Excuse me, can you help me with this sentence? "The Mikimoto Store is a must see that showcases a gorgeous selection of pearl jewelry. If you're looking for a more affordable keepsake, you can Pick-A-Pearl for under $20. (The pearl itself is inexpensive, it's the settings that can add up.)" Pick-A-Pearl is an experience event. I don't understand what " it's the settings that can add up " means... Can you explain what it means in another expression to me? Please help me. Thank you in advance!

Can you explain me what 'confound' means here? The timing of coming out to self and others "confounds the vocational development of lesbians in several critical ways". I don't understand this sentence... I will appreciate if you can help me. Thank you in advance!If you need the context, "A central career development issue faced by lesbian and bisexual women as well as gay men is related to their sexual identity development, which occurs later than for most heterosexuals. Many LGB persons do not become aware of their sexual identity until adolescence or adulthood."

Can you explain me the meaning of some words in this sentence? "Providing the legal benefits that the license of marriage offers same-sex households (including, but not limited to, property rights, health care decision-making, estate planning, tax consequences, spousal privileges in medical emergency situations and co-parental adoption of children)" I don't understand what 'estate planning' and 'tax consequences' are. Please help me. Thank you in advance!

Can you enlighten me on these two words in this sentence? "The APA deplores all public and private discrimination in such areas as employment, housing, public accommodation, and licensing against those who engage in or who have engaged in homosexual activities and declares that no burden of such judgment, capacity, or reliability shall be placed upon these individuals greater than that imposed on any other persons." APA is American Psychiatric Association. In 1975, the APA adopted the above resolution concerning the civil and legal rights of LGB persons. I don't fully understand what 'housing' and 'licensing' mean here. Are they equal to housekeeping and getting a driver's license and/or becoming licensed in accounting, teaching and etc? I would really appreciate your help. Thank you in advance!

Can you express this sentence in another way? "Smith pointed to skill training programs, training adults in the skilled trades and in technology, as potentially benefiting minorities and the poor." I tried but I couldn't fully understand this sentence... Can you write this sentence in an easier structure to understand for me? Also I searched 'skilled trades' on the internet dictionary and it said it is people experienced and skilled in their job. Is it true or is it literally trading between two countries? I would really appreciate if you could help me Thank you in advance!!

Can you tell me what the subject and verb are in this sentence? "Unrest in the inner cities of the nation backlash against the perceived privileges being given to minorities and the poor." I don't really understand.... Please help me Thank you in advance!

Can you explain what it means in easier way? "Petrified before a void so vast that it could not be contained within thought, let alone a thinking being, it was impossible to know how long it would take to drift off into the abyss that silently beckoned me." It is too complicated to understand for me. Can you explain it in any other easier way to understand? Please help me Thank you in advance!!If you need context, "As a child, I was terrified of death. It was often in the twilight hours, between the moment of lying down and the imperceptible instant of slipping off to sleep, that the terror would arise. The thought of vanishing completely from the world, of being engulfed in ineradicable darkness, would seize upon me and crush with it the very existence of the world. It was not simply that I would no longer be there. It was that reality itself would collapse, devoid of any point of apprehension."

Can you explain what this sentence mean? "The thought would seize upon me and crush with it the very existence of the world." I don't understand "crush with it the very existence of the world" and what "it" refers in the sentence. Can you explain what it means or express in any other ways? Please help me Thank you in advance!