<span>"The long and meticulous study and debate" since everything else is just serving as details to it.</span>
Explanation:
English has two articles: the and a/an. The is used to refer to specific or particular nouns; a/an is used to modify non-specific or non-particular nouns. We call the the definite article and a/an the indefinite article. For example, if I say, "Let's read the book," I mean a specific book.
The personification in this is “But here and there a few cars groaning creep...” the idea this personification gives about New York is probably that New York is [obviously] just waking up and people are starting to drive their cars around the city.
I think it would be either C or A, but I think C is more right than A
