Question

shel silverstein wrote the poem \sarah cynthia sylvia stout.\ it is about a girl who will not take the garbage out. she pollutes the world with leftovers from consumption. miss stout does not realize that she is right to keep her garbage. instead of letting it pile up, however, she should recycle her peach pits, orange peels, brown bananas, coffee grounds, and so forth. fruit and vegetable waste, eggshells, shredded newspapers, dryer lint, and even pet fur can be thrown in the garden. all this \garbage\ is good for the soil. compost works as a natural pesticide, too. this is a good thing because organic gardeners cannot use bug spray. as for yard waste, miss stout could add shrub clippings, leaves, and straw. she just needs to be sure that there is a nice mix of waste, not too much of one thing. chopping materials into smaller pieces will help them break down faster. these materials will decompose and make 3 which choice would best replace decompose in the passage? a. grow strong b. damage c. develop d. break down

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze the context. The passage is about organic waste (like fruit peels, leaves) in composting. "Decompose" here means the waste breaks down (chemically/biologically) to become part of the soil.

• Option A ("grow strong") is irrelevant to waste breakdown.
• Option B ("damage") implies harm, not natural breakdown.
• Option C ("develop") suggests growth/improvement, not decomposition.
• Option D ("break down") matches the meaning of "decompose" in the context of organic materials breaking into simpler substances.

Answer:

D. break down