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 of 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 tins 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 rain-water 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.
notes：
荒岛生活，不合实际的幻想，阳光普照的天堂，水果掉落，无需工作，事实相反，生活各种艰难，向鲁滨逊一样，等待救援。两个人想尝试在珊瑚岛呆的更久，船坏了去修理，路上船沉了，两人带着食物，用小橡皮艇划了很久到达珊瑚岛，没水没食物，他们在橡皮艇收集雨水，用枪捕鱼和龙虾，五天后，被路过的游轮救下。他们遗憾不得不离开。
