Question

read the excerpt from \a genetics of justice\ by julia alvarez.

images of the dictator hung in every house next to the crucifix and la virgencita with the declaration beneath: in this house trujillo is chief. the pale face of a young military man wearing a plumed bicorne hat and a gold–braided uniform looked down beneficently at my mother as she read her romantic novelas and dreamed of meeting the great love of her life. sometimes in her daydreams, her great love wore the handsome young dictator’s face. never having seen him, my mother could not know the portrait was heavily retouched.

what is the central idea of this paragraph?

• the images of trujillo portrayed him falsely.
• trujillo wore elaborate uniforms and headpieces.
• alvarez’s mother wanted to meet trujillo one day.
• young people dream about the person they will marry.

Explanation:

To find the central idea, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: The paragraph says the portrait of Trujillo was "heavily retouched" and Alvarez's mother, who hadn't seen him, didn't know this. This means the images portrayed him falsely (since they were retouched to look better than he actually was).
• Option 2: Trujillo's uniforms are just a detail in the description of the image, not the central idea.
• Option 3: The mother dreaming of meeting her great love (who sometimes had Trujillo's face) is a detail, not the main point.
• Option 4: The paragraph is about Trujillo's image, not young people's general dreams about marriage.

So the central idea is that Trujillo's images were false.

Answer:

A. The images of Trujillo portrayed him falsely