Answer:
The first portion: Ultimately pointless as it was fierce and acrimonious, means that that it was as much of a waste of time as it was aggressive and fueled by fury. Second they acknowledge that it was not that the couldn't prevent it but they didn't know what happened.
Explanation:
Famous and unknown. this is the analogy
D- gerunds include 'ing' which allows a verb to act as a noun.
When having in mind the meaning of a direct observation, we can state that is the method of collecting information for a study by watching the subject directly without making any changes to its natural habitat. based on that we know that the best option is the last one: <span>determining the seal population of an island by counting seals in 10 square meters of the island. I know this is going to be helpful</span>