Pre-reading

What did they do to get more food?

Intensive Reading

However, the Spanish wanted something else. He said, “It will be better if we wait for half a year. There isn’t enough food for sixteen other men on the island.

然而，西班牙人想要别的东西。他说:“如果我们再等半年就更好了。岛上的食物不够十六个人吃。

We won’t have enough food to eat when we build the ship.” I agreed with him. He and Friday’s father helped us expand the fences and fields.

等我们造了船，就没有足够的食物吃了。”我同意他的看法。他和星期五的父亲帮我们扩建了栅栏和田地。

We caught more goats. We increased the number of goats to 50 animals. We collected a lot of fruit. Then we dried the fruit.

我们抓了更多的山羊。我们把山羊的数量增加到50只。我们收集了很多水果。然后我们把水果晒干。

We also started preparing the materials for the ship. We chose a few trees. I showed the others how to cut the trees. Then we formed them into long and thin pieces.

我们也开始准备造船的材料。我们选了几棵树。我向其他人展示如何砍树。然后我们把它们做成又长又薄的长条。

In half a year, we had a lot of food. We had a lot of corn. We needed more baskets and pots for the corn. We saw that the Spanish was very good at making baskets. He had a great talent. His baskets were excellent.

在半年的时间里，我们有很多食物。我们有很多玉米。我们需要更多的篮子和罐子来装玉米。我们看到西班牙人非常擅长编织篮子。他很有天赋。他的篮子棒极了。

He also used a special technique to make baskets. The technique was fast and effective. He made the baskets three times faster than me. I asked him to teach me his skill. I wasn’t as fast as him. But I was faster than before.

他还使用一种特殊的技术来制作篮子。这项技术快速有效。他做篮子的速度比我快三倍。我请他教我他的技术。我没有他做得快。但我比以前更快了。

Notes:

1. expand：扩展，扩大。

2. dry：这里作动词，指“使变干”。

3. talent：天赋，才能，也可以指“人才”。

4. technique：技巧，技艺，注意跟technology的区别，technology是对“技术、工艺”的总称，technique指的是具体的一个技巧。

Exercise:

What was the Spanish good at?