Gina has been living in the southern United States for the majority of her life. She understands the damages that can be caused by hurricanes because she has experienced three in her lifetime. She feels like she can prepare for almost any type of hurricane damage except for the severe flooding caused by a storm surge. The word underlined in the sentence above is best defined as . A. broken pieces of an item that has been destroyed B. the altitude line above which trees will no longer continue to grow C. a large wall of water that is forced onto shore by storm winds D. a circular storm that creates winds exceeding 74 mph, large waves, and heavy rains

I've looked this question up. The part that is supposed to be underlined is storm surge.

The word underlined in the sentence above is best defined as C. a large wall of water that is forced onto shore by storm winds.

Explanation:

A storm surge is a term that refers to the rising of water level in the ocean. This rise goes above the level of a predicted tide and is caused solely by a storm. Having that in mind, we can see that, among the options given, the one whose definition best fits the explanation above is C. a large wall of water that is forced onto shore by storm winds. Even if we did not know the definition for storm surge, we could guess by paying attention to context clues. In the sentence, it is said that the storm surge causes flooding. We can eliminate options A and B, since they have no connection with floods. As for letter D, it is the definition of a hurricane, so it does not apply to a storm surge.