The correct answer is letter b.
The excerpt is written in the Simple Past and narrates a series of events that happened in a sequence.
Notice the verbs in the Simple Past : wept, wailed, fell, faded and died.
There is a verb missing in the part " the earth stiff and cold" The verb is grow, the Simple Past form is grew, therefore " the earth grew stiff and cold" is the correct way.
Letter A is wrong because there's a verb missing.
Letter C and letter D " the earth was growing stiff and cold" the verb grow is in the Past Continuos, " the leaves were falling from the sorrowing trees" the verb fall is also in the Past Continous breaking the pattern stablished.
Him, His, He. These words are masculine because they are used to refer to the male figure.
Could i get more details to the question
For indicating time, the best answer is C- During, because this word tells a reader when an action is taking place.
Again implies that something has been done before, and is being done again, but does not imply <em>when</em> it is being re-done.
Furthermore is a word with a similar meaning to "Also", so it is not connected to the idea of time.
Besides generally means "other than" which, again, has no connection to time.
