Read this excerpt from The Great Fire. When the Waterworks burned down at around three in the morning, the pumping machines went dead, and the water supply to the city stopped. The men at the Tribune would do their best to stamp out and smother the burning embers that landed on the roof, but eventually, the fire won out. The shock felt by White and other citizens when they learned the Tribune was a gutted skeleton was captured perfectly by Charles Mackintosh. After describing at great length how solid and fireproof the Tribune Building was, Mackintosh paused and, with a sad sigh, he concluded, "That is, it was fireproof up to the date of its destruction."

Which statement best describes the theme of this paragraph?

The fire was so fierce that it destroyed everything in its path.
Certain buildings were spared because they were fireproof.
Some structures were spared by the fire because their owners were prepared.
Most people did not even try to stop the fire because it was so massive.

The fire was so fierce that it destroyed everything in its path

Explanation:

The fire destroyed the building despite it being fireproof, so that gets rid of the second and third options.

People did try to stop the fire, so that gets rid of the fourth option.

Therefore, the first option is correct.

question:

it's when i'm weary of considerations, and life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from a twig's having lashed across it open

answer to question #1: the simile that occurs in the text given (lines 43-47) is: ''life is too much like a pathless ''

explanation: a simile is a comparison of one thing with another thing and it is used to make a vivid description. it uses like or as. in the text, we can understand that the person is feeling weary of considerations and because of this, the person compares ''life'' to ''a pathless wood''.

answer to question #2: in this text we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations and compares life to a pathless wood.

explanation: the word frost means coldness and something covered by ice crystals but looking at the comparison made in this text, we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations therefore he/she compares life to a pathless wood.

to not go near anything hot