Read the following passage from “Three Skeleton Key”:

The rats of the sea are fierce…. Large, strong, and intelligent, clannish and seawise, able to put the best of mariners to shame with their knowledge of the sea, their uncanny ability to foretell the weather.

How has the author managed to communicate the power of the rats in these sentences?

A. by making them sound like animals
B. by making them crawl like animals
C. by making them seem like people
D. by making them talk like people