Marking 20pts read the excerpt from chapter 8 of the travels of marco polo. now that i have given you this second-hand account of the gryphon bird, let me add that the great khan sent special emissaries here to learn about these islands, and again to treat for the release of a previous emissary who had been detained as a captive. and these later emissaries, and the other who had been held captive, had much to tell him of the marvels of these strange islands. i assure you that they brought back with them the tusks of a wild boar of monstrous size. he had one of them weighed and found that its weight was 14 lb. you may infer for yourselves what must have been the size of the boar that had such tusks as this. indeed they declare that some of these boars are as big as buffaloes. there are also giraffes in plenty, and wild asses too. altogether their beasts and birds are so different from ours that it is a marvel to hear tell of them and a greater marvel to behold them. to return for a moment to the gryphon birds, i should explain that the islanders call them rukhs and know them by no other name and have no idea what a gryphon is. but i feel sure from the monstrous size they attribute to the birds that they cannot be anything but gryphons. which details from the text best support the author's purpose to inform the reader that the islands are amazing to him? select three options. there are plenty of giraffes and wild asses on the islands. the wild boars on the island are as big as buffaloes, with 14 lb tusks. the gryphon birds are monstrous in size. the account of the gryphon bird is second-hand. the islanders call the gryphons “rukhs.”

-There are plenty of giraffes and wild asses on the islands.

-The wild boars on the island are as big as buffaloes, with 14 lb tusks.

-The gryphon birds are monstrous in size.  

are the answer

The correct answers would be option A: "There are plenty of giraffes and wild asses on the islands", option B: "The wild boars on the island are as big as buffaloes, with 14 lb tusks", and option C: "The gryphon birds are monstrous in size". All these details show that the author is captivated by the islands because he saw things that he had never seen before, these being the quantity of wild animals or their size and huge atributes.

Option D is not a relevant detail since it shows no wonder and option E is just an informative detail used as support, not as a remarkable thing by itself.

21 balloons is the story of professor william sherman's travels.

in 1883, he set off from san francisco for a balloon ride over the pacific and was found a month later floating with 21 balloons in the atlantic ocean. this seemed an astounding feat and everyone wanted to know what had happened.    

professor sherman was loyal, however, and said he would tell his tale first to the western american explorers club in san francisco, of which he was a member. this built up suspense for several chapters before he began to tell of the wonders of his adventures and the amazing island of krakatoa, an island which had just been blown up by a volcano.  

the residents of krakatoa are all millionaires who live under a "gourmet government" of their own devising. we get to see all the incredible adventures that creative people with unlimited resources would create according to the author.