我那一整天一直在想这个诊断。到了晚上，我做了一次组织切片检查，他们把一个内窥镜通过喉咙经由我的胃进入了肠子，用针头在胰腺的瘤子上取了一些细胞组织。当时我服用了麻醉剂，陪在一旁的妻子后来告诉我，医生在显微镜里看到了细胞之后叫了起来，原来这是一种少见的可以通过外科手术治愈的恶性肿瘤。我做了手术，谢天谢地，现在好了。

　　This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die.Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It's Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true.

　　这是我和死神离得很近的最后一次，我希望这也是今后几十年里最近的一次。有了这次经历之后，现在我可以更加实在地和你们谈论死亡，而不是纯粹纸上谈兵：谁也不愿意死。就是那些想进天堂的人也不愿意为了去那里而死。但是，死亡使我们共同的归宿，没人能摆脱。我们注定会死，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的一项发明。它推进生命的变迁，旧的不去，新的不来。现在你们就是新的，但是在不久的将来，你们也会逐渐成为旧的，也会被淘汰。很抱歉，话说得太过分了，不过这是千真万确的。

　　Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

　　你们的时间有限，所以不要将它们浪费在重复其他人的生活上。不要抱有成见，那是在按照别人设想的结果而活。不要让别人观点的聒噪声淹没自己的心声。最主要的是，要有跟着自己感觉走的勇气。无论如何，感觉和直觉早就知道你到底想成为什么样的人，其他都是次要的。

　　biopsy

　　n. 活组合切片检查

　　eg. A muscle biopsy is positive for fungus.

　　肌肉活组织检查发现有真菌侵犯。

　　endoscope

　　n. 内窥镜

　　eg. The endoscope used is inserted through the urethra, and that insertion can cause damage.

　　内窥镜通过尿道进入身体的时候，很可能造成损伤。

　　intestine

　　n. 肠

　　eg. So far as digestion is concerned, the small intestine is the real champion.

　　论消化，小肠是真正的冠军。

　　sedate

　　vt. 给......服镇定剂

　　eg. A sedate person out of livery approached them and relieved the maid of her bags.

　　一个举止庄重的没穿制服的人走来，从女仆手里接过提包。

　　pancreatic

　　adj. 胰腺的

　　eg. Ever since his surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, Steve Jobs has dismissed questions about his health as irrelevant.

　　自2004年被诊断为胰腺癌后，乔布斯便拒绝回答其认为无关紧要的健康问题。

　　make way for

　　为......开路

　　eg. Several houses were pulled down to make way for the new road.

　　为了给新修的道路让路，几座房屋被拆毁了。

　　dogma

　　n. 教条；定论

　　eg. It is precisely such ignorant people who take Marxism-Leninism as a religious dogma.

　　那些将马克思列宁主义当宗教教条看待的人，就是这种蒙昧无知的人。