At the age of five Helen began to realize she was different from other people. She noticed that her family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stood between two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and she could not make any meaningful sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she tried she could not make herself understood. This makes her so angry that she used to hurl herself around the room， kicking and screaming in frustration.
海伦五岁时开始意识到她与别人不同。她发现家里的其他人不用像她那样做手势而是用嘴交谈。有时她站在两人中间触摸他们的嘴唇。她不知道他们在说什么，而她自己不能发出带有含义的声音。她想讲话，可无论费多大的劲儿也无法使别人明白自己。这使她异常懊恼以至于常常在屋子里乱跑乱撞，灰心地又踢又喊。
As she got older her frustration grew and her rages became worse and worse. She became wild and unruly. If she didn，t get what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her family gave in. Her favorite tricks included grabbing other people，s food from their plates and hurling fragile objects to the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the pantry. Eventually it became clear that something had to be done. So， just before her seventh birthday， the family hired a private tutor - Anne Sullivan.
随着年龄的增长她的怒气越来越大。她变得狂野不驯。倘若她得不到想要的东西就会大发脾气直到家人顺从。她惯用的手段包括抓别人盘里的食物以及将易碎的东西猛扔在地。有一次她甚至将母亲锁在厨房里。这样一来就得想个办法了。于是，在她快到七岁生日时，家里便雇了一名家庭教师——安尼·沙利文。
Anne was careful to teach Helen especially those subjects in which she was interested. As a result Helen became gentler and she soon learnt to read and write in Braille. She also learnt to read people，s lips by pressing her fingertips against them and feeling the movement and vibrations. This method is called Tadoma and it is a skill that very， very few people manage to acquire. She also learnt to speak， a major achievement for someone who could not hear at all.
安尼悉心地教授海伦，特别是她感兴趣的东西。这样海伦变得温和了而且很快学会了用布莱叶盲文朗读和写作。靠用手指接触说话人的嘴唇去感受运动和震动，她又学会了触唇意识。这种方法被称作泰德马，是一种很少有人掌握的技能。她也学会了讲话，这对失聪的人来说是个巨大的成就。
Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar， graduating with honors from Radcliff College in 1904. She had phenomenal powers of concentration and memory， as well as a dogged determination to succeed. While she was still at college she wrote The Story of My Life. This was an immediate success and earned her enough money to buy her own house.
海伦证明了自己是个出色的学者，1904年她以优异的成绩从拉德克利夫学院毕业。她有惊人的注意力和记忆力，同时她还具有不达目的誓不罢休的毅力。上大学时她就写了《我的生命》。这使她取得了巨大的成功从而有能力为自己购买一套住房。
She toured the country， giving lecture after lecture. Many books were written about her and several plays and films were made about her life. Eventually she became so famous that she was invited abroad and received many honors from foreign universities and monarchs. In 1932 she became a vicepresident of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.
她周游全国，不断地举行讲座。她的事迹为许多人着书立说而且还上演了关于她的生平的戏剧和电影。最终她声名显赫，应邀出国并受到外国大学和国王授予的荣誉。1932年，她成为英国皇家国立盲人学院的副校长。
After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in the developing world. Today that agency， Helen Keller International， is one of the biggest organizations working with blind people overseas.
1968年她去世后，一个以她的名字命名的组织建立起来，该组织旨在与发展中国家存在的失明缺陷作斗争。如今这所机构，“国际海伦·凯勒”，是海外向盲人提供帮助的最大组织之一。
Helen Oyeyemi：￡400，000 Advance for Her First Novel
海伦·欧耶米：处女作获40万英镑预付款
An 18yearold author has received a ￡400，000 advance for her debut novel， one of the biggest deals for a young author in British publishing history.
一名年仅18岁的作家凭其处女作获得了高达40万英镑的预付款，这是英国出版史上年轻作家创作的最昂贵的作品之一。
Helen Oyeyemi， a firstyear student at Corpus Christi College， Cambridge， is now in the top bracket of British authors and shares an accountant with J. K. Rowling and Zadie Smith.
海伦·欧耶米是剑桥基督圣体学院一年级的学生，现在已被列为英国杰出作家。她与J·K·罗琳（《哈利·波特》的作者）和查娣·史密斯（《白牙》的作者）的会计师是同一个人。
Ms Oyeyemi struck a twobook deal with Bloomsbury after the publisher was bowled over by her novel The Icarus Girl. The story concerns Jessamy， an eightyearold genius who， while on a visit to relatives in Nigeria， meets Tilly Tilly， a friend whom only she can see.
布卢姆斯伯里出版社被欧耶米的小说《伊卡洛斯女孩》深深吸引了，于是决定出版她的两本小说。《伊卡洛斯女孩》的主人公是8岁的小神童杰瑟米，她在去尼日利亚探望亲戚时，邂逅了蒂莉蒂莉，一个只有她才能看见的女孩。
Their relationship is friendly at first but becomes darker as it appears that Tilly Tilly is a ghost who wants Jessamy，s body for her own.
起初，她们相处的很融洽，后来发生的一些事情给她们的关系蒙上了阴影。因为杰瑟米发现蒂莉蒂莉竟然是幽灵，而且想依附在自己身上。
In an interview， the Nigerianborn author said that she was astonished at the speed with which she was snapped up. “I had to sign the contract between my exams. It was on the day of my theology A level，” she said.
有着尼日利亚血统的欧耶米在接受采访时说，她几乎是一夜之间成名，连她自己也不敢相信这个事实。“我不得不在考试期间与出版社签约，那天我还在参加神学课A级考试，”她说。
Ms Oyeyemi， whose father is a teacher and whose mother is training to become a driver for London Underground， began writing at the age of seven.
欧耶米的父亲是一名教师，母亲正在接受培训将成为伦敦的一名地铁司机。她从7岁那年开始写作。
“I rewrote Little Women so that Laurie married Jo because I thought that was a better ending.”
“我曾经改写过《小妇人》，让劳瑞如愿以偿地嫁给了乔，我觉得这样的结局更好。”
She began writing The Icarus Girl last year when she was in the sixth form of Notre Dame School. Her agent， Robin Wade， showed the book to Alexandra Pringle， editorinchief at Bloomsbury， who is also Donna Tartt，s editor. “The prose sings immediately right from the first page，” Ms Pringle said.
欧耶米从去年开始创作《伊卡洛斯女孩》，那时她还在圣母中学念六年级。她的经纪人罗宾·韦德把书稿推荐给布卢姆斯伯里出版社的主编亚历山大·普林格，他也是英国小说家堂娜·塔特的编辑，“从全书的第一页开始，一切都非常令人满意。”普林格说。
Ms Oyeyemi does not believe that she will become a fulltime writer， however. “I don，t think that many people can do that these days，” she said. “I would quite like to be a literary agent.”
然而，欧耶米认为她不会成为一名全职作家。“我想现在很少有人可以胜任这个角色，我更愿意做一名文学经纪人。”