Explanation: the denotation of a word is its literal meaning, the definition that we can find in a dictionary, a word can have several denotations (or definitions). In the given excerpt from chapter 1 of "The Scarlet Letter" we can see the use of the word "inauspicious" which denotation is "not conducive to successs; unpromising or unfavorable" so the correct answer is option D: D.) unfavorable, boding.
