盤點最慘烈的10種死亡方式(上)

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.

鑑於宗教和政治在交談中被視爲禁忌，那麼毫無疑問，一場雞尾酒派對會因爲沒話題而變得無聊，速戰速決。但假如你嘗試和熟人開玩笑的討論一下，在他看來，怎樣纔是最差勁的死法，那麼派對就絕不會再無聊。

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.

什麼？你不知道該從何說起？恭喜你來對了地方！接下來我們會爲你提供各種信息、資源和恐怖的細節，爲你打造出人們關於最慘的死法所能想到的所有論據。首先，我們要從捱餓致死說起。

ve to Death

10.餓死

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.

對於我們大多數人來說，吃基本上是一天中最重要的事情。毋庸置疑，不吃飯，不管怎樣理解都是一種痛苦的生活方式。說的更嚴重點，不吃飯其實就是讓你脫離食物直至死亡。

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，人類在沒有食物的情況下（不過一定要補充液體，例如水甚至咖啡），可以出乎意料地存活60天。但這沒有食物的幾個月將會是何其痛苦。在不到一個星期後，身體由於開始消耗儲存的脂肪作爲能量而出現危險症狀。最開始時會頭暈，併產生毒素，而這些毒素在累積變多的情況下會變得十分有害。捱餓不到一個月，你就會瘦掉之前體重的18%。理所當然，再之後，你的身體就開始消耗肌肉和器官來獲取能量。你可以通過攝入迫切需要的鹽分來延長整個捱餓的階段，不過無法否認的是，捱餓最後的日子會無比煎熬。

ft 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.

關於最慘死法：如果你可以忘記你最後的結局是死，那麼在這些死法中，有一些聽起來也沒那麼糟糕。比如說：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.

當然，你也許會覺得漂在海上雖然聽起來很鬱悶，但起碼還有一線希望，就是路過的遊輪發現了你，或者一條美人魚成爲了你的朋友而且還教你怎麼在水下呼吸。（每個人都有自己的幻想嘛。）但是記住，我們討論的並不是最酷的10種被拯救的方法。看一遍那些在海上迷失的故事——而且其中一些連船都沒有，僅僅只是在一望無垠的水面上掙扎着——這時候你就開始意識到，在被無盡的死亡危機包圍時會有多令人絕望。有沒有可能會被鯊魚咬，或者船被鯊魚咬掉，就剩下你自己不停撥着水面等着鯊魚再回來？有沒有可能是被活活餓死？有沒有可能是風暴把船掀翻後自己被凍死？各種可能性無休無止，令人生畏，而且也是那種情況下唯一可以想的事情了。這也就是爲什麼漂浮在海上妥妥地會成功登上最慘死法的榜單。

Into Volcano

8.掉進火山

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.

來，有點耐心。你也許會質疑“掉進火山？”“沒錯，聽起來很恐怖，不過眨眼的功夫你就已經死得透透的了不是嗎？”呵呵，嚇一跳吧我的小夥伴。鑑於熔漿的相對密度，你會“欣喜”地發現，如果你像咕嚕（譯者注：電影《指環王》系列角色）一樣掉進火山，你也許不會像被水吞沒的石頭一樣被火山吞走，相反，你會首先掉到熔漿頂部，伴隨着發出輕輕的嘶嘶聲（好吧，這些是我編的）然後迸出火焰。這絕對痛苦不堪。

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.

如果只是在岩漿表面燃燒對你來說還不夠糟糕，那麼你也許會很想知道這個理論。有一位科學家證明，通過把一包重達66英鎊（約30公斤）的食物扔進火山，那麼有時岩漿表層也許會被那包有機物（在這裏也就是，人類）滲透。所以，如果你真的很想找一種奇慘無比的死法（如果你真的這麼做，拜託一定要給某個人打電話告知，比如美國防自殺熱線1-800-273轉接8255），那麼跳進火山也許就是最好的方法。

ificed!

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.

我們來想象一下：你不僅僅要赴死，而且還需要堅信？或者假裝？你會像履行儀式一樣的被殺，因爲你是那麼完美無瑕，像標本一樣的存在。太不公平了，兄弟。所以接下來我們來看看另一個慘死的方法——人祭。我們這裏只說印加傳統的人祭。人祭的極品通常都是首領的孩子，是一種十分冷酷的行爲。據文字記載，宗教祭祀會在安第斯山頂峯舉行。（他們會在祭司當天給祭品喂些液體，也許是爲了幫助他們禦寒和緩解疼痛。）考古學家也不能確定人祭的受害者曾經遭遇了怎樣的對待，但鑑於很多受害者頭蓋骨都有損傷，考古學家猜測除非他們都是死於狂風，否則至少在被曝屍荒野前曾被笞打。再想一想整個過程的恐怖，只能讓人更加毛骨悚然。

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.

不過由於人祭已經鮮存於世，不如還是想想我們可以聯繫到的方法吧：死在一場極其恐怖慘烈的空難中。

e Crash

6.飛機失事

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.

雖然有點牽強，但死於墜機的痛苦還是要說一下。像很多最慘的死法那樣，死亡並不需要如此可怕的部分。這是結束之前長時間伴隨的必然部分。

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.

先把這些可怕的事實說清楚，這樣你就會知道飛機墜落時你會做些什麼。首先，你大概在6英里（31680英尺或9656米）的高空。如果你真正開始墜落，可能會出現缺氧，因爲缺氧你會在剛下降一英里的時候失去意識。但隨後你會醒來——太好了是嗎？——你會發現你仍然以每小時120英里（193公里/小時）的速度墜落，並且整整持續2到3分鐘才能到達距離約30000英尺巡航高度的“冰冷無情”的地面。也許飛機失事中最糟糕的部分就是常見的恐懼。說實話，最糟糕的莫過於死亡變成了一個深刻的個人選擇。如果你害怕在空中旅行，你可以想象與飛翔有關的情景，比如火花四濺的引擎，清脆爆裂的機翼。如果你害怕蛇……好吧，往下讀好了。

審校：晃晃 來源：前十網