[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:Life on a Desert Island] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.48]Lesson 12 [00:03.33]Life on a desert island [00:13.43]What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island? [00:20.42]Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island. [00:26.32]We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines. [00:33.63]Life there is simple and good. [00:36.54]Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. [00:40.80]The other side of the picture is quite the opposite. [00:44.18]Life on a desert island is wretched. [00:47.53]You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, [00:51.53]waiting for a boat which never comes. [00:55.31]Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, [00:59.35]but few of us have had the opportunity to find out. [01:03.65]Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island [01:07.53]wished they had stayed there longer. [01:10.22]They were taking a badly damaged boat [01:12.78]from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired. [01:16.81]During the journey,their boat began to sink. [01:20.32]They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food,matches,and cans of beer [01:25.53]and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean [01:28.25]until they arrived at a tiny coral island. [01:32.56]There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, [01:36.93]but this did not prove to be a problem. [01:39.78]The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. [01:43.62]As they had brought a spear gun with them,they had plenty to eat. [01:47.71]They caught lobster and fish every day,and as one of them put it 'ate like kings'. [01:54.19]When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, [01:57.67]both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.