Read the excerpt from immigrant kids, and then answer the question. The officers of the ship . . . went striding up and down the decks shouting orders and directions and driving the immigrants before them. Scowling and gesturing, they pushed and pulled the passengers, herding us into separate groups as though we were animals. What best paraphrases the central idea of the excerpt?

A. Passengers aboard the immigrant ships were often treated poorly.
B. Officers on the immigrant ships thought the passengers were animals.
C. The ship's officers got pushed, pulled, and herded on the ships.
D. Immigrant passengers went striding around and scowling.