Answer:
<em>C. the nation, and since then,</em>
Exclamation: If you're joining two sentences together you need a comma to do so. By placing a comma after "nation" and "then" you are making a run-on sentence.
The sentence had repetitive words replaced with synonyms and pronouns. "but my father disliked..." is too much alike to "my father disliked" so it would get tedious and harder to read.
They replaced it with "but he hated ... " to get some variation.
Humanists believe that A. love is an illusion. B. humans and animals existed on the same level. C. Shakespeare didn't actually write the plays we think he did. D. life on earth is important.
<span>A. Imagination makes a story real.</span>
