Can someone help me out here?

Read the passage. then, identify the theme that is supported by the passage. most ships cannot survive a terrible thunderstorm. the ocean is an angry beast that will tame any who try to control it. the gods have the power to control human destiny. men are willing to die to eat the delicious cattle of the gods.

[1] nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old [5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone-shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of sugary sap. the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their [10] own delectation why does the author use the words "bayonet-pointed" (line 4) and "fence of daggers" (line 9) to describe the leaves of the yucca tree? . to create an image of the sharp edges of the plant to emphasize how beautiful the plant's leaves are to explain when and where the plant grows to show how afraid the author is of the plant

According to the mla format, which best demonstrates the similarities and differences between the citations of a magazine and a book? both require the title and author, while magazines require the editor of the magazine. both require a date of publication, while magazines require the page number of the article. both require the format of the book, while books require the page number of the information. both require a location of publication, while books require the edition of the book if there is more than one.