Pre-reading

Did the Englishmen eat the prisoners?

Intensive Reading

Three of the men had hands tied together. The eight other men took them to the beach. Two prisoners were calm, but the third prisoner tried to say something. He looked very scared. He asked the men in the boat for something.

其中三个人的手被绑在一起。另外八个人把他们带到海滩。两名囚犯很平静，但第三名囚犯试图说些什么。他看起来很害怕。他向船上的人要了些东西。

When Friday saw this, he turned to me and told me that Englishmen also ate people.

当星期五看到这一幕时，他转向我，告诉我英国人也吃人。

I told him that they definitely didn’t plan to eat the prisoners. I thought that they wanted to shoot them.

我告诉他他们肯定没打算吃掉囚犯。我以为他们想杀了他们。

After a while I noticed that this wasn’t their plan. The men from the boat started to explore the island. The three tied prisoners sat on the beach with two men as guards. The prisoners looked hopeless. I remembered my arrival on the island. I also felt lost first, exactly like those prisoners.

过了一会儿，我注意到这不是他们的计划。船上的人开始探索这岛。三名被绑的囚犯和两名看守坐在海滩上。囚犯们看起来绝望了。我想起了我到达岛上的情景。我刚开始也感到迷茫，就像那些囚犯一样。

Low tide came soon. The level of the sea was low. Their boat was on the sand. They couldn’t move the boat. I heard them shout to each other, “We will leave with the next high tide.” This gave us some hours.

低潮很快就来了。海平面很低。他们的船在沙滩上。他们无法移动船。我听见他们互相喊:“下次涨潮时我们就出发。”这给了我们几个小时。

Friday and I stayed hidden until dark. Then I noticed that the men who stood the guard started to sleep. The three prisoners sat under a tree quite close to us. It looked like they were also quite far from the other sailors. We could come closer to them.

星期五和我一直躲到天黑。然后我注意到站岗的人开始睡觉了。那三个囚犯坐在离我们很近的一棵树下。看起来他们离其他水手也很远。我们可以更接近他们。

Notes:

1. tie：v. （用线、绳索等）系，扎，捆，“捆在一起”即tie sth. together，“打结”为tie a knot。

2. definitely：adv. 肯定地，确定地，表示强调。

3. guard：n. 警卫，看守，守卫，stand guard即“站岗”。

4. hopeless：adj. 无望的。否定后缀-less还可见于helpless（无助的），selfless（无私的），careless（不小心的）等。

Exercise:

What did the prisoners look when they arrived on the island?