海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第38期

　　第十六章

　　Before October, 1893, I had studied various subjects by myself in a more or less desultorymanner. I read the histories of Greece, Rome and the United States. I had a French grammar in raised print, and as I already knew some French, I often amused myself by composing in my head short exercises, using the new words as I came across them, and ignoring rules and other technicalities as much as possible. I even tried, without aid, to master the French pronunciation, as I found all the letters and sounds described in the book. Of course this was tasking slenderpowers for great ends; but it gave me something to do on a rainy day, and I acquired a sufficientknowledge of French to read with pleasure La Fontaine’s "Fables," "Le Medecin Malgr?Lui" and passages from "Athalie."

　　到1893年10月之前，我已經(jīng)斷斷續(xù)續(xù)地自學(xué)了多種類型的科目。我閱讀了希臘、羅馬和美國的歷史。我有一本盲文法語語法書，而且已經(jīng)學(xué)習(xí)了幾句法語。為了自娛自樂，我經(jīng)常默默地在腦海里做一些小練習(xí)。我用隨意想到的新單詞造句，而且不太理會語法規(guī)則和其他的技術(shù)性問題。在無人幫助的情況下，我甚至嘗試掌握法語發(fā)音，因?yàn)槲以谶@本書里發(fā)現(xiàn)了所有字母和音節(jié)的發(fā)音講解。當(dāng)然，對于宏大的目標(biāo)而言，這種努力是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的;但是不管怎么說，在淫雨霏霏的日子里，我總可以有事可干。就這樣，我所掌握的法語知識足夠使我閱讀有趣的拉封丹的寓言，莫里哀的《屈打成醫(yī)》，以及拉辛的《阿達(dá)莉》中的段落。

　　I also gave considerable time to the improvement of my speech. I read aloud to Miss Sullivan and recited passages from my favourite poets, which I had committed to memory; she corrected my pronunciation and helped me to phrase and inflect. It was not, however, until October, 1893, after I had recovered from the fatigue and excitement of my visit to the World’s Fair, that I began to have lessons in special subjects at fixed hours.

　　我也用相當(dāng)多的時間來提高我的說話能力。我大聲地為蘇立文小姐朗讀課文，背誦我喜愛的詩歌章節(jié);她則糾正我的發(fā)音并幫我斷句和改變詞形?？傊钡?893年10月，也就是在我從參觀世界博覽會的疲勞和興奮狀態(tài)中恢復(fù)平靜之后，我才開始在固定時間內(nèi)學(xué)習(xí)一些特殊的課程。