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【英文原文】
一个类似卖火柴小女孩的故事：最简单不过的一个愿望，却是那么可望而不可及……
It was nearly noon. The heat was intense, as it had been all day, but now the sun stood perpendicular to the earth.1 The fierce temperature had long since completely dried the soil, and the little grass that remained was a scorched dirty brown. The only sound was the rustling of brittle shrubs.2 It was as if the sun had drained each branch of all its moisture until, finally, the little twigs cracked and broke off.3
Lisa began walking up the steep hill leading from the group of shacks4 where she lived. She wore a small, faded green hat with a rim big enough to shade her eyes from the sun. Looking down, she saw the powdery soil scatter with each of her steps. Every time she stopped, the dust would settle in a thin mist over her dark, bare feet.5 She reached the top of the hill and stopped to rest on a big rock by the side of the path. She bent over and watched the perspiration drop from her face onto her dusty feet. Lifting her head, she looked down the hill at the mass of old shacks. She picked out6 hers-the third one in the first row. In her mind she could just hear some outsider saying: "But how can you tell which one is yours, girl? They all look so much alike."
"Well," she'd reply, "ours has a glass window in the front instead of just a door. And it's not all gray. It's got some white, too! It was painted once, you see." While sitting there, acting out this scene in her mind,7 she saw her mother come out and stand on the small porch. She was a big woman - not like Lisa, who was small and thin. Lisa took after her father who had also been small, or so her mother said.8 Lisa didn't remember her father well enough to recall what he looked like. He left after Lisa's fifth sister was born. He had not counted on such a large family.9
