Helen Keller
We finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf.
We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days.
"One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. 'What is it?' I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. "I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time ... Nothing in all the world was like this."
Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree.
"One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. "The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. "I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. "Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me ... It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet."
Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In
time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the Braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote:
"My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. "I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. "To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages."
All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself? What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing? This is what she wrote as a young girl:
"Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. "Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.' And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun ... The music in others' ears my symphony ... The smile on others' lips my happiness."
Helen Keller was tall and strong. When she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to
increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful.”My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch."
Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains.
◆生词和短语:
1. circus ['s?:k?s] n. 马戏团；马戏
2. mimosa [mi'm?uz?, -s?] n. [植]含羞草
3. odor ['?ud?] n. 气味；名声
4. geometry [d?i'?mitri] n. 几何学
5. triangle['trai??ɡl] n. 三角（形）；三角形之物；三人一组；三角关系
6. rhythm ['rie?m, 'riθ?m] n. 节奏；韵律
7. sculpture ['sk?lpt??] n. 雕塑；雕刻；[地]刻蚀
8. symphony ['simf?ni] n. 交响乐；谐声，和声
9. genius ['d?i:nj?s] n. 天才，天赋；精神
◆难句翻译：
1.I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. "To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages. 我在大学里学到了很多事情。其中之一就是我慢慢知道了知识并不仅仅是力量，大部分人都这样说。其实，知识能够带领我们通往幸福之路。因为知识能告诉我们什么事真正的、真实的。知识能让我们了解过去的那些伟人们的想法，言语和行为，这样我们就能感知到一代代人的智慧的脉搏。
2. Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. "Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.' And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun ... The music in others' ears my symphony ... The smile on others' lips my happiness. 有时候，当我孤独地坐着等待生命大门关闭时，一种与世隔绝的感觉就会像冷雾一样笼罩着我。远处有光明、音乐和友谊，但我进不去，命运之神无情地挡住了大门。我真想义正言辞的提出抗议，因为我的心仍充满了热情。但那些酸楚无疑的话语流溢在唇边，欲言又止，犹如泪水往肚子里留，沉默浸透了我的灵魂。然后，希望之神微笑着走来对我轻轻耳语说：“忘我就是快乐”。因为我要把别人眼睛看见的光明当作我的太阳，把别人耳朵听见了乐曲当作自己的旋律，把别人嘴角的微笑当作我的快乐。
◆简短回答：
1. How could Helen Keller learn so many different subjects?
2. How did Hellen Keller deal with negative feelings?
3. How to forget one’s self according to Hellen Keller?
《Lesson 12 Helen Keller》教学设计 教学目标 1.知识与技能 学生能在老师的帮助下理解 born,deaf,blind,university,writer,hope 等词 2）学生能听懂并理解这个故事 3）学生能回答关于故事的问题 4）学生能复述故事 2.情感态度与价值观 通过学习Helen Keller这位世界上着名身残志坚有志之人的优秀事迹,让学生学有所得,学有所悟,希望她的精神能激励和教育我们的学生在任何时候遇到艰难永不退缩。 3过程与方法 通过借助图片，及老师的问题引导，使学生能一步步完成故事的阅读。 教学重点与难点： 重点: 学生能听懂并理解这个故事 学生能回答关于故事的问题 通过学习Helen Keller这位世界上着名身残志坚有志之人的优秀事迹,让学生学有所得,学有所悟, 难点: 学生能复述故事 教学用具：多媒体,录音机.。 课前准备： Play games 1.蒙上双眼，捉迷藏，（让学生东西是的感觉什么样？ 2.戴上耳机，让学生听不见别人说话，而自己也不能说话的同时，做传话游戏。（让学生体会耳不能听，嘴不能说的心情） 教学过程 Class opening and review 1. Greeting 2. Review :用找朋友的方式复习动词过去式，为故事学习扫清一定的障碍fall-fell become-became can-could Get-got throw-threw meet-met take-took write-wrote begin-began go-went 3. Free talk 说说在课前游戏中，当你看不见，听不见，不能说话时的感觉和心情。如果是从出生后不久就看不见，听不见，不会说话该是一种生么样的感觉？如果你想把“水”这个字教给他该怎么教？告诉他什么是太阳又怎么办？今天我们就来阅读
New Standard English---Book 8 Module 8 Helen Keller Helen Keller Objectives: 1. 知识目标：能够阅读并理解文章，完成相关练习。 2. 能力目标：了解略读、细读的英语阅读方法；简述一个人物传记。 3. 情感目标：学习海伦·凯勒坚强的精神。 Teaching steps: A.Leading in 1.Hello, boys and girls! Please look! A beautiful lady! Who is she? … (呈现海伦图片，领读课题Helen Keller ) 2.Do you know her? Can you tell me something about her ?（交流 海伦已知信息……）Do you want to know more about her? B.New lessons Round 1 Skimming (略读，了解主要意思） （Now please take out your paper, read quickly and know more about Helen Keller.）… After reading , what do you know about Helen Keller? … Round 2 Scanning （寻读，圈出难点的词、词组或句子。）
(You have known something about Helen Keller. Now please take out your paper and your pens, read carefully and circle the words, phrases and sentences y ou don’t know. ) Do you have any difficult words or sentences? Let’s help each other.生自由提问，师生共同针对难点词语和句子进行板书，举例，讲解。 师预设如下，但在课堂上动态生成： ①1880-1968 ②blind / deaf （语言，动作，感受） ③could / couldn’t（造句，baby, now画线段讲） ④ She lived to be 87. ⑤ model （唱）… Round 3 Close reading （细读，思考） Do you have any questions? No questions? But I have questions . Look! Let’s read the questions. (读读问题) Now please read carefully again and answer the questions. 1. When and where was Helen Keller born? She was born in America in 1880. 2. What couldn’t Helen Keller do ? She couldn’t see or hear. 3．What did she learn to do ? She learned to speak , read and write. 4. How long did she live ?
