Communication Breakthrough: Helen Keller's Journey to Speech

What was the central idea of Helen Keller's journey to learn how to speak?

a. Helen Keller, unable to see or hear, learned to speak using the sense of touch.
b. Helen Keller, unable to speak, saw that learning a new skill takes dedication and practice.
c. Helen Keller, driven by her need to communicate, learned how to speak with the help of a teacher.
d. Helen Keller, unable at first to express her ideas clearly, was overjoyed at the world that speech opened to her.

Explanation:

The best restatement of the central idea of the passage is (d) "Helen Keller, unable at first to express her ideas clearly, was overjoyed at the world that speech opened to her."

The passage primarily focuses on Helen Keller's journey to learn to speak despite her deafness and blindness. It describes her initial frustration with her inability to communicate effectively, her eagerness to learn, and the pivotal moment when she started to grasp the elements of speech. The passage underscores her immense joy and sense of liberation when she was able to utter her first connected sentence, "It is warm," despite the initial difficulty. This pivotal moment marked her breakthrough in breaking the barriers of communication, allowing her to access a world of knowledge and faith that was previously inaccessible. The central idea of the passage revolves around Helen Keller's determination, the transformative power of speech, and the immense sense of accomplishment she felt when she started to express herself.