Answer: it’s a clause dependent
Explanation:
1. impinge = strike
The word impinge can have various meanings, but in the case above, it means to strike. When 'the rain impinge[d] upon the earth,' it means that it started raining, the rain started striking the earth. To impinge means that something starts, and usually something negative.
2. garrulous = loquacious
The word garrulous refers to someone who talks excessively, likes to talk a bit too much, and usually about something trivial. Loquacious is a fancy word to denote the same thing, although it has a more positive connotation - it refers to someone who can speak nicely.
3. pious = religious
The word pious comes from the Latin word pius, which means dutiful. So when English took this word from Latin, it added a different suffix (-ous), and gave it the meaning of being 'dutiful to God.' So nowadays, pious refers to someone who is devoutly religious.
4. ruinous = dilapidated
The word ruinous refers to something which is in ruins, which is falling apart. The word which means the same thing is dilapidated - both of these words are usually used to describe buildings that are very old, and derelict, and are practically in ruins.
Answer: С
. It cut down the travel time of cargo ships moving between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Explanation:
Before the Panama canal was built, ships in the western hemisphere trying to get to the Pacific ocean either had to go around Argentina or South Africa, the latter of which would see them having to go through the Indian Ocean first.
The Panama canal changed all that by cutting a path across Panama in central America to the Pacific. This allowed for ships to be able to get to the Pacific faster and vice versa thereby cutting down the travel time for cargo ships moving between both oceans.
