The Old Man and the Sea.

Chapter 1 The Elderly and the Child

He was an old man who sailed alone in a small boat in the Gulf Stream (Gulf Stream: refers to the Gulf of Mexico Warm Current, eastward through the Florida Strait between the southern tip of Florida and Cuba, and flowing northeast along the east coast of North America). This warm current is 10 to 20 degrees Celsius higher than the sea on both sides, up to 50 miles wide at its widest point, and is a dark blue color, which is very spectacular, and it is a place where fish flock. The protagonist of the book is a fisherman in a small harbor near Havana, the capital of Cuba, who often sails into the Gulf Stream to catch fish). He had been out of the sea for eighty-four days, and not a single fish had been caught.

For the first forty days, there was a boy who followed him, as his helper, but forty days in a row, they came back from the sky, and the child's parents said, This old man is really obscure, unlucky, don't go to sea with him again. The child obeyed the instructions of his parents and boarded another boat. Strange to say, the child caught 3 good fish in the first week after leaving the old man.

It was very uncomfortable to see that the ship was always empty when the old man came back every day, and the child's heart was empty. Therefore, he often went down to help the old man, either to help him move back to the heavy fishing line, or to help him carry the mast and sails. The old man's sails were patched with flour bags, removed and rolled up, looking like a flag marking eternal failure.

The old man was skinny, with some deep wrinkles on his neck and brown patches on his face caused by benign skin tumors, which were caused by years of exposure to reflected light on the tropical ocean. Brown spots spread from the sides of his face all the way down. His hands often pulled the big fish up because he often dragged the fishing line, engraved with deep scars. None of the scars are new, though, and each one is as old as weathered sand in a rainless desert (due to long-term fishing, on the surface of the sea, the sun is constantly reflected, and strong ultraviolet rays can cause skin lesions). The depiction of the appearance is very detailed). Except for a pair of eyes, he looked very old all over his body. Those eyes were as blue as the sea, shining with optimism and never accepting defeat.

"Santiago," the child said eagerly to him as they climbed ashore from where the boat was moored, "I can accompany you to sea again, and my family has earned some money." ”

The old man taught the child to fish, and the child loved him very much.

"No," said the old man, "you are in a lucky boat, and you should stay with them." ”

"But you should remember that once you didn't catch a fish for eighty-seven days, but then, for three weeks, we caught big fish every day."

"I remember," said the old man, "I know you didn't leave because you suspected I couldn't do it." ”

"My father told me to go, I was still a child, and I had to listen to him (the child could not accompany the old man because of his parents, but he wanted to be with the old man from the heart)."

"I understand," said the old man, "that's normal. ”

"My dad wasn't very confident."

"Yes," said the old man, "but we have, don't we?" ”

"Yes." The child said, "I'll ask you for a beer at the terrace restaurant, and then we'll take these things home, okay?" ”

"That dares to be kind," said the old man, "and the two fishermen have a drink together, which is the friendship of the fishermen." ”

The elderly and children walked into the terrace hotel. There were many fishermen gathered in the terrace restaurant, and they sat in pairs, drinking cheap beer and talking loudly about various topics. Almost the fishermen of the harbor knew that the old man had not caught a fish for eighty-four days, and they all thought that the old man must have "poured blood mold", that is, he was unlucky to the extreme. Therefore, as soon as he saw the old man, many fishermen joked with him.

"Santiago, it looks like you're breaking the record again this time!"

"Not yet, the longest time he didn't catch a fish for eighty-seven days, and the record holder is still him."

"Hahaha, worthy of the 'champion' Santiago."

"It's just a champion who can't catch a fish."

These fishermen laugh at the old man word by word. But the old man was not angry, just smiled awkwardly, and sat down with the child. Some other elderly fishermen looked at the old man's vicissitudes face and felt a feeling of pity in their hearts, and they all felt uncomfortable for him. However, they did not show it, but only talked about the current (ocean current: also known as ocean current, which is a water mass with different densities formed by seawater due to thermal radiation, evaporation, precipitation, cold contraction, etc., coupled with wind stress, ground shift deflection force, tide diversion force and other effects and large-scale relatively stable flow, it is one of the common forms of movement of seawater), talked about how deep they sent the fishing rope to the surface of the sea, talked about a series of good weather and their observations.

The fishermen who had harvested well that day had returned and brought the big marlin (big marlin: the official name is "mackerel", a large marine fish of the fish family Of the fish family. The body is elongated, flattened, usually up to 3 meters long, with granular teeth, it is a fish in the upper waters of the tropical and subtropical oceanics, fierce, agile swimming, carnivorous) cut open, the whole piece is lined up on two wooden boards, each end of the board is carried by a person, staggering towards the fish storage. Fishermen wait at the fish depot for the freezer truck to come and transport the fish to the Havana market. Those who caught the sharks had already transported the fish to a shark processing plant on the other side of the bay, where they hoisted the sharks on pulleys, removed the livers, cut off the fins, peeled off the skin, and cut the flesh into strips ready to be marinated.

As soon as the east wind blows, a fishy smell will drift out of the shark processing plant and float across the harbor to blow here. But today the wind turned to blowing north, and then the wind gradually stopped, so there was only a faint fishy smell. On the terrace, the sun is still very warm, and the old man and children smell a faint fishy smell and drink beer, which is very pleasant.

"Santiago." The child cried.