Question

i am told that hundreds if not thousands of armenians were sent at once to the front ranks at the dardanelles, where death in a very short space of time is almost a certainty. the older men were then deported into the interior, while the women and children, when not carried off in an opposite direction, were left to shift for themselves as best they could.
the terrible feature of this deportation up to date is that it has been carried out on such a basis as to render it practically impossible in thousands of cases that these families can ever again be reunited. not only wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, but even mothers and their little children have been dispersed in such a manner as to preclude practically all hope that they will ever see each other again.
—news report from constantinople,
henry wood,
1915
what does the author of this passage consider to be the worst part of the deportation?
○ the ongoing religious persecution
○ the war crimes committed by young turks
○ the permanent separation of many families
○ the challenging living conditions

Explanation:

The passage explicitly states that the "terrible feature of this deportation" is that thousands of families cannot be reunited, with relatives dispersed in a way that eliminates hope of seeing each other again. This directly matches the option about permanent family separation, while the other options are not identified as the worst element in the text.

Answer:

the permanent separation of many families