名人教你讲英文：良师循循善诱 Helen Keller — Creating a miracle

名人教英文：良师循循善诱 helen keller — creating a miracle

helen keller refused to use utensils to eat. she preferred to use her fingers. she also had the habit of running around the table snatching (夺走) food from other peoples' dishes. her parents let her get away with this to avoid her tantrums.

anne sullivan refused to let her grab food from her plate. helen threw herself on the floor and kicked and screamed for half an hour. then, she tried to pull sullivan's chair out from under her. finally, helen pinched sullivan, who slapped her. it hurt helen's parents to see their blind and deaf child punished this way. but it was the only way to make change. it was decided that sullivan and helen would move into the small garden house behind the main house. this would help helen bond with her teacher and spare the loving parents the sight of any necessary discipline.

sullivan told helen that she would have to learn to brush her own hair and button her shoes. her mother would not be doing these things for her anymore. the one thing that helen did enjoy was when sullivan wrote words in the palm of her hand. so, every time helen had a tantrum, sullivan stopped writing in her hand. this was a serious punishment. little by little, helen's behaviour improved. although helen still did not know what they all meant, she liked it. it was more communication than she had ever had with anyone.

one day, 5 april 1887, helen and sullivan walked down to the water pump. helen loved to go there because the smell of the honeysuckle vines (忍冬藤) was so sweet. up until this point, the words spelled into helen's hand were a mysterious game. she enjoyed the game, but did not understand. she had no idea the words stood for things.
sullivan took helen's hand and held it under the water spout (水柱). she let the water splash on her. on helen's other hand, sullivan spelled the word w-a-t-e-r on the child's palm. sullivan saw an expression on helen's face that she had never seen before. helen looked thrilled (非常兴奋). she had finally made the connection between the letters spelled into her hand and something real - water. helen's realisation was called a miracle. later on, sullivan would be called a miracle worker for breaking into the little girl's dark world and bringing the light of knowledge.