Lesson 12 Life on a desert island
荒岛生活
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island?
Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island.
我们许多人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。
We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines.
我们有时想象荒岛是阳光终日普照的天堂。
Life there is simple and good.
在那里，生活简单又美好。
Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work.
成熟的水果从树上掉下来，人们根本无需劳动。
The other side of the picture is quite the opposite.
另一种想法恰恰相反，
Life on a desert island is wretched.
认为荒岛生活很可怕，
You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, Waiting for a boat which never comes.
要么饿死，要么像鲁滨孙那样，天天盼船来，却总不见船影。
Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures,^也许，这两种想象都有可信之处。
but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.
但很少有人能有机会去弄个究竟。
Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer.
最近有两个人在一座珊瑚岛上呆了5天，他们真希望在那儿再多呆一些日子。
They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired.
他们驾着一条严重损坏的小船从维尔京群岛去迈阿密修理。
During the journey, their boat began to sink.
途中，船开始下沉，
They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food, matches, and cans of beer
他们迅速把食物、火柴、罐装啤酒往一只救生筏上装。
and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island.
然后在加勒比海上划行了几英里，到了一座珊瑚岛上。
There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem.
岛上几乎没有一颗树，也没有淡水，但这不算什么问题。
The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy.
他们用像皮艇蓄积雨水。
As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat.
由于他们随身带了一支捕鱼枪，因此，吃饭不愁。
They caught lobster and fish every day，and, as one of them put it 'ate like kings'.
他们天天捕捉龙虾和鱼，正如其中一位所说，吃得“像国王一样好”。
When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.
5天后，一条油轮从那儿路过，搭救了他们。这二位不得不离开那个荒岛时，还真的感到遗憾呢！