Evaluating everything you read, hear, and see in the media
The correct answer is "influence." To explore the influence, or effect of mythical literature on contemporary literature, a reader should identify key characters, settings, and plots.
The correct answer is D, because that is the only appropriate shift in tense. A isn't correct because present perfect tense (have raced) is used inappropriately, when it should have been past perfect. B is also incorrect because past perfect means that that action happened before the storm blew, which is not the case. C features future continuous tense, which is impossible due to shift in tense. Therefore, the answer is D, because there is an appropriate tense in that sentence, past simple.