Vocabulary Ventures
The word "confounding" in paragraph 2 means this.
What is confusing/mixing up?
How Helen feels immediately after breaking the doll.
What is satisfied or "keenly delighted"?
The first word Miss Sullivan spelled into Helen's hand.
What is doll?
The gift sent to Helen by the children at the Perkins Institution.
What is a doll?
The point of view from which this story is told.
What is First Person?
In paragraph 4, Helen feels "repentance," which is another word for this.
What is regret or sorrow?
What Helen realizes about the world at the well-house.
What is "everything has a name"?
This object was the cause of a "tussle" because Helen confused it with water.
What is a mug?
The sensory detail (smell) that led Helen and her teacher to the well-house.
What is the fragrance of the honeysuckle?
Helen uses this word to describe her finger-spelling before she understood it.
What is "uncomprehending"?
Helen describes her finger-spelling as imitation. What is the meaning of imitation?
What is to copy?
How do Helen's feelings about the broken doll change by the end of the day?
What is moving from no regret to feeling "repentance and sorrow"?
The specific location where the "mystery of language" was revealed.
What is the well-house (or water pump)?
These four specific people were among the new words Helen learned that day.
Who are mother, father, sister, and teacher?
The "strange, new sight" Helen refers to in paragraph 4 is a metaphor for this.
What is her new understanding or knowledge?
Helen refers to her "passionate outburst." What is a synonym for "outburst" here?
What is a tantrum or fit?
Why Helen "longed for a new day to come" at the end of the text.
What is her new eagerness to learn and "see" the world differently?
What Helen tried to do with the pieces of the doll after returning from the well-house.
She tried to put the pieces back together.
The reason Helen felt "keenly delighted" after breaking the doll initially.
What is the cause of her discomfort (the "tussle") was removed?
Paragraph 3 says the word "water" did this to Helen's soul.
What is "awakened it" or "set it free"?
Helen says the words made the world "blossom." What is the meaning of the word "blossom" as it is used here?
What is to grow?
The "barriers" Helen mentions in paragraph 3 refer to these two challenges.
What is being deaf and blind?
What Helen did immediately after she first succeeded in spelling "d-o-l-l."
What is running downstairs to show her mother?
This is the comparison Helen uses to describe how her world "blossomed."
What is "like Aaron's rod, with flowers"?
This was the "eventful" day's impact on Helen’s overall outlook on life.
What is moving from a "dark world" to one of "light, hope, and joy"?