While religion and politics are two topics that are considered taboo for polite conversation, there's no denying they can get a boring cocktail party hopping, fast. Let the same be said for an attempt to engage a passing acquaintance in banter about what --in his or her opinion -- is the absolute worst way to die.
鉴于宗教和政治在交谈中被视为禁忌，那么毫无疑问，一场鸡尾酒派对会因为没话题而变得无聊，速战速决。但假如你尝试和熟人开玩笑的讨论一下，在他看来，怎样才是最差劲的死法，那么派对就绝不会再无聊。
What, are you unsure of how to begin? You've come to the right place. In the next few pages, we'll provide plenty of information, sources and grisly details to create or bolster nearly any argument one could have about the worst ways to die. Settle in as we begin with a discussion of starving to death.
什么？你不知道该从何说起？恭喜你来对了地方！接下来我们会为你提供各种信息、资源和恐怖的细节，为你打造出人们关于最惨的死法所能想到的所有论据。首先，我们要从挨饿致死说起。

10.Starve to Death
10.饿死

For many of us, eating is pretty much the best part of any day. It serves to reason that not eating -- in any capacity -- would be a horrible way to live life. Even worse, though, is depriving your body of food to the point of death.
对于我们大多数人来说，吃基本上是一天中最重要的事情。毋庸置疑，不吃饭，不管怎样理解都是一种痛苦的生活方式。说的更严重点，不吃饭其实就是让你脱离食物直至死亡。
First of all, a body can live for a surprising 60 or so days without food (although liquids like water or even coffee must be taken) [source: Koerner]. But what a miserable couple of months they are. After less than a week, the body begins to develop dangerous symptoms as it begins to feed off stored fat for energy. The liver begins to panic first, producing toxins that can be harmful in large quantities. Before a month is up, you're losing about 18 percent of your starting weight [source: Koerner]. And then, of course, your body begins to consume its own muscle and organs to be sated with energy. You can prolong the starvation process by ingesting much-needed salt, but it's hard to deny how miserable your final days would be.
首先，人类在没有食物的情况下（不过一定要补充液体，例如水甚至咖啡），可以出乎意料地存活60天。但这没有食物的几个月将会是何其痛苦。在不到一个星期后，身体由于开始消耗储存的脂肪作为能量而出现危险症状。最开始时会头晕，并产生毒素，而这些毒素在累积变多的情况下会变得十分有害。挨饿不到一个月，你就会瘦掉之前体重的18%。理所当然，再之后，你的身体就开始消耗肌肉和器官来获取能量。你可以通过摄入迫切需要的盐分来延长整个挨饿的阶段，不过无法否认的是，挨饿最后的日子会无比煎熬。

9.Adrift at Sea
9.漂在海上

Here's the thing about the worst ways to die: Some of them don't sound that bad if you can forget that you die in the end. Case in point: being adrift at sea.
关于最惨死法：如果你可以忘记你最后的结局是死，那么在这些死法中，有一些听起来也没那么糟糕。比如说：在海上漂着。
Sure, you might be thinking, being adrift at sea sounds miserable but at least you have the hope that a passing cruise ship will spot you, or that a mermaid will befriend you and teach you how to breathe underwater. (We all have our fantasies.) But we're not talking about the 10 coolest ways to get rescued, remember. Reading through tales of those lost at sea -- and some of them don't have the luxury of having a boat, and are just bobbing in open water -- you start to realize how crushing it must be to be surrounded by endless possibilities for demise. Will it be a shark that takes a bite out of you ... or chomps your boat, which leaves you thrashing in the water waiting for the shark to return? Will it be starvation? Will it be hypothermia after your boat capsizes in a storm? The possibilities are endless, awful and the only thing left to think about. Which is why being adrift at sea is safely on our list of worst ways to die.
当然，你也许会觉得漂在海上虽然听起来很郁闷，但起码还有一线希望，就是路过的游轮发现了你，或者一条美人鱼成为了你的朋友而且还教你怎么在水下呼吸。（每个人都有自己的幻想嘛。）但是记住，我们讨论的并不是最酷的10种被拯救的方法。看一遍那些在海上迷失的故事——而且其中一些连船都没有，仅仅只是在一望无垠的水面上挣扎着——这时候你就开始意识到，在被无尽的死亡危机包围时会有多令人绝望。有没有可能会被鲨鱼咬，或者船被鲨鱼咬掉，就剩下你自己不停拨着水面等着鲨鱼再回来？有没有可能是被活活饿死？有没有可能是风暴把船掀翻后自己被冻死？各种可能性无休无止，令人生畏，而且也是那种情况下唯一可以想的事情了。这也就是为什么漂浮在海上妥妥地会成功登上最惨死法的榜单。

