Question

[1]nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old [5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of sugary sap, the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their [10] own delectation.Why does the author use the word "prize" to describe the bloom of the yucca tree (line 9)? a. To communicate how rare it is to find the bloom b. To emphasize the deliciousness of the bloom c. To highlight the color and shape of the bloom d. To show how to prepare the bloom for eating

Answer 1

(A) To communicate how rare it is to find the bloom

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

a. To communicate how rare it is to find the bloom.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the given passage, the author talks about how the yucca tree may be useless and "its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even the moonlight fearful." But irrespective of how the tree may be, there is one good thing about the plant. It produces the best bloom which is "luxurious, creamy, cone shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of sugary sap". This is what the Indians used to "roast the prize for their own delectation", which shows that the bloom is something that they treasure, something precious and worth more than it seems to be. The author's use of the word "prize" shows that he bloom is rare and hard to find/ get, laying emphasis on the bloom despite the hardship it entails in extracting it from the "fence of daggers".