普通高中課程標準實驗教科書英語選修高二下選修7 Unit 3 Under the sea - Using Languag
19th January
I'm sitting in the warm night air with a cold drink in my hand and reflecting on the day – a day of pure magic! I went snorkelling on the reef offshore this morning and it was the most fantastic thing I have ever done. Seeing such extraordinary beauty, I think every cell in my body woke up. It was like discovering a whole new dimension of life.
The first thing I became aware of was all the vivid colours surrounding me - purples, reds, oranges, yellows, blues and greens. The corals were fantastic - they were shaped like fans, plates, brains, lace, mushrooms, the branches of trees and the horns of deer. And all kinds of small, neat and elegant fish were swimming in and around the corals.
The fish didn't seem to mind me swimming among them. I especially loved the little orange and white fish that hid in the waving long thin seaweed. And I also loved the small fish that clean the bodies of larger fish - I even saw them get inside their mouths and clean their teeth! It seemed there was a surprise waiting for me around every corner as I explored small caves, shelves and narrow passages with my underwater flashlight: the yellow and green parrotfish was hanging upside down, and sucking tiny plants off the coral with its hard bird-like mouth; a yellow-spotted red sea-slug was sliding by a blue sea-star; a large wise-looking turtle was passing so close to me that I could have touched it.
There were other creatures that I didn't want to get too close to - an eel with its strong sharp teeth, with only its head showing from a hole, watching for a tasty fish (or my tasty toe!); and the giant clam halt buried in some coral waiting for something to swim in between its thick green lips. Then there were two grey reef sharks, each about one and a half metres long, which suddenly appeared from behind some coral. I told myself they weren't dangerous but that didn't stop me from feeling scared to death for a moment!
The water was quite shallow but where the reef ended, there was a steep drop to the sandy ocean floor. It marked a boundary and I thought I was very brave when I swam over the edge of the reef and hung there looking down into the depths of the ocean. My heart was beating wildly - I felt very exposed in such deep clear water.
What a wonderful, limitless world it was down there! And what a tiny spot I was in this enormous world!
