(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Abdul Gouda and his fellow engineering students needed to complete an important class project for two major reasons: they needed to do so to graduate from Virginia's George Mason University and they needed to do so to help make a young girl's dreams come true.
Isabella Nicola is 10 years old. She wanted to learn to play the violin. But she was born with a shortened arm and without a left hand.
Isabella attends Island Creek Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia. The school's music teacher built Isabella a prosthetic arm. It let Isabella move the bow of the instrument with her left arm and hold the violin with her right arm. But the prosthetic arm was heavy. So the teacher asked for help from George Mason University, which he had attended.
At the same time, Abdul Gouda and four other members of the school's bio-engineering department were looking for a project to complete. Students must complete a project in their last year in the school in order to graduate. The first project idea Gouda and his four teammates had could not be done. So, they needed something new to work on.
Gouda admits he was not sure he wanted to try to create a lighter prosthetic arm.
It's sort of a lot of pressure, he said. You've got this young girl who's counting on you and you're expected to deliver.
But Gouda and the other team members -- Mona Elkholy, Ella Novoselsky, Racha Salha and Yasser Alhindi -- accepted the project. They completed many models during the school year. Research on similar projects helped them in the beginning, but they made many mistakes as they worked on the arm.
Isabella talked to the team as they created prosthetic arms for her. The first one weighed 13 ounces. But when she said it was too heavy, the team was able to remove some of the weight.
The team worked with Elizabeth Adams, a professor of music at George Mason. She helped them understand what Isabella would need to be able to play the violin well.
Recently, Isabella got the team's final prosthetic arm. It was built using a 3-D printer. The team made the arm the color pink, as Isabella had asked. And the team surprised her with another part of the arm that lets her hold onto the front of a bicycle.
She put the arm on and began playing the violin.
I feel very blessed that I have this amazing group of people, Isabella said.
Isabella had been asking to play a musical instrument for more than a year. Her mother, Andrea Cabrera, said she never told her daughter ‘no.'
I told her we would try. There was no guarantee the school would be able to do an adaptation, her mother said. Through these little miracles, it kept going forward.
Isabella always believed her dream would come true.
I felt right away that I'd be able to play, she said. I've always had perseverance.
词汇解析
1.shorten vt.使……变短
Her father paid $5,000 for an operation to shorten her nose.
她父亲为一个缩短她的鼻子的手术花了$5000。
2.prosthetic adj.假体的
He has undergone 25 operations and wears a prosthetic leg.
他已经做过二十五次手术，现在装了一只假腿。
3.instrument n.仪器
The design of crucial instruments on the control panel will have to be improved.
控制板上关键仪器的设计必须要改进。
4.ounce n.盎司
...four ounces of sugar.
…4盎司的糖。
内容解析
1. ... and they needed to do so to help make a young girl's dreams come true.
come true 实现
I'm afraid his hope won't come true easily.
他的希望怕很难实现。
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
我们所有的梦想都能成为现实，只要我们有勇气去追求。
2.But she was born with a shortened arm and without a left hand.
be born with 与生俱来
A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.
一般情况下，一个人的能力很少是与生俱来的——一个人,是他自己决定了自己将会成为一个怎样的人。
The truth is, you do not know what you are born with until you try very hard to express it.
事实是，你并不知道自己与生俱来的才能，直到你非常努力地尝试把它们表现出来。
参考译文
阿卜杜勒(Abdul Gouda)和他工程系的同学们要完成一个重要的教学项目，这其中有2个主要原因：一是他们需要完成这个项目才能从弗吉尼亚州的乔治梅森大学(George Mason University)毕业，二是他们这样做就可以帮助一个小女孩实现自己的梦想。
伊莎贝拉(Isabella Nicola)今年10岁。她一直想学小提琴。但她先天是短臂，而且没有左手。
伊莎贝拉在弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯县(Fairfax County)的印第安溪小学上学。这所小学的音乐老师为伊莎贝拉造了一个假肢。这样，伊莎贝拉就可以左手臂握琴弓，右手臂把住小提琴琴体。但这个假肢太重了。所以伊莎贝拉的音乐老师就向自己曾经的母校乔治梅森大学求助。
而此时，阿卜杜勒和其他四名同是生物工程系的校友正在找项目做。因为该校规定学生必须在在校最后一年期间完成一个项目才能毕业。而阿卜杜勒和项目组4个同学的第一个思路被否了。所以他们得找新的项目来做。
阿卜杜勒承认，自己不太确定是否要接这个做轻假肢的项目。
（做这个）有很大的压力，阿卜杜勒说。接了这件事就意味着有个小女孩在寄希望于你，希望你能做出这样的假肢。
但阿卜杜勒和他的4位同学，即莫娜、艾拉、拉沙、亚西尔还是接了这个项目。他们曾于在校期间完成过很多模型。虽然对此前类似项目的研究在这次项目之初让他们少走了很多弯路，但他们在做这个假肢的过程中还是犯了很多错误。
伊莎贝拉与这些为他造假肢的大哥哥们有过交谈。他们造的第一个假肢有13盎司重。但当伊莎贝拉说这个假肢太沉，戴不来之后，项目就进入了瓶颈期。
项目组的小伙子们向乔治梅森大学的教授伊丽莎白寻求建议。伊丽莎白向他们解释了伊莎贝拉需要怎样的假肢才能拉起小提琴。
最近，伊莎贝拉喜得项目组的终版假肢。该假肢是用3D打印机做出来的。项目组还应伊莎贝拉的要求将假肢做成了粉色的。项目组还附送了另一份惊喜——增加了一个部分，让伊莎贝拉可以握住自行车手把。
伊莎贝拉戴上了假肢，开始试着拉小提琴。
我很幸运，能有这样一群超级棒的人来帮我，伊莎贝拉说。
一年多了，伊莎贝拉一直心心念念地想演奏乐器。而伊莎贝拉的母亲安德莉亚从未打击过女儿的念头。
我告诉女儿，我们可以试试。虽然学校不一定能做出改良版的假肢，安德莉亚说道。但通过这些小小的奇迹，一切都在向好的方向转变。
伊莎贝拉总是相信自己的梦想能够实现。
我直觉自己能演奏乐器，伊莎贝拉说。我一直都很坚持。凯蒂·韦弗为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
