Read the excerpt from "Surrendering” by Ocean Vuong.Little moments of ice hurled themselves against the window as the boys and girls, my peers, stared, their faces as unconvinced as blank sheets of paper.

The phrase “Little moments of ice hurled themselves” uses imaginative, figurative language, and the comparison of the peers’ faces to “blank sheets of paper” is poetic rather than scholarly or conversational. These images suggest a tense, unsettled feeling, so the poetic diction creates a perturbed tone. The best choice is “Poetic diction creates a perturbed tone.”

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