Surroundings Everything in the universe surrounding a thermodynamic system

Surroundings everything in the universe surrounding a thermodynamic system. (9.1)... 

Surroundings everything in the universe surrounding a thermodynamic system. 

C is correct. The reaction is the system, and everything outside the reaction makes up the surroundings. The entropy change given in the passage refers to the system not the universe. The second law of thermodynamics says that a reaction is spontaneous when the entropy of the universe is positive. The entropy of the system may be positive or negative. A and B are false statements. D is a false statement as well. The reaction runs until the entropy of the universe is maximized. 

The sum of the entropy of a system plus the entropy of the surroundings is everything there is, and so we refer to the total entropy change as the entropy change of the universe, AS niy. We can therefore state the second law of thermodynamics in terms of two equations ... 

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