An Australian rancher described how he spent a week up a tree in a remote crocodile-infested swamp as maneaters stalked him - after he fell off his horse.
The manager of the Silver Plains cattle station, David George, said he watched crocodiles' eyes glowing red beneath him for seven nights before he was rescued by helicopter.
"Every night I was stalked by two crocs who would sit at the bottom of the tree staring up at me," George told Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper.
Photo: EPA
"I'd yell out at them, 'I'm not falling out of this tree for you bastards'."
George, 53, said his nightmare began when he was thrown by his horse. Dazed and bleeding, he climbed back into the saddle and gave the animal its head, expecting it to take him home.
But just before dawn he realized it had taken him more than a kilometer into the heart of a crocodile swamp.
"I couldn't go back, it was too far and too dangerous, so I headed to the nearest high ground and stayed there, hoping someone would come and find me before the crocs did."
The alarm was raised when the rancher failed to return home and a search was launched.
George tried to attract the attention of airborne search teams by flashing sunlight off his tobacco tin, waving his shirt on a stick and spreading toilet paper in the tree branches.
On the eighth day, he was seen and rescued.
"They gave me a Cherry Ripe chocolate bar after they winched me up to the chopper - it was like a gourmet meal," he said.
一名澳洲牧場老闆敘述了他墜馬後,在鱷魚出沒的沼澤區樹上渡過一週,以躲避食人鱷魚的獵殺。
「銀色平原」牧場的經理大衛.喬治說在被直升機救出前,他連續七晚看著鱷魚眼露紅色兇光在樹下守候。
「每晚都有兩條鱷魚緊盯著我,牠們盤據在樹下往上瞪,」喬治對布里斯本的《郵遞報》說。
「我對著牠們咆哮︰我才不會為了你們這群壞蛋而下樹!」
五十三歲的喬治說惡夢始於他從馬背上被拋出,頭昏血流地再爬上馬鞍任由他的馬帶路,並希望馬兒能帶他回家。
但在黎明時分前,他發現馬兒已走了一公里多,而將他帶入鱷魚沼澤的中心。
「我無法回頭,太遠也太危險了,所以朝最近的高地而去,並待在那裡,希望有人在鱷魚發現我以前能先找到我。」
他因為沒回家讓大家很擔憂,並展開搜尋。
為了引起空中搜救隊的注意,喬治試著以煙草罐反射陽光、用樹枝揮舞襯衫、或是在樹上攤開衛生紙。
他在第八天才被發現並獲救。
他說︰「他們用絞盤吊我上直升機後,給了我一條櫻桃餡的巧克力-嘗起來就像是人間美味。」(翻譯︰張愛弟)
Taiwanese cuisine boasts a rich culture of thick soups, with various options available at street vendors or high-end restaurants. In English, this style of dish is typically called “thick soup.” Western cuisine typically uses flour, cream, or mashed vegetables to create a creamy consistency, while in Taiwan, thick soups are made by simply incorporating food starch into the soup and creating a smooth and silky texture. Tutuo fish in thick soup is such a soup with fried tutuo fish chunks, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and wood ears. 台灣羹品飲食文化豐富,無論是巷口小店或是高檔餐廳,都有提供羹料理。羹在英文稱作「濃湯」,西式濃湯是以麵粉、鮮奶油、蔬菜泥等達到濃稠的口感,台灣的羹湯用太白粉即能做出濃稠絲滑的湯頭。土魠魚羹就是在勾芡的羹湯中加入炸土魠魚塊、香菇、竹筍、木耳等食材的料理。 boast (v.) 擁有(令人驕傲的事物) consistency (n.) 濃稠度 chunk (n.) 厚塊,大塊 wood ear (n. ph.) 木耳 The star of this
Huge stretches of coral reef around the world are turning a ghostly white this year amid record warm ocean temperatures. On April 15, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed the world’s fourth mass global bleaching event is underway — with serious consequences for marine life and for the people and economies that rely on reefs. WHAT ARE CORALS? Corals are invertebrates that live in colonies. Their calcium carbonate secretions form hard and protective scaffolding that serves as a home to many colorful species of single-celled algae. The two organisms have evolved over millennia to work together, with corals providing shelter to algae,
A: So who were Hollywood’s highest-paid stars of 2023? B: No. 5 to No. 2 were: Matt Damon with US$43 million, Ryan Gosling with US$43 million, Tom Cruise with US$45 million, and Margot Robbie with US$59 million. A: Didn’t Tom Cruise top the list? B: Nope, Adam Sandler was No.1, having made US$73 million, which is about NT$2.34 billion. A: Wow, maybe I should change my career to acting. A: 好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜前幾名是誰? B: 第5到2名是︰麥特戴蒙、4300萬美元,雷恩葛斯林、4300萬美元,湯姆克魯斯、4500萬美元,瑪格羅比、5900萬美元。 A: 冠軍竟然不是阿湯哥? B: 是亞當山德勒、片酬7300萬美元,大約23.4億台幣! A: 天啊或許我也該轉行當演員啦。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
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