英语故事 Helen Keller 海伦凯勒——坚强伟大的女性，真正的美国偶像 Helen KellerHelen Keller was born on 27 June, 1880 in Alabama. Before her illness she was a lively and healthy child with a friendly personality. She could walk and even say a few simple words. Helen was less than two years old when a fever struck dramatically and left her unconscious. 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 touched and smelled everything she came across and felt other people’s hands to see what they were doing. She copied their actions and was soon able to do certain jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough. She even learnt to recognise people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where she was in the garden by
After Reading Helen Keller The book tells the story of Helen Keller. At the age of 19 months, Helen Keller was a happy, healthy girl. She could already say a few words. Unfortunately, she had a high fever which caused her to become deaf and blind. No longer could she see nor hear.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. She felt lost. After that, she began to explore the world by using her other senses.She learned to do many things this way. For example, she could recognize people by feeling of their faces or their clothes. She made up signs with her hands so she could "talk" to her family. She had 60 different signs. Helen was a very bright child. Soon she found herself was different from other children——she couldn't talk. This made her so angry that she used to hurl herself around the room, kicking and screaming in frustration. The family knew they had to do something to help her. So, just before her seventh birthday, the family hired a private tutor — Anne Sullivan. Anne taught Helen the signs for the letters of the alphabet. Then she would "spell" the words in Helen's hand to communicate with her. One day Anne led Helen to the water pump and pumped water on her hand. She spelled the letters W-A-T-E-R as the water ran over Helen's hand. She did this over and over again. At last it dawned on Helen that the word "water" meant the water which she felt pouring over her hand. This opened up a whole new world for her. She ran everywhere asking Anne the name of different things and Anne would spell the words in her hand. Helen had an amazing memory, and she also had skills very few people have ever been able to develop. She could put her fingers to a person's lips and understand the words which were being spoken. While she was in college she wrote her book called "The Story of My Life". With the money she earned from the book she could afford a house.
小学英语六年级下册《M O D U L E8U n i t1 H e l e n K e l l e r》 （一起点
Module 8 Helen Keller The second Period [教学内容分析] 基本目标 知识目标： 词汇：could, couldn’t, blind, deaf, learn, born, life, difficult, normal, story, try hard 句型：She was blind. She couldn’t see. She was deaf. She could n’t hear. But she could learn. 能力目标： 1．能够正确运用“……could……, ……couldn’t……”谈论某人 过去的能力。 2．能够复述课文。 3．能够简单了解和谈论Helen Keller。 情感目标： 引导学生学习Helen Keller的优秀品质，树立乐于助人，刻苦学习的人生目标。 [教学准备] 1．制作多媒体课件。 2．将课件中教师设计的练习题为每个学生准备一份。 [教学流程与设计意图]
Step 1. Pre-task 1．Greeting. 与学生相互问候和谈论天气。 What’s the weather like? How are you！ [设计意图] 通过这个学生熟悉的活动让学生热身，缓解紧张的气氛。 2. Teacher asks and the students answer about the text. 教师询问学生关于Helen Keller的两个问题, 简单板书。 When was she born? Where was she born? 板书 Helen Keller(1880~1968, Amrican) [设计意图] 抛砖引玉，鼓励学生提出问题，培养学生提问的能力。 3. Some students ask questions and the others answer them about the text. 鼓励学生就Helen Keller的相关知识进行提问。 What … How… Why…
Module 8 Unit 1Hellen Keller 说课稿 金积中心学校魏学淼 各位评委、老师：大家早上好！今天我说课的内容是外研社小学英语六年级下册Module 8 Unit 1“Helen Keller”。一、教材分析1、教材的地位和作用Helen Keller 是小学新标准英语教材第八册第八模块第一单元的内容。本课是以人物(Helen Keller)介绍为主要内容，目的是通过教材提供的故事情境，用could, couldn’t 来谈论过去能够做的或者不能做的事。同时本课素材也对学生进行了意志、品质的教育。本单元是延续第七模块有关“杨立伟”的故事之后又一片讲述名人故事的话题，学生可以运用所学语言讲述名人生活、学习以及成名的经历，将语言变得生活化、情境化，从而掌握一般过去时的各种句式。英语一般现在时在小学六年级英语中出现的频率是比较高的，所以在学生掌握了此种时态后，可以在日常生活中自由的运用更多的句子，同时也是学习更多种时态的基础。2、教学目标A)知识目标：1、能听、会读、会说letter, later, all over, could, couldn't，born；2、能运用could, couldn't 描述一个人的经历；3、能理解和认读下面三个句子：Helen Keller became blind and deaf. She couldn’t see and she couldn’t hear. Later she could read and write. She wrote a book about herself. B)能力目标：1 通过对本课的学习，学生能够讲述Helen Keller 的故事，并运用课文中的语言点讲述你所知道的名人成才的故事.在学习及操练过程中，锻炼高年级学生的合作能力和参与意识，鼓励他们积极的参与、大胆的表达，培养学生学习英语的良好习惯，提高学习英语的兴趣。2 通过学习，引导学生运用一般过去时的句子讲述人物故事。 C)情感态度目标：1 通过学习Helen Keller 的故事，激发学生热爱学习、热爱生活的情感，提高学生刻苦学习、坚持不懈的意识。在合作学习中，增加学生的课外知识，使他们了解更多有关名人成才的故事等。2 通过英语交流的实践活动，建立自信，提高学生参与语言活动的积极性。学会与人交流，培养学生的自主合作能力. 3、重点和难点1)围绕知识目标，确定本课的重点是能口头运用Helen Keller was born in America in 1880.这类语句来介绍人物。能识别单词：born, child, as, later, drew, letter, herself, all over, world, model ，书写单词：could 能够用英语口头讲述Helen Keller 的故事，
