Answer:
C. by providing biographical information about specific astronomers and their discoveries.
From this excerpt, we can see that the theme depicted is (C) keeping up appearances in society. There is an indirect nod to theme in the first line "In reality it was just what is usually seen in the houses of people of moderate means who want to appear rich..."
It seems every individual wants to show that they are more affluent than they actually are, and in doing so they all purchase the same décor etc.
There are several ways in which writers use direct characterization in a story, but the most common way is that they will take time to describe each character in detail.
Iv read it and went to a play but im sorry i cant remember if i can i will help.