評論
打印
My progress in lip-reading and speech was not what my teachers and I had hoped and expected it would be. It was my ambition to speak like other people, and my teachers believed that this could be accomplished; but, although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did not quite reach our goal. I suppose we aimed too high, and disappointment was therefore inevitable. I still regarded arithmetic as a system of pitfalls. I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason. When I was not guessing, I was jumping at conclusions, and this fault, in addition to my dullness, aggravated my difficulties more than was right or necessary.
我在唇讀和講話方面取得的進步同老師們的授課并沒有直接關系，我的動力只有一個，我希望能像其他人一樣開口說話。而我的老師們也相信這個目標一定能夠實現，但是，盡管我們同心協力攜手向前，我們仍然沒有達到理想目標。我想，或許是目標定得太高，因此失望也就在所難免了。我依然把算術當做一門充滿陷阱的學科，我徘徊在豎立著“猜想”標牌的危險邊境，還要避免給自己，以及身在寬闊幽谷中的人們惹一身麻煩。當我不再猜想時，我便欣然接受各種結論，而這樣做的結果只能是錯上加錯。另外，我感官上的遲鈍更加劇了我的理解困難。
But although these disappointments caused me great depression at times, I pursued my other studies with unflagging interest, especially physical geography. It was a joy to learn the secrets of nature: how—in the picturesque language of the Old Testament—the winds are made to blow from the four corners of the heavens, how the vapours ascend from the ends of the earth, how rivers are cut out among the rocks, and mountains overturned by the roots, and in what ways man may overcome many forces mightier than himself. The two years in New York were happy ones, and I look back to them with genuine pleasure.
雖然種種失望令我一度消沉沮喪，但是我對其他科目的學習興趣依舊未減，尤其是自然地理學。了解自然界的奧秘是一種樂趣：比如風如何——就像《圣經·舊約》中所描繪的那樣——自天堂的四個角落遍吹四方，水蒸氣如何從大地的盡頭飄升至天空，河流如何在巉巖峭壁間劈風斬浪，群山如何被大地所傾覆，人類又是以何種方式戰勝比自己強大得多的自然之力的。在紐約的這兩年是一段令人愉快的時光，每每想起，我都會感到由衷地開心。
I remember especially the walks we all took together every day in Central Park, the only part of the city that was congenial to me. I never lost a jot of my delight in this great park.
我尤其記得我們每天在中央公園的集體散步，對我而言，這是這個城市唯一令我感到稱心如意的所在。我從未在這個大公園里遺漏掉半點快樂。
