2018年英语四级美文：Did The Earth Move for You?

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　　Did The Earth Move for You?

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　　Eleven-year-old Angela was stricken with a debilitating disease

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　　involving her nervous system.

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　　She was unable to walk and her movement

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　　was restricted in other ways as well.

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　　The doctors did not hold out much hope

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　　of her ever recovering from this illness.

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　　They predicted she’d spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

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　　They said that few, if any,

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　　were able to come back to normal after contracting this disease.

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　　The little girl was undaunted.

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　　There, lying in her hospital bed,

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　　she would vow to anyone who’d listen

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　　that she was definitely going to be walking again someday.

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　　She was transferred to a specialized rehabilitation hospital

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　　in the San Francisco Bay area.

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　　Whatever therapies could be applied to her case were used.

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　　The doctors were charmed by her undefeatable spirit.

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　　They taught her about imaging —

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　　about seeing herself walking.

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　　If it would do nothing else,

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　　it would at least give her hope

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　　and something positive to do

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　　in the long waking hours in her bed.

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　　Angela would work as hard as possible

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　　in physical therapy and in exercise sessions.

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　　But she worked just as hard lying there faithfully doing her imaging,

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　　visualizing herself moving, moving, moving!

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　　One day,

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　　as she was straining with all her might to imagine her legs moving again,

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　　it seemed as though a miracle happened:

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　　The bed moved!

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　　It began to move around the room!

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　　She screamed out,

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　　“Look what I’m doing!

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　　Look! Look! I can do it! I moved, I moved!”

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　　Of course,

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　　at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming, too,

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　　and running for cover.

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　　People were screaming,

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　　equipment was falling and glass was breaking.

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　　You see, it was the recent San Francisco earthquake.

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　　But don’t tell that to Angela.

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　　She’s convinced that she did it.

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　　And now only a few years later,

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　　she’s back in school.

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　　You see, anyone who can shake the earth between San Francisco and Oakland

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　　can conquer a little disease, can’t they?