海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第48期
1899年6月29日和30日，我参加了拉德克利夫学院的入学考试。第一天考的是初级希腊语和高级拉丁文，第二天是德语、代数和高级希腊语。
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 notcommunicate with me, except by writing braille. The proctor was also a stranger, and did not attempt to communicate with me in any way.
校方不允许苏立文小姐为我读试卷，所以，学校就雇来了尤金·C.维宁先生为我把试卷译成美式布莱叶盲文。维宁先生是帕金斯盲人学院的一位教师，除了写盲文，他对我就像陌生人一样，并不同我交流。而监考人也是一个陌生人，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.
在对付语言方面，盲文可以说是绰绰有余的，但是一旦用到几何和代数上面，问题就来了。我感到既困惑又沮丧，尤其是代数，在这上面我浪费了许多宝贵时间。事实上，我对这个国家通用的所有字母盲文熟稔于心——英式、美式，以及纽约浮点式;但是面对几何和代数变化多端的符号和标记，这三种盲文体系的表现形式却是大相径庭，而在代数课中，我只使用过英式盲文。
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 thealgebra 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.
在考试前两天，维宁先生给我寄来了一份哈佛以前用过的代数试卷。令我感到沮丧的是，这是一份美式标注的(盲文)试卷。于是，我立刻坐下来给维宁先生写信，请他给我解释那些符号的意思。随后，我收到了另外一份试卷和一张数学符号表，就这样，我开始着手学习这些符号标注。当时正是代数考试前一天的晚上，而我还在拼命地分析那些异常复杂的标注，我还是无法知道大括号、圆括号和根号的组合排列方式。凯斯先生和我全都愁眉不展，我们对第二天的考试有了不祥的预感。好在我们在考试那天提前到了一小会儿，而且请维宁先生详细地解释了美式符号的用法。
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 mytypewriter. 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.
在几何考试中，我还是遇到了标注不清的问题。过去我一直习惯于按照行列印刷的方式阅读命题，或者是把命题在我的手上拼写出来;可是不知怎么搞的，尽管那些命题就摆在我面前，我还是被盲文搞糊涂了，而且我无法把我读到的内容清晰地呈现在脑子里。考代数的时候，我仍然遇到了相同的问题。总之，我想困扰我的正是我刚刚学到的那些符号。此外，我也无法看到自己在打字机上写下的东西。而我以前总是用盲文和头脑进行工作学习的。凯斯先生一贯鼓励我以心智解决问题，他并没有特别训练我如何书写答卷，因此，我只能承受漫长而痛苦的考试过程。我不得不一遍又一遍地阅读示范文本，以便根据考题要求形成自己头脑中的概念。事实上，直到现在我也不敢说我把所有的符号都理解无误了。我发现随机应变实属不易。
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 tosurmount. But if they unintentionally placed obstacles in my way, I have the consolation of knowing that I overcame them all.
但是我不会指责任何人。拉德克利夫学院的行政委员会并没有意识到他们的所作所为——他们不会想到他们为我设置的考试障碍有多艰巨，他们也不会理解我必须要克服怎样特殊的困难才能够完成考试。我想，如果说他们是在无意之间在我的成长之路上设置了障碍的话，那么，当我知道自己有能力将这些障碍一一攻克的时候，我依旧会感到无比宽慰。
