穿指流沙细数年华--那些发人深省的英语哲理美文(全彩插画)

**卷 你若盛开，清风自来 The Pleasure of Study American│Helen Keller The next important step in my education was learning to read. As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented, for example, "doll" "is" "on" "bed" and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the bed with the words "is" "on" "bed" arranged1 beside the "doll", thus making a sentence of the words, and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves. One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word "girl" on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On the shelf I arranged the words, "is" "in" "wardrobe". Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged in object sentences. From the printed slip it was but a step to the printed book. I took my Reader for Beginners and hunted for the words I knew; when I found them my joy was like that of a game of hide-and-seek. Thus I began to read. Of the time when I began to read connected stories I shall speak later. For a long time I had no regular2 lessons. Even when I studied most earnestly it seemed more like play than work. Everything Miss Sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem. Whenever anything delighted or interested me she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl herself. What many children think of with dread, as a painful plodding through grammar, hard sums and harder definitions, is today one of my most precious memories. I cannot explain the peculiar sympathy Miss Sullivan had with my pleasures and desires. Perhaps it was the result of long association with the blind. Added to this she had a wonderful faculty for description. She went quickly over uninteresting details, and never nagged me with questions to see if I remembered the day-before-yesterday’s lesson. She introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, making every subject so real that I could not help remembering what she taught. We read and studied out of doors, preferring the sunlit woods to the house. All my early lessons have in them the breath of the woods— the fine, resinous odour of pine needles, blended with the perfume of wild grapes. Seated in the gracious3 shade of a wild tulip tree, I learned to think that everything has a lesson and a suggestion. "The loveliness of things taught me all their use." Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education—noisy-throaty frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the indignant snort of my pony, as we caught him in the pasture and put the bit in his mouth—ah me! How well I remember the spicy, clover smell of his breath! Sometimes I rose at dawn and stole into the garden while the heavy dew lay on the grass and flowers. Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror, as the little creature became aware4 of a pressure from without. Another favourite haunt of mine was the orchard, where the fruit ripened early in July. The large, downy peaches would reach themselves into my hand, and as the joyous breezes5 flew about the trees the apples tumbled at my feet. Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pinafore, pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still warm from the sun, and skipped back to the house! Our favourite walk was to Keller's Landing, an old tumbledown lumber-wharf on the Tennessee River, used during the Civil War to land soldiers. There we spent many happy hours and played at learning geography. I built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, and dug river-beds, all for fun, and never dreamed that I was learning a lesson. I listened with increasing wonder to Miss Sullivan's descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, and many other things as strange. She made raised maps in clay6, so that I could feel the mountain ridges7 and valleys, and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers. I liked this, too; but the division of the earth into zones and poles confused and teased my mind. The illustrative strings and the orange stick representing the poles seemed so real that even to this day the mere mention of temperate zone suggests a series of twine circles; and I believe that if any one should set about it he could convince me that white bears actually climb the North Pole. 热词天地 1.arrange[??'re??nd??]vt.&vi.整理 2.regular['reɡj??l??]adj.有规律的 3.gracious['ɡre??????s]adj.亲切的，和蔼的 4.aware[??'we??]adj.知道的, 明白的 5.breeze['bri:z]n.微风 6.clay[kle??]n.黏土；泥土 7.ridge[r??d??]n.山脊，山脉 4.aware[??'we??]adj.知道的, 明白的 学习的乐趣 【美】海伦??凯勒 在我学习的过程中，下一步的重点便是学会阅读。 在我才学会拼写一些单词时，我的老师便给我发了一些卡片，上面印着 些凸起的字母。我很快就明白了，这些凸起的字母各代表着一种物体，一种 行为或是一种特征。我能在一个框架里将字母排成一些短句子。可是在将 这些句子放进框架里之前，我常常用实物来展示。我找一些硬纸片，让它 们各代表一些实物，就像“doll（娃娃）”“is（是）”“on（在……上）” 和“bed（床）”，随后将每张纸片放在和它相对应的实物上。之后，我把 写着“is（是）”“on（在……上）”“bed（床）”的纸片放在“doll（娃 娃）”的纸片旁，同我的娃娃一起放在床上，如此，我既用词造了句子，又 用实物展现了句子的意思。 一天，莎莉文老师对我说，让我将写有“girl（女孩）”的纸片别在自己 的围裙上，随后站进衣柜里，同时我还把“is（是）”“in（在……里）”和 “wardrobe（衣柜）”这几个词摆在衣架上。没有什么游戏能比它让我更快 乐了。有时候，我和莎莉文老师一玩便是好几个小时，几乎全部屋子里的东 西都被我们用在了编造的句子里。 这些拼卡游戏只是走进阅读世界的过渡阶段。我捧起了《启蒙读本》， 在里面找我认识的单词。当我发现那些熟悉的单词，我就像在捉迷藏时抓着 了个人似得兴奋。就这样，我开始了阅读。在我开始读小说的那段日子，读 完后我还得再作讲述。 很长一段时间里，我都没有接受过正规的教育。纵然我满腔热情地投入 学习，看起来都还是更像在做游戏，而不是在认真上课。不管教我什么，莎 莉文小姐都会用一些有意思的故事或者美丽的诗歌来讲授。每当有事情让我 兴致盎然，她常常同我讨论，似乎她自己也是一个小女孩一般。许多孩子比 我不能解释莎莉文小姐为什么对我的快乐与愿望表现了这般奇特的耐心， 也许是她同盲人长期接触的缘故吧！除此外，她还有着出色的描述事物的能 力。对那些枯燥的细枝末节，她往往都是一带而过；她也不会拿一些问题来 难为我，以此来检测我是否还记得前天所学的功课。她总是循序渐进地将枯 燥乏味的科学知识讲述得真实生动，让我不由自主地铭记于心。 我们常常在阳光明媚的户外读书、学习。我*初学习的课程都是在森林 里进行的，这里的空气混合着树脂的松香与野葡萄的芬芳。坐在野生郁金香 树那浓郁的树荫下，我发觉世界万物都值得认真思量和学习，都能给我以启示。 “万物之美教会我如何将其运用。”事实上，嗡嗡作响的蜜蜂、低声鸣唱的 甲壳虫、婉转歌唱的小鸟与含苞待放的花朵，大自然中的所有这些都组成了 我学习的一部分。我常常捉青蛙、蝈蝈儿和蟋蟀，随后捂在掌心，默默等它 们鸣叫。还有毛茸茸的小鸡、盛开的野花、竞相绽放的茱萸、草地上的紫罗 兰和发芽的果树。我感受到了那柔软毛绒的棉絮，那吹过玉米田的和风低唱， 叶子柔滑的沙沙声，那在牧场上吃草让我们捉住、并且给它套上马嚼子的小 马驹。——哈，看我多棒！我至今还记得小马驹呼出的那浓烈的三叶草的味道。 有时候，黎明才拂晓，花草上还缀满露水时，我便从床上一下跃起，偷 偷溜进花园里。极少有人可以感受到把玫瑰花轻柔地捧在手中的无限乐趣； 或是欣赏百合花在晨风中摇曳的倩影。有时我会在摘下的花朵上捉到一只昆 虫，我能感觉到它由于突然的惊吓，摩擦翅翼的细弱声音，好像这小小的生 物开始意识到了来自外界的压力。 我喜欢去的另一个地方是果园，这里的果子在七月初成熟。那里毛茸茸 的大桃子伸手就能够到，熟透的苹果在欢快的微风吹拂下，纷纷落下，散落 在我的脚旁。噢，当我拾起它们，放入围裙时，我是多么的开心啊！我的脸 紧挨着光滑的苹果，还能感觉到太阳的余热。我常常带着它们蹦蹦跳跳地跑 回家。 在田纳西河边，有一个名叫凯勒的破旧码头，那是南北战争时期为部队 登陆专门建造的。我同莎莉文老师*喜欢到那里散步，并在那里度过了很多 愉快的时光，还在嬉戏里学习地理知识。在那里我用鹅卵石造堤、筑岛、围湖、 开河，一切都很愉快，一点都没有想过是正在上课。 我怀着与日俱增的好奇心聆听着莎莉文小姐的讲授。她为我讲解这又大 又圆的地球、火山、被掩盖的城市、运动不止的冰河还有其他许许多多的奇 特的事物。她用黏土给我制作立体地图，这样我就能用手触摸凸起的山脊、 凹陷的深谷与蜿蜒曲折的河流，这些都是我喜欢的，不过我总是对地球上划 分出的地带和两极摸不着头脑。莎莉文小姐还用一根根绳子来代表经纬线， 用一根树枝当做贯穿南北极的地轴。这些展示如此生动形象以至于一旦有人 说起温带，我脑海里便会出现许多一连串的绳圈。甚至我想假如有人说白熊 能爬上北极的那根柱子，我也会信以为真。