A New Day

Helen Keller（amended by Wang Jing）

體裁 人物傳記 文章詞數 542 難度 ★★★ 建議用時 9′

海詞積累

1.vaguelyadv.含糊地

2.tusslen.爭執(zhí)

3.fragmentn.碎片

4.spoutn.水柱

5.cribn.幼兒床

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher,Anne Mansfield Sullivan,came to me.It was the third of March,1887,three months before I was seven years old.

On the afternoon of that eventful day,I guessedvaguelyfrom my mother’s signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen.I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me.

The morning after my teacher came，she led me into her room and gave me a doll.When I had played with it a little while,Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word “d-o-l-l”.I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate（模仿）it.When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride.Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll.I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation.In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many new words.But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.

Earlier in the day we had had atussleover the words “m-u-g” and “w-a-t-e-r”.Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that“m-ug” is mug and that “w-a-t-e-r” is water,but I remained confused about the two.In despair，she had dropped the subject for the time,only to renew it at the first opportunity.I became impatient at her repeated attempts and,seizing the new doll,I dashed it upon the floor.I was keenly delighted when I felt thefragmentsof the broken doll at my feet.Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst.I had not loved the doll.In the still,dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness.I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth（爐邊）,and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed.She brought me my hat,and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine.

We walked down the path to the well house.My teacher placed my hand under thespout.Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought;and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.I knew then that“w-a-t-e-r”meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand.That living word awakened my soul,gave it light,hope,joy,set it free!There were barriers still；it was true,but barriers that could in time be swept away.

I learned a great many new words that day.I do not remember what they all were;but I do know that mother,father,sister,teacher were among them—words that were to make the world blossom for me.It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in mycribat the close of that eventful day,and for the first time longed for a new day to come.

—FromThe Story of My Life

Reading Check

What made Anne Mansfield Sullivan a miracle worker and how did she change Helen Keller's fate?

Language Study

Difficult sentence

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher,Anne Mansfield Sullivan,came to me.我記得我一生中最重要的一天是我的老師安妮·曼斯菲爾德·莎莉文來到我身邊的那一天。

【點石成金】本句中的I remember in all my life是一個省略了that的定語從句，修飾先行詞day；on which my teacher,Anne Mansfield Sullivan,came to me是一個由“介詞+關系代詞”引導的定語從句，Anne Mansfield Sullivan作的是my teacher的同位語。