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The adventurous senator took a vacation from Capitol Hill and went on a four-day Robinson Crusoe style holiday with his two teenage sons to a remote, uninhabited island in the North Pacific Ocean.

The senator and his sons, 15-year-old Tanner and 13-year-old Dallin, traveled 5,200 miles from Phoenix, Arizona to the island of Biggarenn. They didn’t carry any food or water.

The island is part of the Marshall Islands . It offered no basic facilities, so the Flakes had to catch and cook their own food and purify their water. Their diet was made up of coconuts, crab and fish. They captured the crab and fish themselves and cooked the food over an open fire started with a magnifying glass.

The Flakes brought along a lobster trapin hopes of having some delicious treats, but lost it within the first few hours after it was attacked by a shark. They also carried two pumps to remove salt from ocean water. It took them hours each night pumping for just a few gallons of fresh water.

One of the most memorable moments of the trip, the father said, was when he and his 15-year-old were chased by sharks after spearing a fish in the ocean.

Still, it was quite an enjoyable holiday for the senator. “For a dad it was a wonderful thing. No video games around, no television, no distractions, no texting,” Flake recalled.

荒岛上的生活会是什么样？亚利桑那州的参议员杰夫•弗莱克决定一探究竟。

这位充满冒险精神的参议员从工作中抽身，和他的两个十几岁的儿子去北太平洋上一座遥远而又荒无人烟的孤岛上体验了一次为期四天的鲁滨逊式假期。

参议员带着他的两个儿子——15岁的泰纳和13岁的达林——来到了距离亚利桑那州的凤凰城5,200英里的比盖瑞恩岛。他们没带任何食物和水。

这座小岛隶属于马绍尔群岛。岛上没有任何基础设施，所以弗莱克一家只能自己找吃的做饭和净化海水。这四天里，他们的食物包括椰子、螃蟹和鱼。他们自己动手捕鱼和螃蟹，然后用放大镜生火煮食这些东西。

父子三人带去了一个龙虾笼，想着要是捕到龙虾就能大吃一顿了，怎料一条鲨鱼对龙虾笼发起攻击，没过几个小时，那玩意儿就丢了。他们还带了两个抽水机，用来除去海水中的盐。每天晚上，他们都得折腾好几个小时才能净化出几加仑的淡水。

父亲说，此行最难忘的就是他和自己15岁大的儿子在海里叉到一条鱼后被几条鲨鱼穷追不舍的那段经历。

这位参议员觉得总的来说这次假期还是很愉快的。他回忆道：“没有电子游戏和电视，也没有分心的事以及短信的打扰，这对一位父亲来说真的很美妙。”

（来源：英语学习杂志编辑：丹妮）