D. engrossing is something attention grabbing, as in to be engrossed in something
First of all, we need to establish two definitions here. the first one is Americanism that is the attachment to ideas and traditions in the USA, basically being an absolute patriot.
The second word is fiend which is a person who has negative intentions towards your feelings and in general, to anything other people value.
Taking this in consideration we can say that the correct answer is It develops the conflict by establishing the fact that Judge Lenon is unforgiving when he feels that someone has been unpatriotic since he is a fiend for Americanism he won't stop in his objective of going against anything that is opposite to his beliefs.
The other options are not correct because they talk about the use of vocabulary more than its meaning and the last one talks about corruption which is not mentioned in the excerpt.
