What is the purpose of a reference point? What does a reference point provide?

the enthalpy of formation of water is given as -285.8kj/mol, which states that the enthalpy of formation is negative.

negative enthalpy of formation indicates that the heat is released during the reaction process. the heat is released from reaction to the surroundings the enthalpy is expressed with a negative sign with the energy given out in the reaction process.

the formation of water takes place by giving out heat which is -285.8 kj/mol.

a). in this case, dh> 0 and sd> 0. if t becomes larger, the term "-tds" will become more negative. at some point, it is possible that -dts will be more negative than the dh is positive, and the reaction will become spontaneous. this is probably the correct answer, but you should look at all of the other possibilities and make sure of that.