Question

Her daughters would seek her out at night when she seemed to have a moment to talk to them: they were having trouble at school or they wanted her to persuade their father to give them permission to go into the city or to a shopping mall or a movie – in broad daylight, Mami! Laura would wave them out of her room. "The problem with you girls . . ." The problem boiled down to the fact that they wanted to become Americans and their father – and their mother, too, at first – would have none of it.

–“Daughter of Invention,"
Julia Alvarez

What is the meaning of the idiom underlined in the passage?

focused on
exaggerated
was dishonest
forgot a lesson

Answer 1

The idiom "boiled down to" in this context means "reduced to" or "summed up as". It implies that the problem was made simpler or more understandable by identifying its fundamental cause or nature.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The idiom "boiled down to" in this context means "reduced to" or "summed up as". It implies that the problem was made simpler or more understandable by identifying its fundamental cause or nature.