[00:04.78]Lesson 65 1 Reading comprehension
[00:12.15]Read the text fast to find answers to these questions.
[00:17.48]1 What was the writer's problem?
[00:22.23]2 What did the wrier learn during this period of her life?
[00:28.00]MY TEACHER(1)
[00:31.95]Before Annie Sullivan came to uor house,
[00:36.62]one or two people had told my mother that I was simple-minded.
[00:42.27]I can understand why.Here was a seven-year-old girl
[00:48.33]who at the age of 19 months had become deaf and blind.
[00:54.18]And because I was deaf,I could not learn to speak.
[00:58.93]Struggling in a world of silence and darkness,
[01:03.97]I must have appeared to them to be simple.
[01:08.65]But this was before Annie Sullivan came to stay.
[01:13.69]She was a lively young woman with patience and imagination.
[01:19.62]A born teacher,
[01:22.89]she thought she could turn a deaf-blind person into a useful human being.
[01:29.55]What a difficult case I must have been to this young teacher!
[01:34.69]I remember the many times she tried to spell words into my small hand.
[01:40.96]But neither words nor letters meant anything to me.
[01:46.89]I thought her finger movements were some kind of game.
[01:51.93]But at last,on April 5th,1887,she reached my understanding.
[01:59.98]About a month after her arrival,she taught me the word"water".
[02:07.24]It happened at the well where I was holding a jar while Annie pumped.
[02:13.80]As the water flowed onto my hand,
[02:17.87]she kept spelling w-a-t-e-r into my other hand with her fingers.
[02:27.02]Suddenly I understood!It was the first joy I had known for years.
[02:34.88]I reached out to Annie's hand.
[02:38.85]She understood I was begging for new words,for the names of the things I touched.
[02:45.69]The words so full of meaning--flew from her hand to mine.
[02:52.17]Those first words were to change my world.
[02:57.63]One of the first things Annice did was to teach me how to play.
[03:03.09]I had not laughed since I became deaf.
[03:07.17]One day she came into my room laughing happily.
[03:11.90]Putting my hand on her face,she spelled l-a-u-g-h.
[03:19.34]Then she touched me lightly on my arm and made me burst into laughter.
[03:25.58]Next Annie took me by the hand and taught me how to jump.
[03:31.96]She then immediately spelled the word j-u-m-p for me.
[03:38.72]In a few days I was learning--and enjoying it---like any child.
[03:45.28]Through my hands and fingers,I"heard"the sounds that one hears on a farm,
[03:51.63]the noises made by cows,horses,chickens and pigs.
[03:57.69]She also brought me into touch with everything that could be felt--soil,wood,silk.
[04:05.84]As I look back upon those years,I am struck by Annie's wisdom.
[04:11.90]Perhaps she understood me because she herself had always had very weak eyes.
[04:19.55]Lesson 66 1 Reading comprehension
[04:33.01]Read the text fast to find answers to these questions.
[04:38.28]1 Where did the wrter's teacher Annie grow up?
[04:43.74]2 What did Annie help the writer to do?
[04:48.89]MY TEACHER(2)
[04:53.12]Annie was born in a poor family,on April 4th,1866.
[05:00.38]Her mother died when she was eight years old.
[05:04.93]Two years later,her father disappeared,never to be heard from again.
[05:11.69]Annie and her brother were sent to a children's home.there the boy died.
[05:18.35]Four years later,she left the children's home
[05:22.80]and entered an institution for the blind, where she learnt Braille.
[05:29.25]This is a kind of printing that blind people can read
[05:35.60]by touching groups of raised points that are printed on paper.
[05:42.07]Later,an operation helped her to get back part of her sight,
[05:47.82]but she remained at the institution for six years more.
[05:52.89]There she studied the teaching of deaf-blind children.
[05:58.22]One day a letter from my father arrived at the school,asking for a teacher for me
[06:04.75]Annie considered this was just the kind of demanding job she wanted.
[06:10.70]That is how Annie came to be with us.
[06:15.28]Annie was among the first to realize that blind people
[06:20.32]never know their hidden strength until they are treated like normal human beings.
[06:27.40]She never pitied me;she never praised me
[06:33.04]unless what I did was as good as that of the best of a normal person.
[06:39.70]And she encouraged me when I made up my mind to go to college.
[06:44.98]During my years in school,Annie sat beside me in every class.
[06:51.04]She spelled out for me the things that the teacher taught.
[06:56.21]And,because most books were not printed in Braille,
[07:01.54]she herself read them to me by spelling into my hand what was written in the books.
[07:08.49]It took great imagination as well as patience for Annie to teach me to speak.
[07:15.15]Putting both my hands on her face when she spoke,
[07:19.90]she let me feel all the movenents of her lips and throat.
[07:25.26]Together we repeated and repeated words and sentences.
[07:31.50]My speech was illformed and not pleasant to hear.
[07:36.86]But I was delighted to be able to say words that my family
[07:42.63]and a few friends could understand.
[07:46.99]To Annie I owe thanks for this priceless gift of speech.
[07:52.95]It has helped me to serve others.
[07:56.79]My teacher's gifted instruction lived on after her death.
[08:02.25]She had believed in me.I must always keep on trying to do my best.
[08:08.72]"No matter what happens,"she often said,"keep on beginning.
[08:15.18]Each time you fail,start all over again.
[08:20.43]You will grow stronger each time,
[08:25.50]until you can do and finidh what you started out to do.
[08:31.66]Who could count the times Annie tried,failed,and then succeeded?
[08:38.61]What a great teacher!What a great person!
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