The setting of any story or text is the geographical location or any indication of time or place that can tell the readers about where the scene is taking place. It also provides the detail about what the scene looks like.
In the given excerpt from "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" by Rod Sterling, Charlie's dialogue provides the setting of the particular scene. His description of the blue sky, with <em>"[no] cloud. No lightning. No thunder. No nothing"</em> gives us an image of how the sky would look like in that scene.
"a. Most Americans still lived on farms, even though cities were booming" and "<span>b. Thousands of children worked from sunup to sundown—and a few people began to pay attention" </span>would both be correct. This is what led to the unions.
