江苏留学网

Zhou Wenting (L) and Wu Yifan (R) [Photo/jsenews.com]

Zhou Wenqing and Wu Yifan, two visually-impaired students from Nanjing Normal University of Special Education, have recently passed the College English Test Level 4 (CET 4), getting scores of 449 and 440 respectively. 

"I was thrilled," said Wu Yifan recalling the moment when she checked her exam result. 

They are the first two visually-impaired people in Jiangsu province to pass the exam. 

The second time Wu and Zhou sat the CET 4, the girls displayed more confidence and experience than their first time, for they had benefited from the test papers customized by their school, which greatly eased the problem of a lack of correct and professional learning materials. 

The school's practical move was inspired from its nine visually-impaired students taking the CET 4 last June with no one being able to pass the test. 

"It was our first time 'translating' test papers for these visually-impaired students," said Chen Bin, a teacher at the school's education resources integration center. 

"The whole 'translation' process – from machine translation and artificial proofreading to symbol conversion and final printing – took us a lot of time." 

Wu Yifan and Zhou Wenting demonstrate to sit an English test for visually-impaired students. [Photo/jsenews.com]

Thanks to the teachers' considerate help, the students occupied themselves with enough learning materials, leaving repeated practice their only work to do. 

Though they enjoyed a 50 percent bonus test time over that given to other test takers, the students spared no effort to raise their efficiency in answering questions. 

"Unlike the sighted people who can take in several lines at a glance, we can only touch word by word the Braille language on papers to get their point. Once there is something hard to understand, we have to 'touch' back to the preceding text, it's quite time-consuming," Zhou said. 

But the girls came up with their own way to conquer the difficulty. "We first finish the time-based text reading and translation parts of the test, and then head to the multiple choices and blank-filling questions." 

Filled with excitement, the girls have set a new goal: "we want to sit the CET 6, and, if possible, the national postgraduate entrance examinations."