The answer is
2.research skills
A noun is defined as 'a person, place or thing'.
So, what are things in this sentence?
Dog and paw are things! So, this means there are 2 nouns. =)
The second one about the girl with the skirt.
In this short story, Gogol describes a Major losing his nose and after getting his nose back, the protagonist again returns to his old habits of shopping and flirting. He still makes fun of the people. There is not any serious change in the behavior of the character and he again acts arrogantly. The correct answer is B.