Pre-reading

Question: What was Robinson so happy about?

Intensive Reading

Their homes weren’t in the trees. They lived in holes which were in the rocks. It was easy to catch them. Their meat was great. I could also cook and eat their eggs. When I worked on my fence, I found a small bag. I remembered corn in the bag, but now there were only some leave and dust in the bag. I took the bag outside my camp. I emptied the bag because I needed it for the gunpowder. This happened shortly before the rains.

它们的家不在树上。它们住在岩石中的洞里。要抓到它们很容易。它们的肉很美味。我还可以煮它们的蛋来吃。当我修理栅栏时，我找到一个小袋子。我想起了袋子里的玉米，但现在袋子里只有一些叶子和灰尘了。我把袋子拿到营地外面。我把袋子倒空，因为我需要用它来装枪火。这之后很快就下雨了。

A month later, I found a few green leaves in that place. It was young corn.

一个月后，我在那个地方发现了一点绿叶。那是刚长出来的玉米。

Words couldn’t express how happy I was. I had corn on the island. It was fantastic. I could bake bread in the future.

语言无法表达我的喜悦。我在岛上有玉米了。这太棒了。将来我可以烤面包了。

Something happened on March 16th. I was inside my cave when pieces of earth started to fall from the ceiling. I was scared. I didn’t want my work to be destroyed. I ran outside the cave. I noticed that the ground started to shake everywhere.

3月16日，出事了。我正在我的洞穴里，突然顶上落下来一些土。我很害怕。我不希望我的工作成果被破坏。我跑出洞穴。我注意到地上所有的东西都开始晃动。

Notes:

1. shortly: 不久，很快，常跟before与after搭配，shortly after为“不久之后”，shortly before为“不久之前”。

2. fantastic: 极好的，了不起的，名词形式为fantasy，意为“幻想，想象”。

3. shake: 摇晃; 抖动；震动。

Exercise:

What happened on March 16th?