Seabiscuit was a famous racehorse in the 1930s and 1940s. He was smaller than other racehorses and his legs were not as long. However he was the fastest horse in the universe and ended up becoming a champion.
The underlined figure of speech is
The reader can infer that

grunge

the sentence that best describes the tone of the passage from the radio broadcast compared to the passage from the book is b. the radio broadcast has a more surprised tone.

consider the text evidence: in the passage from the book, the description is more matter-of-fact. it is simply describing the things resembling little grey snakes, but there is no urgency in the description. on the other hand, in the passage from the radio broadcast, there is definetely urgency (you can tell from the expression used, "good heavens", which clearly indicates surprise.)

yes, we appreciate these things!