Life on a desert island

荒島生活

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 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 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. 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. They caught 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.

我們許多人對于荒島生活有一種不切實際的想法。我們有時想象荒島是陽光終日普照的天堂。在那里，生活簡單又美好。成熟的水果從樹上掉下來，人們根本無需勞動。另一種想法恰恰相反，認為荒島生活很可怕，要么餓死，要么像魯濱孫那樣，天天盼船來，卻總沒見船影。也許，這兩種都像都有可信之處。但很少有人能有機會去弄個究竟。

最近有兩個人在一座珊瑚島上呆了5天，他們真希望在那兒再多呆一些日子。他們駕著一條嚴重損壞的小船從維爾京群島阿密修理。途中，船開始下沉，他們迅速把食物、火柴、罐裝啤酒往一只救生筏上裝。然后在加勒比海上劃行了幾英里，到了一座珊瑚島上。島上幾乎沒有一顆樹，也沒有淡水，但這不算什么問題。他們用像皮艇蓄積雨水。由于他們隨身帶了一支捕魚槍，因此，吃飯不愁。他們天天捕捉龍蝦和魚，正如其中一位所說，吃得“像國王一樣好”。5天后，一條油輪從那兒路過，搭救了他們。這二位不得不離開那個荒島時，還真的感到遺憾呢!

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