Here's the text that created it. Note that the new coding is in bold. It should be quite pale offering just a highlight. The highlight is the winner here. One color change will be enough.
Paragraphs look bad when there are varying amounts of space between lines.
The underline of a link creates that extra bit of space you don't want. The hover command is all-encompassing. Elements that sit around the link will move if the hover wants an underline. If anything moves when you perfom the rollover, lose the underline. I am quite sure that you can come up with examples whereas the following three methods work well.