Pre-reading

Question: Why did Robinson decide to build a house?

Intensive Reading

It was an earthquake. I was shocked and scared. Some big stones fell from the hill. But I was lucky. They didn’t hit my tent. The earthquake was finished soon. But I was afraid to go inside. I sat on the ground in front of my tent.

是地震。我感到震惊和害怕。一些大石头从山上落下来。但我很幸运。它们没有砸中我的帐篷。地震很快结束了。但我害怕到里面去。我在我的帐篷前的地上坐了下来。

I started to think, “Maybe, it was better not to sleep in the cave. It wasn’t very safe in case another earthquake came.”

我开始思考，“也许，最好还是不要睡在洞穴里。万一又有地震发生，那里不太安全。”

But I didn’t want to sleep in the tent. So I decided to make a house instead of the tent. I wanted to use the cave only as a cellar.

但我也不想睡在帐篷里。所以我决定建造一座房子来代替帐篷。我想把洞穴仅当做地窖来用。

The next day, I started to build the house. It was in April. It took me three months to build the house. But I was happy with my new home.

I was ill in the last week of July. I had a temperature. I couldn’t get out of the bed. I was very weak. I could do nothing in that state. I had crazy dreams. The dreams weren’t very logical. But for me they were real when I had these dreams.

第二天，我开始建房子。那是4月。我花了三个月才建好房子。但有了新房子我很开心。7月最后一周我病了。我发烧了。我不能下床。我很虚弱。那种状态下我什么也做不了。我做了疯狂的梦。这些梦没有逻辑。但当我做梦时，它们对我来说就是真的。

Notes:

1. earthquake: 地震，这个词由earth和quake两个词组合而来，quake是“震动”的意思。

2. shocked: 震惊的，吃惊的，shocking则表示“令人震惊的”。

3. have a temperature: 发烧，也可以说run a temperature。

4. logical: 有条理的，有逻辑的。

Exercise:

When did Robinson get ill?