海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第48期

On the 29th and 30th of June, 1899, I took my final examinations for Radcliffe College. The first day I had Elementary Greek and Advanced Latin, and the second day Geometry, Algebra and Advanced Greek.

1899年6月29日和30日，我參加了拉德克利夫學院的入學考試。第一天考的是初級希臘語和高級拉丁文，第二天是德語、代數和高級希臘語。

The college authorities did not allow Miss Sullivan to read the examination papers to me; so Mr. Eugene C. Vining, one of the instructors at the Perkins Institution for the Blind, was employed to copy the papers for me in American braille. Mr. Vining was a stranger to me, and could not communicate with me, except by writing braille. The proctor was also a stranger, and did not attempt to communicate with me in any way.

校方不允許蘇立文小姐爲我讀試卷，所以，學校就僱來了尤金·C.維寧先生爲我把試卷譯成美式布萊葉盲文。維寧先生是帕金斯盲人學院的一位教師，除了寫盲文，他對我就像陌生人一樣，並不同我交流。而監考人也是一個陌生人，他也不打算以任何方式同我交流。

The braille worked well enough in the languages, but when it came to geometry and algebra, difficulties arose.* I was sorely perplexed, and felt discouraged wasting much precious time, especially in algebra. It is true that I was familiar with all literary braille in common use in this country--English, American, and New York Point; but the various signs and symbols in geometry and algebra in the three systems are very different, and I had used only the English braille in my algebra.

在對付語言方面，盲文可以說是綽綽有餘的，但是一旦用到幾何和代數上面，問題就來了。我感到既困惑又沮喪，尤其是代數，在這上面我浪費了許多寶貴時間。事實上，我對這個國家通用的所有字母盲文熟稔於心——英式、美式，以及紐約浮點式；但是面對幾何和代數變化多端的符號和標記，這三種盲文體系的表現形式卻是大相徑庭，而在代數課中，我只使用過英式盲文。

Two days before the examinations, Mr. Vining sent me a braille copy of one of the old Harvard papers in algebra. To my dismay I found that it was in the American notation. I sat down immediately and wrote to Mr. Vining, asking him to explain the signs. I received another paper and a table of signs by return mail, and I set to work to learn the notation. But on the night before the algebra examination, while I was struggling over some very complicated examples, I could not tell the combinations of bracket, brace and radical. Both Mr. Keith and I were distressed and full of forebodings for the morrow; but we went over to the college a little before the examination began, and had Mr. Vining explain more fully the American symbols.

在考試前兩天，維寧先生給我寄來了一份哈佛以前用過的代數試卷。令我感到沮喪的是，這是一份美式標註的（盲文）試卷。於是，我立刻坐下來給維寧先生寫信，請他給我解釋那些符號的意思。隨後，我收到了另外一份試卷和一張數學符號表，就這樣，我開始着手學習這些符號標註。當時正是代數考試前一天的晚上，而我還在拼命地分析那些異常複雜的標註，我還是無法知道大括號、圓括號和根號的組合排列方式。凱斯先生和我全都愁眉不展，我們對第二天的考試有了不祥的預感。好在我們在考試那天提前到了一小會兒，而且請維寧先生詳細地解釋了美式符號的用法。

In geometry my chief difficulty was that I had always been accustomed to read the propositions in line print, or to have them spelled into my hand; and somehow, although the propositions were right before me, I found the braille confusing, and could not fix clearly in my mind what I was reading. But when I took up algebra I had a harder time still. The signs, which I had so lately learned, and which I thought I knew, perplexed me. Besides, I could not see what I wrote on my typewriter. I had always done my work in braille or in my head. Mr. Keith had relied too much on my ability to solve problems mentally, and had not trained me to write examination papers. Consequently my work was painfully slow, and I had to read the examples over and over before I could form any idea of what I was required to do. Indeed, I am not sure now that I read all the signs correctly. I found it very hard to keep my wits about me.

在幾何考試中，我還是遇到了標註不清的問題。過去我一直習慣於按照行列印刷的方式閱讀命題，或者是把命題在我的手上拼寫出來；可是不知怎麼搞的，儘管那些命題就擺在我面前，我還是被盲文搞糊塗了，而且我無法把我讀到的內容清晰地呈現在腦子裏。考代數的時候，我仍然遇到了相同的問題。總之，我想困擾我的正是我剛剛學到的那些符號。此外，我也無法看到自己在打字機上寫下的東西。而我以前總是用盲文和頭腦進行工作學習的。凱斯先生一貫鼓勵我以心智解決問題，他並沒有特別訓練我如何書寫答卷，因此，我只能承受漫長而痛苦的考試過程。我不得不一遍又一遍地閱讀示範文本，以便根據考題要求形成自己頭腦中的概念。事實上，直到現在我也不敢說我把所有的符號都理解無誤了。我發現隨機應變實屬不易。

But I do not blame any one. The administrative board of Radcliffe did not realize how difficult they were making my examinations, nor did they understand the peculiar difficulties I had to surmount. But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all.

但是我不會指責任何人。拉德克利夫學院的行政委員會並沒有意識到他們的所作所爲——他們不會想到他們爲我設置的考試障礙有多艱鉅，他們也不會理解我必須要克服怎樣特殊的困難才能夠完成考試。我想，如果說他們是在無意之間在我的成長之路上設置了障礙的話，那麼，當我知道自己有能力將這些障礙一一攻克的時候，我依舊會感到無比寬慰。