What does sagen mean by, On the scale of worlds—to say nothing of stars or galaxies—humans are inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock or metal

Which detail from the text most strongly supports the inference that releasing a pet into the wild can change the balance of nature within an enviorment

Which statement best describes the effect of the metaphor on the excerpt's meaning? o a. it compares the sloshing liquid to a river of water able to push apart the sidewalk o b. it makes the frozen crystals seem like friends to the city to contrast with what a deceitful foe they are. o c. it compares the frozen crystals to delicately lacy snowflakes having arn unexpected strength o d. it likens h20 molecules to hexagonal crystals, which are actually larger than people imagine.

[1] nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old [5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone-shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of sugary sap. the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their [10] own delectation why does the author use the words "bayonet-pointed" (line 4) and "fence of daggers" (line 9) to describe the leaves of the yucca tree? . to create an image of the sharp edges of the plant to emphasize how beautiful the plant's leaves are to explain when and where the plant grows to show how afraid the author is of the plant