雙語閱讀：堅強的海倫

以下是小編整理的哲理類英語美文欣賞：堅強的海倫， 希望對你有所啓發。

In 1882 a baby girl caught a fever that was so fierceshe nearly died. She survived but the fever left itsmark — she could no longer see or hear. Becauseshe could not hear she also found it very difficult tospeak.

So how did this child, blinded and deafened at 19months old, grow up to become a world-famousauthor and public speaker?

The fever cut her off from the outside world,depriving her of sight and sound. It was as if she had been thrown into a dark prison cell fromwhich there could be no release.

Luckily Helen was not someone who gave up easily. Soon she began to explore the world byusing her other senses. She followed her mother wherever she went, hanging onto her skirts,She touched and smelled everything she came across. She copied their actions and was soonable to do certain jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough, She even learnt torecognize people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where she was in thegarden by the smell of the different plants and the feel of the ground under her feet.

By the age of seven she had invented over 60 different signs by which she could talk to herfamily, If she wanted bread for example, she would pretend to cut a loaf and butter the she wanted ice cream she wrapped her arms around herself and pretended to shiver.

Helen was unusual in that she was extremely intelligent and also remarkably sensitive. Byher own efforts she had managed to make some sense of an alien and confusing world. Buteven so she had limitations.

At the age of five Helen began to realize she was different from other people. She noticed thather family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stoodbetween two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and shecould not make any meaningful sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she triedshe could not make herself understood. This make her so angry that she used to hurl herselfaround the room, kicking and screaming in frustration.

As she got older her frustration grew and her rages became worse and worse. She becamewild and unruly . If she didn't get what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her familygave in. Her favourite tricks included grabbing other people's food from their plates and hurlingfragile objects to the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the tually it became clear that something had to be done. So, just before her seventh birthday,the family hired a private tutor — Anne Sullivan.

Anne was careful to teach Helen especially those subjects in which she was interested. As aresult Helen became gentler and she soon learnt to read and write in Braille. She also learnt toread people's lips by pressing her finger-tips against them and feeling the movement andvibrations. This method is called Tadoma and it is a skill that very, very few people manage toacquire. She also learnt to speak, a major achievement for someone who could not hear atall.

Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honours from Radcliffe College in1904. She had phenomenal powers of concentration and memory, as well as a doggeddetermination to succeed. While she was still at college she wrote ‘The Story of My Life'. Thiswas an immediate success and earned her enough money to buy her own house.

She toured the country, giving lecture after lecture. Many books were written about her andseveral plays and films were made about her life. Eventually she became so famous that she wasinvited abroad and received many honours from foreign universities and monarchs. In 1932 shebecame a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.

After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in thedeveloping world. Today that agency, Helen Keller International, is one of the biggestorganizations working with blind people overseas.

1882年，一名女嬰因高發燒差點喪命。她雖倖免於難，但發燒給她留下了後遺症—— 她再也看不見、聽不見。因爲聽不見，她想講話也變得很困難。

那麼這樣一個在19個月時就既盲又聾的孩子，是如何成長爲享譽世界的作家和演說家的呢?

高燒將她與外界隔開，使她失去了視力和聲音。她彷彿置身在黑暗的牢籠中無法擺脫。

萬幸的是海倫並不是個輕易認輸的人。不久她就開始利用其它的感官來探查這個世界了。她跟着母親，拉着母親的衣角，形影不離。她去觸摸，去嗅各種她碰到的物品。她模仿別人的動作且很快就能自己做一些事情，例如擠牛奶或揉麪。她甚至學會*摸別人的臉或衣服來識別對方。她還能*聞不同的植物和觸摸地面來辨別自己在花園的位置。

七歲的時候她發明了60多種不同的手勢，*此得以和家裏人交流。比如她若想要麪包，就會做出切面包和塗黃油的動作。想要冰淇淋時她會用手裹住自己裝出發抖的樣子。

海倫在這方面非比一般，她絕頂的聰明又相當敏感。通過努力她對這個陌生且迷惑的世界有了一些知識。但她仍有一些有足。

海倫五歲時開始意識到她與別人不同。她發現家裏的其他人不用象她那樣做手勢而是用嘴交談。有時她站在兩人中間觸摸他們的嘴脣。她不知道他們在說什麼，而她自己不能發出帶有含義的聲音。她想講話，可無論費多大的勁兒也無法使別人明白自己。這使她異常懊惱以至於常常在屋子裏亂跑亂撞，灰心地又踢又喊。

隨着年齡的增長她的怒氣越爲越大。她變得狂野不馴。倘若她得不到想要的東西就會大發脾氣直到家人順從。她慣用的手段包括抓別人盤裏的食物以及將易碎的東西猛扔在地。有一次她甚至將母親鎖在廚房裏。這樣一來就得想個辦法了。於是，在她快到七歲生日時，家裏便僱了一名家庭教師 —— 安尼·沙利文。

安尼悉心地教授海倫，特別是她感興趣的東西。這樣海倫變得溫和了而且很快學會了用布萊葉盲文朗讀和寫作。*用手指接觸說話人的嘴脣去感受運動和震動，她又學會了觸脣意識。這種方法被稱作泰德馬，是一種很少有人掌握的技能。她也學會了講話，這對失聰的人來說是個巨大的成就。

海倫證明了自己是個出色的學者，1904年她以優異的成績從拉德克利夫學院畢業。她有驚人的注意力和記憶力，同時她還具有不達目的誓不罷休的毅力。上大學時她就寫了《我的生命》。這使她取得了巨大的成功從而有能力爲自己購買一套住房。

她周遊全國，不斷地舉行講座。她的事蹟爲許多人著書立說而且還上演了關於她的生平的戲劇和電影。最終她聲名顯赫，應邀出國並受到外國大學和國王授予的榮譽。1932年，她成爲英國皇家國立盲人學院的副校長。

1968年她去世後，一個以她的名字命名的組織建立起來，該組織旨在與發展中國家存在的失明缺陷做鬥爭。如今這所機構，“國際海倫·凱勒”，是海外向盲人提供幫助的最大組織之一。