Learning English - Death - Words and phrases lesson - What happens after we die?

to die to Sleep No More and by asleep we say to end the heartache and the

thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to tis a consummation devoutly to

be wish'd to die to sleep to sleep perchance to

dream aye there's the rub for in that sleep of

death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil

hi everybody this is mr. Duncan in England how are you today are you ok I

hope so are you happy I hope so in today's

lesson we're going to talk about a subject which is for many people very

hard to accept death

there is a saying in English that goes all good things must come to an end this

phrase also covers our own lives just as we are born so shall we die it is an

unstoppable or inevitable process and for many humans it is one which causes a

great deal of distress but why is this so

humans are very special you and I have a unique ability of knowing that we are

alive we are self-aware our conscience tells us this during every waking moment

right now I know that I'm standing in a churchyard surrounded by tombstones and

graves I'm aware of this and I know it's happening

humans are sentient beings we learn more than just our basic instincts we gather

knowledge and we are able to feel a wide range of emotions such as happiness

sadness loneliness and fear

as we discussed in an earlier lesson fear is a very strong emotion and it can

control many parts of our existence we tend to be afraid of things that cannot

be fully understood our fear of the unknown is probably the strongest of all

our phobias humans are mortal we only have a certain amount of time in this

world the word mortal comes from the latin word mortalis which literally

means to die you see this word used in mortuary a place where dead bodies are

kept mortality the event of death or death on a large scale the mortality

rate from the flood is 20,000 a dead person can generally be described as a

corpse body or for deceased they can also be informally described as

a stiff although this term can cause great effects that sounds like a

squirrel I hope it's okay

Oh

after any animal dies it will begin to rot or decompose the cells will break

down and be absorbed for example into the ground

humans are organic we are made of living material so once we die so do all the

cells which make up our whole body

so what happens here after you die normally your body will be taken to a

cold place for storage such as a mortuary most large hospitals have a

more tree in them if your death can not be explained then someone will examine

your body on both the outside and inside this is called a post-mortem which means

after death this procedure can also be called an autopsy the person who carries

out the examination is called a pathologist or coroner the ceremony

following a person's death is called a funeral

these can be conducted very differently between countries and cultures the body

is placed in a wooden box called a coffin and then taken to a religious

place where a service normally follows after this event there are two options

the body can be buried underground in a grave or tomb or it can be burned in a

cremation ceremony these days this is done in a special building called a

crematorium

do you ever think about dying it's a funny subject isn't it I want to

die in my sleep like my grandfather not screaming and shouting like his

passengers Western cultures often make death into a humorous subject we make

jokes about dying and often laugh about it but why do we do this if we are so

afraid of it it is a well-known fact that humans tends to laugh at things we

do not fully understand humor can act as a kind of release for all of our worries

and anxieties it may seem like a strange thing to say but many of us have a deep

fascination for subjects connected with death and there is no better place for

demonstrating this than on our television screens take the news for

example this is CNN news

coming up tonight man dies after terrible accident we have exclusive

video pictures of when it actually happened these images will upset you so

be sure to stay tuned also coming up woman dies after terrible accident we

also have pictures and many descriptions at the moment it happened right here for

your curiosity and viewing pleasure don't go away the subject of death and

dying is often described as a taboo subject the word taboo means something

that must never be openly discussed or a topic which makes people feel

uncomfortable when talking about it it may seem strange to some people but

there are situations where a person wants to die they wish to end their life

we describe this person as suicidal they may try to kill themselves they want to

commit suicide taking your own life is illegal in some countries while others

allow it for certain situations for example if a person is dying from a

fatal or terminal illness

the belief of what happens after you die there is deeply between many groups of

people some believe that our life floats or spirit floats away to another place

some believe that we are reborn on earth as a different creature and some believe

that the feeling of being dead is the same as before we are born just a lot

long is it possible to be dead and scale alone well the answer to that

question is yes after a person dies they will usually be pronounced legally dead

this means that they have no chance of being brought back to life or

resuscitated however in other situations the heart can continue beating after the

brain has stopped functioning this is classed as brain death sadly there is no

chance of the person ever recovering this often occurs when a person is being

kept alive on a machine such as a ventilator a person can also be classed

as clinically dead this means that the blood supply has stopped flowing the

heartbeat and breathing has ceased and there is no visible sign of life this

type of death can be reversed and it is possible for a person to be brought back

to life if it is done quickly enough clinical death lasting longer than three

minutes will normally result in serious and irreversible brain damage it would

be fair to say that death is more of a process rather than just one definite

event

the theme of death has been used very often in many forms of literature the

playwright William Shakespeare and authors Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan

Poe at some point would use death as a way of studying the human condition and

our own morbid fascination with dying poetry's often read out at funerals and

a speech is normally given describing the life of the person who died this is

called a eulogy the word dead can be used in many ways instead of saying very

we can say the party was dead good this weather is dead cold your new hat is

dead cool as a way of showing emptiness or silence the room was dead everyone

had left the forest had a dead calm about it to show that something

electrical is not working or functioning the lights are dead I cannot get the TV

to work it is dead the batteries are dead they have no energy left there are

some idioms and phrases for death or dying pushing up the daisies to be dead

and buried pop your clogs to die croak to die suddenly he or she bought the

farm he or she has died fall off your perch or twig to drop dead

it is a fact of life that one day I will be dead and so will you

there is nothing we can do to stop this however we can make the most of our time

on this earth doing something useful with our time here can help others and

it also gives us a sense of purpose and our life some meaning you only live once

this is not a rehearsal life is like a big performance and once the curtain has

come down on it there will be no encore

that is all from me for today I wish you all good health stay in the pink we'll

live long and prosper thank you for watching me teaching you this is mr.

Duncan in England saying Tatar for now