Helen Keller (1880 –1968) ，was an American author, political activist and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become known worldwide through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. A prolific author, Keller was well traveled and was outspoken in her opposition to war. She campaigned for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and socialism, as well as many other progressive causes. Early childhood and illness Helen Adams Keller was born at an estate called Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, to Captain Arthur H. Keller, a former officer of the Confederate Army, and Kate Adams Keller, a cousin of Robert E. Lee and daughter of Charles W. Adams, a former Confederate general. The Keller family originates from Germany. Helen Keller was not born blind and deaf; it was not until she was nineteen months old that she contracted an illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain," which could possibly have been scarlet fever or meningitis. The illness did not last for a particularly long time, but it left her deaf and blind. At that time, her only communication partner was Martha Washington, the six-year-old daughter of the family cook, who was able to create a sign language with her; by the age of seven, she had over sixty home signs to communicate with her family. According to Soviet blind-deaf psychologist A. Meshcheryakov, Martha's friendship and teaching was crucial for Helen's later developments. In 1886, her mother, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens' American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, dispatched young Helen, accompanied by her father, to seek out Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice. He subsequently put them in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised the couple to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. Michael Anaganos, the school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and then only 20 years old, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship, eventually evolving into governess and then eventual companion. Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887, and immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with d-o-l-l for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller's big breakthrough in SAT 强化写作（下）---王彦妮 46 communication came in April the same year, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water"; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world. Formal education Starting in May, 1888, Keller attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind. In 1894, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan moved to New York to attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and Horace Mann School for the Deaf. In 1896, they returned to Massachusetts and Keller entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before gaining admittance, in 1900, to Radcliffe College. Her admirer, Mark Twain, had introduced her to Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers, who, with his wife, paid for her education. In 1904, at the age of 24, Keller graduated from Radcliffe, becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Companions Anne Sullivan stayed as a companion to Helen Keller long after she taught her. Anne married John Macy in 1905, and her health started failing around
Helen Keller 南通市通州区金沙小学蒋佳佳I．Teaching content: Analysis of teaching 1.Analysis of the text 自选教材Helen Keller Helen Keller was blind, deaf and mute, but she never gave up, she persisted in learning and became a famous writer. 2.Analysis of the students: The students are eleven or twelve years old. They have a certain self learning ability and a strong sense of cooperation. 3.Analysis of teaching environment: CAI brings delightful melodies, beautiful pictures, vivid texts and interactive games. CAI helps to change the traditional teaching situation and promote the quality of classroom teaching. II. Teaching aims: 1．Knowledge aims: a. Enable the students to grasp the new words：blind, deaf, mute, optimistic, talented, successful. b. Enable the students to grasp the sentence patterns: She couldn’t…,she could…. 2. Ability aims a. To train Ss’ reading ability(such as guessing the meaning of the new words in the context, the speed of reading)
How I Discovered Words Helen Keller The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old. On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle. Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. "Light! Give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour. I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me. The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. 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 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 did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; 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 words, among them, pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name. One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap, also spelled "d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand that "d-o-l-l" applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle over the words "m-u-g" and "w-a-t-e-r". Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that "m-u-g" is mug and that "w-a-t-e-r" is water, but I persisted in confounding 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 the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still,
Helen Keller We finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. 'What is it?' I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. "I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time ... Nothing in all the world was like this." Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. "The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. "I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. "Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me ... It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet." Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In