All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable.

Which of the following assertions is supported by this text?

The forces of nature are not predictable enough for the narrator.
The forces of nature are responsible for the shift in focus of the narrator.
The narrator sees himself as a prisoner of the forces of nature.
I think the answer is the second or third one but I have no idea

And thus for a time I was occupied by exploded systems, mingling, like an unadept, a thousand contradictory theories and floundering desperately in a very slough of multifarious knowledge, guided by an ardent imagination and childish reasoning, till an accident again changed the current of my ideas. When I was about fifteen years old we had retired to our house near Belrive, when we witnessed a most violent and terrible thunderstorm. It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens. I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight. As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed.

Before this I was not unacquainted with the more obvious laws of electricity. On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. All that he said threw greatly into the shade Cornelius Agrippa, Albertus Magnus, and Paracelsus, the lords of my imagination; but by some fatality the overthrow of these men disinclined me to pursue my accustomed studies. It seemed to me as if nothing would or could ever be known. All that had so long engaged my attention suddenly grew despicable. By one of those caprices of the mind which we are perhaps most subject to in early youth, I at once gave up my former occupations, set down natural history and all its progeny as a deformed and abortive creation, and entertained the greatest disdain for a would-be science which could never even step within the threshold of real knowledge. In this mood of mind I betook myself to the mathematics and the branches of study appertaining to that science as being built upon secure foundations, and so worthy of my consideration.

From the passage, it can be inferred that the second assertion, "The forces of nature are responsible for the shift in focus of the narrator," is supported by the text. The narrator mentions that witnessing the violent thunderstorm and the destruction of the oak tree changed the current of their ideas. It led them to give up their former occupations, such as natural history, and pursue the study of mathematics instead.

To find this answer, you can analyze the passage and focus on the parts where the narrator describes their change in focus. This can be found in the following sentences:

- "When I was about fifteen years old we ... the current of my ideas."
- "Before this I was not unacquainted ... the threshold of real knowledge."

By examining these sentences, you can gather that the forces of nature, in the form of the thunderstorm and the destruction of the oak tree, played a significant role in the shift of the narrator's focus.

The assertion that is supported by this text is: The forces of nature are responsible for the shift in focus of the narrator.

In the passage, the narrator describes witnessing a violent thunderstorm and the destruction of an oak tree by a lightning strike. This event, along with the explanation given by the man of great research in natural philosophy, leads the narrator to dismiss his previous interests and studies and focus instead on mathematics and related subjects. This shift in focus is directly attributed to the experience with the forces of nature and the new theory of electricity and galvanism. Therefore, the forces of nature are responsible for the change in the narrator's attention.