Unit1 Good Friends
chuck noland, who lives in memphis, is an operation manager at fedex, an express mailing company. he is hardworking and particularly time-conscious.1 he believes that time is everything: cosmos,2 fortune and misfortune; time is also capable of doing everything, creating and destroying human beings. he has a girlfriend named kelly frears, who works at a chemical lab. they love each other very much, though chuck travels a lot and rarely stays at home. it is christmas season now. chuck gets back home and kelly is very happy to see him. however chuck is so tired after his business trip to russia, he is fast asleep when kelly turns off tv and is about to go to bed.
on christmas eve, chuck, kelly and his family are having dinner when chuck's pager3 rings. another assignment comes. kelly does not like to see chuck leave as it is christmas time now. but chuck has to go and promises to be back on new year's eve. seeing chuck off at the airport, kelly gives him an old watch, inherited from her grandfather, with her photo in it. chuck is moved and tells kelly that he will hold on to it for the rest of his life. then he gives kelly a small pretty box, saying that this is something special for her and she shall open it on new year's eve.
on the way to his destination, the plane chuck is flying on crashes in the sea due to a heavy storm and a mechanical failure. fortunately chuck survives and climbs onto a lifeboat4 after the crash. he still manages to get hold of the watch kelly gives him.
it rains heavily. chuck's boat is pushed ashore by waves and lands on a small island the next day. now the two things he has, kelly's watch and the pager, are his only possessions. he does not know where he is. there is nobody, not even animals. chuck writes help on the beach with tree trunks. that night chuck hears strange sound coming from the nearby trees. in the following days, hungry and thirsty, he collects fedex parcels pushed ashore by waves. suddenly he hears the strange sound again. he is terrified but then surprised to find the sound is from fallen coconuts.5 the struggle of opening them starts. after trying different ways for a long time, he finally is able to taste his first fruit of success.
one day, climbing onto the top of the mountain on the island, chuck finds that it is a small and uninhabited island. all of a sudden he spots a man's body near the beach. it is one of the crew.6 chuck pulls it ashore. with a mixed feeling of fear and sympathy, he hesitantly takes off the man's shoes and flashlight before burying him.