This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Before continuing to use our website, you agree and accept Privacy policy.

Steve Jobs Commencement Address at Stanford 2005(2) - Fast English Challenge


You can listen to famous speeches or short stories at a speed of your choice. Try how fast you can listen or take your time and listen at a slower speed to practice your listening skills in your own way.











*There may be a slight delay before the audio begins.

The original text

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and
it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The
doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I
should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go
home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to
try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in
just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as
easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an
endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle
into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who
was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors
started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is
curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
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: