Stevie Wonder: Sunshine in the Shadow (来源：专业英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

Edwin Kiester & Sally Valentine Kiester

1 When Stevie Morris was born, on May 13, 1950, the doctors shook their heads and told the mother that her son was born blind and likely would always be that way. She broke into tears.

2 Blind and black and poor what kind of life could this new infant have? In her wildest dreams, Mrs. Morris could never have imagined that her new baby would become a famous musician called Stevie Wonder. At the time, all she could do was pray and worry.

3 Stevie himself didn't worry at all. Life was too full. He was brought up among church-going people whose faith helped them bear the poverty. He loved music and would pound spoons or forks on any surface that faintly resembled a drum.

4 He even ran and played with sighted children. "I didn't realize I was blind until I was about four," he says. That might sound strange. To a small child just learning about the world, it wasn't strange at all. Stevie heard and smelled and touched. As far as he knew, that was all anyone could do. That was life.

5 When Stevie's mother got tired of her tables being used for drums, she bought him a toy set. He played so hard that he had actually worn the toy out within a few weeks. Other toy sets followed; then an uncle added a toy harmonica, and Stevie learned to play it so quickly that everyone was amazed.

6 Stevie taught himself to play the piano as quickly as he had once learned the harmonica. With friends, he began playing rock and roll music. They performed on the front porch of Stevie's apartment building, drawing crowds of neighbors to watch and listen and clap time to the beat.

7 "I loved that beat," Stevie says. He not only loved the beat, he was very good at making it.

8 Ronnie White, of the Miracles singing group, heard Stevie and promptly took him down to his recording company, Motown Records.

9 "Give him an audition," Ronnie said. They did. All the top people at Motown got together to hear a little blind boy who wasn't even ten years old yet. At first, they were being nice. Poor kid. They didn't want to hurt his feelings.

10 Then they heard Stevie sing and play, and nobody said "poor kid" anymore. They were too busy congratulating themselves on finding a youngster who could be the musical talent of the decade. "He's a wonder boy," somebody said as they watched little Stevie dart from one instrument to the next, playing each one with ease.

11 "Wonder," somebody else said, "Little Stevie Wonder."

12 The new name stuck and Stevie Morris became Little Stevie Wonder. He had his first hit when he was twelve years old. It was called "Fingertips" and it was a smash.

13 Over the following years, Little Stevie Wonder became one of the top recording artists at Motown, producing one hit after another. But as he grew into adulthood, Stevie began to get tired of the way the Motown company controlled all aspects of his career. He wanted to write and produce his own songs, but the Motown company thought it was unwise to change a winning formula.