◎这是本较适合作为英文阅读入门的名著，书中几乎都是生活中常见的词汇与句子，语言平实。而文中海伦前期学习词汇的方法，为增长见识而进行阅读的方法，也能为读者阅读提供更为新颖的方式。
阅读本书不仅能增加我们的阅读词汇量，更能为阅读指明方向。
◎编者利用权威版本对书中的英文单词进行了精校，高度还原英文原著；对英式与美式混用的情况进行了分析与调整，使之更符合读者阅读习惯；保留了海伦儿童时期所写的信件，使读者能更为直观地了解海伦的进步与成长。
◎请闭上你的眼睛，向前方行走50步，你是什么感觉？恐惧？慌乱？不知所措？如果将你坠入黑暗的时间持续一生，你会怎么办？自暴自弃还是重新振作？
海伦用她的一生告诉你，即使坠入无声无光的世界，也可以接受挑战，用毅力战胜困难，在黑暗中拥抱璀璨的生命之光。
【内容简介】
假如你的一生只有三天能看到光明，你会拿来做什么？海伦说，她会好好看看这个世界，看那绚烂的色彩，看那雄伟的建筑，看至亲之人的面孔……
1880年，海伦在亚拉巴马州的一个小镇出生，一岁半时突患急性脑充血，被连日的高烧折磨，昏迷不醒。苏醒后，她便看不见、听不见，甚至连说话都含糊不清。一开始她拒绝、她绝望，她甚至消沉，直到遇到了——安妮·莎莉文小姐。莎莉文小姐教会她如何用双手感受别人说话时的嘴型变化，如何学习，如何记忆，*重要的是教会了她什么是爱。
此后她考入大学，掌握了五种语言，创作了14部著作，创办了基金会……她是世界上少有的女性坚强人物，是本世纪*富感召力的作家之一，她的事迹成为后世的典范，是我们学习的榜样。
【作者简介】
海伦·凯勒（Helen Keller， 1880-1968），美国著名女作家、教育家、慈善家、社会活动家。在86年的无光与无声的生活中，她先后完成了14部著作，包括，《假如给我三天光明》《我的一生》《石墙故事》等。
她一生致力于为残疾人造福，建立许多慈善机构。1964年荣获美国“总统自由勋章”，1965年入选美国《时代周刊》评选的“二十世纪美国十大英雄偶像”之一。
【媒体评论】
海伦·凯勒的身体是不自由的，但她的心灵却是无比自由的。
——英国影视演员、编剧 卓别林
十九世纪有两个奇人，一个是拿破仑，一个是海伦·凯勒。拿破仑试图用武力征服世界，他失败了；海伦试图用笔征服世界，她成功了。
——美国作家、演说家 马克·吐温
跨越了盲聋的身体障碍与折磨，海伦·凯勒不屈不挠的坚韧精神，成为强者的永恒象征。
——美国《纽约时报》
【目录】
Three Days to See
The Story of My life
【免费在线读】
The First Day
On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. First, I should like to gaze long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who came to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory, but to study that face and find in it the living evidence of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she accomplished the difficult task of my education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to me so often.
I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “Window of the soul”, the eyes. I can only “see” through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture their personalities by touch. I know their personalities, of course, through other means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them which I am sure would come through sight of them, through watching their reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the immediate and fleeting reactions of their eyes and countenance.
Friends who are near to me I know well, because through the months and years they reveal themselves to me in all their phases; but of casual friends I have only an incomplete impression, an impression gained from a handclasp, from spoken words which I take from their lips with my finger tips, or which they tap into the palm of my hand.
How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties of expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand. But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friend or acquaintance? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the outward features of a face and let it go at that?
For instance can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? Some of you can, but many cannot. As an experiment, I have questioned husbands of long standing about the color of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. And, incidentally, it is a chronic complaint of wives that their husbands do not notice new dresses, new hats, and changes in household arrangements.
The eyes of seeing persons soon become accustomed to the routine of their surroundings, and they actually see only the startling and spectacular. But even in viewing the most spectacular sights the eyes are lazy. Court records reveal every day how inaccurately “eyewitnesses” see. A given event will be “seen” in several different ways by as many witnesses. Some see more than others, but few see everything that is within the range of their vision.
Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
The first day would be a busy one. I should call to all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develops.
And I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs—the grave, canny little Scottie, Darkie, and the stalwart, understanding Great Dane, Helga, whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comforting to me.
On that busy first day I should also view the small simple things of my home. I want to see the warm colors in the rugs under my feet, the pictures on the walls, the intimate trifles that transform a house into home. My eyes would rest respectfully on the books in raised type which I have read, but they would be more eagerly interested in the printed books which seeing people can read, for during the long night of my life the books I have read and those which have been read to me have built themselves into a great shining lighthouse, revealing to me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit.
In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature trying desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendor which is constantly unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland jaunt, my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing in the field (perhaps I should see only a tractor! ), and the serene content of men living close to the soil. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset.
When dusk had fallen, I should experience the double delight of being able to see by artificial light which the genius of man has created to extend the power of his sight when Nature decrees darkness.
In the night of that first day of sight, I should not be able to sleep, so full would be my mind of the memories of the day.
