Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon.”

At first I was afraid to approach him—then the fear left me. He was sitting looking out over the city—he was dressed in the clothes of the gods. His age was neither young nor old—I could not tell his age. But there was wisdom in his face and great sadness. You could see that he would have not run away. He had sat at his window, watching his city die—then he himself had died. But it is better to lose one's life than one's spirit—and you could see from the face that his spirit had not been lost. I knew, that, if I touched him, he would fall into dust—and yet, there was something unconquered in the face.

How does the conflict at the beginning of the paragraph move the plot forward?

The story line remains the same. the kids live in what was then one of the remaining beachfront slums, down the coast from the expensive malibu area. the beach was ruled by surfers, but in the afternoon, when the waves died down, some of the surfers, or their younger brothers, fooled around on skateboards. one day, skip engblom, the shop owner, comes up with a key breakthrough, polyurethane wheels: "they grip." with the additional traction, the z-boys try skating the sides of the big, open drainage canal that runs through the area. then comes a brainstorm: because of a drought, the area's swimming pools were drained. the kids started "borrowing" pools when the owners weren't home, to skate the curved sides.” where did “the lords of dogtown” originally practice their tricks? a. the beach c. an open drainage canal b. empty pools d. none of these