how I felt inside or discussed the memories of my father.
I became irritable—no， I turned into an irritable dragon. My morning commute （ 通勤 ） would trigger an e 6 of angry tears. Practically anything would make me angry or frustrated. Sometimes even the rays of sunshine on a beautiful day would t 7 me apart. How could the day be so beautiful when I was in pieces inside？
I realized that I had to do something. So I started to see a grief counselor （ 哀伤心理专家 ）. This d 8 gave me my life back. The counselor provided me with the space I needed to grieve. We spoke about my dad， about his last days. Simply hearing from somebody else that all my feelings were normal was a h 9 relief. Within a few weeks， the wall I had built around my emotions collapsed， and the anger vanished （ 突然消失 ）. I still ache inside. I still feel some sadness， but I know I’m going to be OK.
Our society does not cope with the idea of death. We fear it, and because we fear it, we ignore it. We refuse to c 10 death and illness as a part of life. We believe that it won’t happen to us or our beloved ones. But it is something that will happen to all of us. We need to be here for each other when it does. We need to talk about death.1.__________2.__________3.__________4.__________5.__________
6.__________7.__________8.__________9.__________10.__________
高频词汇
organize /'ɔːgənaɪz/ v. 安排；组织
mention /'menʃn/ v. 提及，说起，谈到
irritable /'ɪrɪtəbl/ adj. 易怒的，暴躁的
trigger /'trɪgər/ v. 引起，引发（坏事）
frustrated /frʌs'treɪtɪd/ adj. 灰心的，气馁的
relief /rɪ'liːf/ n. （不快过后的） 宽慰，宽心，轻松，解脱
collapse /kə'læps/ v. （由于压力、无力或缺乏支持而） 倒塌，坍塌；崩溃，垮掉
ignore /ɪg'nɔːr/ v. 不理睬，忽视
refuse /rɪ'fjuːz/ v. 拒绝；回绝