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 called elementary 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 special messenger. 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。參加考試的學生應該在十六個小時內通過測試——包括十二個小時的初級考試和四個小時的高級考試。一般來說，做完這些答卷至少也要五個小時。試卷於早晨九點在哈佛啓封，並且用特別郵件送到拉德克利夫。每一個應試者都被登記在冊，但與其對應的不是姓名，而是一個號碼。我是第233號，因爲我必須要使用一臺（盲文）打字機的緣故，所以我的識別號碼是無法隱藏的。

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.

校方爲我考慮得相當周到，我被安排在一個單獨的房間考試，因爲打字機的敲擊聲會影響到其他同學。吉爾曼先生親自用手語拼寫的方式爲我讀考題，爲了不受打擾，房間門口還設置了一名守衛。

The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first, then sentence 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 the typewriter. 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，然後再一句一句分開讀；與此同時，我也跟着大聲重複，以表明我聽清了他說的話。考題有些難度，在用打字機打出答案的同時，我的心裏也感到惴惴不安。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，然後他再把修改後的內容插入到答題中。我想說的是，在我以前所參加的任何一次考試當中，從來沒有享受過如此待遇。在拉德克利夫，沒有人會爲我讀試題，而且我也沒有機會修改錯誤，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間，根據自己的回憶修改疏漏之處，然後，再把改正後的答案寫在卷子的底部。假如說我初試的成績比複試要好的話，原因有兩個，首先，複試時不會有人爲我讀試卷；其次，初試時的科目有相當一部分都是我在劍橋學院學過的課程，而複試就不一定了。還好，在那一年年初，我已經通過了英語、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試卷。

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

最後，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號考生，獨立完成所有答題。

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行的，不過後面的考試都不像第一門這麼難。我記得在考拉丁文的那天，施靈教授來到考場告訴我說，我已經圓滿地通過了德語考試。這一消息令我信心倍增，於是，我帶着放鬆的心情完成了後面所有科目的考試。