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Answer: We believe the sentence is best completed this way:

“When the theater began to shake, startled students looked up from their scripts and bounced to their feet like jerked marionettes.”

Nothing causes a sudden shift in emotions and activity like an earthquake. When a person standing on the ground or—on a floor that previously exhibited rock-solid characteristics— suddenly senses movement under his feet, reaction is usually swift, if shaky. In this sentence, when a tremor struck the theater, the students immediately “bounced” up as if jerked skyward by a puppeteer. By comparing the students’ abrupt movement to that of a marionette on a string, the writer not only conveys the suddenness of the scramble but ties it in with the students being in a theater, where puppetry often is staged. Descriptions that honor an entire sentence satisfy.
沒有任何情況能如地震般地給予人在情緒和行動上的立即轉變。當某人站在地面或看似堅若磐石的地板上時，對於腳下突然的劇烈震動，他通常能立即作出反應。本句描寫地震襲擊劇院時，學生們「bounced」（彈起），就像操偶師猛然將木偶向上提拉一般。將學生突發的動作比喻成被細繩操縱的木偶，這裡作者不光是傳達了動作的倉促，也成功將學生動作位置與經常上演木偶劇的劇院做連結。如此的敘述手法才能替整個句子增色並讓人滿意。