World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Treasure Island
金银岛
Treasure Island (金银岛, Jīnyín Dǎo) is a classic by Robert Louis Stevenson, retold in simple Mandarin as a 6-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 2 (Elementary).
Retold from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure: a boy finds a secret map, sails with a friendly one-legged cook and his parrot, and learns that not everyone on board is a friend.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — The storyteller of the tale.
- Jim Hawkins · 吉姆 — A brave boy from a seaside inn who finds the map.
- Long John Silver · 西尔弗 — The friendly one-legged cook with a secret.
- Billy Bones · 邦斯 — A scarred old sailor with a chest full of secrets.
- Black Dog · 黑狗 — A sly pirate who comes looking for the chest.
- Dr. Livesey · 利夫西医生 — A calm and clever doctor.
- Squire Trelawney · 乡绅特里劳尼 — A rich, excitable man who cannot keep a secret.
- Captain Smollett · 斯莫利特船长 — A strict, sharp-eyed ship's captain.
- Ben Gunn · 本·冈恩 — A wild man left alone on the island who dreams of cheese.
- Flint the parrot · 弗林特 — Silver's loud green parrot.
- Jim's mother · 吉姆的妈妈 — Jim's worried, loving mother.
- The blind man · 瞎子皮尤 — A cruel blind pirate who delivers the black spot.
- A pirate · 海盗 — One of Silver's rough crew.
- A sailor · 水手 — One of the ship's crew.
6 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Old Sailor
老水手
A scarred old sailor moves into Jim's seaside inn and pays him to watch for a one-legged man. Then a visitor arrives, and the sailor's secret comes looking for him.
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Chapter 2: The Map
地图
Jim and his mother take only what they are owed, and one small packet, before the pirates burst in. At the doctor's house, the packet becomes a treasure map.
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Chapter 3: Long John Silver
西尔弗
In Bristol, Jim meets the cheerful one-legged cook and his loud parrot. But high on the ship at night, an apple barrel hides a terrible secret.
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Chapter 4: The Island
海上的岛
Jim tells the doctor and captain what he heard. Then the island rises from the sea, and in the trees a stranger is waiting for him.
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Chapter 5: The Stockade
木头房子
Ben Gunn tells Jim where the gold went, and the good side holes up in a log fort. When Silver comes calling, Jim makes a dangerous plan.
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Chapter 6: The Silver Bag
金子在哪里
Jim walks into the stockade and finds an unexpected host. The pirates dig for treasure, but the hole is empty, and Silver has one last trick.
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Key words in Treasure Island
Behind the story
Treasure Island was written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and came out as a book in 1883. He began it on a rainy holiday, when he drew a map of an imaginary island for his young stepson, and the story grew out of that map.
Chinese readers know the novel as 金银岛, “Gold and Silver Island”. It is one of the best-known translated adventure stories for young readers, and it gave the world many of its ideas about pirates: the treasure map with a cross, the one-legged sailor, and the parrot on the shoulder.
Did you know?
- Stevenson said he wrote the first fifteen chapters in about fifteen days.
- The map with its red crosses came first, and the story was built around it.
- Long John Silver was partly inspired by Stevenson's friend, the poet W. E. Henley, who had lost a leg.