Question

read the excerpt from a genetics of justice by julia alvarez.
my father and mother were once again trapped in a police state. they laid low as best they could. now that they had four young daughters, they could not take any chances.
for a while, the spark which had almost cost my father his life and which had lighted in my mother seemed to have burnt out. periodically, trujillo would demand a tribute, and they would acquiesce. a tax, a dummy vote, a portrait on the wall. to my father and other men in the country, the most humiliating of these tributes was the occasional parade in which women were made to march and turn their heads and acknowledge the great man as they passed the review stand.
what is the central idea in this paragraph?

• having four young daughters made the family more of a target because of trujillos mandatory tributes.
• trujillo required people to take part in tributes and parades, which were enforced by the police state.
• the authors parents fought against the dictatorship, even though they tried to in the tributes.
• the authors parents tried to get in the dictatorship, but felt humiliated by the tributes they were forced to participate in.

Explanation:

To find the central idea, analyze each option:

• Option 1: The paragraph doesn't emphasize the family being a target due to daughters; it focuses on tributes and participation. Eliminate.
• Option 2: The paragraph describes Trujillo's mandatory tributes (dummy vote, portrait, parades) enforced by police. This matches the content about tributes and parades.
• Option 3: The parents didn't fight; they participated in tributes (laid low, took part in parades). Eliminate.
• Option 4: The parents weren't humiliated by participation; they complied to avoid trouble. The focus is on Trujillo's tributes, not their humiliation. Eliminate.

Answer:

B. Trujillo required people to take part in tributes and parades, which were enforced by the police state.