Question

read the excerpt from \a genetics of justice\ by julia alvarez
by the time my mother married my father, however, she knew all about the true nature of the dictatorship. thousands had lost their lives in failed attempts to return the country to democracy. family friends, whom she had assumed had dropped away of their own accord, turned out to have been disappeared. my father had been lucky. as a young man, he had narrowly escaped to canada after the plot he had participated in as a student failed. this was to be the first of two escapes. that same year, 1937, el generalisimo ordered the overnight slaughter of some eighteen thousand haitians, who had come across the border to work on sugarcane plantations for slave wages.
what is the central idea of this excerpt?
○ the dictatorship resulted in many deaths.
○ it was possible for people to escape to canada
○ many people fought for a democratic nation
○ the author’s family was unusually lucky

Explanation:

To find the central idea, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The excerpt mentions thousands dying in failed democracy attempts, family friends disappearing, and the slaughter of Haitians. This aligns with the dictatorship causing many deaths.
• Option 2: The father's escape to Canada is a specific example, not the main idea.
• Option 3: The focus is on the dictatorship's consequences, not people fighting for democracy (though that's part of the context, not the central idea).
• Option 4: The father's luck is a detail, not the central idea.

Answer:

A. The dictatorship resulted in many deaths