听播客学英语 130 岛屿

 　　Andy Strangeway is a painter and decorator. He lives in Yorkshire in the north of England. When I say that he is a painter, I do not mean that he paints pictures. No; he paints peoples houses, and puts up wallpaper in their sitting rooms. That is his job; it is what he does for a living. But when he isn’t painting doors and windows, Andy collects islands. Let me explain.

　　Scotland is a land of mountains and islands. There are 284 mountains over 3000 feet high (that is, a bit less than 1000 metres high). Some people who are really keen on walking and climbing have climbed all of them. There are also 162 islands of more than 40 hectares in Scotland. Several years ago, Andy Strangeway decided¹ to go to all of them. And this year he visited the last islands on his list. As far as he knows, no-one has ever visited all the islands before.

　　Perhaps you are thinking that visiting islands is easy. You just take a ferry to the island; you get off the ferry; perhaps you go for a little walk, or buy a cup of coffee in a cafe; and then you get back on the ferry and go home. Easy. Much easier than climbing mountains, which needs skill and energy, and which is often difficult and dangerous.

　　Well, you can visit some of the Scottish islands by ferry. But out of 162 islands, 99 are uninhabited – no-one lives there, so there is no ferry. So Andy Strangeway had to find boatmen to take him to many of the islands. Also, Andy decided that it was not enough just to visit an island. He would stay at least one night on each island, generally in a tent.

　　The Scottish islands are very varied² – that means that they are very different one from another. A few are low-lying and fertile. Others are really just rocks sticking out of the Atlantic Ocean. Some are close to the mainland and to civilisation³ (things like discos and supermarkets). Others are far out to sea.

　　There is, for instance, a fascinating group of islands called St Kilda, far to the west of Scotland. People lived on St Kilda for thousands of years, making a living from fishing, keeping sheep and hunting sea birds. But life there was very hard, and in 1930 the whole community left St Kilda and moved to the mainland. If you visit St Kilda today, you can see the ruins of the houses in which the people lived – it must be rather sad.

　　Another island is uninhabited for a different reason. During the second World War, the British government experimented with germ and chemical weapons, to use against Germany. On an island called Gruinard, scientists carried out experiments using a deadly disease called anthrax. This made Gruinard a very dangerous place, and for 48 years the island was completely closed to visitors.

　　Well, Andy has now stayed overnight on all the Scpttish islands, including St Kilda and Gruinard. He has endured rain, wind and rough seas. He did not do it alone, however. He took his teddy-bear, called Clyde, with him. So Clyde is the first teddy bear to visit every island in Scotland, Isn’t that nice!

　　Picture of Boreray in the St Kilda group of islands, by Andy Strangeway, with permission

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

3 civilisation   

n.文明，文化，开化，教化

参考例句：

• Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
• This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。