Read the excerpt from "Black Hole Beginnings."

Before a star is a star, it is an enormous cloud of gases. At the start, wisps of gas and drifts of dust collect, their gravity drawing them together. As more stuff gathers, its combined gravitation grows stronger. Which image would best

support a reader's understanding of the text?

Read this passage from "the city without us" by alan weisman: which statement best explains how the structure of the passage supports the author's purpose? a. the passage traces several events in the order that they will occur to highlight how nature conquers human civilization. b. the passage shows that natural forces such as an absence of predators and an increase in the squirrel population can lead to destructive results. c. the passage shows that natural forms such as an absence of predators and human hunters can lead to the reforestation of new york city. d. the passage identifies how two natural forces are co-dependent - the deforestation of new york and the extinction of squirrels.