题型:阅读理解 题类:模拟题 难易度:普通
四川省资阳市2020届高三下学期英语高考模拟考试试卷(含听力音频)
Many people have become accustomed to saying "bless you" or "gesundheit" when someone sneezes. No one says anything when someone coughs, blows their noses or burps (打嗝), so why do sneezes get special treatment? What do those phrases actually mean, anyway?
Wishing someone well after he sneezes probably originated thousands of years ago. The Romans would say "Jupiter preserve you!" or "Salve!" which meant "good health to you" and the Greeks would wish each other "long life". The phrase "God bless you" is due to Pope Gregory the Great, who spoke it out in the sixth century during a bubonic plague epidemic (黑死病) (sneezing is an obvious symptom of one form of the plague).
The alternative term "gesundheit" comes from Germany, and it literally means "health". The idea is that a sneeze typically comes ahead of illness. It entered the English language in the early 20th century, brought to the United States by German-speaking immigrants.
Actually every country around the globe has its own way of wishing sneezers well. People in Arabic countries say "Alhandililah!" which means "praise be to God". Hindus say "Live!" or "Live well!". Some countries have special sneezing responses for children. In Russia, after children are given the traditional response, "bud zdorov (be healthy)", they are also told "rosti Bolshoi (grow big)". When a child sneezes in China, he or she will her "bai sui" which means "may you live 100 years".
For the most part, the various responses originated from ancient superstitions (迷信). Some people believe that a sneeze caused the soul to escape the body through the nose. Saying "bless you" would stop the devil from claiming the person's freed soul. However, some people believed that those evil spirits used the sneeze as an opportunity to enter a person body. There was also the misconception that the heart temporarily stopped during a sneeze (it doesn't), and that saying "bless you" was a way of welcoming the person back to life.
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