Read the following excerpt from the poem "spring" by edna st. vincent millay: life itself is nothing, an empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. it is not enough that yearly, down this hill, april comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. which best describes the effect of personification on the overall meaning in this excerpt? a. it compares the emptiness of life with the arrival of springtime to underscore the contrast between the two. b. it makes an allusion to april being the cruelest month of the year to echo an idea of the poet t. s. eliot. c. it makes april seem to the speaker like a mindless person to emphasize the contradictions of the month. d. it compares the month of april to a babbling brook bordered with flowers to emphasize the fertility of spring.

Read the excerpt from the war of the worlds, in which the first martian exits the spacecraft. a sudden chill came over me. there was a loud shriek from a woman behind. i half turned, keeping my eyes fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the edge of the pit. i saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. i looked again at the cylinder, and ungovernable terror gripped me. i stood petrified and staring. what option accurately analyzes the impact of the narrator's thoughts and actions on the tone of the excerpt? the war of the worldsa disdainful tone is created as the narrator ponders the ugliness of the tentacles and turns to the shrieking woman. a melancholy tone is created by the narrator's thoughts of fear and refusal to avert his eyes. a tone of determination is created when the narrator thinks of escape and backs away from the edge of the pit. a fearful tone is created through the narrator's thoughts of horror and his glance at the cylinder.