大学同学有几家偷偷地办了移民，马上准备登陆加拿大多伦多。
张琴和胡华明夫妇是我的同班同学，周末的时候，我们两家忙里偷闲，偶尔搓两把麻将。这天，刚搓了两圈，张琴便压低声音说：“我想起一件事要告诉你们，张霞和刘玉玲她们两家都办了技术移民，计划移民加拿大，下个月她们就去登陆了。我们也打算办技术移民，你们想不想办。要是我们两家都办成了，我们还可以继续搓麻将。” 我夫人随口答道：“办，我们也办。”
就这样，决定我们一家三口命运的大事，就在麻将桌上定了下来。
我遵照太太和同学们的建议，先向我读研究生时的文学课老师加拿大籍教授罗森博士写了一封探路信。一个月后，我收到了回信，但不是罗森教授本人的，是他好朋友的一封答复信。下面是信的原文：
Dear Charles,
I received here your letter to David Lawson, and I am sorry to have to tell you that he died on May 18, 1999.
I think it was in December of 1998 that he told me he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had a series of radiation treatments at that time which held it in check. But in January 1999 he told me that it had suddenly became very much worse and that the cancer had spread to the bones ( which is a very painful condition and which leaves no hope of a cure ). In May he started with morphine for the pain, and appeared to be quite disoriented by it.
In reality, he was suffering from another condition, and aneurism, or swelling, of the aorta, which was gradually cutting off the blood supply to the liver and other organs, and this was the cause of the disorientation. On May 17 he was so disoriented that he was taken to the hospital, where it was judged impossible, in view of his physical state, to operate on the the aorta, and he died early the next day. In fact, his doctor had noticed this aneurism of the the aorta some days before, but felt it was better that David die of this rather than prolonging his life for a few weeks to die finally of bone cancer.
( to be continued )
生词解释：
prostate cancer: 前列腺癌
radiation treatment: 放射疗法
hold…in check: 控制住
morphine: 吗啡（一种止痛剂）
disoriented: 失去方向感的
aneurism： 动脉瘤
swelling: 肿起来
aorta: 大动脉
disorientation: 失去方向感
prolong: 延长
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