[00:00.00]Lesson 12
[00:01.77]Life on a desert island
[00:09.11]What was exceptional about the two men's stay on the desert island?
[00:15.74]Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture of life on a desert island.
[00:21.69]We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines.
[00:29.35]Life there is simple and good.
[00:31.94]Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work.
[00:37.02]The other side of the picture is quite the opposite.
[00:40.66]Life on a desert island is wretched.
[00:43.44]You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, 
[00:48.34]waiting for a boat which never comes.
[00:51.99]Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, 
[00:56.28]but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.
[01:00.31]Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer.
[01:08.75]They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired.
[01:15.35]During the journey, their boat began to sink.
[01:19.65]They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food, 
[01:23.88]matches, and cans of beer and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island.
[01:33.13]There were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, 
[01:38.09]but this did not prove to be a problem.
[01:41.02]The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy.
[01:44.78]As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat.
[01:49.06]They caught lobster and fish every day,
[01:52.46] and as one of them put it 'ate like kings'.
[01:56.70]When a passing tanker rescued them five days later,
[02:00.64] both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.