I don’t see the passage but it is probably struggle.
Staccato is a music term that means short and detached. It is an antonym for legato which is long and attached.
Exercise 1:
an ocean
a pebble
an insect
a bug
a web
an archaeologist
an eagle
a geologist
a fossil
an ancient fossil
You only change "a" to "an" when the next word starts with a vowel.
