Read the passage and answer the question.

[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 isnÕt 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.

In the first sentence of the passage, the author uses the word "unhappy" to describe the growth of the yucca tree. Which word has a similar denotation to "unhappy" but would create a tone of distaste?

gloomy
melancholy
miserable
unfortunate

Does anyone know the answer to the question?

Which theme do all rivers run to the sea and maus share?

{asap} select the correct text in the passage. which line in this excerpt from jonathan swift's "a modest proposal" uses the rhetorical device of irony? and secondly, there being a round million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock, would leave them in debt two million of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession, to the bulk of farmers, cottagers and labourers, with their wives and children, who are beggars in effect; i desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner i prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever. i profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that i have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. i have no children, by which i can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing. lines highlighted: - there being a round million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock, would leave them in debt two million of pounds sterling, - they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather - i have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the publick good of my country, - i have no children, by which i can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.