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Castaway Tales: Surviving Against the Odds 荒岛漂流记

课文朗读

课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

If you heard of someone who had survived being stranded on a desert island, would you be interested in hearing his story? Most likely you would. We all love a good survival tale, and some of the most popular books in history (The Odyssey, Gulliver’s Travels, and Robinson Crusoe) have been about people surviving against great odds. Not surprisingly, modern writers and film directors are always eager to exploit this theme.

如果你听到有人被困在荒岛上却生存下来，你会对他的故事有兴趣吗?你应该会。我们都喜欢听个新鲜的求生故事，而历史上几部最受欢迎的著作(如:奥德赛、格列佛游记、鲁宾逊漂流记)就都是有关人们在逆境下求生存的故事。毫不意外，现代作家和电影导演总是积极探讨这类主题。

But to sell your story to the public today, you can’t just retell the same old plot. Instead, you need a fresh angle. In 1983, Lucy Irvine left everything to go live a complete stranger on a small island in Papua New Guinea. The retreat was designed as an experiment in survival and Irvine later wrote about her experience in a book called Castaway. Surviving on the island was more difficult than Irvine expected. She lost weight, her companion was difficult to get along with, and dangerous such as wild animals and infections were a constant worry.

但是要像今天大众推销你的故事，你可不能只是一再重复述说老掉牙的戏码，而是需要一个新颖的角度。露西厄文在一九八三年抛下一切，前往巴布亚纽几内亚的一座小岛跟一位她完全不认识的陌生人住在一起。厄文的隐退行动被设计为一项生存实验，而她之后也将这些经验写成一本书，名为Castaway。在岛上生存远比厄文预期的还要困难。她瘦了，同伴不好相处，还有像野生动物和病菌感染等危险也都持续困扰着她。

On the modern reality TV show Survivor sixteen people are also intentionally marooned and must cooperate in order to survive. Unlike Irvine’s experience, however, cameras record the daily life of these castaways and the goal for each is to outlast the others and win a US$1,000,000 prize. It’s a crazy idea but one that has proven popular with TV viewers.

在实境节目《我要活下去》中，也有十六个人被蓄意放逐到无人岛上，为求生存，他们必须互相合作。不过不同于厄文境遇的是，摄影机每天记录这些被放逐者的生活，而每个人的目标是要留得比别人更久以赢得一百万美元奖金。这是个疯狂的点子，但事实证明，这也是个当红的电视节目。

As long as people have a need for stories, survival tales will be told. Where the next idea will come from to keep the stories fresh, however, is something to watch for.

只要人们一天需要故事，生存故事就将继续被传述。然而，下一个让故事保持新奇的点子会从哪里来，就是我们的引颈企盼的了。

Vocabulary

单词发音

castaway [ˋkæstə͵we] n. 沉船后漂流到孤岛的人

odds [ɑds] n. 机会，可能性；成功的可能性

survival [sɚˋvaɪv!] n. 继续生存; 幸存

retreat [rɪˋtrit] n. 隐退处

infection [ɪnˋfɛkʃən] n. 传染

outlast [ˋaʊtˋlæst] v. 比…经久[持久]

More Information

单词发音

strand [strænd] v. 搁浅; 处于困境

exploit [ɪkˋsplɔɪt] v. 剥削; 利用; 开发

design [dɪˋzaɪn] v. 设计

get along with 与...和睦相处

maroon [məˋrun] v. 把……放逐到无人岛上；使孤立无援

popular [ˋpɑpjəlɚ] adj. 受欢迎的[（+with/among）]

watch for 等待〔某事〕; 期待 to keep looking for someone or something to appear

课文讲解

What is it about tales of castaways that has captured readers’ imagination for centuries? Take the story of Alexander Selkirk, for example. Selkirk was an eighteenth-century Scottish navigator who spent over four years stranded alone on a tropical island. The story of his remarkable survival inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe – the granddaddy of all modern survival tales – and even today people are still fascinated with it.

