Chapter 50

It was three and a half feet deep, eight feet wide andtwenty-six feet long, exactly. I know because it was printed onone of the side benches in black letters. It also said that thelifeboat was designed to accommodate a maximum of thirty-twopeople. Wouldn't that have been merry, sharing it with somany? Instead we were three and it was awfully¹ crowded. Theboat was symmetrically shaped, with rounded ends that werehard to tell apart. The stern was hinted at by a small fixedrudder, no more than a rearward extension of the keel, whilethe bow, except for my addition, featured a stem with thesaddest, bluntest prow² in boat-building history. The aluminumhull was studded with rivets³ and painted white.
That was the outside of the lifeboat. Inside, it was not asspacious as might be expected because of the side benches andthe buoyancy tanks. The side benches ran the whole length ofthe boat, merging⁴ at the bow and stern to form end benchesthat were roughly triangular⁵ in shape. The benches were thetop surfaces of the sealed buoyancy tanks. The side bencheswere one and a half feet wide and the end benches werethree feet deep; the open space of the lifeboat was thus twentyfeet long and five feet wide. That made a territory of onehundred square feet for Richard Parker. Spanning this spacewidthwise were three cross benches, including the one smashedby the zebra. These benches were two feet wide and wereevenly spaced. They were two feet above the floor of the boat– the play Richard Parker had before he would knock hishead against the ceiling, so to speak, if he were beneath abench. Under the tarpaulin⁶, he had another twelve inches ofspace, the distance between the gunnel, which supported thetarpaulin, and the benches, so three feet in all, barely enoughfor him to stand. The floor, consisting of narrow planks⁷ oftreated wood, was flat and the vertical⁸ sides of the buoyancytanks were at right angles to it. So, curiously⁹, the boat hadrounded ends and rounded sides, but the interior volume wasrectangular.
It seems orange – such a nice Hindu colour – is the colourof survival because the whole inside of the boat and thetarpaulin and the life jackets and the lifebuoy and the oars¹¹ andmost every other significant object aboard was orange. Eventhe plastic, beadless whistles were orange.
The words Tsimtsum and Panama were printed on eachside of the bow in stark¹², black, roman capitals.
The tarpaulin was made of tough, treated canvas, rough onthe skin after a while. It had been unrolled to just past themiddle cross bench. So one cross bench was hidden beneaththe tarpaulin, in Richard Parker's den¹³; the middle cross benchwas just beyond the edge of the tarpaulin, in the open; andthe third cross bench lay broken beneath the dead zebra.
There were six oarlocks, U-shaped notches¹⁴ in the gunnel forholding an oar¹⁰ in place, and five oars, since I had lost onetrying to push Richard Parker away. Three oars rested on oneside bench, one rested on the other and one made up mylife-saving prow. I doubted the usefulness of these oars as ameans of propulsion. This lifeboat was no racing¹⁵ shell. It was aheavy, solid construction designed for stolid¹⁶ floating, not fornavigating, though I suppose that if we had been thirty-two torow we could have made some headway.
I did not grasp all these details – and many more – rightaway. They came to my notice with time and as a result ofnecessity. I would be in the direst of dire¹⁷ straits, facing a bleakfuture, when some small thing, some detail, would transformitself and appear in my mind in a new light. It would nolonger be the small thing it was before, but the most importantthing in the world, the thing that would save my life. Thishappened time and again. How true it is that necessity is themother of invention, how very true.

1 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

2 prow   

n.(飞机)机头，船头

参考例句：

• The prow of the motor-boat cut through the water like a knife.汽艇的船头像一把刀子劈开水面向前行驶。
• He stands on the prow looking at the seadj.他站在船首看着大海。

3 rivets   

铆钉( rivet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Straighten the rivets, please. 请把那铆钉铆直。
• Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, and a visitation. 但是铆钉并没有运来，来的却是骚扰、混乱和视察。

4 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。

5 triangular   

adj.三角（形）的，三者间的

参考例句：

• It's more or less triangular plot of land.这块地略成三角形。
• One particular triangular relationship became the model of Simone's first novel.一段特殊的三角关系成了西蒙娜第一本小说的原型。

6 tarpaulin   

n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽

参考例句：

• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。
• The pool furniture was folded,stacked,and covered with a tarpaulin.游泳池的设备都已经折叠起来，堆在那里，还盖上了防水布。

7 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

8 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

9 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

10 oar   

n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行

参考例句：

• The sailors oar slowly across the river.水手们慢慢地划过河去。
• The blade of the oar was bitten off by a shark.浆叶被一条鲨鱼咬掉了。

11 oars   

n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He pulled as hard as he could on the oars. 他拼命地划桨。
• The sailors are bending to the oars. 水手们在拼命地划桨。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

13 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

14 notches   

n.（边缘或表面上的）V型痕迹( notch的名词复数 )；刻痕；水平；等级

参考例句：

• The Indians cut notches on a stick to keep count of numbers. 印第安人在棒上刻V形凹痕用来计数。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They cut notches in the handle of their pistol for each man they shot. 他们每杀一个人就在枪托上刻下一个V形记号。 来自辞典例句

15 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

16 stolid   

adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的

参考例句：

• Her face showed nothing but stolid indifference.她的脸上毫无表情，只有麻木的无动于衷。
• He conceals his feelings behind a rather stolid manner.他装作无动于衷的样子以掩盖自己的感情。

17 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。