Pre-reading

Question: What were the negative things about Robinson?

Intensive Reading

One day, I thought about my situation. I had negative thoughts. This wasn’t good. I decided to make a list of all the good and bad things in my life.

有一天，我想到自己的处境。我有一些消极的想法。这不好。我决定把我生活中所有好的事情和坏的事情列一个清单。

I was alone on this island. I had nobody for a conversation. I had only a little chance that I could see England again.

我只身一人在岛上。我没有人交谈。我只有微小的机会可以重新看到英格兰。

But I was alive. I was safe. I had my freedom. I had food to eat. This was all positive. I didn’t have any good clothes, but I didn’t need a lot of clothes on this island. I had a dog. He understood some words. He understood when I said, “Sit down. Come here. Bring it. Don’t do it. Don’t jump. Let’s do it. Let’s eat. Let’s run.”

但是我活着。我很安全。我拥有自己的自由。我有食物可以吃。这些都是积极的。我没有好衣服，但是在岛上我也不需要很多衣服。我有一条狗。他能理解一些话。当我说“坐下，过来，拿过来，不要这样，不要跳，我们做吧，我们吃吧，我们跑吧，”他能听懂。

This list showed me that my situation wasn’t perfect. But I had also some good things in my life.

这份清单向我展示了我的处境并不完美。但是我的生活中也有一些好的事情。

I tried to concentrate on positive things only. I continued to make my place better and better. I made the cave bigger. More space in the cave helped me keep all my things organized.

我试着只专注于积极的事情。我继续把我的地方建得越来越好。我把洞穴挖得更大。洞穴里有更大空间能帮助我把东西整理得更有条理。

Notes:

1. negative: 负面的，消极的，否定的，反义词是positive。

2. make a list: 列清单，list也可以作动词，表示“列入”的意思。

3. conversation: 对话，交谈，“与某人交谈”常说have a conversation with sb.。

4. concentrate: 专注于，集中注意力，“专注于某事”表述为concentrate on sth.。

Exercise:

How can the list help Robinson?