高中英语课文 Helen Keller
2010-12-15 08:14阅读：
Helen Keller
Helen Keller was a very special girl who needed a superb teacher.
By the time she was seven years old, she still couldn’t speak, read
or write. This was because Helen couldn’t see or hear. With these
severe restrictions on her communication, Helen’s behavior was
often unbearable. She was stubborn and angry, and often broke
things when she wasn’t understood.
Anne Sullivan was brought in to help Helen. Anne was a teacher and
former student at a school for the blind in Boston. She had had
eyesight problems early in life as well so she could relate to
Helen’s difficulties. Her first goal was to stop Helen’s
troublesome behaviour. Helen would need this valuable preparation
in order to learn language. She would also need lots of love. When
Anne and Helen first met, Anne gave Helen a big hug.
Helen would have to learn to understand words spelled on her hand.
Anne’s technique was simple and straightforward. She would put an
object into one of Helen’s hands and spell th
e word into her other hand. She started with dolls. She would let
Helen play with the doll, and then spell the letters “D-O-L-L” into
her hand. Helen thought this was a game. She had a
precise description of her excitement in her book,
The Story of My Life: “
Running downstairs to my mother, I
held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that
I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply
making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation.”
Then one day, Anne took Helen out to the well. Anne put Helen’s
hand under the water. As the water flowed over one hand, Anne
spelled “w-a-t-e-r” into the other hand. Then suddenly, Helen had a
burst of understanding; the movement of the fingers meant the cool
water flowing over her hand. This precious knowledge gave her hope
and joy. Finally, the world of words was opening up to her.
Now that Helen understood the key to language, she was very eager
to learn more and use it as much as she could. Children who can see
and hear learn language easily but for Helen, it was a gradual and
sometimes painful process. However, the results were amazing.
As Helen’s knowledge and vocabulary expanded, she asked more and
more questions. This soon led her to discover more complex words
and changed her thinking processes. Trying to learn the word “love”
was an experience that she remembered well. This is how she
described it in her book,
The Story of My Life:
“I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the
word ‘love’. This was before I knew many words. I had found a few
early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher … Miss
Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, ‘I
love Helen.’ ‘What is love?’ I asked. She drew me closer to her and
said, ‘It is here,’ pointing to my heart … Her words puzzled me
very much because I did not then understand anything unless I
touched it.”
The meaning of love was still not apparent to Helen but she kept on
trying to understand.
“I smelt the violets in her hand and
asked, half in words, half in signs, a question which meant, ‘Is
love the sweetness of flowers?’ ‘No,’ said my teacher.”
Helen then felt the warmth of the sun shining on them. She pointed
up and asked if that was love. When her teacher said that it
wasn’t, she was confused and disappointed.
“I thought it strange
that my teacher could not show me love.”
The word “think” was also a difficult one for Helen but she had a
breakthrough while working on a simple task. She was making
necklaces with the help of Miss Sullivan when she noticed that she
had made some mistakes. Uncertain about how to fix them, she
stopped to think carefully. As she did this, Miss Sullivan touched
Helen’s head and spelled the word “think” into her hand.
“In a
flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was
going on in my head.”
It was the first time Helen understood such a complex word – a word
for something she couldn’t touch. At that moment, her mind returned
to the word “love”. As she thought about its meaning again, the sun
came out. She pointed to the sun and asked her teacher again if
that was love. Anne answered Helen by explaining that love was like
the sun and clouds in a way.
“You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain …
You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it
pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want
to play.” In that vivid moment, Helen finally understood
the beautiful truth of word “love”.
