In O'Brien's excerpt those sentences are: <span>In a way, it seemed, he was part of the morning fog, or my own imagination, but there was also the reality of what was happening in my stomach. This sentence evokes a bodily reaction and calls it "the reality". It is not just imagined; it really happens. </span><span>I tried to swallow whatever was rising from my stomach, which tasted like lemonade, something fruity and sour. It's as if his body has its own way of processing the distressing information. He feels a very specific kind of nausea, triggered by his mental processes.
In Steinbeck's excerpt it's these sentences: </span><span>In all kinds of combat the whole body is battered by emotion. The ductless glands pour their fluids into the system to make it able to stand up to the great demand on it. They describe a very physical reaction, which is a product of emotional distress. It's as if the body is trying to defend the whole system from detrimental factors.</span>
He can’t make sense of it.
explanation:
an old saying is something like “can’t figure out heads from tails” basically meaning that that are confused or ‘can’t make sense of it’
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) uses a fine humor style which is easily detected in extracts like:
<em>"Thish-yer Smiley had a mare; the boys called the fifteen minute nag(...) for all she was so slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper or the consumption, or something of that kind."</em>
<em>"...And he had a little small bull pup, that to look at him you´d think he warn´t worth a cent(...) his underjaw´d begin to stick out like the fo´castle of a steamboat..."</em>
<em>"...He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he cal´klated to edercate him(...) and you bet you he did learn him, too.</em>
Twain is satirizing several aspects of American life, but specially the country "punks" who tend to speak at length about subjects that are close to them but are really unimportant an nonsensical.
Scarcity does not mean the same thing a shortage so the answer to this question is false.