Thoreau mostly uses imagery to illustrate time in the excerpt. The second sentence is saying that he is in the midst of time/living, and he can "detect how shallow it is," meaning that he is aware that life is short and that the end is inevitable. Thoreau also describes time as being fleeting, but ever-present.
I hope this helps!
<u>Answer</u>:
- The sign cautioned swimmers to stay within the designated swimming area–adverbial phrase.
- The lifeguards on the beach watched the swimmers carefully–adjectival phrase.
- Children and their parents built sandcastles with tall towers–adjectival phrase
- Seagulls soared over the water, searching for food–adjectival phrase.
<u>Explanation</u><em>:</em>
<em>- The sign cautioned swimmers to stay within the designated swimming area:</em>
In this sentence, the word "within" acts as an adverbial phrase telling us where the swimmers were asked to stay. And the words "stay within the designated swimming area" is a prepositional phrase since it uses the preposition "within".
<em>- The lifeguards on the beach watched the swimmers carefully</em>:
Remember, adjectives are known for ending with 'ly', and the word "carefully" modifies the sentence, telling us how the lifeguards watched the swimmers.
<em>- Children and their parents built sandcastles with tall towers:</em>
This is the case because the adjective "tall" is used in the sentence to modify the word "tower", in a sense telling us the type of towers built.
<em>- Seagulls soared over the water, searching for food:</em>
The adjective "searching" is used to modify the entire sentence telling us what the Seagulls soared the waters for.
Either answer choice 2 or 3, and im leaning towards choice 3
