SKY BURIAL an Epic Love Story of Tibet (Vintage Books, London 2005)
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SKY BURIAL – An Epic Love Story of Tibet (Vintage Books, London 2005)
As a young girl in China Xinran heard a rumour about a soldier in Tibet who had been brutally fed to the vultures in a ritual known as a sky burial: the tale frightened and fascinated her. Several decades later Xinran met She Wen, a Chinese woman who had spent years searching for her missing husband Kejun, after he disappeared in Tibet; her extraordinary life story would unravel the legend of the sky burial. For thirty years she was lost in the wild and alien landscape of Tibet, in the vast and silent plateaux and the magisterial mountain ranges, living with communities of nomads, moving with the seasons and struggling to survive.
In this haunting book, Xinran recreates Shu Wen’s remarkable journey in a grand story of love, loss, loyalty and survival. Moving, shocking and finally enriching, Sky Burial paints a unique portrait of a woman and a land, both at the mercy of fate and politics.
1. Match the vocabulary from the text on the left with the definitions on the right :
a. rumour i. unusual and amazing
b. ritual ii. immense, seemingly endless
c. decade iii. a painting or photograph of a person or animal, especially the face
d. extraordinary iv. a statement which may or may not be true
e. unravel v. a procedure regularly followed
f. legend vi. areas of high level ground
g. vast vii. a traditional story that does not have complete historical proof
h. portrait viii. ten years
i. plateaux ix. look into and understand
2. Xinran is ______
A. a young girl living in China C. the author of the book Sky Burial
B. a Chinese woman who was looking for her husband D. the husband of a Chinese woman
3. She Wen is a ______
A. a young girl living in China C. the author of the book Sky Burial
B. a Chinese woman who was looking for her husband D. the husband of a Chinese woman
4. Kejun is a ______
A. a young girl living in China C. the author of the book Sky Burial
B. a Chinese woman who was looking for her husband D. the husband of a Chinese woman
5. Vultures are ______
A. meat eating birds C. Tibetan nomads B. soldiers D. young Chinese girls
6. In this text ‘alien’ means ______
A. a being from another planet C. unfamiliar and unknown
B. high in the sky D. immense and seemingly endless
7. Sky Burial is primarily a ______
A. book of paintings of one woman’s face with many different emotions
B. book tourists can use to plan a journey through Tibet
C. frightening horror story about haunted places
D. story of the life of one Chinese woman