Lesson 12
        Life on a desert island
 
【New words and expressions】 生詞和短語

     ★desert island
     荒島
desert: 沙漠　背棄，遺棄
dessert: 甜點

     ★unrealistic
adj. 不真實

     ★paradise
n.   天堂，樂士
A lot of people imagine the USA as their paradise.
heaven: 天堂，天國，也指死亡

     ★wretched
adj. 可憐的，艱苦的
miserable
lead a wretched/miserable/terrible life

     ★starve
v.   挨餓
starve to death

     ★element
n.   成分

     ★opportunity
n.   機會
golden opportunity
Opportunity knocks only once.
chance: 表機會時可以與opportunity互換，表可能性時則不可
There is  a chance that I will see him
The chances are that he will be elected the president.
+of,to

     ★coral
n.   珊瑚

     ★Virgin Islands
     維爾京群島

     ★Miami
n.   邁阿密（美國最南的城市）

     ★dinghy
n.   救生筏，小船

     ★Caribbean
n.   加勒比海

     ★spear gun
     捕魚槍

     ★lobster
n.   龍蝦

     ★tanker
n.   油輪

     ★genuinely
adv. 由衷地
He is genuinely thankful to me
genuine(adj.)
(n.)genuineness

     ★Robinson Crusoe
     魯濱孫.克魯索（小說《魯濱孫漂流記》主人公）             荒島生活
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
聽錄音，然后回答以下問題。
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. 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.

參考譯文

    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

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