Pre-reading

What were the cannibals doing when Robinson and Friday found them?

Intensive Reading

When we were very close to the beach, we saw that the cannibals were around the fire. They started eating the first of their prisoners. The second prisoner was still alive. He wasn’t one of Friday’s people. He was European. The cannibals wanted to eat him too. I decided to save him if it was possible.

当我们离海滩很近时，我们看见食人族围着火。他们开始吃他们的第一个俘虏。第二个俘虏还活着。他不是星期五的族人之一。他是一个欧洲人。食人族也想吃了他。我决定可能的话把他救出来。

We moved closer to the cannibals but we were still hidden behind the trees.

我们往食人族那里靠近了一些，但仍藏在树后面。

Twelve cannibals were still around the fire, but two cannibals went for the white man. When I saw this, I prepared the guns and I asked Friday to do the same. Then we fired quickly at the cannibals from six guns. We killed 3 and seriously injured 2 of the cannibals. The rest jumped up. But they didn’t know where to run. They didn’t know from which direction the danger came. Some men ran to their canoes. Some cannibals stayed on the beach.

十二名食人族仍围在火周围，但两名食人族走向那个白人。当我看见这个情景，我准备好枪，我让星期五也这么做。然后我们用六把枪朝食人族迅速开枪。我们杀死了3名食人族，致2名食人族受重伤。其他的食人族跳了起来。但他们不知道往哪跑。他们不知道危险是从哪个方向来的。有些人跑向他们的独木舟。有些食人族留在海滩上。

We continued to shoot and we shot three other cannibals. After that we took our guns and we ran to the beach. We shouted very loud. I ran to the prisoner and Friday shot the nearest cannibal. I freed the European. He said something in Spanish to me.

我们继续射击，我们又打死了3名食人族。在那之后，我们拿起我们的枪，跑向海滩。我们非常大声地叫喊。我跑向那名俘虏，星期五打死了最近的食人族。我释放了这名欧洲人。他用西班牙语对我说了话。

Notes:

1. fire：这里指“开枪，开火”，“朝某人开枪”可以用fire at sb.。

2. injure：（尤指在事故中）受伤，可以说injure oneself或be injured。另一个表示“受伤”的词是wound，它常指的是在战争中受伤。

3. loud：大声的/地，既可以作形容词，又可以作副词。

Exercise:

How many cannibals were shot in total?