海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第45期

　　Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use when I took my examinations will not be amiss here. The student was required to pass in sixteen hours--twelve hours being calledelementary and four advanced. He had to pass five hours at a time to have them counted. The examination papers were given out at nine o’clock at Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a specialmessenger. Each candidate was known, not by his name, but by a number. I was No. 233, but, as I had to use a typewriter, my identity could not be concealed.

　　在此，將我參加考試的程序做一番介紹或許是無傷大雅之舉吧。參加考試的學(xué)生應(yīng)該在十六個(gè)小時(shí)內(nèi)通過測(cè)試——包括十二個(gè)小時(shí)的初級(jí)考試和四個(gè)小時(shí)的高級(jí)考試。一般來說，做完這些答卷至少也要五個(gè)小時(shí)。試卷于早晨九點(diǎn)在哈佛啟封，并且用特別郵件送到拉德克利夫。每一個(gè)應(yīng)試者都被登記在冊(cè)，但與其對(duì)應(yīng)的不是姓名，而是一個(gè)號(hào)碼。我是第233號(hào)，因?yàn)槲冶仨氁褂靡慌_(tái)(盲文)打字機(jī)的緣故，所以我的識(shí)別號(hào)碼是無法隱藏的。

　　It was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself, because the noise of the typewriter might disturb the other girls. Mr. Gilman read all the papers to me by means of the manual alphabet. A man was placed on guard at the door to prevent interruption.

　　校方為我考慮得相當(dāng)周到，我被安排在一個(gè)單獨(dú)的房間考試，因?yàn)榇蜃謾C(jī)的敲擊聲會(huì)影響到其他同學(xué)。吉爾曼先生親自用手語拼寫的方式為我讀考題，為了不受打擾，房間門口還設(shè)置了一名守衛(wèi)。

　　The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first, thensentence by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud, to make sure that I understood him perfectly. The papers were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote out my answers on thetypewriter. Mr. Gilman spelled to me what I had written, and I made such changes as I thought necessary, and he inserted them. I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage since in any of my examinations. At Radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after they are written, and I have no opportunity to correct errors unless I finish before the time is up. In that case I correct only such mistakes as I can recall in the few minutes allowed, and make notes of these corrections at the end of my paper. If I passed with higher credit in the preliminaries than in the finals, there are two reasons. In the finals, no one read my work over to me, and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some of which I was in a measure familiarbefore my work in the Cambridge school; for at the beginning of the year I had passed examinations in English, History, French and German, which Mr. Gilman gave me from previous Harvard papers.

　　第一天進(jìn)行的是德語考試。坐在我旁邊的吉爾曼先生首先通讀一遍考題，然后再一句一句分開讀;與此同時(shí)，我也跟著大聲重復(fù)，以表明我聽清了他說的話?？碱}有些難度，在用打字機(jī)打出答案的同時(shí)，我的心里也感到惴惴不安。吉爾曼先生把我的答題拼給我聽，如果我覺得有必要的話就做一些修改，然后他再把修改后的內(nèi)容插入到答題中。我想說的是，在我以前所參加的任何一次考試當(dāng)中，從來沒有享受過如此待遇。在拉德克利夫，沒有人會(huì)為我讀試題，而且我也沒有機(jī)會(huì)修改錯(cuò)誤，除非我能提前做完答卷。也就是說，我可以利用有限的幾分鐘時(shí)間，根據(jù)自己的回憶修改疏漏之處，然后，再把改正后的答案寫在卷子的底部。假如說我初試的成績比復(fù)試要好的話，原因有兩個(gè)，首先，復(fù)試時(shí)不會(huì)有人為我讀試卷;其次，初試時(shí)的科目有相當(dāng)一部分都是我在劍橋?qū)W院學(xué)過的課程，而復(fù)試就不一定了。還好，在那一年年初，我已經(jīng)通過了英語、歷史、法語和德語的考試，吉爾曼先生用的是哈佛以前的正規(guī)試卷。

　　Mr. Gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a certificate that I, candidate No. 233, had written the papers.

　　最后，吉爾曼先生把我的答卷送交到主考官手中，他還在試卷上附加了一紙證明：我，第233號(hào)考生，獨(dú)立完成所有答題。

　　All the other preliminary examinations were conducted in the same manner. None of them was so difficult as the first. I remember that the day the Latin paper was brought to us, Professor Schilling came in and informed me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This encouraged me greatly, and I sped on to the end of the ordeal with a light heart and a steady hand.

　　所有其他科目的考試都是以這種方式進(jìn)行的，不過后面的考試都不像第一門這么難。我記得在考拉丁文的那天，施靈教授來到考場(chǎng)告訴我說，我已經(jīng)圓滿地通過了德語考試。這一消息令我信心倍增，于是，我?guī)е潘傻男那橥瓿闪撕竺嫠锌颇康目荚嚒?/p>