The priest stared down at his scuffed brown loafers and the worn hem of his cassock. “For a Christian burial it was necessary.” His voice was distant, and Leon thought that his blue eyes looked tired.

“It's O. K., Father, we just want him to have plenty of water.”

The priest sank down into the green chair and picked up a glossy missionary magazine. He turned the colored pages full of lepers and pagans without looking at them.

“You know I can't do that, Leon. There should have been the Last Rites and a funeral Mass at the very least.”

Leon put on his green cap and pulled the flaps down over his ears. “It's getting late, Father. I've got to go.”

Which of the following statements best describes the thematic significance of this dialogue?
This dialogue emphasizes the ongoing personal conflict between Leon and Father Paul.
This conversation between Leon and Father Paul makes it clear that they will never come to an agreement.
Leon’s and Father Paul’s differing perspectives of the situation reflect their larger cultural conflicts.
Leon’s hasty exit from Father Paul’s house reflects his discomfort with the priest and Christianity.

[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