到底是什么样的荒岛故事几世纪以来一直让读者为之神往呢?就拿亚历山大塞尔克的故事为例。塞尔克是十八世纪一位苏格兰航海家，他被困在一个热带荒岛上独自生活了四年多。他不凡的求生故事启发了《鲁宾逊漂流记》(所有现代生存故事的始祖)这本小说的创作。即使到今天，人们还是为他的故事着迷。

This fascination has led many to search for remains of Selkirk’s life on his island (known these days as Robinson Crusoe Island). The latest expedition was in 2004, led by Daisuke Takahashi, a Japanese who has been obsessed with Selkirk’s story since he was a teen. Unlike other expeditions, this one was successful. On a site high up in the hills, Takahashi found small pieces of copper from a navigational device. The device has been dated to the eighteenth century and almost certainly belonged to Selkirk. “I have finally reached him,” Takahashi later told reporters.

这样的着迷使得许多人前往塞尔克当时待过的岛上(也就是现在的鲁宾逊岛)寻找他过去生活的遗迹。最近的一次探险是在2004年，由一位从青少年时期就非常喜欢塞尔克故事的日本人高桥大辅所领军。不同于其它探险，这次远征非常成功。在山丘上的高处，高桥发现了铜制的航海仪器碎片。这个仪器可以追溯到十八世纪，并且几乎确定是塞尔克所使用的。高桥稍后告诉记者:「我终于看她有所接触了。」

Takahashi was obviously extremely pleased with his find, as are most people who have read about the discovery. It seems there’s something about castaways, and their struggles, that touches us all very deeply. Perhaps it’s because castaways remind us how fragile our lives are, but also how, in the end, we are incredibly resilient when facing our destruction.

如同大部分得知这个发现的人们一样，高桥大辅显然对于他们的发现感到非常高兴。似乎有什么关于这些漂流者和他们的奋斗故事深深的触碰了我们所有人的内心深处。或许是因为这些人提醒了我们生命是何等脆弱，但最后，也提醒我们，在面对毁灭时，我们拥有的是多么不可思议的韧性。

−by Bill Martin & Robert Kelly

Vocabulary

单词发音

navigator [ˋnævə͵getɚ] n. 领航员; 航海探险家

remains [rɪˋmenz] n. 剩下的东西[部分]; 遗迹

expedition [͵ɛkspɪˋdɪʃən] n. 远征；探险

device [dɪˋvaɪs] n. 装置; 发明物

fragile [ˋfrædʒəl] adj. 易碎的；脆的

More Information

单词发音

fascinated [ˋfæsn͵etɪd] adj. 着迷的

obsessed [əbˋsɛst] adj. 着迷的

be pleased with  对...感到高兴(或满意)

as  如同 and so…

resilient [rɪˋzɪlɪənt] adj. 坚韧的

Reading Questions

1.   Which statement is TRUE about this passage?

A.  The theme of survival attracts many film directors.

B.  Alexander Selkirk’s story is based upon the life of Robinson Crusoe.

C.  People who are stranded on desert islands are always there because they want to be.

D.  People are not interested in new survival stories because there are already too many books on the same theme.

2.   What hardships did Lucy Irvine specifically go through?

A.  She would not use modern equipment.

B.  She had to live with a complete stranger and then write a book about it.

C.  She worried about being attacked by wild animals and contracting fatal diseases all the time.

D.  She did not have a map and was sure that she would remain stranded.

3.   What did people in Daisuke Takahashi’s expedition find?

A.  They didn’t find anything Selkirk ever used.

B.  They found Robinson Crusoe’s boat.

C.  They found small pieces of metal used by Selkirk.

D.  They found copper from a navigational device on the beach.

4.   What is one reason that stories of castaways touch us deeply?

A.  Because we know they all are for our reading pleasure.

B.  Because they remind us how uncertain life is.

C.  Because everyone wants to live like Robinson Crusoe.

D.  Because people like to read about others’ happiness.

Answer