学生们为年幼的小女孩制造假肢使其能够演奏小提琴

 

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 shortened¹ arm and without a left hand.

Isabella attends Island Creek² 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 lighter³ 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 perseverance⁴.”

Words in This Story

attend – v. to regularly go to (classes, church services, etc.)

prosthetic – n. an artificial device that replaces a missing or injured part of the body

count on – phrasal verb to expect (someone) to do something; to trust (someone); to rely or depend on (someone) to do something

adapt – v. to change (something) so that it functions better or is better suited for a purpose

miracle – n. an unusual or wonderful event that is believed to be caused by the power of God; a very amazing or unusual event, thing or achievement

perseverance – n. the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult

1 shortened   

v.弄短，缩短( shorten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shortened the skirt by an inch. 她把裙子缩短了一英寸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vacations have lengthened and the work week has shortened. 假期延长，工作周就缩短了。 来自辞典例句

2 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

3 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

4 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。