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 Generalísimo 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?
Answer
A
The author’s family was unusually lucky.
B
It was possible for people to escape to Canada.
C
Many people fought for a democratic nation.
D
The dictatorship resulted in many deaths.
Explanation
The excerpt emphasizes the dictatorship’s deadly effects: thousands died in failed efforts to restore democracy, the mother’s friends had been “disappeared,” and about eighteen thousand Haitians were slaughtered. These details support the central idea that the dictatorship resulted in many deaths. The family’s escapes are mentioned, but they are only part of the larger account of widespread violence.
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