晨读英语美文60篇六级20

Is Fire Goddess Spelled with Two Ds

When I was young, I saw a movie about mysterious island that had an erupting volcano. The island was ruled by a beautiful woman called "Tandaleah, the Fire Goddess of the Volcano." since than I desperately¹ wanted to be the Fire Goddess. I wrote it on my list of "Things to Be When I Grow Up," and asked my girlfriend if "Fire Goddess" was spelled with two Ds.

Through the years, the school system did its best to mold me into a no longer sans responsible, respectable citizen, and Tandaleah was forgot-ten. I spent the next twenty-five years being a good wife, eventually the mother of four .

But The week I turned fifty my marriage came to a sudden end. everything I'd owned was auctioned² off to pay debts I didn't even know existed. In a week I'd lost my husband, my home and my parents, who refused to accept a divorce in the family. I had enough money to rent a cheap apartment while I looked for a job. Or I could use every penny I had to buy five plane tickets from Missouri to the most remote island in the world, the Big Island of Hawaii. Everyone said I was crazy to think I could just run off to an island and survive. They predicted I'd come crawling back in a month. Part of me was afraid they were right. The next day, my four children and I landed on the Big Island of Hawaii with less than two thousand dollars, knowing no one in the world was going to help us. I rented an unfurnished apartment where we slept on the floor and lived on cereal. I worked three jobs scrubbing floors on my hands and knees, selling macadamia nuts to tourists and gathering³ coconuts⁴. I worked eighteen hours a day and lost thirty pounds because I lived on one meal a day.

One night, as I walked alone on the beach, I saw the red-orange glow of the lava⁵ pouring out of the Kilauea volcano in the distance.

I'd almost achieved my childhood dream-but hadn't realized it because I was focused on my burdens instead of my blessings⁶. It was time to live my imagination-not my history.

Tandaleah, the Fire Goddess of the Volcano, had finally arrived! The next day I quit my jobs and invested my last paycheck in art supplies and began doing what I loved. I hadn't painted a picture in fifteen years. I wondered if I could still paint or if I'd forgotten how. My hands trembled the first time I picked up a brush, but before an hour had passed I was lost in the colors spreading across the canvas in front of me. I sailing as I started believing in myself, other people started believing in me, too. the first painting sold for fifteen hundred dollars before I even had time to frame it.

The past six years have been filled with adventures: My children and I have gone swimming with dolphins, watched whales and hiked around the crater⁷ rim⁸ of the volcano. We wake up every morning with the ocean in front of us and the volcano behind us. The dream I'd had more than forty years ago is now reality. I live on an island with a continuously erupting volcano. I am Tandaleah, the Fire Goddess of the Volcano, spelled with two Ds and I'm living

1 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

2 auctioned   

v.拍卖( auction的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was sad to see all grandmother's lovely things being auctioned off. 眼看着祖母那些可爱的东西全都被拍卖掉，心里真不好受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 coconuts   

n.椰子( coconut的名词复数 )；椰肉，椰果

参考例句：

• We found a bountiful supply of coconuts on the island. 我们发现岛上有充足的椰子供应。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Coconuts provide "meat", drink, oil, soap and fiber for fishing line. 椰子提供“肉类”，饮料、油脂、肥皂和做钓（鱼）丝的纤维。 来自百科语句

5 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

6 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

8 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。