Helen Keller
In 1882 a baby girl caught a fever that was so fierce she nearly died. She survived but the fever left its mark — she could no longer see or hear. Because she could not hear she also found it very difficult to speak.
So how did this child, blinded and deafened at 19 months old, grow up to become a world-famous author and public speaker?
The fever cut her off from the outside world, depriving her of sight and sound. It was as if she had been thrown into a dark prison cell from which there could be no release.
Luckily Helen was not someone who gave up easily. Soon she began to explore the world by using her other senses. She followed her mother wherever she went, hanging onto her skirts, She touched and smelled everything she came across. She copied their actions and was soon able to do certain jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough, She even learnt to recognize people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where sh
e was in the garden by the smell of the different plants and the feel of the ground under her feet.
By the age of seven she had invented over 60 different signs by which she could talk to her family, If she wanted bread for example, she would pretend to cut a loaf and butter the slices. If she wanted ice cream she wrapped her arms around herself and pretended to shiver.
Helen was unusual in that she was extremely intelligent and also remarkably sensitive. By her own efforts she had managed to make some sense of an alien and confusing world. But even so she had limitations.
At the age of five Helen began to realize she was different from other people. She noticed that her family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stood between two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and she could not make any meaningful sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she tried she could not make herself understood. This make her so angry that she use
d to hurl herself around the room,  kicking and screaming in frustration.
As she got older her frustration grew and her rages became worse and worse. She became wild and unruly . If she didn’t get what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her family gave in. Her favourite tricks included grabbing other people’s food from their plates and hurling fragile objects to the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the pantry. Eventually it became clear that something had to be done. So, just before her seventh birthday, the family hired a private tutor — Anne Sullivan.
Anne was careful to teach Helen especially those subjects in which she was interested. As a result Helen became gentler and she soon learnt to read and write in Braille. She also learnt to read people’s lips by pressing her finger-tips against them and feeling the movement and vibrations. This method is called Tadoma and it is a skill that very, very few people manage to acquire. She also learnt to speak, a major achievement for someone who could not hear at all.
Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honours from Radcliffe College in
1904. She had phenomenal powers of concentration and memory, as well as a dogged determination to succeed. While she was still at college she wrote ‘The Story of My Life’. This was an immediate success and earned her enough money to buy her own house.
She toured the country, giving lecture after lecture. Many books were written about her and several plays and films were made about her life. Eventually she became so famous that she was invited abroad and received many honours from foreign universities and monarchs. In 1932 she became a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.
After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in the developing world. Today that agency, Helen Keller International, is one of the biggest organizations working with blind people overseas.
幼时患病，两耳失聪，双目失明。七岁时，安妮·沙利文担任她的家庭教师，从此成了她的良师益友，相处达50年。在沙利文帮助之下，进入大学学习，以优异成绩毕业。在大学期间，写了《我生命的故事》，讲述她如何战胜病残，给成千上万的残疾人和正常人带来鼓舞。这海伦凯乐
本书被译成50种文字，在世界各国流传。以后又写了许多文字和几部自传性小说，表明黑暗与寂静并不存在。后来凯勒成了卓越的社会改革家，到美国各地，到欧洲、亚洲发表演说，为盲人、聋哑人筹集资金。二战期间，又访问多所医院，慰问失明士兵，她的精神受人们崇敬。1964年被授于美国公民最高荣誉–总统自由勋章，次年又被推选为世界十名杰出妇女之一。
请看海伦、凯勒生平：
1880年6月27出生在美国亚拉巴马州塔斯喀姆比亚。
1882年1月因患猩红热致盲致聋。
1887年3月安妮·沙利文成为凯勒的老师。
1899年6月考入哈佛大学拉德克利夫女子学院。
1902–1903撰写出版《我的一生》（有的译作《我生活的故事》）。
1904年6月以优等成绩大学毕业。
1908–1913 著《我的天地》（又译作《我生活中的世界》）、《石墙之歌》、《冲出黑暗》。
1916年遭受婚姻不幸。
1919年应邀去好莱坞主演电影。
1924年成为美国盲人基金会的主要领导人。
1929年著《我的后半生》（也译作《中流––––我以后的生活》）。
1930年旅游英国。
1931–1933年荣获坦普尔大学荣誉学位。访问法国、南斯拉夫、英国。
1936年10月20日老师安妮·沙利文去世。
1942–1952年出访欧、亚、非、澳各大洲十三国。
1953年美国上映凯勒生活和工作的记录片《不可征服的人》。
1955年著《老师：安妮·沙利文·梅西》 荣获哈佛大学荣誉学位
1959年联合国发起“海伦·凯勒”世界运动。
1960年美国海外盲人基金会颁布“海伦·凯勒”奖金。
1964年荣获总统自由勋章。