BBC Learning English
Words in the News
Chavez's body to be preserved
and displayed
8 March 2013
The body of President Hugo Chavez is to go on permanent display in a military museum
in Venezuela, like many socialist leaders before him. Viv Marsh reports.
No matter how baffling it may seem to outsiders, the allure of a dead socialist leader
can't be underestimated. In Moscow, Beijing and Hanoi, the corpses of Lenin, Mao and
Ho Chi Minh are displayed under subdued lighting for equally subdued lines of people to
file past, paying silent respects.
In North Korea, Kim Il-sung's public resting place was recently renovated to
accommodate the embalmed remains of his son Kim Jong-il.
In Beijing, visitors to Mao Zedong are encouraged to buy flowers for him, though they
must leave them outside.
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's revolutionary leader, wanted to be cremated but was preserved
nonetheless. Outside his mausoleum Vietnamese queue in their hundreds for entry:
schoolchildren, grizzled old men; women dressed in traditional ao dai.
The pull of the embalming fluid becomes still more puzzling when a country has politically
moved on. Lenin has so far survived several attempts to evict him from Red Square,
though the Soviet Union is long gone.
In China, Mao lingers at the heart of a capital which also plays host nowadays to
Starbucks and McDonald s. But so far, China's politicians can still quote the sayings of
Mao while pursuing policies widely at variance with his legacy.
It's a balancing act that critics of the embalming of Venezuela's president will now be
anxiously watching.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com
Vocabulary and definitions
puzzling, confusing, difficult to understand
baffling
an attractive, interesting or exciting quality
allure
(of colour) not bright; (of sound) not loud
subdued
to move past (something) one by one
to file past
preserved using chemicals to stop it decaying (of a
embalmed
dead person's body)
burned as part of a funeral ceremony (of a dead
cremated
person's body)
having grey hair and looking old
grizzled
force someone to leave somewhere
evict
stays longer than is necessary
lingers
different to
at variance with
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/03/130308_witn_chavez.shtml
Related News story
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21710538
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com


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