我们大多数人对荒岛生活形成了一种不切实际的印象。
Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island.
我们有时把荒岛想象成某种阳光永远灿烂的天堂。
We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines.
那里的生活简单而美好。
Life there is simple and good.
成熟的水果从树上落下，你根本不需要工作。
Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work.
然而，这幅图景的另一面却截然相反。
The other side of the picture is quite the opposite.
荒岛上的生活是悲惨的。
Life on a desert island is wretched.
你要么饿死，要么像鲁滨逊·克鲁索那样生活，守望着一条永远不会到来的船。
You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, waiting for a boat which never comes.
也许这两幅图景都包含一定程度的真实成分，但我们中几乎没有人有机会亲自去验证。
Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.
最近在一座珊瑚岛上度过了五天的两个男人，希望自己当时待得更久一些。
Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer.
他们正把一艘严重受损的船从维尔京群岛运往迈阿密去修理。
They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired.
途中，他们的船开始下沉。
During the journey, their boat began to sink.
他们迅速把食物、火柴和几罐啤酒装上一只小橡皮艇，在加勒比海上划了几英里，最终抵达了一座小小的珊瑚岛。
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.
岛上几乎没有树，也没有水，但这并没有成为问题。
There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem.
这两个男人用橡皮艇收集雨水。
The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy.
由于他们随身带了一把鱼叉枪，所以有很多东西可以吃。
As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat.
他们每天捕捉龙虾和鱼，正如其中一人所描述的，"吃得像国王一样"。
They caught lobster and fish every day, and as one of them put it 'ate like kings'.
五天后，当一艘路过的油轮救起他们时，两人都真诚地感到遗憾，不得不离开。
When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.