双语阅读：坚强的海伦·凯勒

以下是小编整理的哲理类英语美文欣赏：坚强的海伦·凯勒， 希望对你有所启发。

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 slices.If 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 pantry.Eventually 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.