[00:00.49]Lesson 12
[00:02.27]Life on a desert island
[00:09.61]What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island?
[00:16.24]Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island.
[00:22.19]We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines.
[00:29.85]Life there is simple and good.
[00:32.44]Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work.
[00:37.52]The other side of the picture is quite the opposite.
[00:41.16]Life on a desert island is wretched.
[00:43.94]You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, waiting for a boat which never comes.
[00:52.49]Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.
[01:00.81]Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer.
[01:09.25]They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired.
[01:15.85]During the journey, their boat began to sink.
[01:20.15]They quickly loaded a small 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.
[01:33.63]There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem.
[01:41.52]The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy.
[01:45.28]As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat.
[01:49.56]They caught lobster and fish every day, and as one of them put it 'ate like kings'.
[01:57.20]When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.
我们许多人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。我们有时想象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，却总没见船影。也许，这两种都像都有可信之处。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。岛上几乎没有一颗树，也没有淡水，但这不算什么问题。他们用像皮艇蓄积雨水。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！