Question

I doubt we will ever truly know whether dragons existed. There may always be two sides to the fiery debate. Some will say the stories come from active imaginations. Some will believe with all their hearts that the legendary creatures roamed our ancient world. I don't know for certain which side to believe, but the sound and fury of a night like this makes me smile. It rekindles my childhood dreams and keeps the exciting possibility alive. In paragraph 5, the author discusses two sides to the dragon debate. Which statement best summarizes the ideas in the paragraph? The author implicitly states that she believes that dragons once existed. The author explicitly states that she believes that dragons once existed. The author implicitly states that she believes that dragons did not exist. The author explicitly states that she believes that dragons did not exist.

Answer 1

I would say the answer is "The author implicitly states that she believes that dragons once existed", because despite not directly stated by the author herself, it can be inferred that she believes this based on the paragraph. I hope this helps!

Answer 2

I think the answer is The author implicitly states that she believes that dragons once existed. First, the author directly stated that she doesn't know which side to believe (this indicate that she is open minded about the possibilities)
the additional proof for this answer is she also said that  it keeps the exciting possibility alive,  which indicates that the author believe that even though it's small, there is a possibility that dragon once exist in this world