Answer:
A gerund is a form of a verb used as a noun, whereas a participle is a form of verb used as an adjective or as a verb in conjunction with an auxiliary verb. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that modifies a noun. This grammatical construction usually sits next to another noun and modifies it by renaming it or describing it in another way. Appositives are generally offset with commas or dashes.
Examples:
Gerund: Verb: Read; Gerund: Reading; Sentence: Her favorite hobby is reading.
Participle: A participle is an adjective made from a verb. Verb: Sleep; Participle: Sleeping; Phrase: The sleeping dog.
Appositive: Sentence: "The boy raced ahead to the finish line"; Appositive: "The boy, an avid sprinter, raced ahead to the finish line."
For the first two, the difference is really the context of the phrase/sentence. The gerund turns the verb into a noun, turning the <em>action </em>of reading into a <em>thing, </em>or a <em>hobby</em>. A participle phrase takes the <em>action </em>of sleeping and turns it into an adjective, and results in "the sleeping dog."
The skepticism is characterized by an atittude of doubting, questioning and/or not believing something or someone.
As we can see in “Of Cannibals”, Montaigned used skepticism to justify his arguments on his opinion about clever people. For instance:
1) “They never show you things as they are” – The author also said that clever people “cannot help altering history a little”, and then he says that they never show things as they really are; meaning that since he believes that clever people tend to change facts and information, the consequence of it is that their speech isn’t 100% honest. Therefore, he is skeptical when it comes to the true nature of those facts.
2) (...) And to give credence to their judgement and attract you to it, they are prone to add something to the matter, to strecht it out or amplify it” – Now the author claims that clever people try to convince others by adding details or facts to what actually happened. He believes that once the fact is amplified, it gets more attention and credit. In this case, he is being skeptical in regards to judgements and opinions, suggesting that clever people aren’t really honest in their judgements as they want others to “buy their ideas” and because of it they will tell things in a way that will persuade people to do what they want and believe what they say.
"It is a gold coin dropped
down a drain in Heaven"
The comparison means that it's sort of like a golden coin that someone had dropped down a sink drain on an accident, but someone dropped it down the drain in heaven and it has now landed in the sky of the Earth.
I think the author chose to make this comparison because the sun is yellow and it is sort of a golden color and it is sort of common for things to be dropped down the drain. Therefore, it is like a golden coin going down the drain of heaven and into the sky.
I think the correct answer from the choices listed above is the last option. The connotation of narrow in the passage creates a feeling of suffocation. Narrow means <span> having a small distance from one side to the other. This could be related to suffocation due to the small space. Hope this answers the question.</span>