Lesson 3 Life Stories

Anne Sullivan

Helen Keller

Helen Keller (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968), was an author, lecturer, and humanitarian whose unusual life and dedicated (献身的 ) work had an international influence on the lives of the disabled (残疾人 ). She became blind and deaf at the age of 19 months through a damaging brain fever and could communicate only through hysterical (歇斯底里 ) laughter or violent tantrums (发怒 ). But, with the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, Keller learned to read braille(盲文 ) and to write by using a special typewriter. Bibliography自传 : Keller, Helen, The Story of My Life and Teacher (1955);

Hellen Keller

1.I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do

everything, but still I can do something; and

because I cannot do everything I will not

refuse to do the something that I can do.

2.When one door of happiness closes, another

opens; but often we look so long at the

closed door that we do not see the one

which has been opened for us.

Do you know Helen Keller?

Can you see what was special about her?

Blind

Deaf

restrictions

Because of these restrictions on her communication, Helen could not speak, read or write.

If there are restrictions on us, we cannot do things freely.

What do you think of behavior?

1 A __________ person does not like to change his/her idea.

2 A ____________ person will cause a lot of trouble.

3 An _____________ person is one that people cannot

stand.

unbearable

stubborn

troublesome trouble + some

un + bear + able(v.)

stubborntroublesome

unbearable

stub+born

（香烟或铅笔的）残根，殘头

Read the first TWO paragraphs and answer the following questions.• What kind of a teacher did Helen need? Why?

• What did Anne Sullivan do before she became a teacher?

• What did Anne Sullivan need to do first to prepare Helen to learn language?

She needed a superb teacher, because she couldn’t see or hear.

She needed to stop Helen’s troublesome behaviour first.

What does “superb” mean?

She was a former student at a school for the blind. What does

“former” mean?

Guess “fearsome, bothersome”

Brainstorming

• Imagine you are Miss Sullivan, and discuss in groups how you can teach the following words to Helen:

love

water

think

• Remember! Helen cannot see or hear anything.

Skim the rest of the text quickly and reorder these words according to when Helen learn them.

• doll

• love

• think

• water

• doll

• water

• love

• think

• love

Read the text again and work in pairs to find out how Anne Sullivan taught the words to Helen.

Anne Sullivan let Helen ______________ the doll and ________ the letters

into __________________.

Anne let water ________ over one of ______________ and __________ the letters into

the other _______.

Anne _______ Helen closer to her

and pointed to ______________.

When Helen _________ about her mistakes when making

____________, Anne touched Helen’s _______ and _________ “think” into _________________.

After Helen asked again if love was __________, Anne told her that love could not be ___________

but she could feel the __________ of love.

doll water

thinklove

love

play with

her handspelled

flowHelen’s hands

spelledhand

drew

her heart

thought

necklacesspelledhead

her hand

the suntouched

sweetness

Work in pairs. Take turns to ask and answer the following questions.

How did Miss Sullivan teach Helen the word

“doll”?

“water”?

“love” for the first time?

“think”?

“love” for the second time?

Read the text for the third time and fill in the chart in pairs.

Words learned

How Helen felt when learning the words

What it meant to her

doll She felt excited.

water

love (the 1st time)

She still could not understand anything that she could not touch.

think ———————————

love (the 2nd

time)

She knew her teacher loved her and how to express her own feelings.

It was just a game for her.She did not know words existed.

She felt hopeful and joyful. She began to enter the world of language.

She was puzzled. She felt confused and

disappointed.

It was the first time she had understood an abstract word.

She felt the meaning of “love” was beautiful.

Discussion :

• What do you think happened later to Helen Keller?

Homework

Write a summary of the story in

about 100 words based on your

retelling.

Combine the information in the graph and the chart above, and work in groups to retell the story with the key words provided.

play with … spell … excited … game …

not exist

Flow … spell … hopeful … joyful … world of language

draw closer … heart … puzzled … confused …

Mistakes … head … spell …

first time … abstractlike the sun … cannot touch … sweetness …

beautiful

doll

water

love

think

love