In this fictional narrative, characters live in a world in which all the bees are gone. Life is much different as a result. A whole week, Lindy thought, seven glorious days of rest before it started all over again. "Well, at least we're getting near the end of the green beans," she offered. "My back feels like it's been pulled loose and my hands itch all over. Studying for finals would be way better than this. I sure do miss the bees."
"Understatement," Ben said as he rolled his eyes.
In fact, everyone missed the bees. Only a few years had passed since the die-off, but so much had changed. Before the devastating event, the natural population of honeybees was supported by an additional million hives maintained by beekeepers. The keepers shipped their hives from one field to another to pollinate crops all over the country. It was hard to believe it had been a mere three years since the insects had disappeared.
But it was easy to remember the pure panic that followed. At first, only the farmers understood the seriousness of the problem, but when the stock on store shelves began to shrink, everyone understood. We had become a species whose survival depends on eating the seeds of wheat, rice, corn, and millet. It was shocking to realize how many crops depended on the pollination of honeybees.
Of course there were other insects to naturally pollinate the fields; there just weren't enough of them. The government reacted quickly, ordering school students between the ages of 14 and 17 to spend the spring season manually pollinating the fields of beans, melons, wheat, and corn that stretched through farm country from coast to coast. From April through June, the students' daily routine consisted of brushing pollen grains off of flowers' anthers into a pail and then swabbing it onto other flowers' stigmas. She joined Ben and the others, who each carried a lunch-bucket-sized pail in one hand and a three-pronged swab in the other. Methodically, Ben stooped over a bean plant, dipped his swab into his bucket, and lightly touched the spongy tips to the plant's flowers. Stoop and swab. . .stoop and swab...stoop and swab -- eight hours a day, working in shifts that covered all the daylight hours, every day of the week, all season long. The work was tedious, hot, and boring, but without the students working as pollinators..
change that was deadly to female mosquitoes, genetic engineers were the heroes of the developing world. The genetic variation had been introduced to the insects through a scientifically made virus. The celebration was short-lived, however, when the mutation "jumped species." Whether the virus moved to honeybees through pollen or air or water was unclear - and it didn't matter anyway. The results were the same.
In the first year, the honeybee population was infected; in the second year, the entire species was nearly gone. The following year had massive crop failures. A year after that, the president introduced the temporary "School Service Assignment," until a permanent solution could be found. It all seemed to happen so quickly. Now, the genetic engineers were working frantically -- and in secret -- to produce a honeybee that would be immune to the genetic change.
"Lindy, I know I shouldn't think this way, but how many people used to die of malaria and how many more now starve to death?" His voice was low as he bent to the rhythm of their work. "Don't even go there, Ben. That kind of thinking will make you crazy.

Could the events in this selection really happen? Why or why not? Use details from this piece and your own ideas to support and explain your answer.

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:

idk

explanation:

the sentence that best describes the tone of the passage from the radio broadcast compared to the passage from the book is b. the radio broadcast has a more surprised tone.

consider the text evidence: in the passage from the book, the description is more matter-of-fact. it is simply describing the things resembling little grey snakes, but there is no urgency in the description. on the other hand, in the passage from the radio broadcast, there is definetely urgency (you can tell from the expression used, "good heavens", which clearly indicates surprise.)