At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing I asked very few questions. My ideas were vague, and my vocabulary was inadequate3; but as my knowledge of things grew, and I learned more and more words, my field of inquiry4 broadened, and I would return again and again to the same subject, eager for further information. Sometimes a new word revived an image that some earlier experience had engraved5 on my brain.
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. She tried to kiss me: but at that time I did not like to have any one kiss me except my mother. 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, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.
I smelt6 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.
Again I thought. The warm sun was shining on us.
"Is this not love?" I asked, pointing in the direction from which the heat came. "Is this not love?"
It seemed to me that there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun, whose warmth makes all things grow. But Miss Sullivan shook her head, and I was greatly puzzled and disappointed. I thought it strange that my teacher could not show me love.
A day or two afterward8 I was stringing beads9 of different sizes in symmetrical groups--two large beads, three small ones, and so on. I had made many mistakes, and Miss Sullivan had pointed7 them out again and again with gentle patience. Finally I noticed a very obvious error in the sequence and for an instant I concentrated my attention on the lesson and tried to think how I should have arranged the beads. Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided10 emphasis, "Think."
In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea.
For a long time I was still--I was not thinking of the beads in my lap, but trying to find a meaning for "love" in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth11 in all its southern splendour.
Again I asked my teacher, "Is this not love?"
"Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. 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."
The beautiful truth burst upon my mind--I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.
From the beginning of my education Miss Sullivan made it a practice to speak to me as she would speak to any hearing child; the only difference was that she spelled the sentences into my hand instead of speaking them. If I did not know the words and idioms necessary to express my thoughts she supplied them, even suggesting conversation when I was unable to keep up my end of the dialogue.
This process was continued for several years; for the deaf child does not learn in a month, or even in two or three years, the numberless idioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse12. The little hearing child learns these from constant repetition and imitation. The conversation he hears in his home stimulates13 his mind and suggests topics and calls forth the spontaneous expression of his own thoughts. This natural exchange of ideas is denied to the deaf child. My teacher, realizing this, determined14 to supply the kinds of stimulus15 I lacked. This she did by repeating to me as far as possible, verbatim, what she heard, and by showing me how I could take part in the conversation. But it was a long time before I ventured to take the initiative, and still longer before I could find something appropriate to say at the right time.
The deaf and the blind find it very difficult to acquire the amenities16 of conversation. How much more this difficulty must be augmented17 in the case of those who are both deaf and blind! They cannot distinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamut18 of tones that give significance to words; nor can they watch the expression of the speaker's face, and a look is often the very soul of what one says.
点击收听单词发音
1 stammered | |
v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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3 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
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4 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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5 engraved | |
v.在(硬物)上雕刻(字,画等)( engrave的过去式和过去分词 );将某事物深深印在(记忆或头脑中) | |
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6 smelt | |
v.熔解,熔炼;n.银白鱼,胡瓜鱼 | |
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7 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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8 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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9 beads | |
n.(空心)小珠子( bead的名词复数 );水珠;珠子项链 | |
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10 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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11 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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12 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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13 stimulates | |
v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 );激励;使兴奋;起兴奋作用,起刺激作用,起促进作用 | |
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14 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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15 stimulus | |
n.刺激,刺激物,促进因素,引起兴奋的事物 | |
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16 amenities | |
n.令人愉快的事物;礼仪;礼节;便利设施;礼仪( amenity的名词复数 );便利设施;(环境等的)舒适;(性情等的)愉快 | |
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17 Augmented | |
adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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18 gamut | |
n.全音阶,(一领域的)全部知识 | |
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