Read the following excerpt from "the city without us" by alan weisman: as it happens, that will be the key to breaching manhattan's hard shell if nature sets about dismantling it. it would begin very quickly, with the first strike at the city's most vulnerable spot: its underbelly. which statement best describes the effect of the metaphor on the excerpt's meaning? a. it links two unlike objects together, the city and a machine, showing how they can both be dismantled. b. it likens a quick breach of the city to a first strikeout at manhattan's baseball stadium. c. it compares the city to an animal, which has a hard, protective shell, but a soft underbelly. d. it compares the key to the city to the hard shell of manhattan to illustrate its open door policy.