9. Jeff walked up to Mark and took his sandwich off of his plate. He took a bite, smirked at Mark, and then walked away. What is the author saying about the character?

The author is saying that Jeff is a bully.

Explanation:

Jeff's action he just demonstrated of a bully could be actually be the rude thing a bully would do.

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).