Which line from “Cruel Tribute” best supports the idea that the elders help to advance the plot? "O mighty king," they said, "what have we done that you should wish thus to destroy us from the earth?"
“But we do deny it—we do deny it!”
“What is the tribute which you require?”
“It is better that a few should perish than that the whole city should be destroyed,” they said.

lemme see i dont think i know that one h

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).