Nights and dragons— from the memoir of author abigail prynne 1 i sit at my desk listening to thunder growl outside my window. flashes of light burst through the darkness, and wind races past my window. the thrilling combination of sight and sound conjures up visions of dragons roaring proudly, breathing fire, and soaring across the midnight sky. dragons first fascinated me when i was a little girl. they have followed me ever since. the magnificent creatures appeared in storybooks i read in the library, paintings i saw in museums, movies i watched in the theater, and the dreams i had in my sleep. by the time i was thirteen, one question consumed me. i wanted to know if dragons ever existed, so i set out on a quest for facts. 2 as i started my research, i discovered many skeptics. scientists presented evidence to show why dragons could not—and did not—exist. they explained that it would be impossible for dragons to fly because they would be too big. they laughed at the idea of dragons breathing fire. they pointed out that no other animal has ever done this. they said that if dragons had lived, someone would have found remains somewhere in the world. no bones about it, there were plenty of logical explanations. it would have been easy for me to accept that the only place dragons ever existed was in the imaginations of those who believed. 3 i could have given up, but i thought about my grandmother. she always told me that "people who believe that science is the answer to everything are missing out on everything else." with her words in mind, i searched some more. there were many facts that hinted that dragons may not be fictional. i noticed that cultures across the world all described dragons in similar ways. this was odd because they had no way to communicate with each other. i found dragons mentioned in more than just stories. they appeared in old legal papers, in the travel logs of marco polo, and in the bible. i saw that the chinese calendar uses a different animal each year. dragons are included along with eleven real animals. i began to believe it was a real possibility that all of these people were talking about a creature that actually existed. 4 with renewed hope that there was some truth to the legends, i looked for new research. i found that some experts disagreed with popular arguments against dragons. they suggested that a dragon could have four stomachs like a cow. if it created stomach gases like birds, it might create enough to lift itself off the ground. this would give it the ability to fly. if it forced out air when diving toward the earth, it might release gases which could ignite into flame. when the animal died, the stomachs would release strong acids that would dissolve its dead body over time. biologists backed up these ideas with sketches and models based on known animals. not everyone agreed with these ideas, but many of the things we accept about dinosaurs and other extinct species started the same way. 5 i doubt we will ever truly know whether dragons existed. there may always be two sides to the fiery debate. some will say the stories come from active imaginations. some will believe with all their hearts that the legendary creatures roamed our ancient world. i don't know for certain which side to believe, but the sound and fury of a night like this makes me smile. it rekindles my childhood dreams and keeps the exciting possibility alive. which best states the main idea of the text?

Wha is the topic discussed in “lifeboat ethics” ?

Monsters of the deep the ocean is full of mysteries and amazing creatures. since the first sailors left their home shores and set off for adventure, stories have been told of the strange and wondrous beasts encountered on the open ocean. with only glimpses and imagination-enhanced stories to go on, humans have made many an interesting creature into a monster. the truth is, the ocean's scariest creatures inhabit such extreme depths that humans are rarely, if ever, threatened by them. that does not mean they are not the stuff of nightmares. consider, if you will, the following frightful fiends. atlantic hagfish part eel, part sea snake, this sea serpent may have inspired many stories. lacking the scales that most fish have, the hagfish secretes the most amazing slime to protect itself. this slime may be used to suffocate predators. the slime includes small fibers that make it almost impossible to remove. but the hagfish's truly horrific nature lies in what it does to its prey, not its predators. with an excellent sense of smell that compensates for almost total blindness, the hagfish will locate and latch on to a victim. with a circle of razor sharp teeth, the hagfish bores a hole into the side of its now-doomed prey. once the hole is complete, the hagfish just welcomes itself inside for a meal of fish innards. it essentially eats its prey from the inside out. like other deep-sea monsters, however, hagfish are seldom a nuisance to humans. they live most of their lives at depths of up to 5,600 feet. in fact, they prefer a soft sea bottom so they can quickly bury themselves to hide from threats. gulper eel another, more hideous, fiend of the deep is the gulper eel. this creepy critter is part eel and part giant pouch. like a pelican's enormous pouch-shaped mouth, the mouth of the gulper eel can open quite wide to gulp prey. it has a long tail tipped with a glowing organ that is used to lure in prey. in part to its tail, the gulper can reach up to six feet in length. because its tail is so thin, it is not able to pursue prey with any speed, but it can scoop up hundreds of small crustaceans or shrimp in one bite. often swimming through these prey groups with its mouth wide open, its large jaws allow it to feed on squid and other creatures much larger than itself. gulper eels have only been studied because they sometimes get caught in the nets of fishermen. the depths they inhabit make it quite difficult for scientists to study them. they can go as deep as 6,000 feet, well beyond the abilities of humans to pursue them. vampire squid perhaps the most frightening of the deep-sea monsters is also the smallest. the vampire squid reaches lengths of only six inches. it is also one of the most ancient of the deep-sea monsters. scientists believe it to be the last surviving member of its order. to see the vampire squid is to wonder how many kinds of sea creatures have been mashed into this one odd-looking spook. part squid, part octopus, and part fish, the vampire squid has features of all of these. first, it has large fins at the top of its head that look like ears. flapping like dumbo, the squid uses these fins to get around. it also has tentacles and a large bulbous head like an octopus. its arms, however, are connected by webbing that allows it to form a cloak around itself when frightened. like the octopus, it can change its colors, even making its cloak so dark that it appears invisible. remarkably, it has the largest eyes compared to its body size of any creature on earth. despite its mere six-inch length, its eyes are as big as those of a large dog. with its glowing orbs of eyes and its disappearing tricks, it's no wonder it's named after one of the most feared creatures of legends and folklore: the vampire. these creatures make one wonder not just about the odd members of the deep-sea community, but also what mysterious things inhabit the regions never visited by humans. what may be lurking in the deepest, darkest corners of the deep blue seas? one thing we know for certain, much like the outrageous monsters we conjure in our worst nightmares, the deep ocean is an equally imaginative source of shock, awe, and outright fright. what are the key differences between the atlantic hagfish and the gulper eel? use details and quotations from the text to support your answer.

The attitude the speaker in this poem holds toward himself can best be described as