意外的收获

江苏 刘晨峰

Sandy Sikorski and Ken Steinkamp have been regulars at“The Bridge Restaurant and Raw Bar”for four years now,but neither of them ever expected to have as great of a meal as they had in December.This Rhode Island couple was enjoying their meal with Sandy's brother and his wife when something unusual happened.While Sandy was eating the last clam (蚌),she noticed something strange and spat it out.

No doubt concerned,Sandy's sisterin-law initially thought it was a tooth.Looking closer at the unknown object,however,it was clear that wasn't the case.Instead,it was a particularly large and well-rounded pearl—9.8 millimeters to be exact.

Sandy and Ken took their incredible find to a local jewelry store.From there,they were referred to their jewelry maker,Marc Fishbone,who was thrilled to create a ring from the beautiful pearl.

“He said it is called a Mercenaria pearl which is a mollusk type of little animal which makes what looks like a little pearl,”Sandy recalled.“It's made out of the same material,calcite,and another mineral in it and takes years and years to grow.He said the weight of this,and the size of this is probably 50 years to make.”

Finding a pearl at all in a clam like that is one in 100,000.On top of that,according to jeweler Marc,finding one this perfect is even rarer.It's probably one in a million to have it perfect.

Reading Check

How long does it take for the pearl to grow to this size according to the text?