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When Wayne Mix was a child in the 1930s, his family sent him to a school for the deaf and blind.He learned American Sign Language.With American Sign Language, deaf people use their hands to communicate.They can spell words with their fingers, or they can use signs for whole words.Wayne communicated with teachers and friends in sign language.He graduated at the age of 20.In those days, people who were deaf did not get jobs and were not part of the community(社区), so Wayne went back to the family farm.His family did not know sign language, so Wayne communicated a little by making simple motions(手势)with his hands.He was never able to tell them his thoughts and feelings.
Wayne's father died in 1971.There was no place for Wayne to live, so they sent him to Mountain Meadows nursing home.He was only 51 and much younger and healthier than the other people in the nursing home, but he was treated like the 80 and 90-year-old people because he did not hear or speak.No one knew that Wayne was able to use sign language.
Twenty-nine years passed slowly and silently for Wayne.Then one day he saw a visitor using sign language with her deaf mother during a visit to the nursing home.He walked up to them and signed,“I’m Wayne Mix.”
Suddenly everything changed for Wayne.He found many people who knew sign language.These people communicated through sign language, e-mail, television with subtitles and a special telephone that prints(打印)the words that are spoken.It was a whole new world for Wayne.Now he could tell people his feelings, his needs, and his thoughts.
The people in Wayne's town were sad about the thousands of days in Wayne's life when no one knew that he could communicate.They wanted to help Wayne to do some of the things he always wanted to do.The workers at the nursing home found out that as a young man he loved to swim, and he loved to see pictures of dolphins swimming.When he started signing again, they asked him where he wanted to go.“Water.”Wayne signed.
Mountain Meadows workers had an idea.“Let’s send Wayne to Sea World in San Diego.”They told other people in town about their idea.Many people in Wayne's town and in other states gave money to help Wayne make the trip.The people at Sea World were very kind to Wayne.They let him swim with the dolphins and help them feed all the sea animals.Newspapers wrote about Wayne, so many people gave money to buy him a special TV and a telephone set.These were things Wayne never knew about before.
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