Pre-reading

Question: Why did Robinson use just half of the seed first?

Intensive Reading

The leaves created shadow. It was very nice to stay there. I decided to make a fence from the same wood around my first house too.

叶子创造了阴影。待在那里令人很愉快。我决定也用我第一所房子周围相同的木头来建栅栏。

When the rainy season was finished, I put my corn seeds into the ground. I was afraid that something bad could happen. I only used a half of the seeds. This was a good idea because, unfortunately, none of these seeds grew up.

当雨季结束后，我把玉米种子种进地里。我害怕不好的事情发生。我只用了一半的种子。这是个好主意，因为，很不幸，这些种子没有一颗长大了。

I put the second half of the seeds into the ground before the next rainy season. This time, they grew up alright. I could say that I had a little farm on the island.

在第二个雨季到来之前，我把另外一半种子种进地里。这次，他们长势不错。我可以说我在岛上有了一个小农场。

I could see that the seasons on the island were different from England. There were no spring, summer, autumn and winter on the island. But there were two rainy and two dry seasons. With this information, I could now plan when to put seeds into the ground.

我可以看出岛上的季节和英格兰的不同。岛上没有春、夏、秋、冬。但那里有两个雨季和两个旱季。知道了这个信息，我可以计划什么时候把种子种进地里。

Notes:

1. unfortunately: 不幸地，反义词为fortunately（幸运地）。

2. alright: 没问题地，尚可地，相当于all right，是一种非正式表达。

3. different from: 与……不同，“和……相同”则表述为same as，注意这里使用的介词。

Exercise:

What were the seasons on the island?