Is this fear as groundless as a child’s fear of the bogeyman?

the judge ruled that the charges against the defendent were groundless and
dismissed the case.

groundless means:

a.
severe

b.
able to be disputed

c.
without basis

d.
upsetting

When doing a close reading, what is involved in the process of annotating a text?

Ineed simplifying this thesis and making it easier to understand for the reader (more concise) "no matter how religious one may be, one’s faith tends to change under unexpected and challenging circumstances."

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt