Is there any background to this like a short story or something?
Answer:
A. Determiner
Explanation:
To answer this question we need to understand what determiner is.
A determiner is a word that introduces a noun. It always comes before a noun, not after; it can come before an adjective used to describe the noun.
<u>There are 4 main types of determiners: articles, demonstratives, quantifiers, and possessives.</u>
<u>A</u> cat is a good pet - <u>determiner-article</u>
<u>These</u> black raspberries are sour - <u>determiner-demonstrative</u>
He ate <u>all</u> the cookies - <u>determiner-quantifier</u>
It's <u>our</u> secret recipe - <u>determiner-possessive</u>
As for our sentence - <em>These bagels are stale</em> - the word <u>'these' </u>is a determiner (demonstrative pronoun).
Demonstrative pronouns are also used as determiners in English. There are four of them: this, that, these and those. Demonstratives are used in a situation in which the speaker can point to the item they mean, making them even more specific than a definite article.
To sum up, the word <u>'these'</u> is a demonstrative pronoun and we can think option B is correct as it is a pronoun; but exactly in this sentence, <u>it is a pronoun that plays a role of a determiner. </u>
I hope it helped you :)
According to the dictionary entry, the word 'regime' is (3.) a noun.
<u>The word 'regime' is a noun and it is mainly used to refer to a particular system of government of a country</u>. It usually has a negative connotation since it is associated with authoritarian governments. An example is: "The Nazi regime ended in 1945, the year in which Germany was defeated by the Allies". However, the word 'regime' can also be used to refer to an ordered way of operating and organizing things. It also functions as a noun in this sense.