HelenKellerandHerAutobiography 海伦·凯勒和她的自传* Born on June 27, 1880 in Alabama, USA* Became blind and deaf at about 19 months* At age 7, she was cared and helped by Annie Sullivan, who later became Keller’s life-long teacher and companion3* Graduated from Radcliffe College4 in Cambridge, Massachusetts5, in 1904* Wrote her first book “The Story of My Life” in 1903, while she was still a college student, telling of her early education. The book has been translated into more than 50 languages.* Carried on a career6 of collecting money for the care and education of the blind by lecturing all over the world and writing articles and books.* Died on June 1, 1968, age 88 The following is the third chapter of her autobiography “The story of my life”. In this chapter, Keller described how hard she tried to overcome the difficulties in learning the language, especially in understanding the meanings of the words such as “love” and “think”.Chapter 3 I now had the key to all language, and I was eager7 to learn to use it. Children who can hear learn language without any particular effort8. They hear other people speak, and enjoy trying to make the same sounds. The deaf child must learn language in a slow and often painful way. But even though the learning may be slow and painful, the result is wonderful. We advance gradually from merely naming objects to understanding the thought in a line of Shakespeare9. At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing, I asked very few questions. My ideas were not clear, and I didn’t know many words. But as my knowledge of things grew and I learned more and more words, I could ask more questions, and I would return again and again to...
