黑暗中的一盏明灯 ─ 安．苏利文 Ⅱ｜2024年4月号

Sullivan led a very different life compared to the other students at Perkins. At age 14, she still couldn’t read or write, and she didn’t have good manners. However, she was very smart and soon learned a lot. She then had more surgery on her eyes, which allowed her to see well enough to read.

In June 1886, Sullivan graduated from Perkins with flying colors. Not long after, Perkins Director Michael Anagnos received a letter from someone asking for a recommendation for a teacher for their deaf blind daughter. Anagnos immediately believed that Sullivan would be a good fit.

Sullivan began to teach her student by using her finger to write words onto her student’s hand. At first, no matter how hard she tried, her student struggled to understand that each object had a name. However, major progress was made when Sullivan poured water on her student’s hand to demonstrate the thing she was talking about. Sullivan’s student soon learned a large vocabulary of hundreds of new words. The two became great friends and spent much time together. Who was the bright, young student that Sullivan taught so much to? Her name was Helen Keller.

苏利文的生活与柏金斯的其他学生相比截然不同。在 14 岁时，她仍然不会读写，也没有良好的规矩。然而，她非常聪明并很快学会了很多东西。她之后接受了更多的眼睛手术，让她的视力足够好到可以阅读。

1886 年 6 月，苏利文以优异的成绩从柏金斯毕业。不久之后，柏金斯的校长麦克．阿纳格诺斯收到了一封信，该信请求学校推荐一名教师教导他们的聋盲女儿。阿纳格诺斯立刻相信苏利文会是一个合适的选择。

苏利文开始教她的学生，她用手指在学生的手上书写单词。起初，无论她多么努力，她的学生难以理解每个物体都有一个名字。然而，当苏利文倒水在学生的手上来演示她正在谈论的东西时，情况取得了重大进展。苏利文的学生很快学会了大量的新词汇。这两位成为了很好的朋友，并一同度过许多时光。苏利文教的这位聪明的年轻学生是谁呢？她的名字是海伦．凯勒。

1. manners (n. pl.)礼貌；规矩

Alice showed her manners by writing a thank-you noteafter visiting her friend’s house.

2. graduate (v.)毕业

  graduate from sth 毕业于…

Steve worked hard in college so that he could get a good job after graduating.

3. director (n.)校长；主任；主管

Mrs. Thompson, the director of the elementary school,planned a teachers’ meeting to discuss the schedule for this year.

4. immediately (adv.)立即；马上

If you want to catch your train, you have to leave your house immediately.

5. pour (v.)倒

Vivian sat in the tub and poured water over her hair to wash it.

6. vocabulary (n.)词汇

    large/small/etc.vocabulary 很大／很小／等的词汇量

Kayla’s Japanese vocabulary is very small, so she needs to spend more time learning new words.