What is the predicate of the following sentence?

Which line in this excerpt from the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald contains a simile? about half way between west egg and new york the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. this is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. occasionally a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

Read the excerpt from the war of the worlds, in which the crowd begins to disperse just before the first martian exits the cylinder.when i returned to the common the sun was setting. scattered groups were hurrying from the direction of woking, and one or two persons were returning. the crowd about the pit had increased, and stood out black against the lemon yellow of the sky—a couple of hundred people, perhaps. there were raised voices, and some sort of struggle appeared to be going on about the pit. strange imaginings passed through my mind. as i drew nearer i heard stent's voice: "keep back! keep back! "a boy came running towards me."it's a-movin'," he said to me as he passed; 'a-screwin' and a-screwin' out. i don't like it. i'm a-goin' 'ome, i am."what options accurately depict the impact of the boy's words on pacing within the excerpt? (select all that apply.)the war of the worldsthe setting is in england, so the boy's words provide the reader with the dialect of the area. even though that slows down the plot, the boy's words contain important information.the plot's forward movement is slow at the beginning of the excerpt because there is little action. the boy's words increase the tension and counteract that lag.the narrator is not close enough to see clearly into the pit, so the boy's words provide the narrator with the information he needs, which moves the plot forward.the boy's words serve to speed up the pacing of the plot because, as he is talking to the narrator, he is running past him to get away.the narrator is not close enough to see clearly into the pit, so the boy's words provide the narrator with the information he needs, which moves the plot forward.wrong? the boy's words serve to speed up the pacing of the plot because, as he is talking to the narrator, he is running past him to get away.

What is one reason that thomas pain brings up the opposing argument that the colonies have done well under british control