I despise the fact that John is never on time when we have an appointment.
Option B has the most strongly developed negative tone. The author does this through the use of the words "despise" and "never". These words are strongly negative as they have little or no hope for something positive to occur. Option A uses negative words like unfortunately and canceled but these are merely disappointing. The words not and strange in C are negative but don't create a strong negative tone, just displeasure. Option D is similar in tone to A and C because the narrator is merely displeased and disappointed.
The answer is C. A theme is the lesson that the author is trying to teach to the reader.
Since you didn't provide the excerpt, I am going to assume that the answer you need is 'hearken'.
