阅读理解
Liu Lingli has been a teacher for hearing-damaged children for 33 years. Thanks to her help and commitment, more than 20 of the over 80 students she has taught have received higher education.
Liu's first communication with disabled people was with one of her neighbors, Mrs. Wang. "Even as a child, I was moved by her finger movement, and thought it would be great if she could speak," Liu said. After graduation, she became a teacher of special education, and taught Chinese to first graders.
She remembers clearly that there were 14 students in her class, from 6 to 12years old, with several of them being intellectually (智力上地) challenged. "Facing the special children, I was at a loss and thought about quitting," she said. She then thought about her neighbor Mrs. Wang and the pain on her face when she could not make people understand what she was trying to say. That made her determined to go after "special education".
Although she was only 18 at the time, she treated the students as her children, and practiced sign language in front of the mirror for one to two hours every day till she could show it successfully. With great care and patience, she also taught the students how to wash their faces and clothes, and make everything neat and tidy, becoming the "mother" of the students.
"If the children receive early training and treatment, they could probably speak and thus have a better future," she said. To help her students speak, she put her lips(嘴唇) against their hands to let them feel the movement of the lips and the running of the air, while allowing the students to put their hands around her neck and on her nose so they could learn how the voice was made.
Apart from teaching her class together, she also has one-on-one classes with each student for 20 minutes every day. As a result, she usually has a painful throat at the end of the day.
With Liu's tireless efforts, her students show great improvement. " Whenever they managed to say ‘mom ' or ‘dad' for the first time, I felt it was the sweetest sound in the world," she said.