Read the following excerpt from "the city without us" by alan weisman:
almost every other compound in nature contracts when
frozen, but h20 (water) molecules do the opposite,
organizing themselves into elegant hexagonal crystals that
take up about 9 percent more space than they did when
sloshing around in a liquid state. pretty six-sided crystals
suggest snowflakes so gossamer it's hard to conceive of
them pushing apart slabs of sidewalk.
which statement best describes the effect of the metaphor on the excerpt's
meaning?