Hiking is a pleasant activity. how does the underlined gerund function in the sentence?
a. as a direct object
b. as an indirect object
c. as an appositive
d. as a subject

In which part of this excerpt from the gettysburg address does president abraham lincoln argue that the outcome of the war will depend on the determination and loyalty of northern citizens? four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. we are met on a great battle-field of that war. we have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. but, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow— this ground. the brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. it is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under god, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Which type of organizational pattern is most clearly used in this expert from mark twain’s life on the mississippi

Imagination! who can sing thy force? or who describe the swiftness of thy course? soaring through air to find the bright abode, th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring mode, we on thy pinions can surpass the wind, and leave the rolling universe behind: from star to star the mental optics rove, measure the skies, and range the realms above. there in one view we grasp the mighty whole, or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul. what does the speaker compare imagination to in the poem? a. a soaring bird b. the sky c. a cloud d. a sailing ship