A man who wears long, thinning hair. The clues are "sleekly hanging" or dangling hair, his hair goes at least down to the shoulders "a few strands were spread" and the description of the thinning hair is found at "but they (the few strands) lay thin in rat's trails, one by one."
Weak: potent
The answer is potent.
I believe these parts provide direct characterization: "<span>Endowed with commonsense, as massive and hard as blocks of granite, fastened together by stern rigidity of purpose, as with iron clamps, he followed out his original design, probably without so much as imagining an objection to it."
The writer clearly and directly describes the character's personal features, as well as his internal motivation for an action. It is opposed to indirect characterization, where we can grasp the character's traits or motivation through his/her actions or speech.</span>
The word "Yet" sounds appropriate but if this is multiple choice I'd like to know the choices.
B. "They were ballet dancers twirling in <span> the wind." </span>
Is your answer.
A metaphor is like when you are more comparing something to something.
A simile would be like "my dog is as smelly as my socks"
