While you're reading an essay or assignment, you can determine the relative importance of the ideas expressed in the material by
a. take a break if the material doesn't interest you.
b. research the author's background.
c. pausing to read materials you think might be related.
d. highlighting key points.

d. highlighting key points.

Explanation:

When reading a certain document, you can highlight the key points to determine the importance of the different ideas that the text expresses, so the most important ideas that the document speaks about are the ones that are going to end up higlighted, and those are the core of the documents, it´s what you should be left with. By doing this you can understand better the assignment and learn it better.

the question concerns exactly this part of the speech:

i am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. property can be paid for; the lives of the peaceful and innocent people cannot be.

president wilson talks about the lives of people destroyed by german army. but these people are not americans, they are the local people living in europe. the president mentions the barbarity of germans, considering that he is not targeting the nation, instead it is said about german army. the correct answer is the last one.