Excerpt adapted from The Unicorn of the Sea by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The narwhal is a toothed whale, but it is different from all other toothed whales in that it has no teeth in its mouth. Instead, male narwhals have a single, long, straight tooth (or tusk) that protrudes two to three meters out of the upper left jaw. Females almost never have a tusk. The tooth grows in a counterclockwise spiral.
It is this tusk for which narwhals are best known. There are many legends about the tusk of the narwhal. It is essentially the origin of the myth of the unicorn—European whalers that were in the Arctic would catch narwhals and bring tusks back to Europe with great stories about what kind of animals the tusks were attached to. But in terms of the biology of the animal, the tusk is actually used for social structure, to establish hierarchies of dominance for the males within narwhal pods. Narwhals have a black-and-white mottled skin pattern and are white underneath. The scientific name for these whales, Monodon monoceros, means "one tooth, one horn."
Not very much is known about narwhals, largely because they are difficult to study. They live in remote places, far from civilization, in a habitat that is dark for one half the year, covered in ice for the other half of the year, and not easy to access.
We do know that narwhals have adapted to be one of the deepest diving marine mammals, capable of diving to depths of more than 1,800 meters and able to spend a large amount of their time below 800 meters. Not many animals can sustain such intense pressures below the surface of the water and stay under the water for so long.
The primary prey of narwhals include Greenland halibut, polar and Arctic cod, shrimp, and squid. They change their diets seasonally, feeding intensely in the winter and eating little during the ice-free summer season. This feeding pattern is the opposite of other subarctic whale species, who tend to migrate south in the winter and feed in the summer. Scientists believe the narwhal's intense winter feeding period may be an adaptation to relatively low productivity in the high Arctic summering areas or perhaps a behavioral trait to avoid competition with lower-latitude whales feeding in summer.

Select the correct answer.
How does the second paragraph of the passage support the author's purpose?
A.
It describes a physical attribute of the narwhal that makes it unique.
B.
It argues that the population of narwhals is approaching a dangerously low number.
C.
It relates a funny anecdote about the narwhal that demonstrates its gentle nature.
D.
It explains why the narwhal is a difficult animal for scientists to study.

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by: nita twenty thousand leagues under the sea some time ago, i decided to read twenty thousand leagues under the sea, by jules verne. i figured that because it was so well known it must be an extremely interesting book. in addition, it was science fiction, the one area that i was always interested. my assumption was only partially correct, for i only was to a degree interested in the piece of writing. when jules verne was writing this book, he must have been reading some incredibly dull science book the day before, for that was what the book was written as.  

the style of writing was utterly against my tastes, and though the plot was moderately interesting, the style of writing really ruined it. often, the author will trail off describing some marine animal for pages at a time. two entire chapters were almost entirely this! however, the setting and characters of the story seemed to be well thought out. nevertheless, 20,000 leagues under the sea was an extremely tedious volume. when the story was introduced, jules verne described m. aronnax, the main character, whose love for marine biology was more important than anything else to him did.  

this immediately led to the international crisis about a bizarre aquatic creature, which immediately dragged m. aronnax into the action. due to his expertise on the matter, the public expected pierre to be the one to solve this mystery. m. aronnax, under all this pressure, concluded that the animal was to be called the narwhale. at first, the matter was taken lightly, and only expert scientists were involved. however, when this animal began to become a threat to all ships in the water, the military took the issue into its own hands.  

it promptly fitted a frigate, the abraham lincoln, to destroy the beast, and invited pierre to join them, for his science capabilities. for many months they searched, but could not find this narwhale anywhere. when they found it, it attacked the ship, disabling it, and sending m. aronnax, ned land (a harpooner) and conseil (servant of pierre) overboard. soon, the three were guests in the narwhale, now known to be a ship, the nautilus, commanded by captain nemo. during the stay aboard the nautilus, pierre conseil and ned encounter and discover many wonderful and interesting facts from the sea. often, they would accompany the captain in an under water expedition.  

several of these excursions were to hunt, and others were simply to explore a submarine region. one of the times when the purpose was just to investigate an underwater region, captain nemo and m. aronnax explored the lost city of atlantis. on a separate occasion, pierre found that there was a supply of coal underwater that the nautilus used as a source of fuel. in addition to underwater excursions, the nautilus itself was on a round the world journey, which accounted for the most exiting time of the book. this was when captain nemo was attempting to access the south pole.  

that meant passing the great ice barrier, and surviving with very little air. during this rather long voyage, the submarine gets wedged between two icebergs, and is almost crushed! to add to this, the inhabitants of the nautilus almost die of suffocation from the lack of air. finally, at the end of the book, the three friends narrowly escape that nautilus.  

this all occurs during the maelstrom, which is a deadly storm, which makes the escape so daring. at the end, the three friends end up in a fisherman's shack, not knowing how they arrived, for they were knocked unconscious. that is how the events in the story twenty thousand leagues under the sea took place. the main character in this book was an extremely well recognized marine biologist named m. pierre aronnax. m. aronnax is one who gets the most benefit throughout the course of the book. pierre was always curious, which often got in the way of following his instincts and good judgment.  

also, he sometimes talked to himself! in addition, his faithful servant, conseil, follows his master during all of his adventures. conseil never really said much, and the role he played was one of a calm and humble person. another character of importance was ned land, the most well known harpooner of all his time. this man proved himself to be very useful when the threesome attempt to escape the nautilus. on the other hand, ned land was always quick tempered, and free willed.  

these qualities almost got many people killed many times during the book. the next most important character and perhaps the most outlandish one of all was captain nemo. note that this was not his real name, however, the actual name was never given in the book. captain nemo was forever strict and secretive to everyone. he never showed any emotion on his face, and never showed any bodily expressions in any way except when he was in extreme anguish. the setting that the story took place in was quite interesting.  

explanation:

all of the statements cuz