8.Fall Into Volcano
8.掉进火山

Now bear with us here. "Falling into a volcano?" you say. "Sure, that sounds bad but you're pretty much dead, dead, dead before you could blink, right?" Well, surprise, my morbid friends! Because of the relative density of lava, you'll be delighted to know that if you were to fall into a volcano Gollum-style, you will probably not be swallowed like a rock plopping into the water. Instead, you will land on top of the lava with a soft little hiss (OK, I made that up) and then basically burst into flame. Which is pretty miserable and sad.
来，有点耐心。你也许会质疑“掉进火山？”“没错，听起来很恐怖，不过眨眼的功夫你就已经死得透透的了不是吗？”呵呵，吓一跳吧我的小伙伴。鉴于熔浆的相对密度，你会“欣喜”地发现，如果你像咕噜（译者注：电影《指环王》系列角色）一样掉进火山，你也许不会像被水吞没的石头一样被火山吞走，相反，你会首先掉到熔浆顶部，伴随着发出轻轻的嘶嘶声（好吧，这些是我编的）然后迸出火焰。这绝对痛苦不堪。
If burning on top of lava crust isn't bad enough for you, you'll be glad to know that another scientist tested this theory by throwing a 66-pound (30-kilogram) bag of food into a volcano to discover -- hooray! -- sometimes the crust can be penetrated by bags of organic matter (i.e., humans). So if you're really looking for a miserable way to die (and please call someone if you are, like the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline in the U.S. at 1-800-273-TALK/8255), jumping into a volcano might just be the way to do it.
如果只是在岩浆表面燃烧对你来说还不够糟糕，那么你也许会很想知道这个理论。有一位科学家证明，通过把一包重达66英镑（约30公斤）的食物扔进火山，那么有时岩浆表层也许会被那包有机物（在这里也就是，人类）渗透。所以，如果你真的很想找一种奇惨无比的死法（如果你真的这么做，拜托一定要给某个人打电话告知，比如美国防自杀热线1-800-273转接8255），那么跳进火山也许就是最好的方法。

7.Sacrificed!
7.人祭

So imagine this: You're not only going to die, but you have to -- believe? pretend? -- that you're being ritualistically killed because you're a perfectly beautiful and physically unblemished specimen. Unfair, man. And with that we come to human sacrifice, another Worst Way To Die. In this case, we're talking about the Incan tradition of human sacrifice. Usually involving a chief's child, human sacrifice was a pretty cold affair. Literally, actually -- the ritual would take place high on an Andes summit. (They did feed the victim some liquor however, the day of the ritual, presumably to arm them a little against the weather and pain.) Archaeologists aren't too sure how painful a death the victims encountered; many of them do have skull fractures, which leads them to believe if they were not killed by the blow, they were at least knocked out before they died of exposure. Which, considering the gruesome nature of the process, still seems like cold comfort.
我们来想象一下：你不仅仅要赴死，而且还需要坚信？或者假装？你会像履行仪式一样的被杀，因为你是那么完美无瑕，像标本一样的存在。太不公平了，兄弟。所以接下来我们来看看另一个惨死的方法——人祭。我们这里只说印加传统的人祭。人祭的极品通常都是首领的孩子，是一种十分冷酷的行为。据文字记载，宗教祭祀会在安第斯山顶峰举行。（他们会在祭司当天给祭品喂些液体，也许是为了帮助他们御寒和缓解疼痛。）考古学家也不能确定人祭的受害者曾经遭遇了怎样的对待，但鉴于很多受害者头盖骨都有损伤，考古学家猜测除非他们都是死于狂风，否则至少在被曝尸荒野前曾被笞打。再想一想整个过程的恐怖，只能让人更加毛骨悚然。
But human sacrifice is out of most of our wheelhouses. Let's all ruminate darkly on something most of us can relate to: dying a horrible death in a fiery plane crash.
不过由于人祭已经鲜存于世，不如还是想想我们可以联系到的方法吧：死在一场极其恐怖惨烈的空难中。

6.Plane Crash
6.飞机失事

Call it a copout, but there's something to be said for the utter misery of dying in a plane crash. Like a lot of our Worst Ways to Die, it's not necessarily the death part that's going to be so awful. It's the utter inevitability that accompanies the long moments before it all ends.
虽然有点牵强，但死于坠机的痛苦还是要说一下。像很多最惨的死法那样，死亡并不需要如此可怕的部分。这是结束之前长时间伴随的必然部分。
Let's just get the awful facts straight, so you know what you're dealing with when the plane starts to go down. First of all, you're probably about 6 miles (31,680 feet or 9,656 meters) in the sky. If you're in a real free fall, hypoxia might set in and you'll be unconscious for roughly the first mile of the fall because of lack of oxygen. But then you'll wake up -- hooray? -- to discover you're still plunging 120 miles per hour (193 kilometers per hour), and still have a full two or three minutes to go from about a 30,000 foot cruising altitude to the very hard and unforgiving ground. Maybe the worst part of a plane crash is that it's a common fear, as well. Let's be honest; the worst way to die is a deeply personal choice. If you fear air travel, your imagination soars about sputtering engines, clipped wings and the like. If you fear snakes. ... well, read on.
先把这些可怕的事实说清楚，这样你就会知道飞机坠落时你会做些什么。首先，你大概在6英里（31680英尺或9656米）的高空。如果你真正开始坠落，可能会出现缺氧，因为缺氧你会在刚下降一英里的时候失去意识。但随后你会醒来——太好了是吗？——你会发现你仍然以每小时120英里（193公里/小时）的速度坠落，并且整整持续2到3分钟才能到达距离约30000英尺巡航高度的“冰冷无情”的地面。也许飞机失事中最糟糕的部分就是常见的恐惧。说实话，最糟糕的莫过于死亡变成了一个深刻的个人选择。如果你害怕在空中旅行，你可以想象与飞翔有关的情景，比如火花四溅的引擎，清脆爆裂的机翼。如果你害怕蛇……好吧，往下读好了。

审校：晃晃 来源：前十网