Read the excerpt from "The Speech." He didn’t know how his parents got by in those early days of loneliness and isolation, when they didn’t know their neighbors and couldn’t find their favorite spices or flavors in the local grocery store. He imagined his homesick mother making pungent curry in the tiny kitchen of the apartment that was their first home—curry that she didn’t share with anyone except her husband because he was the only person she knew.

What does the word isolation mean?

the feeling of being shy

the state of being alone or cut off from other people

the state of being in a new place for the first time

the state of being fearful of others