Hello. You forgot to enter the text to which this question refers. The text is:
They stood four deep on the afterdeck of the Carpathia , chilled to the bone, staring out at nothing.
Dark water, light swells – no evidence that barely seven hours before, the largest and most magnificent ship the world had ever seen had sailed here in all her glory. The truth was nearly impossible to believe, perhaps the trick of an evil magician. The unsinkable RMS Titanic lay at the bottom of the sea, along with everyone who sailed in her, save the 706 souls rescued and now aboard the Carpathia .
“Look!”
The cry energized the exhausted throng. A flash of color among the endless waves. A survivor?
And then the swell turned over the item that stirred their frozen hearts with momentary hope. A deck chair. Nothing more.
How could this be? The Titanic was more than a steamship. She was a floating city, a sixth of a mile in length, and ninety feet abeam, 66,000 tons gross displacement. Was this piece of flotsam all that was left? How could so much have become so little?
A uniformed steward – no more than seventeen years old – tried to take the arm of a lady who was shivering in the folds of a Cunard Line blanket.
Answer:
The phrase shows how big, developed and imposing the ship was.
Explanation:
The phrase "she was a floating city" is used to describe the titanic's grandiosity and the surprise to see that such an imposing ship was reduced to broken pieces scattered throughout the ocean.
The author states that the Titanic was not just a ship, but a floating city, which means that the ship was large, populous, developed and well structured as a city should be. This means that the population was confident that something so imposing was safe and that they would have a perfect experience when traveling with this ship.
