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Lesson 12 Life on a desert island 荒岛生活

Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island. We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines. Life there is simple and good. Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. The other side of the picture is quite the opposite. Life on a desert island is wretched. You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, waiting for a boat which never comes. Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.

Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer. They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. During the journey, their boat began to sink. They quickly loaded asmall rubber dinghy with food, matches, and cans of beer and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island. There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem. The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat. Theycaught lobster and fish every day, and, as one of them put it ‘ate like kings’. When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.

New words and expressions 生词和知语

desert island（title）/'dezət-ailənd/荒岛 Miami（1. 10）/mai'æmi/n．迈阿密（美国最南的城市）

  • unrealistic（1. 1）/'ʌnriə'litik/adj．不真实的
  • paradise（1. 2）/'pærədaiz/n．天堂，乐土
  • dinghy（1. 11）/'diŋgi/n．救生筏，小船
  • wretched（1. 6）/'retʃid/adj．可怜的，艰苦的 Caribbean（1. 12）/kæri'bi:ən/n．加勒比海
  • starve（1. 6）/sta:v/v．挨饿 spear gun（1. 14）/'spiə-gʌn/捕鱼枪
  • element（1. 7）/'elimənt/n．成分
  • lobster（1. 15）/'lɔbstə/n．龙虾
  • opportunity（1. 8）/'ɔpə'tju:niti/n．机会
  • tanker（1. 15）/'tæŋkə/n．油轮
  • coral（1. 9）/'kɔrəl/n．珊瑚
  • genuinely（1. 16）/'dʒenjuinli/adv．由衷地 Virgin Islands （1. 10）/'və:dʒin'ailəndz/维尔京群岛 Robinson Crusoe （11. 6-7）/'rɔbinsən'kru:səu/鲁滨孙·克鲁索（小说《鲁滨孙漂流记》主人公）

Notes on the text 课文注释​

  1. imagine…to be…，作“想像……是……”，“设想……是……”讲。不定式to be引起的短语作宾语补足语。
  2. quite the opposite，完全相反，截然不同。
  3. starve to death，饿死。 4 …wished they had stayed there longer. ……还真希望在那里多呆些日子。wish引起的宾语从句常用虚拟语气。
  4. as one of them put it，正如其中一位所说的。

参考译文​

我们许多人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。我们有时想像荒岛是阳光终日普照的天堂。在那里，生活简单又美好。成熟的水果从树上掉下来，人们根本无需劳动。另一种想法恰恰相反，认为荒岛生活很可怕，要么饿死，要么像鲁滨孙那样，天天盼船来，却总不见船影。也许，这两种想像都有可信之处。但很少有人能有机会去弄个究竟。

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。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。途中，船开始下沉，他们迅速把食物、火柴、罐装啤酒往一只救生筏上装。然后在加勒比海上划行了几英里，到了一座珊瑚岛上。岛上几乎没有一棵树，也没有淡水，但这不算什么问题。他们用橡皮艇蓄积雨水。由于他们随身带了一支捕鱼枪，因此，吃饭不愁。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”。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！