Read the passage. mary lou williams was a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger who was a major influence on many jazz musicians. during the 1930s and early 1940s williams was a member of andy kirk’s band. she was an influence on his style. williams wrote many songs for his band and was his pianist. she also created arrangements for swing bands such as benny goodman’s and tommy dorsey’s. which would you focus on in order to improve the quality of writing? replacing the be verbs with action verbs varying the sentence length rearranging the sequence of ideas summarizing the main idea

Read the following excerpt from "the city without us" by alan weisman: almost every other compound in nature contracts when frozen, but h20 (water) molecules do the opposite, organizing themselves into elegant hexagonal crystals that take up about 9 percent more space than they did when sloshing around in a liquid state. pretty six-sided crystals suggest snowflakes so gossamer it's hard to conceive of them pushing apart slabs of sidewalk. which statement best describes the effect of the metaphor on the excerpt's meaning? o a. it likens h2o molecules to hexagonal crystals, which are actually larger than people imagine. 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 sloshing liquid to a river of water able to push apart the sidewalk o d. it compares the frozen crystals to delicately lacy snowflakes having an unexpected strength (apex)