Helen Keller—Tragedy to Triumph
海倫·凱勒——從悲劇走向成功
Imagine that you couldn't see any word or hear any sound， but you could still talk， write， read， and make friends. In fact， you went to college， wrote nearly a dozen books， traveled all over the world， even met twelve U.S. presidents， and lived to 88. Well， there was such a person， and she was born over a hundred years ago！
Helen Keller， a woman from the small farm town of Tuscumbia， Alabama who taught the world how to respect people who are blind and deaf. Her mission came from her own life： when she was one year and a half， she was extremely ill， and she lost both her vision and hearing. It was like entering a totally different world， with completely new rules that she could not adjust to and she got very frustrated. By the time she was seven， her parents realized they needed help， so they hired a tutor named Anne Sullivan.
Later on Anne became Helen's tutor. Anne Sullivan had lost the majority of her sight at the age of five. Then she had two operations on her eyes， which led to her regaining enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time. Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and began to search for work. Finding work was terribly difficult for Anne， due to her poor eyesight， and when she received the offer from Helen's parents to work as the teacher of Helen Keller， a deaf-blind mute， although she had no experience in this area， she accepted willingly. There she taught the seven-year-old Helen Keller， and managed to break through her isolation by spelling out words on her hand. For the rest of her life she remained Helen's companion. She always called her “Teacher”. “The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher came to me，” Keller later said.
Anne was strict， but she had a lot of patience. In just a few days， she taught Helen how to spell words with her hands. The trouble was， Helen didn't understand what the words meant—until one morning at the water pump she got a whole new attitude. Anne had Helen hold one hand under the water. Then she spelled “W-A-T-E-R” into Helen's other hand. It was wonderful for Helen！ The feeling turned into a word. “That living word awakened my soul， gave it light， hope， joy， set it free.”Immediately， Helen bent down and tapped the ground， Anne spelled “earth”. Helen's brain flew； that day， she learned 30 words.