For the first question, in option A, the author is calling it "The special race". In C, the author agrees with the idea that the Road Race deserves to become popular. On D, he or she talks about the amazing crowd. On option, B, though, only facts are stated. Making it the correct answer:
B) By 1980, just ten years later, the race had grown from 110 runners to over 20,000 people and had nearly outgrown the four-lane street.
For the second question, the author is not trying to sell you the idea of not buying an MP3 player, he or she is, instead, bashing MP3 Player owners, purely. So the correct answer would be:
C) people who feel the same way as the author
