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--- lesson 12 Life on a desert island |
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--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below. |
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--- What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island? |
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Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island. |
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We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines. |
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Life there is simple and good. |
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Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. |
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The other side of the picture is quite the opposite. |
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Life on a desert island is wretched. |
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You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, Waiting for a boat which never comes. |
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Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, |
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but few of us have had the opportunity to find out. |
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Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer. |
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They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. |
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During the journey, their boat began to sink. |
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They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food, matches, and cans of beer |
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and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island. |
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There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem. |
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The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. |
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As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat. |
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They caught lobster and fish every day，and, as one of them put it 'ate like kings'. |
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When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.^5 |
