Most of us have formed an unrealistic picture on a desert island. We sometimes imagine a desert island to be a sort of paradise where the sun always shines.
    我们大多数人对于荒岛生活有一种不切实际的想法。我们时常会把荒岛想象成一个阳光普照的天堂。
    PS: form a … picture, 有一个…的想法，此处picture当thought理解，译作“想法”。form an unrealistic picture，有一种不切实际的想法。
    PS++：the sun always shines，阳光普照

    Life there is simple and good. Ripe fruit falls from the trees and you never have to work. The other side of the picture is quite the opposite.
    荒岛生活简单又美好。成熟的水果从树上掉下，人们都不用去工作。但是另一种想法却恰恰相反。
    PS：quite the opposite, 恰恰相反。

    Life on a desert island is wretched. You either starve to death or live like Robinson Crusoe, waiting for a boat which never comes. Perhaps there is an element of truth in both these pictures, but few of us have had the opportunity to find out.
    这种荒岛生活是艰苦的。人们可能饿死或者像鲁滨逊那样，枯等永远不会到来的船。也许这些想法中有真实的因素，但是我们几乎没有机会去弄个究竟。
    PS：either A or B，A或B发生一件，其中A和B都是悲观事件。
    PS++：there is an element of truth in both these pictures，两种想法中都有真实的因素

    Two men who recently spent five days on a coral island wished they had stayed there longer. They were taking a badly damaged boat from the Virgin Islands to Miami to have it repaired.
    最近有两个人在一座珊瑚岛上度过了五天，他们是真的希望自己可以多呆一阵子的。他们驾着一艘损坏严重的船从维京群岛到迈阿密去维修。
    PS：have sth. repaired/fix, 修好sth。

    During the journey, their boat began to sink. They quickly loaded a small rubber dinghy with food, matches, and cans of beer and rowed for a few miles across the Caribbean until they arrived at a tiny coral island.
    在旅途中，他们的船开始下沉。他们立刻把食物、火柴、听装啤酒装上了橡皮艇，然后在加勒比海上滑了几英里，到了一个小珊瑚岛上。

    They were hardly any trees on the island and there was no water, but this did not prove to be a problem. The men collected rainwater in the rubber dinghy. As they had brought a spear gun with them, they had plenty to eat.
    岛上既没有树，也没有水，但是这都不是事儿。他们把雨水搜集进皮划艇。因为他们带了一根标枪，所以他们有足够的食物。

    They caught lobster and fish every day, and, as one of them put it ‘ate like kings’. When a passing tanker rescued them five days later, both men were genuinely sorry that they had to leave.
    他们天天捕鱼捕虾，正如其中一位所说，“吃得像国王一样好”。五天之后，当一艘路过的油轮救起他们时，他们都感到很遗憾，还想多呆一阵子呢！
    PS: as one of them put it，正如其中一位说的那样。