1. The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

1.將死人埋葬的習俗可追溯到35萬年前，證據是從西班牙北部城市阿塔布爾卡一個深45英尺的坑里出土的27具海德堡人化石。海德堡人可能是尼安得特爾人和現代人的祖先。

 

2. Never say die: There are at least 200 euphemisms for death, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots," and "sleep with the Tribbles" (a Star Trek favorite).

2. 大家都忌諱說“死”字。英語里便至少有200種死亡的委婉說法，包括“to be in Abraham's bosom” 、“just add maggots”和“sleep with the Tribbles” (《星際旅行》里常用)。

 

3. No American has died of old age since 1951.

3. 自1951年以來，沒有一個美國人是無疾而終。

 

4. That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates.

4. 正是在1951年，美國政府取消了死亡證明書上無疾而終這一項分類。

 

5. The trigger of death, in all cases, is lack of oxygen. Its decline may prompt muscle spasms, or the "agonal phase," from the Greek word agon, or contest.

5. 所有的死亡都是缺氧引起的。缺氧會導致肌肉痙攣或“垂死掙扎階段”(“agonal phase”)。“Agonal phase”一詞源自希臘語 agon (掙扎) 。

 

6. Within three days of death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to eat you. Ruptured cells become food for living bacteria in the gut, which release enough noxious gas to bloat the body and force the eyes to bulge outward.

6. 死后3天內，從前用來消化食物的酶會開始吃掉你。分解的細胞變成腸子中細菌的食物，并釋放出足夠的臭氣，造成尸體浮腫，眼睛外凸。

 

7. So much for recycling: Burials in America deposit 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid—formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol—into the soil each year. Cremation pumps dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air.

7. 就甭提回收利用了：美國墓地每年把827060加侖的涂尸防腐液(甲醛、甲醇和乙醇) 排到到地里。火葬會把二氧(雜)芑、鹽酸、二氧化硫和二氧化碳排放到大氣中。

 

8. Alternatively . . . A Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations, and seal the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin. They claim this "ecological burial" will decompose in 6 to 12 months.

8. 另一方面, 一家瑞典公司(Promessa)可以在液氮中凍干尸體，再用高頻率振動將尸體粉碎，然后把粉末密封在一口玉米淀粉做成的棺材里。他們宣稱這種“生態埋葬法”會在6到12個月內開始分解腐爛。

 

9 Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.

9.印度的索羅亞斯德教會讓禿鷹來啄食死人的尸體。

 

10 The vultures are now dying off after eating cattle carcasses dosed with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to relieve fever in livestock.

10.現在，禿鷹們在啄食了曾服用過雙氯芬酸(diclofenac) 的死牛后陸續死掉。雙氯芬酸是一種用以幫家畜退燒的抗炎藥。

 

11. Queen Victoria insisted on being buried with the bathrobe of her long-dead husband, Prince Albert, and a plaster cast of his hand.

11. 維多利亞女王堅持要與已去世多年的丈夫艾伯特王子的浴衣和一塊他的石膏手模型合葬。

 

12. If this doesn't work, we're trying in vitro! In Madagascar, families dig up the bones of dead relatives and parade them around the village in a ceremony called famadihana. The remains are then wrapped in a new shroud and reburied. The old shroud is given to a newly married, childless couple to cover the connubial bed.

12. 如果這還不行，我們就試體外受精！在馬達加斯加島，人們會挖出親人的尸骨，在名為 “翻尸換衣儀式”(Famadihana) 的全村游行上展示。然后，尸骨會用新麻布包起來重新埋葬。舊的裹尸布給新婚燕爾、尚未生育的夫婦用來鋪婚床。

 

13. During a railway expansion in Egypt in the 19th century, construction companies unearthed so many mummies that they used them as fuel for locomotives.

13. 19世紀，埃及在擴展一條鐵路期間，建筑公司挖出了太多的木乃伊以至于被用作火車燃料。

 

14. Well, yeah, there's a slight chance this could backfire: English philosopher Francis Bacon, a founder of the scientific method, died in 1626 of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow to see if cold would preserve it.

14. 當然啦，這么做偶爾也會出意外。比如1626年，科學方法的創始人，英國哲學家弗朗西斯?培根死于肺炎。溘逝前，他用雪塞滿小雞的肚子，想看看低溫是否可以防腐。

 

15. For organs to form during embryonic development, some cells must commit suicide. Without such programmed cell death, we would all be born with webbed feet, like ducks.

15. 對胚胎發育期間形成的器官來說，部分細胞必須自絕生路。如果沒有這種程序化細胞死亡，我們生下來都會像鴨子一樣有帶蹼的腳。

 

16. Waiting to exhale: In 1907 a Massachusetts doctor conducted an experiment with a specially designed deathbed and reported that the human body lost 21 grams upon dying. This has been widely held as fact ever since. It's not.

16.1907年，馬薩諸塞州一位醫生在一張特制的死亡床上做了一項試驗并宣稱人體死后減輕21克。從那以后，這一發現被公認為事實。其實那不是真事。

 

17. Buried alive: In 19th-century Europe there was so much anecdotal evidence that living people were mistakenly declared dead that cadavers were laid out in "hospitals for the dead" while attendants awaited signs of putrefaction.

17.埋葬活人：在19世紀歐洲，如此之多的軼聞證據表明活人被錯誤地宣布死亡，以至于尸體被放在太平間里讓值班人員等候尸體腐爛的跡象出現。

 

18. Eighty percent of people in the United States die in a hospital.

18.在美國80%的人死在醫院里。

 

19. If you can't make it here . . . More people commit suicide in New York City than are murdered.

19. 要是你等不及到醫院… 在紐約市自殺的比被殺的人還要多。

 

20. It is estimated that 100 billion people have died since humans began.

20.自有人類以來，死亡人數估計已達1000億。