Nothing is underlined in your sentence, but the sentence sounds like it is set in the present.
B. present
She is speaking about times in which man becomes most desperate that in times where one is attacked, hurt or in a position from which something awful may occur they become their most powerful. This can be related to times where you struggled and found strength within yourself to do what you thought was impossible.
If the suffix begins with a vowel, drop the the silent E
the answer would have to be D.
