5. preying on others; tending to victimize or destroy others for one's own gain

i think the correct answer would be adjustments in life roles.  this causes for one to adjust or change totally his/her career or lifestyle since the present is not beneficial to the life role he is at. for instance, you became a mother you would of course stop going to malls and enjoying life outside. you would be staying at home taking care of your child.

  this riddles' answer is library.

  the "leaves" are a reference to the books' pages that the library contains; the branches are a network of libraries that connect multiple libraries' collections, resources, and items in a system of a common database, integrating them; the branches' organization are a useful management tool for coordinating the multiple collections many libraries have.